IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY AND LABOUR INSERTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AS A STRATEGY FOR TALENT RETENTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY
Edited on
08 June 2018Employability and labour insertion of young people is a critical issue in the current socio-economic scenario. This is the reason why public authorities and institutions have to play an important role and not to avoid the responsibility they have with society. In this sense, the education system in general and the University system in particular are called to play a key role in order to achieve this objective. However, they have also to consider the “alma mater” character of the University in the sense that its role is to engender and change people through science and knowledge and train free citizens with democratic convictions, critical thinking and ethical commitment. We also have to bear in mind that the mission of the University is to train students in those skills and competences demanded by employers, thus contributing to the socio-economic development of the area.
The University of Granada, firmly commited to these principles, runs the Centre of Employment and Practices Promotion, whose main objective is to strenghten the links between the University and society in the field of employment and to improve the prospects of labour insertion for university students. To this effect, there is a professional guidance service, an external academic practices management service and a third one specifically targeted at employment.
The main objective of the professional guidance service is to help students during their stay at University to acquire the information, skills and strategies required to design and develop their own professional projects, which will clearly have a direct effect on improving their employability. Therefore, since students start University, they are offered from individual counselling, by providing them with personalised guidance through individual interviews with counselors, to group orientation, consisting of a series of training sessions for the acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to the process of labour insertion, as well as a series of orientation actions such as tele-mentoring, which provide an innovative alternative of distance guidance, or a career prospects guide which illustrates the different employment opportunities depending on the different degree courses of the University of Granada.
Likewise, the internship service, whose main aim is to prepare students for their future insertion into the labour market through the development of their skills, helps them to complement their training by sending them for internships in companies, both national and international. These internships are intended to connect university studies with professional activities and the existing employment opportunities. Thus, the internship service constitutes not only an excellent mechanism of collaboration and a permanent connection between the University and the business and productive sector and other public or private entities, but it also increases labour insertion of students and graduates.
The employment and labour intermediation service is developed by the University´s employment agency. It works as an intermediary in the labour market, has government approval and allows to manage job offers with University profile requirements. It helps students to prepare a curriculum vitae, provides information on the labour market, contracting modalities and other topics related to labour insertion. In addition to the management of job offers, this service offers more activities, such as “Presentations of Companies in Universities and Schools”, with the aim of recruiting specific professional profiles, or the “Job Fair”, whose objectives are to create a common space where visitors and companies take part in a process of exchange and transfer of information related to employment and talent retention, and also to inform and advise university graduates on the ways and new techniques applied to recruiting and staff selection currently used by the main companies. There is also an Employment Observatory, whose main objective is to extract, analyze and disseminate data related to the labour insertion of the graduates in the University of Granada on a regular and continuous basis in order to improve their employability.
All in all, the University of Granada, strongly committed to the employability of students and the labour insertion of its graduates in their immediate environment, contributes to retaining talent in the city and thereby promotes a sustainable development, which is the main objective of the “Gen-Y Cities Network”.
Submitted by annaandersz on