Student Handbook on Employability

The European Students’ Union

Student advancement of graduateS employabilityStudent handbook on employability

ImprInT

SAGE • STUdEnT advancEmEnT of gradUaTES EmployabIlITyStudent handbook on employabilitybrussels, march 2014 by the European Students’ Union · ESU This project has been funded with sup-

port from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

EdITIngInés Sanchez Giner and Taina Moisander

proofrEadIngRóbert Hlynur Baldursson and Taina Moisander

prodUcTIonLinus Rowedda

ImagE crEdITSp. 1 MPower/photocase.de; p. 10 coca-line/photocase.de; p. 72 Enzo Forciniti; p. 8, 17 & 73 privat, published on twitter

aUThorSÉva Lénárt, Inés Sanchez Giner, Marcell Gáspár, Michael Tolentino Frederiksen, Monika Skadborg, Nevena Vuksanovic, Taina Moisander, Veli-Matti Taskila

rESEarch TEamNevena Vuksanović, esu; Elisabeth Gehrke, esu; Michael TolentinoFrederiksen, esu; Anne-Marie Meier, ili;Eline Leen, ili; Margareta Ivan, anc; Monika Skadborg, dsf; Taina Moisander, samok; Velli-Matti Taskila, samok; Inés Sánchez, creup; Rosa Arroyo, creup; Éva Lénárt, höok.

advISory boardDr. Anne Corbett, Visiting Fellow, European Institute, London School of Economics; Prof. Pavel Zgaga, Univer-sity of Ljubljana, Center for Education Policy; Prof. Paul Held, University of Erlangen, ili.

TablE of conTEnT

1 InTrodUcTIon and raTIonalE of ThE handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 dEfInIng EmployabIlITy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3 dIScUSSIonS on EmployabIlITy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 .1 Students’ vs . employers’ expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 .2 Skills mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 .3 over-qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 .4 Unemployment/employment vs . employability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 .5 Temporary and precarious work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 .6 Internship, traineeship, work placement—paid or unpaid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 .7 recognition of prior learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4 coUnTry caSE STUdIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 .1 finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 .2 hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 .3 Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 .4 denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

5 good pracTIcES and InITIaTIvES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 .1 Student organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 .2 higher education institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 .3 national level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605 .4 companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6 ExErcISES/acTIvITIES on EmployabIlITy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 .1 Exercise 1 · What is employability? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 .2 Exercise 2 · Skills expected by the labour market? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 .3 Exercise 3 · knowing what you want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676 .4 Exercise 4 · It’s time to debate! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696 .5 Exercise 5 · Job interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7 QUoTES/TWEETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

8 gloSSary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

9 USEfUl fUrThEr rEadIng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

10 dEScrIpTIon of ThE proJEcT parTnErS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

1InTrodUcTIon and raTIonalE of ThE handbook

InTrodUcTIon and 1 raTIonalE of ThE handbook

This sage Handbook is published as part of a pan-European project called Student Advancement of Graduates’ Employability, or sage for short. The project aims at in-creasing knowledge about the effects of higher education reforms in Europe on the employability of graduates. sage also aims at enhancing the capacity of student rep-resentatives to take part in discussions and influence policies on employability at the European, national and local level.

An extensive research on educational policies has been carried out and a consultation process organised with multiple stakeholders from both the national and European level as well as training sessions and events for students and other interested stake-holders’ representatives, in order to build this capacity. The sage project falls into the footsteps of several projects previously led by esu that have examined various aspects of policies in higher education from the students’ perspectives. Those projects have empowered student representatives to take a more active part in the governance of higher education institutions and the decision-making processes with regards to na-tional and local policies. Other publications issued as part of the sage project include Bologna With Students’ Eyes 2012, a review on the Europe 2020 strategy in national policy making and a study on employability. In addition, a wiki-style website, found at www.sage.esu-online.org, has been compiled with data and information collected throughout the project’s life cycle.

The handbook serves as a helping tool for student organisations and other stakehold-ers within the higher education community that want to enhance the employability of students and graduates. A selection of different discussions, study cases and practises has been compiled in order to share the experience of students and other stakeholders in Europe. This will help anyone involved in discussions on employability to advocate for actions towards enhancing long-term employability that is based on a concept fit-ting the different purposes of higher education.

The research team has found it necessary to include different discussions on the topic of employability. The reasoning behind this is that it gives an understanding of the various views existing on employability, since the topic is being constantly debated. Student representatives need to understand these opinions and the rationality of the arguments when dealing with employability. When participating in debates this will give full understanding of the standpoint of different parts and it will strengthen the

http://www.sage.esu-online.org

2 STUdEnT handbook on EmployabIlITy

students’ position in the debate. The research team does not wish to take and stand in these discussions, but leave it to the reader to make his own assumption.

Study visits were organised to the countries of the project’s partnering unions (Den-mark, Finland, Hungary and Spain). Therefore, a chapter with case studies of the four countries has been included in this handbook. This gives an insight into four unique cases and situations in Europe and demonstrates different approaches taken to tackle the topic of employability. The standpoints and actions of different stakeholders in-volved are described to reflect the diverse opinions on employability and what the right methods to tackling the issue might be.

The practises and initiatives in the handbook have been chosen in order to give con-crete ideas on what is being done across Europe. These

practises and initiatives are national, regional or institutional in their scope and ex-ecuted by students, higher education institutions, companies or other stakeholders, and collected during the research period. They will serve as examples that student unions can advocate in discussions with their respective partners with the aim at en-hancing employability.

Finally, the chapter on the different exercises has a practical dimension, since this part of the handbook focuses on how the student unions can do or promote activities re-garding the employability of graduates. These exercises are hands-on activities that student unions can use to help students on national or institutional level.

We, the authors of the handbook, wish you insightful moments as you explore the handbook and that it may bring new information and methods when it comes to your engagement on employability related issues.

The project team

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 Isabelle Thomas, member of @Europarl_en, speaks about the importance of #employability and #ESU_SagE project at #ESc27 opening

3dEfInIng EmployabIlITy

dEfInIng EmployabIlITy2

Employability is a concept that has no universally accepted definition. Understand-ings of employability are diverse; how the concept will be defined, depends on the context and the political environment. The European Higher Education Area argues for the concept of employability that is a learning process, a graduate’s achievement and potential to acquire a job; that is focused on the enhancement of the society as a whole. The European Union, on the other hand, tends to present employability as the actual acquisition of a job and graduates’ success on the labour market. Although highly interlinked, these two approaches are different and provoke many various defi-nitions on different levels of higher education governance.

First mentioned in the Sorbonne Declaration in 1998, employability was one of the main ideas behind a harmonised higher education system in Europe. In the Bologna Declaration (19 June 1999), employability was referred to as ‘citizens’ employability, while in the Prague Communiqué (19 May 2001) it was clarified as ‘graduate employ-ability’.

The definition made by the Working Group on Employability, of the Bologna Follow Up Group, in 2009, was as follows: “Employability is the ability to gain initial mean-ingful employment, or to become self-employed, to maintain employment, and to be able to move around within the labour market.” However, this definition has been modified by the bfug and the official definition became the following: “Employability is the ability to gain initial employment, to maintain employment and to be able to move around within the labour market.”

Many scholars have raised issues regarding social responsibility of employability, thus suggesting definitions that regard employability as value, not only value-added. Mantz Yorke and Peter T Knight, in “Embedding employability into the curriculum”1, state that employability derives from complex learning and represents a concept of a wider range than the ‘core’ and ‘key’ skills and competences. They also argue that employability is about values, not only value-added. And last, but not the least, the authors state that employability is not only for new graduates and that it needs to be continuously refreshed throughout a person’s working life.

1 Knight, P. and Yorke, M. (April 2006). Embedding Employability into the Curriculum. Learning and Employability, Series 1. York: The Higher Education Authority. An electronic version available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/employability/Embedding _employability_into_the_curriculum

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/employability/Embedding_employability_into_the_curriculum

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/employability/Embedding_employability_into_the_curriculum


Brown, Hesketh and Williams2 argue that employability cannot be defined solely on the basis of individual characteristics of a graduate. It is two-dimensional and it refers to absolute and relative employability. Hitherto, most of the definitions have been un-able to address duality of employability. Absolute employability refers to the ability of a graduate to adapt and demonstrate his/her commitment to work and skills and knowledge he/she has acquired, in order to enhance efficiency, innovation and pro-ductivity. In another words, the person is productive. Relative employability, on the other hand, completely depends on the jobs’ market and the rule of demand and sup-ply. The concept of employability can be understood to a large extent, if it is regarded through these two aspects together. In order to help us merge the aspects, Brown et al.2 suggested a new definition of the old concept: “Employability can be defined as the relative chances of finding and maintaining different kinds of employment”.

It is important to remember that employability and the social dimension are strongly interlinked, which is to say that students will develop it in ways that reflect their par-ticular interests and circumstances3. The student is at the center of development of em-ployability in higher education and it is important that the other internal and external stakeholders in governance of higher education recognise the paradigm shift.

Through the Student Advancement of Graduates’ Employability project (sage), The European Students’ Union has developed a definition of employability from the stu-dents’ point of view:

Employability is a broad concept which includes subject-specific, methodological, so-cial and individual competences which enable graduates to successfully take up and pursue a profession/employment and empower their life-long learning. Employability is also about making graduates more likely to gain employment in their chosen field(s), being able to create/start new businesses, and being able to develop and succeed in their occupations.

Entrepreneurship should be seen as additional method to develop students’ transver-sal skills, and not only as a solution to the graduate unemployment. esu believes that entrepreneurship should not be a mandatory part of all curricula. However, entre-preneurial studies should be provided upon the students’ request. Graduates should be provided with financial support and incentives in order to improve conditions for start-ups.

2 Brown, P., Hesketh, A. and Williams, S. (May 2002). Employability in a Knowledge-Driven Economy. Working Paper Series, Paper 26. Cardiff: School of Social Sciences, Cardiff Univer-sity. An electronic version available at http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/socsi/resources/wrkgpaper26.pdf

3 Frederiksen, M.T., and Vuksanovic, Ne. (13 July 2013). Graduate Employability and the Social Good. University World News, issue: 280. An electronic version available at http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130712101919518

http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/socsi/resources/wrkgpaper26.pdf

http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/socsi/resources/wrkgpaper26.pdf

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130712101919518

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130712101919518

5dIScUSSIonS on EmployabIlITy

dIScUSSIonS on EmployabIlITy3

There are different terms and concepts that are often linked to the discussion on em-ployability. Some of them are more connected to issues of working life or the labour market, but for different reasons, higher education and students are often linked to these discussions. Therefore, those concepts may not be self-explanatory nor have a single meaning behind them, and can easily be mixed up with the actual meaning of employability.

In order to provide the user of the handbook with infor-mation on some of the prev-alent discussions related to and on employability, key

issues have been opened up in this section on ‘discussions on employability’. The aim is not to give right answers to the concepts highlighted, but to enable the reader to be aware and take the different issues into consideration and use the information pro-vided in further discussions on employability.

STUdEnTS’ vS . EmployErS’ ExpEcTaTIonS3 .1

Each stakeholder has his opinion on what skills are most needed or important for stu-dents to acquire during their studies. This affects the expectations set towards the content of the studies as well as the design and delivery of them. Students’ expecta-tions are obviously more individualistic in nature, whereas the employers’ expecta-tions are based on the needs of the specific field of work they represent.

How are the different expectations met, where do they stem from and are taken qqinto account in the delivery of the studies within the higher education institu-tions?

Who has decision making power and influences the curricula design or options qqthat are offered to students within the different study programmes?

SkIllS mISmaTch3 .2

Skills mismatch refers to the notion of skills available within the working population not matching those of the demand, or what employers are seeking. Skills mismatch

fernando m galán @fernandomgalan · 31 January 2012 The European council @EUcouncilpress agreed on stimulating employment especially for young people @esutwt #ESU_SagE


is influenced by a number of components. It is the outcome of the complex interplay between the supply and demand of skills within a market economy both of which is constantly affected by adjustment lags and market failures and is shaped by the con-textual conditions prevailing, such as demographics or technological developments.

Mismatches can also be cre-ated by a lack of flexibility in education and training systems, for instance due to slowness or unwillingness

of educational institutions to respond to labour market signals, inadequate skills guidance, insufficient validation of non-formal and informal learning and inadequate continuing training or further education offered at and by the company and sector level. It is important to distinguish between the different factors that influence skills mismatch, and understand what the role of higher education is in preparing graduates for the labour market.

Where does skills mismatch stem from in your national or regional context?qq

How can student unions better bring light to the real causes of skills mis-qqmatch?

ovEr-QUalIfIcaTIon3 .3

Over-qualification refers to one having acquired a higher level of skills than a specific job description requires. Over-qualification is currently discussed to a large degree in relation to competition in the labour market. Due to the economic downturn and a lack of jobs available, graduates end up applying for jobs that require lower skills than those that they have acquired. As a consequence, education is used to blame for the situation, although the phenomena is often temporary.

What kind of mechanisms should be in place to prevent higher education being qqcut in specific disciplines as a consequence of a lack of jobs in certain fields?

UnEmploymEnT/EmploymEnT vS . EmployabIlITy3 .4

Employment and employability are two very different terms and not to be confused. Employment refers to a period of time during which one is engaged in paid work. Find-ing employment is dependent on a variety of external factors, such as flexibility in the labour market and the economic situation.

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 Employability needs to give you a set of skills and ability to adapt, says adam Tyson from dg Eac @EU_commission at #ESU_SagE conference


Employability refers to the abilities and qualities one has acquired during the course of their studies in order to obtain, remain and change work places during one’s life-time. Employability should rather be seen as a wide concept that deals with the prepa-ration of individuals in the long term than the ability to simply find work in the field of one’s studies. Due to the changing needs of society and the qualities that are needed in working life, higher education is not there to provide something as narrow as an individual with a specific set of skills. Hence, finding employment cannot be referred to as something higher education institutions are responsible for.

What factors impact employment?qq

What factors constitute the concept of employability?qq

How can the multiple purposes of higher education be better advocated for?qq

TEmporary and prEcarIoUS Work3 .5

As a result of the financial crisis, the number of people in temporary and precarious employment has increased. Precarious and temporary work is short-term in nature and are generally understood as non-standard employment that is poorly paid, inse-cure, unprotected and cannot support a household. It is often associated with a lack of financial security or social benefits and the lack of trade union representation. Out-sourcing, or in other words the use of employment agencies and inappropriate classi-fication of workers as “short-term” or “independent contractors”, has in part increased the number of precarious jobs as opposed to permanent positions.

42 per cent of young people work in temporary jobs whereas the portion among the adult population is 13 per cent. It is important to note that there is a big difference in rights between employees with a long-term and short-term employment. The hours one is able to work are fewer and therefore constitute to a smaller income, putting the financial security of the individual at risk. The experience one builds is also less in short-term employment. Most people are therefore forced to look for a new place time after time, which contributes to higher levels of stress and lower self-esteem. The groups that are most likely to be found in precarious work include young people, stu-dents, interns, apprentices, women, disabled people and ethnic minorities.

What can student unions do to fight the rising shift to precarious employment?qq

What implications will it have in the long term to work in temporary posi-qqtions?


InTErnShIp, TraInEEShIp, Work placEmEnT—paId or 3 .6 UnpaId?

