Employable and competences of pedagogy, psychology, and educational psychology graduates: A comparative study of employers and graduates

© 2018 Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. All rights reserved. The labour market integration of recent graduates can be influenced by several factors, such as the economic situation of the country, the quality of their university education, and the demands of the labour market. Although the Spanish economy has recently recovered somewhat, it still has high rates of youth unemployment, even among the best educated groups. Therefore, it is important to analyse in greater depth the transversal competences required and offered in the labour market as these can affect the integration and job satisfaction of university graduates. To analyse the differences in the view of graduates in Pedagogy, Psychology, and Educational Psychology and their employers regarding the competences needed for the labour market this article uses data from the AQU's Universitat i Treball a Catalunya' survey (2014a and 2014b) of graduates in these subjects from Catalan universities and of their employers. The results show discrepancies between employers' and graduates' views. On the one hand, graduates regard some competences as more relevant, such as decision-making, while employers give greater importance to others, such as those relating to information technology and language skills, as well as theoretical and practical training. However, both groups agree that teamwork is the most important competence for work, supporting results obtained in other studies. Furthermore, employers are more satisfied than the graduates with their level in the areas of creativity, computer science, and languages. Problem-solving, however, is an area of competence that could be enhanced in university education. This study's contribution is to provide evidence based on the retrospective assessment of recent graduates that can help align university training with employers' expectations.