Internships are in some countries a mandatory part of the study programme and in some others take place upon the student’s choice. It can alternatively take place after studies have been completed. Whether the internship is paid or not, depends on the

specific higher education in-stitution, study programme or field of study and even how the student manages to negotiate the terms and conditions of the intern-ship. Likewise, the quality and level of responsibility differ from one internship to another. As the aim of in-ternships is to challenge and provide the student with extra knowledge and op-portunities, the internship should be well-planned and taken seriously by the host-ing party of the internship. The role higher education institutions play in ensuring

good quality internships should be debated within the institutions. The practice of unpaid internships has become increasingly common, partly as a result of the crisis.

Are there national guidelines or policies on internships and what are the regula-qqtions for getting paid for the internship?

How are the rights of interns ensured when students complete internships?qq

How might having a paid or unpaid internship affect the content of the intern-qqship?

inés Sanchez @insangi · 8 april 2013 following presentation #ESU_SagE: a degree is like a drivers licence for life, essential but experience is needed pic .twitter .com/UlbuU1evp6


rEcognITIon of prIor lEarnIng3 .7

A recognition of prior learning, whether acquired through formal, informal or non-formal education, promotes flexible access routes and learning pathways in higher education. When it comes to the transition to working life, recognising the skills

one has acquired outside of formal education, provides one with more experience to begin with and an ever more diverse set of competences. The right to have one’s skills

recognised regardless of the context of where they were acquired would likely have affect study periods, the motivation to study and even completion rates of different learners.

How are the practices and processes functioning and ensured at a given higher qqeducation institution?

Is there a discussion on the role of qq rpl in relation to skills and competences or access to working life nationally or locally?

eSu @esutwt · 22 april 2014 #Employers and #highered institutions need to rec-ognise the value of #transversalskills says @tainamois #ESU_SagE bit .ly/15roayI

11coUnTry caSE STUdIES

coUnTry caSE STUdIES4

Four study visits were arranged as part of the project during the course of 2013. Fin-land, Denmark, Hungary and Spain, as project partners were chosen in order to cover four culturally, politically and educationally different realities in Europe. The aim of the case studies is to portray the overall situation in each country in relation to discus-sions currently taking place on employability and the factors that influence them. The ongoing reforms in the education sector and their effect on employability and the per-ceived impacts of the reforms would be are discussed from different angles. In addi-tion, the unemployment situation in relation to employability as a concept is explored as well as the perceptions of the different stakeholders that work within the realm of employability.

fInland4 .1

backgroUnd InformaTIon on ThE EdUcaTIon SySTEm

The higher education system in Finland is compiled out of two distinct sectors, uni-versities and universities of applied sciences. Studies at universities have the goal of completing a Master’s degree and emphasise scientific research and education. Stud-ies at universities of applied sciences have the goal of completing a Bachelor’s level and are more profession oriented.

Universities have a long standing history in Finland. The first university was founded in Turku in 1640. Universities of applied sciences were founded in the 1990s. The aim was to raise the level of education, to offer different study paths and to serve the chang-ing needs of working life and the society.

There are about 310,000 students in higher education in Finland. 143,800 study at uni-versities of applied sciences and 168,000 at universities. The average age of graduation is 29 years for the first degree (oecd, Education at a Glance 2013). About 60 per cent of students work part-time or full-time.


Higher education is free of tuition-fees in Finland. A pilot programme enabling higher education institutions to charge fees to non-eu students came to end in 2014. There is therefore an amounting pressure to implement fees for international students. Higher education is mostly financed by the state. In total, the budget of universities of applied sciences’ is 900 million euros and the budget of universities is about 1.9 billion euros. The total budget of the Finnish state amounts to about 54 billion euros in comparison, so the investment in higher education is quite big in proportion. 6.6 billion euros of the samok were used in higher education in 2013, but that number is expected to de-crease by 60 million euros in 2014.

Early childhood education and care

Pre-primary education - 6-year-olds

Basic education7–16-year-oldsComprehensive schools

Voluntary additional year of basic education

Matriculation examinationGeneral upper secondary schools

Vocational qualifications*Vocational institutions

Bachelor’s degreesUniversities

Polytechnic bachelor’s degreesPolytechnics

Specialist vocatio nal qualifications*

Further vocational qualifications*

Polytechnic master’s degreesPolytechnics

Master’s degreesUniversities

Doctoral degreesLicenciate degreesUniversities

33.

5–4

dura

tion

in y

ears

1–1.

5

0–5

19

33

2

ISKED-classification 1997

0 Pre-primary education 1–2 Primary education or lower secondary education 3 Upper secondary education 4 Post-secondary non-tertiary education First stage of tertiary education 6 Second stage of tertiary education

6

5 A

4

3

1&2

0

Education system in Finland

Work experience

Work experience 3 years

apprenticeship training*Also available as

dura

tion

in y

ears

5A

Source: ministry of Education and culture: http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Koulutus/koulutusjaerjestelmae/liitteet/finnish_education.pdf

Education system in Finlandfig. 1

http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Koulutus/koulutusjaerjestelmae/liitteet/finnish_education.pdf



The current situation with regards to employmentfig. 2

Source: Statistics finland

Youth unemployment is on the rise in Finland. In February 2014 there were 654,000 people aged from 15 to 24 in Finland. Out of this group, 238,000 had jobs and 71,000 were unemployed. Thus, the total work force in that age group amounted to 309,000 people. The official rate of unemployment (share of unemployed of the work force) was 22.9 per cent in February. That was 1.5 per cent higher than the year before. How-ever, it is worth to note that the share of unemployed youth in the whole age group was (only) 10.8 per cent. (Source: Statistics Finland)

gradUaTES’ UnEmploymEnT

About 39 per cent of the Finnish population has a higher education degree. Only 13 per cent of the unemployed have graduated from higher education institutions. The unemployment rate among graduates is therefore not significantly high. However, the situation is becoming worse. Unemployment among recently graduated people is ris-ing more rapidly than the unemployment of graduates from upper secondary schools or vocational schools. Forecasting institutions expect that the overall employment situation will slowly start improving from 2015 onwards.


rEformS or oThEr changES affEcTIng EmployabIlITy:

fInancIng of hIghEr EdUcaTIon rEformS1

Both the higher education sector and the financing systems have been re-formed between 2013 and 2014. The new financing frameworks put an emphasis on graduation. Universities of applied sciences receive 50 per cent of all financ-ing based on the number of graduating students and quick progression in the studies. 24 per cent of the financing is based on the amount of ects credits completed within a study year. 3 per cent of the total financing is allocated based on the graduates’ employment rate and 3 per cent based on the students’ feedback. 4 per cent is based on internationalisation and 2 per cent on the share of publications.

Good practice: One initiative concerning this funding model is that samok, the education ministry and rectors’ conference, draw up the graduate survey which will determine a part of the financing allocated based on students’ feed-back (1–2 per cent). Issues looked at will include employment, opinion on qual-ity of studies, student support services, student union activities etc. This should be launched for the first time in the spring 2014.

granT SySTEm changES2

There have been changes to the grant system that also affect employability. The total number of months that a student is eligible for a grant has been limited. Ad-ditionally, the number of ects credits that a student has to complete per month has been increased, which is connected to receiver of the grants. On the other hand, the grant payment was increased by about 10 per cent per month. These changes were made in order to give students an impetus to study quicker.

STUdEnT admISSIon rEform3

The higher education institutions’ student admission reform has been ongoing since the year 2008. The first part of the reform has been approved in the parlia-ment and the legislation and new admission systems are used for the first time in the autumn of 2014. Universities can set a quota for those who do not have a study place or a degree from a higher education institution in Finland.The second part of the reform makes the quota mandatory from 2016 onwards. The aim of the reform is to get the fresh graduates from upper secondary schools faster to university studies.


rEform of UnIvErSITIES of applIEd ScIEncES4

The universities of applied sciences were founded on a network of previous sec-ondary school networks. The purposefulness of the network has not answered to the needs and composition of today’s society.

According to the Finnish Government Programme, the responsibility for the funding of universities of applied sciences as a whole will be transferred to the government and those institutions will be made independent legal entities. The licence provided to education at universities of applied sciences will be revised, with emphasis on the quality and impact of the core purposes of their activities. These include education, supporting the individuals’ development, research, innovation and development activities, as well as promoting lifelong learning and adult education. Units of universities of applied sciences will be combined into innovative, high-standard competence environments, size reflecting the needs of the region they are placed at. There will be one or more university of applied sciences in every province.

In 2013, the reform was half way. The second stage of the legislation is being prepared by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The structural changes are ongoing—universities of applied sciences have cut staff numbers and closed down smaller units. The effects on employability are unclear. The aim is to have bigger units at universities of applied sciences with more study choices and broader support services to students. This in return should contribute to providing a better set of skills and competences.

cUTS In ThE fInancIng of hIghEr EdUcaTIon5

In connection to the government’s need to stabilise the state budget, the fund-ing of both higher education sectors has been cut. The budget of universities of applied sciences has been cut by almost 20 per cent during 2012 and 2013. Some of this has been compensated by also cutting study places. The universi-ties’ funding is tied to the University Index that provides steady increases in funding aligned to inflation. The index was frozen in 2012 and 2013 thus forcing the universities to cut staff costs.


changES To STUdy placES6

In connection to the budget cuts and the reform of universities of applied sci-ences, the study places have been cut by about 2,000 since the beginning of the year 2013. The cuts were made in areas that foresaw a high influx of graduates. This measure might improve graduates’ employment possibilities in the long run.

In the autumn 2013, the government revealed its plan to add study places in some fields. The aim of this measure is to make the admission to higher educa-tion quicker and possibly make youth unemployment figures smaller. The gov-ernment has planned to allocate additional funds for the time period from 2015 to 2020 in order to finance the study places, but at the moment there have no de-cisions been taken as to what study fields should receive the additional places.

STUdy TImES7

Both the university sectors’ legislations concerning study times are changing. The legislations will be introduced to the parliament in the spring of 2014. The government wants to shorten the study times further by limiting students’ pos-sibilities to take a break from their studies.

conclUSIonS and dIScUSSIon

One of the main motivations to the majority of the reforms is to have the students graduating faster. This includes the financing framework, admissions’ reform, re-stricted study time, adding study places and changes to the grant system. Over time it will be possible to tell how all the changes will affect graduates’ skills and compe-tences, employability and employment.

The new financing frameworks are designed to shorten study times in higher educa-tion. The small share of financing based on the quality of education is an issue of con-cern, as it is the quality of education that affects the students’ study outcomes in the end. It can be claimed that a quick graduation does not provide the necessary skills and experience to find employment according to one’s wishes following graduation. Many employers say that they would be wary of employing somebody without any work experience in the respective field or without any experience at all. Since a lack of experience is one of the biggest barriers in finding work among fresh graduates and employers hardly employ people without prior experience, it can be assumed that the reform would decrease the chances of graduates finding work that matches their qual-ification as quickly as they do nowadays. Despite the fact that Finnish students take longer time to graduate on average, they are amongst the fastest to find employment


relevant to their own field of studies, precisely due to the work experience they get during the studies. Hence, it does not make sense to speed up the study times as the outcome of finding employment is likely to be affected.

Cuts to the financing of higher education does certainly affect the quality of education and limit available study possibilities, thus affecting graduates’ employability. It is hotly debated nowadays how wise it is to add study places, as this is only done in fields that are cost efficient, such as economics or law. This might affect some fields’ employ-ment possibilities and also employability negatively if students are made to compete for certain positions without actually having any more need for a larger number of these professionals.

It is controversial to have an indicator for quality employment of graduates as part of the financing system in higher education. It has been welcomed by students as it could incentivise higher education institutions to pay attention to prepare students

for the working life. On the other hand, measuring qual-ity employment is difficult, as there is not an agreement on whether the work should be within the corresponding field of studies or not.

Cooperation between the working life and higher edu-cation institutions is seen from rather different per-spectives among the stake-holders in question. The university sector says that the demand of the employ-ers are often too field specific and tied to the current situa-tion, whereas it would be in

the interest of higher education to prepare the students with competences that will be needed in the future labour market. The ministry of employment sees that there should be more flexibility from the side of the higher education institutions, and they should be more willing to stay on top of the demands of the labour market, knowing the needs of the companies and having closer connections to the working life.

inés Sanchez @insangi · 8 april 2013 What are the skills demanded by the finnish compa-nies to the students? #ESU_SagE #finsage pic .twitter .com/vfgl3Tqpun


hUngary4 .2

coUnTry backgroUnd

There are 315,000 students in higher education in Hungary. The higher education sec-tor is composed of 66 higher education institutions and 28 state higher education in-stitutions. In addition, 38 higher education institutions are run by foundations and clerical institutions.

Hungary committed itself to reach a 30.4 per cent higher education attainment among the 25 to 34 year olds till 2020. The ratio of people with higher educational qualifica-tion among the population above age 25 was higher than 20 per cent in 2010 in Hun-gary; however this result is still lower than the 24 per cent average of the eu27. High enrolment results in 2011 in Hungary also serve the Europe 2020 target to reach a 40 per cent ratio of people with higher educational degree within the group of 25 to 34 year olds.

cUrrEnT SITUaTIon

As the economic crisis had a deep impact on economically vulnerable countries, youth unemployment increase in every Member State of the eu. Hungary is among the worst performers with the rate of 28 per cent unemployment among young people between the age of 15 and 24. The overall unemployment rate in Hungary (January 2014, age 15–74) is 8.9 per cent whereas the unemployment rate of new graduates is 6 per cent.

When it comes to the differences between educational attainments, the unemploy-ment rate is 20 per cent among people with basic level of education, 10 per cent if the person has secondary educational degree and it is below 5 per cent for people with a higher educational qualification.

Hungary performs well in an international comparison in terms of unemployment among people with a diploma in higher education. As the overall level of educational qualification gets higher, the unemployment rate is decreased to half of what it would be with a lower educational level.


28%

26%

24%

22%

20%

18%

16%

14%

12%

10%20022000 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012/12001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

EU27 hungary

Unemployment rate between the ages of 15–24fig. 3

Number and rate of registered fresh graduate job seekers at the National Employment fig. 4 Service

70,000

60,000

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

0

12%

10%

8%

6%

4%

2%

0%20022000 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012/12001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

annual average number of daily closing of young entrants young entrants’ proportion of all job seekers

coopEraTIon WITh ThE ThIrd SEcTor

The government is encouraging corporations to take a bigger role in the financing of higher education. In general, all forms of practice oriented education possibilities are welcomed by all stakeholders. However, the mandatory summer internships often mean a challenge for the companies. According to the new regulation, for an intern-ship that lasts more than six weeks, the working student is eligible to receive a wage, which is a desired goal and for the benefit of the student. But many companies agree to


pay a salary only if they commit themselves to have an intern for a much longer period than six weeks (a minimum of three months). Therefore, it happens that certain cor-porations do not accept or employ students for only a short-term practice period.

Various companies cooperate closely with the career offices of the higher education institutions by channelling their expectations of the future needs in terms of skills and required practices. Job fares are organised at all main universities in Budapest and bigger academic cities of Hungary on a quarterly or half year basis where students, who soon graduate, can see the exact positions that are open. The Ministry of Human Resources also launched a similar expo programme to show the graduates what the public sector can offer as career opportunity to them.

changES and rEformS affEcTIng STUdEnTS’ EmployabIlITy

changES In fInancIng ThE EdUcaTIon SEcTor1

In the past years, many big changes occurred in the Hungarian higher educa-tion system. Due to the economic crisis, from 2009 the funding of higher edu-cation has been decreasing year by year. These austerity measures were stricter than what would result from the fewer number of students due to demographic tendencies. This decrease came to a stop in 2014 and the amount of funding for higher education has somewhat increased compared to 2013, but is still lower than the gdp-proportional average value of the OECD which is 1–1.2 per cent. The Hungarian government has also recommended that higher education insti-tutions enhance their own profitability and competitive advantages to generate higher income.

a nEW laW on vocaTIonal, pUblIc and hIghEr EdUcaTIon2

Due to the new law on higher education, many changes occurred to the students’ performance requirements. These include restrictions to the possible number of exams in a given subject, completion of minimum thirty credits per semes-ter and as a state financed student the educational period cannot be prolonged more than two semesters. The aim of all the changes is to enhance quality and therefore empower students to complete their education in time and enter the labour market as soon as possible.


ThE nEW laboUr codE3

Public responses and opinions are still ambivalent regarding the Labour Code that was codified at the end of 2012. The main goal of the code is to increase the employment rates, and make the labour code more flexible in addition to en-hancing competitiveness and the expansion of employment. The fact that a new Labour Code was accepted is positive itself, since the Code from 1992 was at various points outdated and anachronistic. The new law is closer to the realistic conditions and unquestionably adapts better to the new trends of international labour law. The new Hungarian Labour Code satisfies the expectations of flex-ibility and the guidelines set in the eu Green Paper on modernisation of labour law.

ScarcE profESSIonalS4

Certain fields of work have faced a lack of professionals in the recent years. As a result, enhanced support was included in the law for students studying in these specific fields, such as the engineering and the IT-sector, in order to fulfil the demands of the labour market. Geographically there is high demand amongst these scarce professions, as the lack may be even greater in specific counties of Hungary, therefore resulting in more work opportunities in those regions.

laboUr markET connEcTIonS5

Wrong perceptions still persist in that there is a surplus of graduates and gradu-ate unemployment would be high in Hungary. In fact, in international compari-sons, for the individual and for the society, the return on investment in higher education is notably high.

In 2012, the assumed and real connections between higher education and the labour market was a popular topic in the government’s communication and media. Unfor-tunately, these communications did not refer to the research results and data surveys about the labour market, conducted by the Central Statistics Office (ksh) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. There was no quality and in-depth response to any of the professional papers and articles on this topic. The oecd statistics and Eurostat data also indicate that in the states of Central-Eastern Europe, investment in educa-tion have a higher return than in Western Europe. Studying and gaining a diploma re-sults in higher wages. While in oecd countries, people with higher educational quali-fication earn 50 per cent more than employees with only a secondary school degree, in Hungary the difference is double.



Fine-tuning and the review of certain higher educational programmes, trade groups, and institutional structures, turned unavoidable in the recent years. The centralised reforms, driven mostly by fiscal factors, lack a meaningful involvement of local eco-nomic stakeholders. The ad hoc governmental declarations in 2012, that were lacking impact surveys and reasonable, professionally constructed medium and long term concepts, did not improve neither the situation of the moderate number of unem-ployed graduates, nor of the chances of finding a job matching the respective field of studies. The above mentioned facts indicate that youth unemployment and the issues within the system of higher education have no direct connection. The components of the problems are rooted in the primary and secondary levels but especially in the sys-tem of vocational trainings. Demand-oriented planning is supposed to be performed with the active involvement of economy stakeholders, and this dual German model will hopefully be successfully applied in Hungary as well.

As for the real causes: there is a lack of central career orientation activities before the entry in tertiary education, the territorial mobility of unemployed people is low, the regulation about the usage of working time lacks proportionality and above av-erage participation in atypical forms of employment. It is important to mention the problem where the rising age limit of retirement is making it even more challenging for young people to enter the labour market. The most important component on the labour market is the lack of professional experience. This is still not solved in the new higher educational regulation; as the efficiency of mandatory professional internships is questionable. These are the substantive components that require immediate actions from the government.

The announced support programmes for youth, the first workplace guarantee and the increase in the wage minimum of skilled workers are steps in a good direction. Hope-fully, major impacts will be experienced due to the Youth Guarantee Programme launched by the eu and other supplementary actions.

höok states that according to recent statistics, the unemployment rate among graduates with a higher education degree is lower than the average value. höok also disagrees that graduates of social sciences and humanities would represent a higher number among unemployed citizens. The primary beneficiary of higher education (among others) must be the student, as all individuals are responsible for their own career planning as lifelong learning is a clear reality. The needs of the labour market may change rapidly and the institutional structure of higher education is too rigid and adapts slowly, therefore only a long term strategic planning makes sense in the state’s policy for higher education.


höok acknowledges that on a certain level, the ratio between the number of state fi-nanced students and the demand of the labour market needs to be harmonised. How-ever, höok strongly opposes rapid and drastic changes because the structure of higher education is not able to adapt so quickly. höok agrees that certain study programmes in the recent years released too many graduates to the labour market, though each generation deserves the right for its talents to study in the chosen field without being charged for it. höok also agrees with the current system, that the top performers will be state financed and the lower performing students will pay a contribution, a kind of tuition fee, because there is a permeability between the two financing categories (Meaning that those students are able to continue their studies financed by the state that started as self-financed ones if they finish the semester with excellent results). höok states that the data in the Graduate Career Tracking Frameworks (Diplomás Pályakövető Rendszer) are a good basis for planning the state financed quotas in the various study programmes.

on ThE UnEmploymEnT of gradUaTES

Unemployment among graduates with higher education degrees is considerably lower than the average national unemployment rate. This trend is not changing, despite of the fact that the number of young people starting higher educational studies multi-plied in the last decades.

The distribution in terms of age of the unemployed people in Hungary is malformed ac-cording to statistics. The result of a youth survey based on a big sample is well known: a fresh higher education graduate is likely to find a job within three months. Therefore, it is important to differentiate between getting a job in the fields matching with the study background of the individual and the general entry to the labour market, which has proven to be easier with a qualification from higher education. Institutional Ca-reer Tracking Systems of Graduates do not prove the drop-out or ‘got stuck’ results that the Hungarian government uses.

After years of decreasing and then stagnating economic growth, there is a slight in-crease observed that can be advantageous for the employment rates of the young in 2014. The goal of the new Labour Code, recently put into force, was to make more employment opportunities and make them more flexible. However, it has not resulted itself in new workplaces and better circumstances for the young labour force. The centralised support systems were more effective (first job guarantee programme), be-cause they decreased the growing unemployment of young people. The drain brain and the emigration of young tends to be an increasing problem, therefore the govern-ment is trying to improve the situation with career models in several work fields (the


effect of an open labour market is significant nowadays). This tendency is lower and the unemployment rates less critical in case of those young people that have university degrees.

STakEholdErS’ vIEWS

The Hungarian government is aware of the fact that the youth unemployment rate is relatively high among graduates with higher education degrees. According to the gov-ernment, the reason behind this is that natural sciences and technical fields are under-represented, while faculties of humanities and social sciences release too many gradu-ates into the labour market without being able to find work. Therefore, the structure of institutions, academic specialisations and the fields of studies need to be rebuilt at the national level. State subsidies and support must necessarily focus on enhancing the preferred and currently underrepresented branches of technical and natural sciences.

The Chamber of Industry has a clear view that the customer or buyer of higher educa-tion is not the student but the labour market, industry, companies and corporations. Therefore, the demand needs to generate the supply and indicate what fields should gain more state support in terms of state-financed student quotas and subsidies. The Chamber of Industry intends to take an active part in the consultation, in the plan-ning and preparation phase of such financial decisions made by the government, in order to reach a balanced demand and supply for the labour market.

The Chamber of Industry strongly believes that practice oriented (dualist) study pro-grammes (German model) should be on the Bachelor’s level of higher education. Such study programmes at the Bachelor’s level have grounds only where enterprises direct-ly need specifically qualified technicians in their high volume production capacities. Those enterprises should be willing and capable of organising the required practical internships for the students. Further research is needed in order to differentiate the practice oriented dual certification of Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) from the more theoretical Bachelor of Science programmes. However, there is a potential threat that the graduating engineers would be specified in a narrow field, a need of a certain com-pany and they do not possess the wider, in-depth engineering knowledge that would be expected at other corporations. Therefore, students from BEng programmes com-ing from the dualist programme would have lower chances of finding employment, they would be less flexible employees for changes and connect too closely to the pro-file of a given company.


SpaIn4 .3

ovErvIEW

hIghEr EdUcaTIon SySTEm

Spain has 82 universities, 50 public and 32 private. From all those, 6 are online uni-versities. In total, there are 1,561,123 students in the Spanish higher education system, 1,046,570 are studying a ‘Bologna’ degree, 403,466 are studying “pre-Bologna” degrees and 111.087 are studying a master.1 In this complex system, education competences have been transferred to the autonomic governments, so technically there are 17 dif-ferent education systems. Nevertheless, there are national laws which regulate the dif-ferent systems with the aim to homogenize education among the country.

When referring to ‘Pre-Bologna’ degrees, we refer to the system before the Bologna Process was implemented. Spain went from a cycle system where there were two cy-cles, a short three year cycle and a long 5 year cycle, to a 240 ects degree (4 years). There are some exceptions such as medicine, architecture, and teaching. Masters are structured to be 60 to 120 ects (one or two years).

In 2011, Spain got to be the first country in Europe to have a national law named “The University Students’ Statute”2 where students’ rights where cited. This law, not only deals with students’ rights, but a national body has been established by the minister of education to make student participation in the policy making of higher education official.

accESS

There are three ways of accessing Higher Education (he) in Spain:

University Access Exams:1 there are autonomic access exams which are com-parable at a national level. Students get an average grade based on their high school grades and the grade obtained in their access exam. Once they apply to a higher education institution, they will get selected by their grades which will be valid in any university in the country.

1 Higher Education System statistics from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports: http://www.mecd.gob.es/dms/mecd/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/datos-cifras/DATOS_CIFRAS_13_14.pdf

2 The University Students’ Statute: http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2008/11/24/pdfs/A46932-46946.pdf

http://www.mecd.gob.es/dms/mecd/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/datos-cifras/DATOS_CIFRAS_13_14.pdf


http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2008/11/24/pdfs/A46932-46946.pdf



The education system in Spain explainedfig. 5 3

3 http://www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/cervantes/es/ofertaeducativa/estructurasiste-medu/estructurasistemaeductivoesp.shtml Take into consideration that in 2013 the government approved a law which restructures the education system. These changes won’t be implemented until 2016 or 2017 depending on the measure.

http://www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/cervantes/es/ofertaeducativa/estructurasistemedu/estructurasistemaeductivoesp.shtml

http://www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/cervantes/es/ofertaeducativa/estructurasistemedu/estructurasistemaeductivoesp.shtml


In Spain, 14.1% of the adult population has passed upper secondary education, while 8.4% has conducted a middle level vocational training program; both very small per-centages of the adult population. In total, only 22.5% has passed the second stage of secondary and post-secondary (non- tertiary) education, a figure below the oecd av-erage (45.9%).4

4 Panorama of Education; OECD Indicators 2013 Spanish Report http://www.mecd.gob.es/dctm/inee/internacional/panoramadelaeducacion2013informe-espanol.pdf?documentId=0901e72b816996b6

Vocation Training (2 vt): there is a quota established for students accessing from a vocation training study. In this case, these students will access with the aver-age grade of their vt.

Graduated students: students who have already entered once, the higher edu-3 cation system and want to study again. The debate here is whether the state should pay for the cost of a second degree, or, on the other hand, they should pay the complete cost of their studies because they already have a qualification/degree.

Despite the advances of the last decade, Spain remains among the countries where the population has reached a level of education which does not exceed the first stage of secondary education (46% of the adult population), a figure that differs significantly from the average of the eu27 (24%) and the oecd (25%).

Levels of education of adult population, Trends in educational attainment, by age fig. 6 group (25–64 years old), and average annual growth rate (2011)

120

100

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60

EU21 averageSpain oEcd average

40

20

0

Tertiary education

Upper secondary or post- secondary non-tertiary

below upper secondary

32

22

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32

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32

29

48

22

http://www.mecd.gob.es/dctm/inee/internacional/panoramadelaeducacion2013informe-espanol.pdf?documentId=0901e72b816996b6




In 2011, the rate of access to tertiary education of type B (in Spain, referred to high level vocation training programs) reaches 28% , higher than the oecd average (19%) and eu27 (15%). Vocational training has become an option for the unemployed.

Access to high level vocation training (HE Type B)fig. 8

When looking at higher education, 53% of young adults accessed higher education. There has been an increasing tendency since 2008 explained by the crisis starting in 2008, delaying the entrance of many young adults to the labour market and extending their training period. At the same time, the length of study programs has decreased as a result of the Bologna Process, motivating students to study. Finally, there has been an increase in the population that finishes upper secondary education.

Evolution of access to universities (HE type A)fig. 7

70

50

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20002001

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5


Evolution of university and V.T. graduatesfig. 9 5

fInancIng

The Spanish public higher education system is financed 75–80% by public funds and 20–25% by private funds. Spain invests around 4.7% of its gdp in its education system, much lower than the oecd average of 5.3%. Until 2008, the Spanish government had been increasing the investment in education, especially in higher education. After 2008, budget cuts were implemented and education was cut tremendously in addition to facing other measures such as a high increase in tuition fees, a political change in the perception of grants and a delay in the governmental payments to the institutions. This led to a controversial situation in institutions with increasing debts, staff whose contracts could not be renewed or promoted and education equipment had to be re-duced, along with other budget reductions.

Public investment in education as a percentage of the total public expenditure in Spain in 2010 represents 10.9%, lower than the oecd countries (13%) and the eu27 countries (11.4%). At the same time, investment in education institutions in tertiary education in Spain in 2010 represented 1.3%, similar to that of the EU27 countries (1.4%), but below the average recorded in the oecd countries (1.6%).

5 This striking growth rate of tertiary education-type B in Spain is mainly due to the incor-poration of new programs of Vocational Training in the higher education system. These V.T programmes are shorter and lead directly to the labor market. Graduation rates seem to be in-fluenced by the easy access to these programmes, the flexibility in the conduct of these defend-ants and skills in the labor market

0 19952001

20022003

20042005

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oEcd average

EU21 average

45

20

15

25

10

5

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35

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Investment in educationfig. 10

Higher education institutions have three ways of financing themselves:6

Public grant:1 more than 75% of their budgets. This percentage varies according to the annual budgets from the national and autonomic governments, meaning heis do not know the amount of money they will receive in the future years. At the same time, this amount of money will be determined by different objective parameters related with research and the teaching; such as number of students and their dedication weighting the experimentality of the study field, academic achievement, number of graduates, number of thesis, scientific production, at-traction of competitive funds, patents produced, etc. These are what is known as competitive resources. As they have to be distributed among all the hei, the heis compete among themselves.

Tuition fees:2 around 20%. The revenue achieved from tuition fees are forward-ed directly to the state funds, which makes the university lose control of such income. Theoretically, this revenue is returned through public subsidy.

Other:3 Other sources of income are finalist revenue services to students, staff or external users. These are services that are not part of the core activities of

6 Santiago Guerrero Bonet, gerente de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.; Catalonian Magazine about Public Law, núm. 44, 2012 http://www10.gencat.net/eapc_revistadret/revistes/revista.2011-04-15.8170269681/Financiacion_ y_ gobierno_de_las_universidades_ publicas/es/at_download/adjunt

0

ppp-

US$

12,000

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

public institutions

private institutions

Spain oEcd average EU21 average

private & public investment in education in Spain

private & public investment in education

pre-primary educationprimary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary educationTertiary education

http://www10.gencat.net/eapc_revistadret/revistes/revista.2011-04-15.8170269681/Financiacion_y_gobierno_de_las_universidades_publicas/es/at_download/adjunt




the university (teaching, research and knowledge transfer) and have activities intended to generate support as a part of the self-financing regime.

The financial magnitude of research and knowledge transfer in the Spanish univer-sity is variable. The polytechnics (Catalonia, Valencia and Madrid) with a fundraising around 20–25% of total revenues of the university stand out. In non-technical uni-versities with research-intensive character but this proportion is around 15 -20% on average.

granTS

The scholarship scheme was based on equal opportunities and was offered to families with lower income, to gain access to higher education. These scholarships cover the tuition fees, accommodation, complimentary services and meals. It is understood as a salary scholarship.

Investment in educationfig. 11 7

7 Data obtained from the annual reports from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports http://www.mecd.gob.es/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-in-formes/datos-cifras.html

0

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200

400

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in m

illio

ns E

uros

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300,000

200,000

100,000

0

Total amount for general grants (millions of Euros) granted Students

2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13

http://www.mecd.gob.es/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/datos-cifras.html

http://www.mecd.gob.es/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/datos-cifras.html


TUITIon fEES

To be able to understand how tuition fees have developed during the past years, there are two factors at policy level that need to be taken into account. On the one hand, decentralisation of competences in university matters have derived in an inequality of the levels of tuition fees between autonomic regions and it seems to increase some-what over time. On the other hand, in 2012–13, a new system for defining the level of fees in the public system was implemented which allows the tuition fees to be set in the real cost of education. From the students’ and rectors perspective, this decision was unfortunate because the real price of the cost of education has not yet been cal-culated.

Degree tuition fees of public institutions. Euro/ECTS. lowest experimentalityfig. 12 8

8 In Spain, competences in education are transferred to the autonomous governments de-riving in different prices for the ECTS. Also take into consideration that there are regulated professions which their competences are acquired by what are denominated as professional masters which have a different price due to their obligatory profile. At the same time, each au-tonomous region has classified the study fields according to their experimentality so prices vary as cost also vary.

0

20

15

25

10

5

40

35

30

anda

lucía

arag

ónas

turia

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Figure 9. Degree tuition fees of public institutions. Euro/ECTS. highest experimentalityfig. 13

Evolution of degree tuition fees Euro/ECTS. (Average price)fig. 14

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Evolution of tuition fees for Master's studiesfig. 15

At the moment, students’ pay around 20–25% of what was estimated “the real costs of education”. Aside from these prices, when students re-register for a course for a second or third time, fees increase dramatically, doubling or tripling the initial amount paid.

UnEmploymEnT

During the past years, the general unemployment rate has been the first concern of the Spanish population, especially the youth unemployment which has reached a rate of over 57% of people under 25 years old being unemployed. The government has im-plemented many measures and reforms specifically tackling the youth unemployment that exploded since 2008 but not much has been achieved so far. Currently, Spain is facing a 53.9% of youth unemployment rate and a 25.3% of total unemployment.

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General unemployment rate in Spainfig. 16

Structural weaknesses of youth employment:9

High school dropout rate, which doubles the values of the qq eu27.

Strong polarization of the labour market, where there are low-skilled potential qqworkers and highly qualified potential workers which are underemployed.

Low relative weight of the vocational training level. qq

Low employability of young people, especially regarding the knowledge of for-qqeign languages.

High levels of temporary work, with 82.3% of young people working temporar-qqily involuntarily.

High numbers of part-time work offered, with 51% of young people working qqpart-time, waiting to sign a full time contract.

Difficult access to the labour market of groups at risk of social exclusion. qq

Need to improve levels of self-employment and entrepreneurship among young qqpeople.

9 Employment strategy from the Ministry of Labour: http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/estrategia-empleo-joven/descargas/EEEJ _Documento.pdf

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http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/estrategia-empleo-joven/descargas/EEEJ_Documento.pdf



What has been demonstrated is that the population aged between 25 to 64 years old with a higher level of education has a higher employment rate and a higher salary level. This is the same for Spain, the oecd and the eu27.

Evolution of unemployment rate by education attainment (Age 25–64)fig. 17

With this situation, the Spanish government has designed a Youth employment strat-egy 2013–16 which has four main objectives:

Contribute to improving the employability of young people.1

Increase the quality and stability of youth employment.2

Promote equal opportunities.3

Encourage entrepreneurship.4

Included in these objectives, there are specific measures which will affect education:

Extended training programmes for obtaining professional certificates and com-qqmitment to training programmes recruitment. The Public Employment Servic-es will offer specific training programs and placements for youth under 30 years old directed to obtaining occupational certificates or professional modules and include hiring commitment.

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below upper secondaryUpper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiaryTertiary education


Development of incentives for unemployed early school leavers to obtain a sec-qqondary education by promoting, together with the autonomous regions, a pro-gram for the low-skilled unemployed youth. This will enable the target group to voluntarily resume and enhance their training in order to expand their access to the labour market.

rEformS affEcTIng EmployabIlITy

fInancIng

In 2012, the Ministry of Education created a committee of experts composed only by teachers, which, in their opinion, represented the hei community and had knowledge about governance, financing and research of he for debating and studying a future reform of higher education institutions. After some months, this commission came up with a document which was called: “Proposals for the Reform and Improvement of Quality and Efficiency Spanish University System”.10

Restructure the offer of the higher education system adapting it the demands 1 of the labour market in future years as well as considering the study fields and the demands from students in the past. This will have to be done also with the autonomous regional governments and taking into consideration strategically cultural interests.

Implement measures to help some universities to be able to compete on an in-2 ternational level such as a more selective admission and a better financing.

Transparency in the finances and the quality results of higher education institu-3 tions.

Implementation of analytic accountability so that the real costs of 4 he can be calculated.

Invest a 3% of Spain’s 5 gdp in higher education.

Increase to a 20–25% the public financing related with the higher education in-6 puts (research results and teaching services).

10 Proposals for the Reform and Improvement of Quality and Efficiency Spanish University System by the Experts Committee of the Ministry od Education, Culture and Sports http://www.mecd.gob.es/prensa-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/participacion-publica/sistemauniversitario/propuestas-reforma.pdf

http://www.mecd.gob.es/prensa-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/participacion-publica/sistemauniversitario/propuestas-reforma.pdf




Establish perennial financing strategies to facilitate higher education institu-7 tions in their policies on financing and fundraising.

Add employability of graduates as a variable in the public grant that higher edu-8 cation institutions receive.

Establish new standards of permanence and progress for students to optimise 9 resources.

Increase private investment especially for research projects.10

Increase public investment in grants as well as create a stable, solid and easy 11 grant system.

Promote national and international mobility grants.12

Promote the partial time students to able them to work while they study.13

Increase the companies’ presence in the universities. 14

granTS

In 2013, the Spanish government modified the law that regulated national grants. In the new grant system, major changes were done. Up until 2013, grants were under-stood as a tool, a way of guaranteeing equal opportunities for accessing higher educa-tion. With the new grant system, a political change in the perception on the need for grants will be implemented.

To obtain a grant, students have to fulfil the academic and economic requirements at the same time. The criteria that have been changed include:

Academic requirements have been introduced to be able to get a grant affecting qqaccess and progression in he. For students entering higher education, they will not be granted if their access grade is not equal or greater than a 5.5. Students in higher courses will be required a 6.5 average if they do not pass all their courses, or a 5 if they do.

Economic requirements are maintained or reduced. The grant consists of two qqparts, a fixed part which varies according to each income threshold and which would correspond to students who fall under the different economic ranges based on the family’s income. The second part is calculated by an equation which cannot be estimated unless you know how many students have received


the grant that year and the amount each of them has received because it de-pends on the amount of money left.

In conclusion, students are not able to calculate the amount of the grant they will re-ceive and the administration takes double the time to process, calculate, solve and pay the students. As a result, if a student doesn’t get a grant, it is too late to think of another alternative solution for financing the studies.

Mobility grants have also been reduced. National mo-bility grants have been elim-inated and even the Erasmus grants were going to be

eliminated. Finally, with the Erasmus+ program and society’s pressure, international mobility grants remained but conditions have changed. Students could get grants for a mobility program from the Ministry of Education, from the European Commission and from their autonomic government and any private grant. Now, the grant from the Ministry of Education can just be requested by students who have previously obtained the general education grant from the state and if they decide to choose this grant, they will not get the EU grant. The EU grant will just be for students which do not have the general education grant. On general terms, a number of grants have been reduced.

accESS

In 2013 the Ministry of Education approved a law called “Organic Law for improving the Quality of Education”. This law focused on primary and secondary education but it also included vocational training and access to higher education. The new access will consist of an evaluation exam of the non-obligatory secondary education which will determine if you pass of not that cycle and have access to higher education. Aside from this, there are no more general examinations. Institutions can establish, if they decide to, their own access conditions and evaluations for their students.

laboUr

Spain has gone through two labour reforms in less than 5 years as a result of the need to implement measures to fight against the high unemployment rate installed for years. The first reform took place in 2010. Two years later, in 2012, another reform was ap-proved. This last reform changed aspects such as recruitment rates and causes for end-ing contracts or working condition.

undija ancena @undijaa · 24 april 2013 Education doesn’t make me employable, but it helps a lot . It’s about what I make out of education . #ESU_SagE


Major changes in the past labour reformsfig. 18 11

before r .d . ley 35/2010 r .d . ley 3/2012

placEmEnT agEncIES

They were public or private non-profit dedicated to job placement activities

can be private and non-profit . The worker shall be registered and subscribe an activity engagement . after this, they may re-quire services agencies .

The temporary agencies are authorized to act as placement agencies guar-anteeing a free service or job seekers .

TraInIng conTracTS

no right to generate un-employment benefits

right to generate unem-ployment benefits remains the same

Up till 4 years after ending the studies

Up till 5 years after end-ing studies except disa-bled people who can work up till 7 years from ending their studies

remains the same

you can not work over 2 years in the same degree and in the same or differ-ent company

you can not work more than 2 years for the same or different degree in the same or different company

remains the same

a temporary disabili-ty, maternity, paternity, adoption, pregnancy risk, breastfeeding risk will not interrupt the calculation of the maximum period worked .

The temporary disabil-ity, maternity, paterni-ty, adoption, pregnan-cy risk, breastfeeding risk will interrupt the calcula-tion of the maximum peri-od worked .

remains the same

age limit is 21 years oldage limit is 25 years old with the exception of no limits for disabled people .

remains the same but just until the unemployment rate reaches values under 15%, age limit will be 30 years old .

11 Table elaborated by a Labour union: http://www.fsie.es/archivos/reforma%20laboral_com-parativa.pdf

http://www.fsie.es/archivos/reforma laboral_comparativa.pdf

http://www.fsie.es/archivos/reforma laboral_comparativa.pdf



vocaTIonal TraInIng conTracTS

recognition of permits for attending examinations and choice preferences in labour schedule to attend training to obtain an aca-demic or professional de-gree . (Includes vT)

remains the same

It recognizes the right of the employees to be trained by the company to adapt to changes in the position and to promote their employability . paid absence up to 20h (accu-mulative in three years) is permitted for trainings re-lated with the job and po-sition and will be set by mutual agreement with the company annually .

conTracT for SUpporTIng EnTrEpErnEUrS

no existance no existance

Includes companies with less than 50 employees, permanent and full-time . The trial period will be 1 year in all cases, there-fore, during the first year the company may end the contract at any time with-out notice or payment of a compensation . The em-ployee can make compat-ible how ever he choos-es, with his salary, a 25% of unemployment bene-fits that have not yet rec-ognized and receive at the time of recruitment . com-panies may not make use of these contracts if in the previous 6 months they have declared inappro-priate dismissals of em-ployees due to a trial or groupal redundancies .

TElE WorkIng or dISTancE WorkIng conTracT


valid for employees who provide services primari-ly at home or in the place designated by him . The contract must be in writ-ing and will have the same rights as other employees .



parTIal TImE conTracT


overtime will be allowed in the same proportion as the annual maximum of 80 hours of overtime for full time employees .

WorkIng pErIod

It ensured collective or other agreement regard-ing irregular distribution of working

The company will distrib-ute unevenly throughout the year 5% of the work-ing day . by agreement, the percentage can be ex-panded .

gEographIc mobIlITy and SUbSTanTIal modIfIcaTIon of WorkIng condITIonS

The worker can be moved if the measure affects sub-stantialy the conditions involving a better organ-ization of resources, a fa-voring of competitiveness in the market or best re-sponse to demanded re-quirements .

new causes are added sich as prevent negative devel-opments or improve busi-ness situation and out-look of it .

becomes more flexible: In-cludes technical, econom-ic or organizational rea-sons . priority in staying is established for labour rep-resentatives and workers with families, elders of dis-abled .

EndIng of ThE conTracT by ThE WorkErS dEcISIon

possible to substantial changes in working con-ditions that result in prej-udice

remains the same

possible to substantial changes in working condi-tions to the detriment of their dignity .

UnfaIr dISmISSal

Indemnification 45 days/year worked, until a max of 42 months

remains the same

Indemnification 33 days/year worked, up to a max . of 24 months . The compensation may not exceed 720 days unless the calculation of compen-sation for the period pri-or to law proves a greater number of days in which, will apply a maximum amount that can not ex-ceed 42 months



faIr dISmISSal

causes: absence from work, even unjustified but intermittent, which reaches 20% of the to-tal working days in 2 con-secutive months, or 25% in 4 months discontinu-ously, within a period of 12 months . This will be est ablished if the total ab-sence of the workforce of the company exeeds a 5% in the same periods of time .

causes: absence from work, even unjustified but intermittent, which reaches 20% of the to-tal working days in 2 con-secutive months, or 25% in 4 months discontinu-ously, within a period of 12 months . This will be est ablished if the total ab-sence of the workforce of the company exeeds a 2,5% in the same periods of time .

It extinction absences from work, even unjus-tified but intermittent, which reaches 20% of the working days in 2 con-secutive months, or 25% in 4 months discontinu-ous within a period of 12 months .

not be counted as absenc-es, absences due to legal strike, the pursuit of legal representation of work-ers, work injury, maternity, risk during pregnancy, dis-eases caused by pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding, non-occupational accident, when sick leave has been agreed by a doctor and has a duration of more than 20 consecutive days, or there is a motivation by physi-cal or psychological disor-ders resulting from gender violence, return of a non-working period and is ac-credited by the social care services or health services .

remains the same remains the same

The objective reasons for employers to fire a worker have been widen and become more flexible so there is controversial and polemic with these reforms. Labour unions are constantly focusing on the unemployment data and the use if the different types of new contracts to be able to determine and justify the usefulness of these reforms. It is true that the number of people affiliated to the social security system has reduced and that unemployment has not gotten better, so this is an issue that the government will have to rethink sooner or later.

At the same time, the public employment services have been demonstrating that there are totally inefficient when searching for jobs. Right now, they are only controlling the unemployment benefits and registering unemployed people who need a subsidy.


Sooner or later, this services will have to be modified and modernised. The govern-ment should increase the investment in this type of services as well as motivate and train the working force of these entities.

InTErnShIpS

Nowadays, no one doubts about the influence in a graduate’s employability that in-ternships have. It’s for this reason that in many degrees and masters, internships have become obligatory. The government, foreseeing this situation created a law to regu-late internships. This reform made optional retribution for students for their intern-ships as well as made optional for institutions to have insurance for internships. It also regulated tutors and stated that students don’t have to trade on the social security to be able to access unemployment benefits.

conclUSIonS

The overview of the situation is optimistic economically speaking. On the other side, reforms in the labour market regulations, education system and grants system are not very optimistic for students and graduates.

Society knows and agrees that changes have to be done in the hei financing. An exer-cise of transparency has to be done to show how valuable and efficient heis are. From the students’ perspective, institutions have to look for more diverse fundraising while keeping in mind that education is a public good and as such, it has to be maintained by the government. Rectors and students both agree on having a multiannual financ-ing strategy to force the administrations to pay the grants on time and create stability in the institutions’ budgets; or at least, inform the heis in advance of the resources they can count on to plan their strategy and activities more efficiently. There is also a general fear about the opening of so many private universities and a debate on wheth-er a university should depend more on private investment, consisting of enterprises’ money and tuition fees paid by families and students, and which are going to be the variables the governments will look at when allocating the different public grants to institutions. The government follows the ideas of competence between students and institutions, excellence of both of them and efficiency in the management of universi-ties.

An equal and fair access is as important as a good grant system. Accessing higher edu-cation is the first step to increasing someone’s employability. With the actual reform, there are too many unanswered questions that are key for achieving it. Autonomy for institutions is great and essential, but guaranteeing fair access conditions should be prioritized. Students are very concerned with how this reform will be implemented and rectors are trying to reach an agreement to guarantee it. At the same time, stu-


dents and rectors demand a paralysation of the price of tuition fees as they are one of the main factors for students to drop out from university.

Grants should follow the principle of ‘equal opportunities’. Students demand the Ministry of Education to use the National Observatory for University Scholarships, Study Grants and Academic Performance which was created to study in depth the consequences and needs of students in using the grants to what is really needed such as transport, accommodation, food and fees. Students also defend the idea that if ex-cellence is to be promoted, then, there should be other types of grants created as the actual grants were meant to defend the right for education and the equal opportuni-ties of people. While living costs have increased, grants have decreased and fees have also dramatically increased in some regions, affecting the access and successful com-pletion of studies of thousands of students, as the National Rectors Conference have stated in several occasions.

With a good grant system, access to higher education is more attainable for any in-dividual in society. Education guarantees a better and bigger opportunity to get em-ployed. Employability of an individual increases as he/she progresses in the education system. With this proved, early school dropout has to be fought. The Ministry of Edu-cation has proposed in his last education reform an advancement of the age to enter vocation training because he believes that promoting vocation training may be one of the long term solutions to decrease youth unemployment due to the fact that most of the graduates get under qualified jobs. This also leads to the idea that has been in-troduced about the amount of university graduates, the amount of students accessing the different study fields and if this should follow the demands of the labour market. Academics, rectors and students agree that universities can’t follow the demands of the labour market because it is no predictable itself and that university has also social objectives.

Nevertheless, unemployment can’t just be fought by changing the labour market, the labour system or the education system, but has to be an integral reform of different aspects of a society. Labour unions have hardly criticized and fought against the two recent labour reforms. They have proved by analysing statistics after the labour re-forms were implemented and these were their results:

There is more precarious employment.qq

Wages have been reduced.qq

Seasonality of jobs has increased, especially for women.qq


Part-time contracts have increased. qq

Working conditions have gotten worse. qq

There are less skilled jobs.qq

Self-employment has increased.qq

There is less coverage of unemployment benefits.qq

Training contracts have increase.qq

In conclusion, the quality of employment has been reduced.qq

Internships have become the biggest option for higher education institutions to face unemployment, together with entrepreneurship. Students’ have demanded the Min-istry of Education and the Ministry of Labour to change the regulation so that intern-ships have retribution and assess for future unemployment benefits.

To give a global perspective of the whole situation, Spain has to look for creative solu-tions that maintain the equal opportunities at the same

time as it solves the social and economic problems that the crisis has produced. Qual-ity employment has to be created at the same time as education reaches all individuals remaining as a public good.

inés Sanchez @insangi · 25 June 2013 reading oEcd: “We have to link education with the labour market to reduce unemployment .” expansin .com/agencia/efe/20 . . . #ESU_SagE #empleabilidad


bIblIography

oThEr SoUrcES

general statistics: http://datos.bancomundial.org/tema/educacion#boxes-box-topic_cust_sec

youth unemployment: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/ index.php/Youth_unemployment

UgT sobre reforma laboral http://www.ugt.es/actualidad/2014/febrero/ 07-02_Dos_anyos_de_reforma_laboral_UGT.pdf

Spanish national Statistics Institute http://www.ine.es/

annex to Education at a glance 2013 http://www.oecd.org/edu/ educationataglance2013-indicatorsandannexes.htm#Annex3

USEfUl rEadIng

oEcd (2013), Education at a glance 2013: oEcd Indicators, oEcd publishing http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2013-en

The Employability of higher Education graduates: The Employers’ perspective by martin humburg; rolf van der velden; annelore verhagen http://www.delta.tudelft.nl/uploads/pdf/employabilitystudy_ final.pdf

naTIonal USEfUl rEadIng:

Education at a glance of Spain (elaborated by the ministry of Education, culture and Sports) http://www.mecd.gob.es/dctm/inee/internacional/ panoramadelaeducacion2013informe-espanol.pdf?documentId=0901e72b816996b6

libro verde de la empleabilidad de los titulados universitarios de la comunitat valen-ciana (green book about employaility of the comunidad valenciana” by avap&gva http://libroverdeempleabilidad.avap.es/docs/LibroVerdeEmpleabilidad.pdf

http://datos.bancomundial.org/tema/educacion#boxes-box-topic_cust_sec

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Youth_unemployment

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Youth_unemployment

http://www.ugt.es/actualidad/2014/febrero/07-02_Dos_anyos_de_reforma_laboral_UGT.pdf


http://www.ine.es/

http://www.oecd.org/edu/educationataglance2013-indicatorsandannexes.htm#Annex3

http://www.oecd.org/edu/educationataglance2013-indicatorsandannexes.htm#Annex3

http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2013-en

http://www.delta.tudelft.nl/uploads/pdf/employabilitystudy_final.pdf



http://libroverdeempleabilidad.avap.es/docs/LibroVerdeEmpleabilidad.pdf


dEnmark4 .4

backgroUnd InformaTIon on ThE EdUcaTIon SySTEm

In Denmark there are approximately 260.000 students in higher education. Out of these there are approximately 150.000 university students at eight universities. All higher education institutions are public and have no tuition fees, except for students outside the eu. Higher education programmes are categorised by length and each cat-egory has its own legislation:

Short higher education:qq 2–3 years. E.g. some types of economics/trade stud-ies, some types of ict studies or technical studies and some types of art stud-ies.

Medium length higher education:qq 3–4 years. E.g. nurses, pedagogues, prima-ry school teachers and some kinds of engineers (professional Bachelors).

Long higher education:qq Most of the university degrees fit the Bologna model with a three year Bachelor’s programme followed by a two year Master’s pro-gramme. This category includes everything from liberal arts to social sciences to natural sciences and some kinds of engineers.

There are two distinct kinds of Bachelor’s degrees that have different legal frameworks: Professional Bachelors and academic Bachelors. The professional Bachelors aim di-rectly at specific job types and hence the curriculum design is aimed at giving the students employability within this field. The academic Bachelors on the contrary aim at preparing the students for admission to Master’s studies and do not aim directly at a specific job type. There are approximately 80,000 students enrolled in Bachelor’s programmes. Out of those, just fewer than 30,000 students are in professional Bach-elor’s programmes.

Admission: It is decided locally how many students should be admitted to a univer-sity. Some of the admission is based purely on grades, while admission for other study places may be based on interviews at specific faculties, work experience and/or letters of motivation. While the admission is currently up to each university to decide, this may be changing in the future, as there are political suggestions to make centralised admission coordination, where labour market demands and the employment rates of the graduates would be taken into account when deciding on the amount of admit-ted students. Students oppose this suggestion and would prefer the competency to make decisions about admission to be kept locally. The disagreement is mainly a con-


sequence of the students not accepting the discourse of the instrumentalisation of higher education.

cUrrEnT SITUaTIon WITh rEgardS To EmploymEnT

Employment rates: The figure shows the employment rate of graduates with a Mas-ter’s degree (green line) and Bachelor’s (blue line). The first axis represents the number of years since graduation.

Employment rates for workers holding only a Bachelor or also Master degreefig. 19

Source: http://www.djoef.dk/~/media/documents/djoef/d/defacto/2013/4/fak-taark%20%20beskftigelse%20og%20ledighed.ashx

80%

90%

unde

r 1 ye

ar

60%

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r

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r

mor

e tha

n 10

year

3 yea

r

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r

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r

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ar

7 yea

r

8 yea

r

9 ye

ar

bachelorsmasters

http://www.djoef.dk/~/media/documents/djoef/d/defacto/2013/4/faktaark beskftigelse og ledighed.ashx

http://www.djoef.dk/~/media/documents/djoef/d/defacto/2013/4/faktaark beskftigelse og ledighed.ashx


WhaT kInd of Work do pEoplE WITh a hIghEr EdUcaTIon do?

Distribution of employed Bachelors in 2010, in pct, by faculties

humanities natural sciences

Social/politi-cal sciences

military 0 2 0

management 3 5 5

Work that requires high level knowl-edge within the field in which the work-er holds a degree

28 42 31

Work that requires a medium level of knowledge 24 18 28

office work 17 4 10

retail trade, service work and care work 7 4 5

crafts or similar work 0 1 1

operation and processes machines and transportation and construction work 1 1 1

Unskilled labour 20 23 19

Distribution of employed Masters in 2010, in pct, by faculties

humanities natural sciences

Social/politi-cal sciences

military 0 0 0

management 3 2 5

Work that requires high level knowl-edge within the field in which the work-er holds a degree

62 79 66

Work that requires a medium level of knowledge 16 12 21

office work 8 2 3

retail trade, service work and care work 2 0 1

crafts or similar work 0 0 0

operation and processes machines and transportation and construction work 0 0 0

Unskilled labour 9 5 4

Source http://dea.nu/sites/dea.nu/files/DEA%20Notat_Er%20der%20et%20arbejds-marked%20for%20universitetsbachelorer_0.pdf

http://dea.nu/sites/dea.nu/files/DEA Notat_Er der et arbejdsmarked for universitetsbachelorer_0.pdf

http://dea.nu/sites/dea.nu/files/DEA Notat_Er der et arbejdsmarked for universitetsbachelorer_0.pdf


The figures above show, that there is not very much academic work available for Bach-elors compared to the work for Masters. A high percentage of Bachelors get jobs that are not related to their field of studies and many take jobs that do not require those skills they have acquired. This makes sense, as the academic Bachelor’s degree is not designed in order to prepare people for the labour market, but rather for enrolling them onto a Master’s programme. There is a law stating that people holding a Bach-elor’s degree have the right to start the Master’s programme, if they start right after finishing the Bachelor’s programme. This law is a hotly debated issue—some suggest that this should be removed and the amount of Master’s studies limited while at the same time changing the Bachelor’s degree to be more narrowly focused on the labour market’s demands, while others (including students) rather support expanding this right by giving the Bachelors the possibility of enrolling onto a Master’s programme three or five years after finishing the Bachelor’s programme.

rEformS or oThEr changES affEcTIng EmployabIlITy

In 2013, two major higher education reforms were passed by the Danish parliament: the so called ‘study-progress’ reform and a reform of the grant system. These two re-forms are connected and have the same goal: getting the students faster, cheaper and more efficiently through their education to increase the supply of graduates to the labour market. The focus of the reforms has been strictly on the supply of graduates so that the potential effects on quality of education and employability of students have been disregarded, which has been major point of critique point among many stake-holders. The study progress reform dictates that all students have to enrol for 30 new ects-points each semester, no matter if the student has failed exams in the previous semester. This means if a student fails an exam he/she will have to study more than 30 ects on the next semester. It also means that students cannot choose to enrol for few-er ects-credits to make time for a student job or other activities. If a student gets more than 30 ects delayed in his/her studies, the grant will be stopped until the student

“catches up” with the delay by studying more than 30 ects per semester. Furthermore a strong economic incentive for the universities to decrease the average study dura-tion has been created by linking some of the current funding directly to institution-specific goals of decreasing average study duration- if the students do not graduate faster, the universities will be financially punished.


The table below shows, how many months’ faster students have to become on average within each university by 2020:

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total

kU 1 .3 1 .2 1 .3 1 .3 1 .2 1 .3 7 .6

aU 0 .8 0 .7 0 .8 0 .8 0 .7 0 .8 4 .6

SdU 0 .5 0 .5 0 .6 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 3 .1

rUc 1 .2 1 .2 1 .2 1 .1 1 .2 1 .2 7 .1

aaU 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0

cbS 0 .7 0 .7 0 .7 0 .7 0 .7 0 .7 4 .2

dTU 0 .6 0 .5 0 .6 0 .2 0 .3 0 .2 2 .4

ITU 0 .5 0 .5 0 .6 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 3 .1

Source: http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/almdel/buu/spm/303/svar/1072003/1278562/index.htm

aImS of ThE rEformS

The reason for the reform of the grant system and for the study progress reform is to give students and universities an incitement to finish their degrees faster. This aims at providing a larger amount of skilled workers faster than if the students finish their studies at the current rate. The reforms do not aim at making the individual student more employable or more competent, but aim at having a higher quantity of graduates available for the labour market. This is a part of the government’s strategy for creating a “knowledge society” where there is an ambition to have 95 per cent of the population achieving secondary education, 60 per cent achieving some form of higher education and 25 per cent achieving longer higher education (Master’s degree).

ThE rEform of ThE laW aboUT accrEdITaTIon

In 2013 the law about accreditation of higher education was changed. Accreditation of programs was replaced with accreditation of institutions, a change which was wel-comed by students as well as universities. In addition to this, however, there was a change in the procedure for opening new he programs. Previously the programs only had to be approved by the Accreditation Council (the independent body responsible for HE accreditation) but now the Minister has to “pre-qualify” each new program by the criteria of whether it is both relevant for the labor market and different enough from existing programs at the institution as well as on other institutions. This change essentially makes it a ministerial political decision, which courses are relevant enough to be taught at the universities, and what kind of graduates should be provided to the

http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/almdel/buu/spm/303/svar/1072003/1278562/index.htm

http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/almdel/buu/spm/303/svar/1072003/1278562/index.htm


labor market. Students were critical towards this change and would have rather kept the competence in an independent body. The minister is also responsible for the con-crete criteria for accreditation in the executive orders under the accreditation law. At the moment much emphasis is put on the criteria of relevance for the labor market. An institution wishing to open a new program must be able to show the existence of rel-evant employers for the graduates of that program. The employers are put into a panel that must be consulted regularly for discussions about the development of the educa-tion. In order for the next accreditation to be passed, there must be a documentable dialogue between the he institution, the employers of graduates and the alumni. This aims to ensure the continued relevance of the program and ideally to keep the gradu-ates employable. These criteria are not new, but lately a lot more political focus has been put on them compared to other accreditation criteria (research basis, depth of learning outcomes, structure of programs). And with the new rules about pre-qualifi-cation, the political focus is potentially important. The reform does not directly influ-ence graduate employability, but it puts a lot of power in the hands of the minister, as his/her interpretation of employability can determine, which courses are allowed to be taught, and which are deemed irrelevant to the labor market.

The current law and executive orders can be found on: https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=151871


The reform has been massively criticised by students, universities and business organi-sations for reducing the flexibility of education and for risking a major negative influ-ence on the employability of students. These stakeholders perceive the effects of the reforms on employability to be:

Increased structural and financial pressure to study faster that will decrease qqthe students’ deep immersion in their studies. More focus on passing exams quickly and less on a deep learning process will give the students poorer trans-versal skills which will in hand decrease their employability.

Decreased flexibility in the education system and grant system that will pres-qqsure students to choose not to work or do other activities while studying. They will therefore not get the experience that affects employability positively, which they would otherwise have gained. Today, a very important aspect of many stu-dents’ preparation for the labour market is to have a student job and/or work placements. They give the students work experience and possibilities to use their knowledge and abilities in a more practical way. Also, it helps for the stu-dent to get an insight into the labour market’s function as well as a personal insight in their own skills, which helps the student in their future career choices.

https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=151871

https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=151871


Furthermore, student jobs give the student connections and networks that are crucial in the search for a permanent job after finishing an education degree. In addition to student work, a very important aspect of employability in Denmark is when students make their own activities besides their studies, for example volunteer work, innovative projects, research projects, start-up companies etc. These activities improve the students’ ability to work independently and to use the knowledge and abilities in a more practical and/or innovative way. It also gives the student a useful experience and connections. But with the increased pressure for students to finish their education quickly there will not be time for as many activities besides studying, which will decrease their employability.

The rules in the study progress reform also make it more risky to choose to stay qqabroad during one’s studies. This is because of the risk of not earning enough ects-credits in a semester abroad that can be due to a difference in semester culture, to mention an example. This is expected to have a negative influence on employability, since studying abroad plays an important role for improving students’ intercultural competences and networks that are useful on the labour market as well as in other aspects of life. It can also have the consequence that students will be forced to accept ects-credits for courses that were either on a too low level or had a too large overlap with another course to normally be ac-cepted, in order to avoid falling behind and losing their grants.

The economic incentive for the universities to bring down the average study qqduration may create a pressure to let students pass courses more easily. This is a problem for the level of academic knowledge and skills of the students, which will make them less employable.

55good pracTIcES and InITIaTIvES

good pracTIcES and InITIaTIvES5

This section includes practices and initiatives from around Europe that support stu-dents’ or graduates’ employability. Through providing an array of diverse practices and initiatives, it can easily be noted how there are as many ways to promote employ-ability, as there are higher education institutions within the European Higher Educa-tion Area. In order to give examples from the different stakeholders’ involved, there are examples from student organisations, higher education institutions, companies, ministries and other agencies and they are typically local or regional in scope. Mul-tiple examples have been collected in connection to the country case studies, which explain the high number of examples from the four countries.

STUdEnT organISaTIonS5 .1

STUdEnTS hElpIng STUdEnTS, a UnIQUE gEndEr SpEcIfIc approach In hUngary

Talent, ambition, relationships—“Every woman walks in the same shoes!”

Effemine—Association for Young Women—is the only student association in Hunga-ry that aims at supporting the career of female students and recently graduated wom-en. The main objective of the organisation is to enhance the employability of its young members and help them to develop and take full advantage of their skills. Effemine raises awareness of future career possibilities and assists with networking opportuni-ties with qualified and successful people during their university years. Upon entering the labour market, Effemine members will be confident and ambitious graduates and later on conscious, balanced individuals at their workplace. Furthermore, they create a multi-generational network and a basis for knowledge transfer.

The association provides help and guidance to female students in higher education to build and responsibly plan their future career. To achieve these aims, Effemine organ-ises self-awareness and soft skill developing trainings on a weekly basis, invites women in leading positions, real role models to share their experiences in order to improve the young members’ competencies and inspire them. A Mentoring Programme was launched in the autumn of 2011, in which members can develop their personal life path with the assistance of an individually selected mentor.


The association was founded on a genuine idea of Brigitta Kis and Barbara Kovács in 2009, as they experienced changing tendencies in the higher education system of Hungary that weakened the students’ relationships. Small but tight student networks have disappeared and there was no real feeling for a university community anymore. In addition, the founders’ main realisation was that women face merely different bar-riers than men do when entering the job market.

Job-maTchIng plaTform, lUxEmboUrg

As a new generation’s response in the social global world of employability and per-sonal branding challenges, Individuum stands out as an interesting new digital way of supporting students’ and graduates’ employment. Launched by five students in Luxembourg in 2012, Individuum is a professional network bridging the gap between students, graduates and the corporate realm. Individuum provides the essential infor-mation and service to new students and graduates that are taking their first steps into the professional world.

Students and young graduates signing up on Individuum fill in their profile that dis-plays a cv. Students and young graduates can apply directly to various different job and internship opportunities, or, be discovered and directly contacted by recruiters on the platform. Offering their free services in London, Paris, Berlin and Luxembourg and working with a variety of universities and student organisations across Europe, Individuum endorses the mobility of young people by offering a broad choice of inter-national internship and graduate job opportunities: http://www.individuum.com

fUTUrE focUS campaIgn, UnIon of STUdEnTS In IrEland

In order to combat the high graduate unemployment and emigration levels, the Un-ion of Students in Ireland has engaged in several activities. The main component in-cludes creating a campaign called ‘Future Focus Campaign’ in addition to publishing a position paper with the Irish Second Level Union and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

The campaign includes a jobs website, which includes information on how people can prepare for job interviews, compose a cv, utilise social media and one’s rights as a worker. This is done in cooperation with a government agency and a large Irish based recruitment agency. Additionally, the partners involved travel to usi’s member colleg-es to set up stands, run workshops and engage directly with students to discuss their future steps. At the end of the campaign, a student summit is organised with over 30 exhibitors, including start-up companies, social entrepreneurs and recruiters. There will also be workshops and presentations. Students can get discounted (and free) tick-ets if they visit the careers centre in their college.

http://www.individuum.com/


STUdEnTS mEnTorIng SocIally dISadvanTagEd STUdEnTS In hUngary: hÖok mEnTor programmE

The Hungarian national union of students has been successfully coordinating a peer mentoring programme, financed by the Ministry of Human Resources, since 2009. In the 2010/11 semesters, 370 mentor and 1670 mentee participated in the programme and attended 34 regional and 1 national events, focusing on career planning. In the next year, the programme got stabilised and the system was working well. The aim was always to help socially disadvantaged students or just those people that needed peer assistance to face the new living environment challenges and personal responsi-bilities in their studies. In the 2012/2013 semesters, many changes were applied in the programme structure. Based on the experience, statistics and feedback forms from the previous years, the performance of those mentors were higher to have more men-tees; therefore the number of mentors got reduced to 180 to focus more closely on the skilled mentors who got maximum 10 mentees associated. The total number of men-tees in the programme in 2012/13 was 1057, while being 1365 in the next year. During 2012 and 2014 the national, regional events, know-how exchange meetings, trainings continued and specific case study and lessons learned activities also took place. The programme coordinators cooperate also with the private and corporate stakeholders to monitor their needs and offer trainings then to the students to enhance their most valuable skills that they can rely on at job interviews.

hIghEr EdUcaTIon InSTITUTIonS5 .2

program ‘fEInangElS’, UnIvErSITaT dE barcElona

The University of Barcelona, through the Commissioner for Participation, Social Entrepreneurship and Employability, with the Student Assistance Service, “Feina ub” and Alumni ub, in collaboration with Barcelona Activa-City Council has created a new programme: “FeinAngels ub”.

This programme is based on the implementation of a mentoring service for safeguard-ing professional guidance and job placement for graduates or students in transition periods through the use of peer mentoring between students of similar age and same environment.

The main objective of “FeintAngels” is to provide support to students and graduates at the University of Barcelona upon first contact with the labour market through in-volvement in person or other means of communication and virtual peer processes re-garding learning and job seeking.


The profile of students and graduates participating in the programme FeinAngels has different requirements depending on their role: mentor or mentored. Mentor students get trained to become junior counsellors.

Any programme based on peer to peer mentoring entails benefits for its participants, both supervised by mentors. The mentors’ benefit is to generate specific learning skills of its title and knowledge and professional service for a group of unemployed young university students or graduates that experience difficulties and are actively seeking for their first employment in the labour market. The main benefit would be getting a first job or work contract for the mentored and to reveal motivation, confidence, self-esteem, and learn specific skills and incorporate active search for work.

EvalUaTIonS of hIghEr EdUcaTIon InSTITUTIonS’ Work on EmployabIlITy, SWEdEn

As a consequence of the Bologna process the government altered the Higher Educa-tion Ordinance in 2007 and it now contains goals on employability. Evaluations are made on how well the higher education institutions fulfil the ordinance and the result show big differences on the level of achievement between the different institutions, and even degree programmes. Some work a lot with employability and have a close re-lation to employers, whereas others do not. Even though it is difficult to present a good overview of the initiatives, the evaluations do for example show an increasing contact with employers. The evaluations have been made by the Swedish national agency for higher education (2012) and by The Swedish National Audit Office (2009). The evalu-ations also contained recommendations directed to the government and to higher education institutions. An example of an initiative taken at a higher education institu-tion is Karlstad University. In its strategy the university focuses on close and creative relations with the labour market which has been successful according to evaluations. Students can influence the scope of work through drafting and realizing the strategy.

mandaTory InTErnShIpS aT ThE fInnISh UnIvErSITIES of applIEd ScIEncES, fInland

In the Finnish universities of applied sciences undergoing an internship is mandatory and a part of the curriculum. Depending on the field of study, students take one to four internships during their studies. As the aim of the internship is to develop the stu-dent’s skills of the according to the learning outcomes of the curriculum, the intern-ship has to be related to the study field and the responsibilities or tasks assigned of a level that matches those learning outcomes. The internship needs to have a supervisor from the work place, as well as from the higher education institution. In some cases the institution plays a role in facilitating some of the internships for students, especially in


the social and health care field. For most of the internships student find a placement according to their own interests. As an outcome of having gathered experience during one’s studies, graduates have a better understanding of where their interests lie profes-sionally and can find their first work place as a graduate quicker.

‘World of IdEaS’—Tv-programmE, polyTEchnIc UnIvErSITy of valEncIa, SpaIn

Mundo de Ideas, or ‘the World of Ideas’, is a weekly TV-show at the Polytechnic of Valencia. The show discussed themes related to research, innovation, personal devel-opment and employment, with a fresh and dynamic approach suitable for different audiences. Each episode includes an interview with a guest speaker from the world of work, coaching or innovation. Different reports and news pieces connected to the topic of the episode are introduced during the show.

For more information: https://www.upv.es/pls/oreg/rtv_web.ProgFicha? p_id=1508&p_cap_id=48279&p_idioma=C

hElSInkI ThInk company—UnIvErSITy of hElSInkI and cITy of hElSInkI, fInland

Helsinki Think Company is a network and meeting place for new kind of entrepre-neurship and learning in the middle of Helsinki for students, researchers, teachers, en-trepreneurs, businesses and enthusiasts. It is a communal workspace, scene of events and a passage to services. Helsinki Think Company is a platform for creating action and business out of ideas steaming from the university. Helsinki Think Company of-fers support from developing a project, course or business idea to finding right con-tacts and providing space for working.

For more information: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/helsinkithinkcompany/

STarT-Up, polyTEchnIc UnIvErSITy of valEncIa, SpaIn

StartUpV is a space for working and offices situated in several locations across campus. Some spaces are meant for individual or group work and others targeted for start-ups to support the establishment and work of the start-ups. The start-up is a part of the uni-versity’s bigger ‘Global Business Plan’. The projects can enjoy the facilities of StartUpV and begin their first steps towards success after a selection process that will be con-ducted by the “Ideas Institute” (University Institute for Entrepreneurship) together with other projects which are already in StartUpV.

https://www.upv.es/pls/oreg/rtv_web.ProgFicha?p_id=1508&p_cap_id=48279&p_idioma=C

https://www.upv.es/pls/oreg/rtv_web.ProgFicha?p_id=1508&p_cap_id=48279&p_idioma=C

http://blogs.helsinki.fi/helsinkithinkcompany/


In these areas that will be yield by the university, there will be equipment, furniture, and resources all the time, completely free for students of upv and projects including a member of the upv.

For more information: http://www.ideas.upv.es/startupv/

naTIonal lEvEl5 .3

ThE acadEmIc campaIgn, dEnmark

The Danish National Union of Students supports an initiative to reduce graduate un-employment through a campaign aiming to shed light on highly educated people’s value to Danish enterprises and to support the bridge between the academic world and business life. The campaign, called the academic campaign, is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Employment to run throughout 2012 and 2013.

The campaign targets small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) that do not already employ highly educated people. Through company visits the campaign-consultants help the enterprise to explore how highly educated employees might benefit their business. If an enterprise sees the benefits but lacks the sufficient resources to employ a highly educated person, the academic-campaign helps the enterprise to make use of one of the Danish subsidy schemes supporting enterprises to employ highly educated people.

Achievements from early 2012 to summer 2013 seem positive. The academic-campaign has been successful in opening up new areas of employment to highly educated peo-ple: 83% of all smes involved in the academic-campaign confirm to be more positive towards hiring highly educated employees as a result of the campaign. Hence focus-ing on unemployed graduates and the specific obstacles related to their situation, the academic-campaign proves to be an effective tool to help newly educated to enter the labour market.

For more information: http://www.akademikerkampagnen.dk

http://www.ideas.upv.es/startupv/

http://www.akademikerkampagnen.dk


yoUTh gUaranTEE, fInland

The objective of the youth guarantee is to help young people gain access to education and employment. The guarantee covers each young person under the age of 25, and recent graduates under the age of 30. The forms of education or employment offered include a job, a traineeship, a study place, or a period in a workshop or rehabilitation within three months of becoming unemployed.

One of the principles of the youth guarantee is that young people are heard and al-lowed to influence the course of their life. The youth guarantee supports growth, emancipation and life management of young people. The objective of the youth guar-antee is to support young people in gaining a place in education and employment, to prevent prolonged youth unemployment, to identify factors contributing to the risk of social exclusion and to offer support at an early stage, in order to prevent social exclu-sion and marginalisation of young people.

Successful execution of the youth guarantee requires cooperation among national and municipal authorities, the business sector and organisations. Methods of imple-menting the guarantee include measures related to the educational guarantee, the skills programme for young adults, employment and economic development services for youth and rehabilitation services, including municipal social and health care serv-ices and other individual services for young people, such as youth outreach work and youth workshop activities.

For more information: http://www.nuorisotakuu.fi/en/youth_ guarantee

fIrST Job gUaranTEE program, hUngary

The goal of the first job guarantee program is to handle the labour market stress of entrants below the age of 25 and to promote obtaining the first job and the necessary work experience. The program provides significant financial support to the employer for the labour costs of the young employee.

EnTrEprEnEUrIal TraInIng program , hUngary

The main aim of the program is to support young people aiming to be entrepreneurs. There are significant eu and state-funded projects supporting young (under the age of 35) entrepreneurs. The applicants can apply for non-refundable financial support with 10% of deductible to start their enterprise. The program also includes a 100-lesson course, covering the most relevant knowledge needed in successfully managing an enterprise.

http://www.nuorisotakuu.fi/en/youth_guarantee


E2 programmE for STUdEnTS, canTabrIa, SpaIn

The programme e2 Student x Entrepreneur has been designed to encourage entrepre-neurship among students. The main objectives are:

Facilitate the acquisition and development of skills and abilities of practical ap-qqplication , so that the participants get in the situation of a real entrepreneur.

Develop mentoring skills to enable them to effectively disseminate entrepre-qqneurial culture in universities and educational environment in general.

Enriching the personal and professional development, promoting teamwork qqand interaction among participants.

Reflect and share with teachers/entrepreneurs real experiences of entrepre-qqneurship.

csie, the International Centre of Santander for En-trepreneurship was born in October 2012 with the aim of becoming a leader in the

global university system. Powered by Santander Bank, Cantabria government and the University of Cantabria (uc) through uceif Foundation under Cantabria Inter-national Campus, aims to become a centre of reference in the international university system in research, knowledge transfer and training in entrepreneurship .

For more information: http://www.cise.es/programa-e2/

mappIng EmployabIlITy, SpaIn

This website was created by Andalucía’s employment service. This website offers a very original and practical way of showing offers, employment offices, employment points, orientation services and the entities and bodies of social and economic agencies. An-dalucía is the biggest autonomous region in Spain with more than 8.5 million people (17.88% of the population) from which more than 1 million are unemployed.

For more information: http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/mapaEmpleabilidad/and http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/argos/web/es/ARGOS/index.html

bram Smits @smits_bram · 24 april 2013 Innovative/creative/entrepreneurial skills crucial for economic development – a major challenge for higher education #ESU_SagE

http://www.cise.es/programa-e2/

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/mapaEmpleabilidad/

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/mapaEmpleabilidad/

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/argos/web/es/ARGOS/index.html

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdeempleo/web/argos/web/es/ARGOS/index.html


companIES5 .4

carEEr gUIdancE nETWork (rol), UnIvErSIa (SpaIn)

The Career Guidance Network from Universia is a pilot scheme promoted by Univer-sia, Universia Foundation and in collaboration with the “Universidad Complutense de Madrid” with the aim of complementing the activity of Employment Guidance developed by the University with its own human and financial resources.

The initiative contributes to promote contacts and collaboration between the public and private sectors (university-enterprises) to improve the employability of graduates through innovative and practical methods, promoting efficiently the socioeconomic contribution of all stakeholders.

ThE proJEcT’S STraTEgIc axES

Increase funding of universities based on goals and projects, favouring austerity poli-cies and savings without ignoring the provision of quality services to students, making better use of public resources.

To improve the chances of employment of graduates through employment, taking into consideration the transfer of knowledge in productive areas that are able to ab-sorb it in the country. Have the graduates in the centre of the program, focusing in the learning process and acquisition of practical knowledge and employability. The responsibility in this area is extended to an active support in the graduates’ employ-ment, which is relevant in a context of high unemployment. It is essential to create a strong institutional network, as the result of collaboration between universities and public and private entities.

Promoting an entrepreneurial culture among graduates. Employability has to be un-derstood as the ability to find and maintain suitable employment according to ones training and move into the labour market and progress in a career throughout life. En-couraging social responsibility of the university and sustainable commitment through an integrative model that promotes equal opportunity and participation.


To promote the internationalization and competitiveness of the university in a glo-bal environment through geographical mobility proposed by the international labour market, minimizing barriers and promoting the values , attitudes and behaviours fa-vourable to the intercultural and cosmopolitan openness, on the basis of respect, tol-erance and dialogue.

More information: http://emplea.universia.es/rol

rEcrUITIng EraSmUS, pEoplE maTTErS (SpaIn)

The program facilitates contact between companies and currently enrolled students or graduated students from universities outside their home country. It began in the 2008/09 academic year and during the 2012/13 course the fifth edition was developed. The program has 18 partner companies, all leaders in the Spanish market, with inter-national presence and activity in different sectors that make the program take place in many university degrees and study fields. The program also has the support of 80% of Spanish universities from crue, the National Rectors Conference Association.

More information: http://www.peoplematters.com/recruiting _erasmus.aspx

brIngIng ThE WorkIng lIfE cloSEr To STUdEnTS, hUngary

ibm Hungary issc launched a project where employees voluntarily create presenta-tions, workshops on corporate life, daily work of an average employee in the given international work culture, what the students can realistically expect, how can they enhance their employability and plan their personal development path. ibm also has the initiative to show the students what trends are visible in the world of it services and what technological innovations are currently being developed. The project mem-bers visit the higher education institutions and students are also welcome as interns or for shadowing visits at the company.

http://emplea.universia.es/rol

http://www.peoplematters.com/recruiting_erasmus.aspx

65ExErcISES/acTIvITIES on EmployabIlITy

ExErcISES/acTIvITIES on Employ-6 abIlITy

ExErcISE 6 .1 1 · WhaT IS EmployabIlITy?

Objective: define employability

As you might have seen by now, defining employability is a hard thing to do. Depends on who you ask, definitions can vary widely. Some think of employability as being something static. Others simply link the concept to skills. To be able to understand the complexity of the term, it is essential to tackle it from the perspectives of various people and come to an understanding on what employability means to them.

Target groups: all stakeholders

Methodology:

To start, get everyone to write on a piece of paper their own definition of em-1 ployability. Make every participant think about what that word means for them. (This should take around 5 mins. Once finished, collect the papers.)

As a group, make a list of all the stakeholders which the participants think are 2 involved in “employability”. Write the answers where everyone can see them, such as on a whiteboard. (This should take around 5 mins.)

Divide the people in as many groups as there are stakeholders listed and assign 3 one stakeholder per group.

Make each group write the definition of employability from the perspective of 4 the stakeholder they were assigned. (This should take around 5 mins.)

Change roles and assign the groups a different stakeholder. (In this point, you 5 can plan the activity in different ways. If you want, you can arrange it so that every group gets to define from the perspective of every stakeholder or just as-sign a few.)


Regroup everyone and share each definition. At this point, you should com-6 pile all the definitions proposed and conclude in one definition per stakeholder. (This may take 10–15 minutes).

Finally, go back to the proposed definitions for “employability” and conclude in 7 one unique definition which the whole group can identify and agree with. (This may take another 10–15 minutes).

Conclusion: Most of you won’t probably be able to agree on just one definition for employability. If you do, you will find that “employability” is not a concept that can be defined immediately, as it does not exist as a standard definition understood similarly by everyone.

ExErcISE 6 .2 2 · SkIllS ExpEcTEd by ThE laboUr markET?

Objective: To acknowledge that no specific set of skills exists that graduates should all possess.

When a student starts searching for a first job, he or she discovers that the skills that are requested never match completely the skills expected or required. Employers’ de-mands as many skills as possible but they actually select specific skills that they be-lieve adapt better to their demands.

Target groups: students

Methodology:

Divide the participants in three groups.1

Group 1 will make a prioritised list of 5 characteristics they would look for in an 2 ideal partner and give it to Group 2 which will take those characteristics and connect each characteristic to a famous person. Group 3 will have to take just the famous persons and prioritize them in the order they would choose them as their “perfect partner”.

The facilitator will explain that not always what you want to have is what you ac-3 tually decide to have. With a very high probability, the first group’s prioritized list of characteristics will not match with the third group’s list of people.

Conclusion: Employers always ask for many and varied skills suitable for a specific job description. However, in the end. it is not about a pre-determined set of skills but more about general and transversal skills that are not field specific.


ExErcISE 6 .3 3 · knoWIng WhaT yoU WanT

Objective: In order to find the right job that matches the candidates’ qualification and interests, graduates must know them quite well, be aware of their strengths and areas they would like to improve, find the basic values that guide their life decisions and be able to identify specific skills required for the given area they are looking for work in. They also need to be well versed in job interviews, cv assembling, building and representing their personal strengths etc.

Below you will find a few ways that can be applied in order to address the specific skills, wishes and motivation of an individual. Some of them can be done as individual work but some other would require another person to answer to or receive support from. The examples are provided by the Professional Coaching Association Hungary.

Target group: students and graduates

Methodologies:

A 1 swot analysis or a skills assessment exercise helps to define one’s strengths and weaknesses, main passion in life, the skills that one has and what they would like to develop.

With the help of 2 effective questioning, reflecting and paraphrasing, the person gets a glimpse at their personality, characteristics, major limiting beliefs that fre-quently govern their behaviour and the emotions and thought processes they often are unaware of.

By using the 3 wheel of life—exercise we can pinpoint areas in the individual’s life that need more attention, whereas a value definition exercise helps to define the core values that determine how the individual will feel, behave and make decisions in a certain work environment. At this point coaches/mentors like to use the career option exploration and career decision making processes to explore all possibilities and come to certain decisions. An action planning session usu-ally follows, at which point the individual must begin the actual job application process, together with cv writing, interviews.

An option for continuous reflection is working out a plan for the individual’s 4 ongoing development, which is called an individual development plan. This can be helpful in order to stay on track and continue the never ending road of life long learning.


Conclusion: Experienced coaches or mentors can help the students in a safe, inde-pendent environment during every step in a personalised way, including putting to-gether a resume, collecting references, writing a motivational letter, enhancing com-munication skills, developing an entrepreneurial mindset and getting ready for an interview.

Dealing with rejection is also an important part of the process, which goes hand in hand with developing resilience. The emotional pressure, various high expectations, negative experiences during interviews may discourage young graduates and require professional assistance in order to keep their positive, healthy attitude and adjust their aims if necessary.

Of course it can also happen that the graduate finds a job but it does not match with the desired working cul-ture, or after some months or years, they experience a

burn out, lose their interest, cannot accommodate with their work environment. It requires courage to change and realise specifically what needs to be changed, what is the new direction. Free floating is a common illusion but no wind helps the ship that does not set a direction. Regardless of age, gender, educational background, we are responsible for setting goals.

There are associations that specialise in coaching as well as programmes that people can sign up for. Optimally such services would be provided through employment of-fices or other public authorities and available to the general public.

Project page: http://www.procoaching.hu

fernando m galán @fernandomgalan · 21 april 2013 graduate unemployment – Whose fault is it? – at University World news by @tainamois @esutwt vicechair universityworldnews .com/article .php?st… #ESU_SagE


ExErcISE 6 .4 4 · IT’S TImE To dEbaTE!

Objective: This exercise utilises debating techniques to help students to develop their critical thinking, expand their understanding and knowledge of arguments related to employability and consider how to respond to arguments that contradict their own perspectives.

Target group: student representatives and anyone involved in the work advocating for education as having multiple purposes.

Time: A minimum of 1 hour 20 minutes, preferably more.

Participants: minimum of eight participants, ideally no more than sixteen.

Methodology: Split the group into two smaller groups of at least four people. Place them into separate rooms so they cannot hear each other if possible. Tell one of the groups that they will be arguing for the motion (i.e. ‘education’s primary task is pre-pare students for the labour market’) and the other group that they will be arguing against the motion (i.e. ‘education’s main responsibility is to raise active and critical thinkers’).

Explain the format of the debate. There will be four speeches on each side and each speech will last for two minutes. It is up to the group how they use each of these speeches, but the last person should probably try to sum up the debate. Make it clear that the debating style is not important and that the participants do not need to be good debaters. The exercise is about the content of the arguments made.

Now give the groups some time to prepare their arguments, structure them appro-priately and decide what they are going to say. You should give them as much time as possible, but at least thirty minutes. During this preparation time, your role is to challenge their arguments, point out any assumptions they have made and keep them on the right track.

For the debate, set the room up in such a way that the speakers face each other and that any extra members of their group sit behind them. Invite each speaker to speak in turn, alternating between those in favour and those against the motion. This should take a maximum of twenty minutes.

For the remaining time, but for at least twenty minutes, lead a discussion in which the groups identify the most persuasive arguments from each side. Here additional argu-ments can still be brought up. Make sure the discussion covers the following points:


Why placIng Too mUch EmphaSIS on laboUr markET rElaTEd nEEdS IS dangEroUS

Employers often reflect on the needs of today, and of a specific job description/work-ing field. It is difficult to predict the demand for skills in the future. Employers cannot predict the future needs any more than ministries and basing the design of curriculas on today’s needs will not therefore answer to the changing needs of tomorrow. It is known that a set of transversal and generic skills are applicable and needed across the labour market, and this is where the focus should be.

How and who should define the way cooperation with the labour market is done with-in higher education institutions?

It is of great importance how the labour market is consulted, as to have a wide and transparent representation of inputs instead of a narrow outlook based on a few com-panies’ needs only. Having open, innovative ways to explore the current and future needs together with students would serve everyone’s interests in a successful way. It is crucial that the content of programmes is not to the benefit of a certain company only, as in the long run this leaves people without the necessary competences for other type of work. It must be ensured that the students' expectations are answered to with regards to the competences they would like to gain.

Why IS ThIS argUmEnT rElEvanT?

Due to the current economic crisis, as well as neoliberal policies, emphasis is placed on the economic development and competency of societies. This affects the way educa-tion is viewed as its function is then reduced to serve the economy and hence produce labour force that will contribute to the goal of economic growth instead of emancipa-tion of individuals and the society.

Here is a list of other topics that often stir up a debate and are worth exploring:

Internships should be paid vs. internships should not be paid.qq

Internships should be made compulsory vs. internships should have to be con-qqducted only if the student wishes to.

Students alone are responsible for finding employment vs. higher education in-qqstitutions should play a role in preparing students for the labour market.

Employability should not be discussed in relation to education vs. employabil-qqity is something that higher education institutions should pay more attention to.


ExErcISE 6 .5 5 · Job InTErvIEW

Objective: this exercise focuses on finding out what skills are required in the real life when applying for a job.

Target group: students, student representatives, graduates, the participation of em-ployers would be a plus.

Time: at least half an hour, it’s recommended that each student plays both roles in the exercise.

Participants: minimum two

Methodology:

Split the group into small groups, between 2 and 5 people per group.1

Give one person the role of interviewee and the rest would play as employers.2

Employers will be given the name of the company, characteristics, values and 3 definition of the job they are looking for candidates.

They will have to define which skill they prefer/require for these candidates and 4 write them down in a first step.

At the same time interviewees will go through their role, defined by: studies 5 (degree, vocational training), personal skills, abilities, languages etc.

Employers interview candidates for 10 minutes.6

If real employers can take part, they would play also both roles.7

Conclusion: By making this exercise, the participants will think about what is really needed in real jobs and how difficult it is to define specific skills or qualifications for a candidate. Moreover, they will realise that the content of the studies can’t be adapted to every job position. In addition, the exercise serves as a way to rehearse an interview situation. If the participants wish, they can give each other feedback on how well they performed during the interview.

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 It is a challenge to track #graduates progress after they leave #universities, more research needed says @euatweets at #ESU_SagE conference

euspryng @EUSpryng · 19 march 2014 “@esutwt: Too much talk about cooperation with #employers, important to include #students fully says @euatweets at #ESU_SagE conference”

eSu @esutwt · 25 September 2012 What is, according to you, the role of higher education/universities in the current economic climate? #ESU_SagE

karina ufert @karinaUfert · 25 april 2013 In ro, recent survey shows that 85% of students won’t take up a loan for their studies, neither use EU master loan – anoSr says #ESU_SagE

QUoTES/TWEETS7

erik pedersen @pedersenerik · 25 april 2013 Individuals from lower socio-economic background are less likely to take a loan . Scheme won’t increase social mobility #ESU_SagE #SfSutb

yannickbrandenburg @yn_bbg · 25 april 2013 Why should we let a labour market with at times > 50% youth unemployment decide on who is employable? #ESU_SagE @esutwt

Willemijn boskma @Willemijnboskma · 25 april 2013 What happens to the choice of studies when you have to lookout for a huge debt because of your studentloan? #ESU_SagE @esutwt

iker luqueda @Iruedaluque · 21 June 2013 plan de formación en empresa para los titulados universitarios y no mano de obra barata . Utopia? Esperemos que no! #ESU_SagE @crEUpcrEUp

erik pedersen @pedersenerik · 25 april 2013 Så kom vi till slut in på lånegarantin som EU kommissionen föreslår . Studenterna är emot men kommissionen struntar i det . #SfSutb #ESU_SagE

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 In general you are much better off as a #highered #graduate says adam Tyson @eu_commission at #ESU_SagE conference & #ESc27 opening

inés Sanchez @insangi · 25 april 2013 Interesting map of the situation in Europe of youth unemployment @esutwt #ESU_SagE pic .twitter .com/cuppbryicd

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 Education is about creating intelligent & critically thinking citizens – not only for the #labourmarket, says guntars catlaks at #ESU_SagE

eSu @esutwt · 19 march 2014 The @euatweets agrees with #ESU_SagE definition of #employability, need to look ahead of first #employment & build #lifelonglearning #ESc27

dom anderson @domanderson_1 · 19 march 2014 #ESU_SagE employable students will benefit those individuals who engage . a strong labour market will benefit everyone

dom anderson @domanderson_1 · 19 march 2014 #ESU_SagE @esutwt very interesting discussion so far on employability . a strong jobs market with progression routes is what is needed


gloSSary8

Commodification A situation when education markets are established through the instrumentalisation of edu-cation and the changing perception of education as purely an economic factor rather than a tool for social development. It is when the perception of higher edu-cation changes from being a public good and public responsibility to a private and limited commodity.

Competence The state or quality of be-ing adequately or well qualified; ability.

Council of the European Union The Council of the eu is the institution representing the member states' govern-ments. Also informally known as the eu Council, it is where national ministers from each eu country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies (more on http://www.consilium.europa.eu).

Employability Employability is ability of a student to learn and acquire qualifi-cations in the form of achieved learning outcomes, in three different domains: cognitive, psychomotor and affective, that makes graduates more likely to gain employment in their chosen field(s), be-ing able to create/start new businesses, and being able to develop personally and be successful in their occupations.

EU2020 Europe 2020 is the eu’s ten-year growth and jobs strategy that was launched in 2010. It is about addressing the shortcomings of our growth model and creating the conditions for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in ad-dition to overcoming the crisis.

European Commission The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union and represents and up-holds the interests of the eu as a whole. It drafts proposals for new European laws. It manages the day-to-day business of implementing eu policies and spend-ing eu funds (more on http://www.ec.europa.eu).

European Council The European Council consists of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, together with its President and the President of the Commission. This body meets 4 times a year and defines the gen-eral political directions and priorities for the European Union (more on http://www.european-council.europa.eu).

European Parliament The European Parliament is the only directly elected European Union institution. Its 751 members are there to represent the eu's 500 million citizens. They are elected once every five years by voters from across the 28 Member States (more on http://www.europarl.europa.eu).

www.consilium.europa.eu

www.ec.europa.eu

www.european-council.europa.eu

www.europarl.europa.eu

75gloSSary

Hard skills Skills leading to a profes-sional competence in the study subject area and to the relevant qualification for a specific job/career.

Internship, work placement A student or a recent graduate undergoing super-vised practical training, which can be paid or unpaid. It may be a mandatory part of the study programme or take place upon the student’s choice. The lenght may vary from weeks to several months.

Overqualification Overqualification refers to one having acquired a higher level of skills than a specific job descrip-tion requires

Recognition of prior learning (rpl) rpl refers to a set of practices and procedures that can be used to as-sess the prior learning of the student and to approve that learning as part of the student's studies

Reform The action or process of reforming, or trying to improve, an institution, practice or policy

Skills A developed talent or ability

Skills mismatch Shortages, gaps and inbalances in the demand and offer of skills

Soft skills Skills that are acquired through practical learning and seen as interdisciplinary, such as team work, conflict management or communication skills.

Transversal or general skills “Skills that can be applied in all academic subject areas, and in all educational, career, and civic settings throughout an individual’s life.These skills may have been acquired through non-work or lei-sure activities or through participation in education or training.

Modernisation of he/modernisation agenda “The Europe 2020 strategy makes knowledge an essential cog in the wheel of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. According to the strategy, the eu needs more highly skilled, compe-tent and innovative people in order to respond to global competition. Higher education institutions therefore have a crucial role to play.Commission outlines a set of key targets to be achieved by Member States and higher education institutions, as well as measures the eu will take to support their efforts. These targets include increasing attainment levels, improv-ing the quality and relevance of higher education, promoting mobility and cross-border cooperation, linking higher education, research and business and improving governance and funding.”

Multiple purposes of he The notion of higher education having several pur-poses in society. These include preparing students for active citizenship and their future careers, developing a broad and advanced knowledge base and critical thinking skills, stimulating research and innovation as well as the personal development of the individual.


USEfUl fUrThEr rEadIng9

gEnEral/EUropEan

European youth forum: Quality Jobs for young people: http://www.youthforum.org/ publication/quality-jobs-for-young-people-4/

usi, IcTU & ISSU collaborate to Tackle youth Jobs crisis: http://usi.ie/campaigns/ usi-ictu-issu-collaborate-to-tackle-youth-jobs-crisis/

Tracking learners’ and graduates’ progression paths TrackIT: http://www.eua.be/ libraries/publications_homepage_list/eua_trackit_web.sflb.ashx

Employability and mobility of bachelor graduates in Europe: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/832/bfm%253A978-94-6091-570-3%252F1.pdf ?auth66=1401048848_7c37683ba9d4a10cfc1e4c0644403217&ext=.pdf

Towards a benchmark on the contribution of Education and Training to Employabil-ity: In depth analysis of key Issues: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/111111111/15369/1/lbna24624enc.pdf

benchmark on the employability of graduates: https://crell.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ ?q=article/benchmarking-employability-young-graduates

council conclusions on the employability of graduates: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/130142.pdf

Education at a glance 2013 oEcd indicators: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ eag2013%20(eng)--FINAL%2020%20June%202013.pdf

Education Indicator in focus: http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/ 49729932.pdf

SpaIn

Estadísticas del SUE: http://www.mecd.gob.es/dms/mecd/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/datos-cifras/DATOS_CIFRAS_13_14.pdf

data of SUE: http://www.mecd.gob.es/dctm/inee/internacional/panoramadelaedu-cacion2013informe-espanol.pdf?documentId=0901e72b816996b6

http://www.youthforum.org/publication/quality-jobs-for-young-people-4/

http://www.youthforum.org/publication/quality-jobs-for-young-people-4/

http://usi.ie/campaigns/usi-ictu-issu-collaborate-to-tackle-youth-jobs-crisis/

http://usi.ie/campaigns/usi-ictu-issu-collaborate-to-tackle-youth-jobs-crisis/

http://www.eua.be/libraries/publications_homepage_list/eua_trackit_web.sflb.ashx

http://www.eua.be/libraries/publications_homepage_list/eua_trackit_web.sflb.ashx

http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/832/bfm%253A978-94-6091-570-3%252F1.pdf?auth66=1401048848_7c37683ba9d4a10cfc1e4c0644403217&ext=.pdf

http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/832/bfm%253A978-94-6091-570-3%252F1.pdf?auth66=1401048848_7c37683ba9d4a10cfc1e4c0644403217&ext=.pdf

http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/111111111/15369/1/lbna24624enc.pdf

http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/111111111/15369/1/lbna24624enc.pdf

https://crell.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?q=article/benchmarking-employability-young-graduates

https://crell.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?q=article/benchmarking-employability-young-graduates

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/130142.pdf

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/130142.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2013 (eng)--FINAL 20 June 2013.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2013 (eng)--FINAL 20 June 2013.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/49729932.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/49729932.pdf





77USEfUl fUrThEr rEadIng

Employment strategy ministry: http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/ estrategia-empleo-joven/descargas/EEEJ_Documento.pdf

higher Education reform http://www.mecd.gob.es/prensa-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/participacion-publica/sistemauniversitario/propuestas-reforma.pdf

UgT sobre reforma laboral: http://www.ugt.es/actualidad/2014/febrero/ 07-02_Dos_anyos_de_reforma_laboral_UGT.pdf

Estatuto del estudiante universitario: http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2008/11/24/pdfs/ A46932-46946.pdf

fInland

http://www.nuorisotakuu.fi/files/37738/hyvien_kaytantojen_kasikirja_en.pdf

finnish Education System http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Koulutus/koulutusjaerjestelmae/liitteet/finnish_education.pdf

Universities of applied sciences reform: http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/ ammattikorkeakoulutus/ammattikorkeakoulu_uudistus/?lang=en

Universities reform: http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/ Hankkeet/Yliopistolaitoksen_uudistaminen/index.html?lang=en

admissions’ reform: http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/vireilla_koulutus/opiskelijavalinnat/

Education, training and demand for labour by 2025: http://www.oph.fi/download/ 144754_Education_training_and_demand_ for_labour_in_Finland_by_2025_2.pdf

hUngary

nemzeti foglalkoztatási Szolgálat: www.munka.hu

közigazgatási közszolgáltatások központi hivatala: http://www.nyilvantarto.hu/kekkh/kozos/index.php

nemzeti adó- és vámhivatal: http://nav.gov.hu/

nemzeti munkaügyi hivatal: www.ommf.gov.hu









http://www.nuorisotakuu.fi/files/37738/hyvien_kaytantojen_kasikirja_en.pdf



http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/ammattikorkeakoulutus/ammattikorkeakoulu_uudistus/?lang=en

http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/ammattikorkeakoulutus/ammattikorkeakoulu_uudistus/?lang=en

http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/Hankkeet/Yliopistolaitoksen_uudistaminen/index.html?lang=en

http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/Hankkeet/Yliopistolaitoksen_uudistaminen/index.html?lang=en

http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/vireilla_koulutus/opiskelijavalinnat/

http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutuspolitiikka/vireilla_koulutus/opiskelijavalinnat/

http://www.oph.fi/download/144754_Education_training_and_demand_for_labour_in_Finland_by_2025_2.pdf

http://www.oph.fi/download/144754_Education_training_and_demand_for_labour_in_Finland_by_2025_2.pdf

http://www.munka.hu/

http://www.nyilvantarto.hu/kekkh/kozos/index.php

http://www.nyilvantarto.hu/kekkh/kozos/index.php

http://nav.gov.hu/

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ommf.gov.hu&h=xAQGx1K9q&s=1


munkaügyi közvetítői és döntőbírói Szolgálat: http://www.tpk.org.hu/ engine.aspx?page=tpk_MKDSZ_A_szervezetrol

nemzeti család- és Szociálpolitikai Intézet: http://ncsszi.hu/

nemzetközi munkaügyi hivatal (Ilo): www.ilo.org

Európai bizottság, szociális ügyek: http://ec.europa.eu/social/home.jsp?langId=hu

Európai Szociális karta, Európai Tanács: http://www.coe.int/T/DGHL/Monitoring/SocialCharter/

Európai bíróság: http://curia.eu

EUrES: az Európai foglalkozatás mobilitási portálja: http://ec.europa.eu/eures

“youth on the move”: http://europa.eu/youthonthemove/euprogrammes_work

Jogpont plusz ingyenes jogsegélyszolgálat: http://jogpontplusz.hu/

Európai Szakszervezeti Szövetség: www .etuc .org

munkáltatói szervezetek—business Europe: www.businesseurope.eu

közösen a Jövő munkahelyeiért alapítvány: http://www.kjmalapitvany.hu/

hallgatói Önkormányzatok országos konferenciája: http://www.hook.hu/

országos foglalkoztatásért közalapítvány (országos foglalkoztatási közhasznú nonprofit korlátolt felelősségű Társaság): www.ofa.hu

register of current laws and regulations: https://kereses.magyarorszag.hu/jogszabalykereso http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ofa.hu&h=gAQFVzHnM&s=1 http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.helsinki.hu &h=SAQFkNzFB&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tpk.org.hu%2Fengine.aspx%3Fpage%3Dtpk_MKDSZ_A_szervezetrol&h=wAQFwGf01&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tpk.org.hu%2Fengine.aspx%3Fpage%3Dtpk_MKDSZ_A_szervezetrol&h=wAQFwGf01&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fncsszi.hu%2F&h=iAQE1AzMs&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ilo.org&h=xAQGx1K9q&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Fsocial%2Fhome.jsp%3FlangId%3Dhu&h=DAQHX-SIb&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coe.int%2FT%2FDGHL%2FMonitoring%2FSocialCharter%2F&h=JAQH9p67Y&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coe.int%2FT%2FDGHL%2FMonitoring%2FSocialCharter%2F&h=JAQH9p67Y&s=1

http://curia.eu

http://ec.europa.eu/eures

http://europa.eu/youthonthemove/euprogrammes_work

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fjogpontplusz.hu%2F&h=WAQEAJ7bj&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etuc.org&h=fAQH23A5o&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesseurope.eu&h=BAQF4nz7Z&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kjmalapitvany.hu%2F&h=YAQEspnEf&s=1

http://www.hook.hu/

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ofa.hu&h=gAQFVzHnM&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fkereses.magyarorszag.hu%2Fjogszabalykereso&h=iAQE1AzMs&s=1



http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.helsinki.hu&h=SAQFkNzFB&s=1

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.helsinki.hu&h=SAQFkNzFB&s=1

79dEScrIpTIon of ThE proJEcT parTnErS

dEScrIpTIon of ThE proJEcT 10 parTnErS

ThE naTIonal UnIon of STUdEnTS In dEnmark, dSf

dsf is the largest organisation for students in higher edu-cation in Denmark. The union has 18 member organisa-tions (student councils) and through these, dsf represents approximately 150,000 students. The members work for the conditions of individual member institutions, whereas dsf works for the students at a national level.

UnIon of STUdEnTS In fInnISh UnIvErSITIES of applIEd ScIEncES, Samok

samok is a national interest and service or-ganisation independently administered by students in universities of applied sciences. samok is the outlook promoter of the students in universities of applied sciences and speaks on behalf of about 140,000 stu-dents, representing 26 student unions (August 2013). Through samok, these students are represented to state administration and partners in higher education.

SpanISh coordInaTor of STUdEnTS’ rEprESEnTaTIvES of pUblIc UnIvErSITIES, crEUp

creup is an umbrella organisation of 23 op stu-dent representative bodies—mores—(as Local Students’ Unions) from Spanish public universities. Through its members, creup represents over 800,000 students in Spain. The local student unions that are members of creup are open to all students in their respective higher education institutions re-gardless of political persuasion, religion, ethnic or cultural origin, sexual orientation or social standing. Our members are also student-run, autonomous, and representa-tive and operate according to democratic principles.


ThE naTIonal confErEncE of STUdEnTS In hUngary, hÖok

höok represents nationwide 315,000 students in higher educa-tion across Hungary. It has a right to express opinion and to make proposals in any questions concerning higher education. höok is the largest non-governmental organisation of Hungary with a total number of 66 members including all the student councils working at state or fully accredited non-state Hungarian universities.

InnovaTIon In lEarnIng InSTITUTE, frIEdrIch-alExandEr UnIvErSITäT ErlangEn-nürnbErg, gErmany

ili is a research organisation dedicated to lifelong learn-ing and technology-enhanced learning. ili has been in-volved in technology-enhanced learning research and development activities since 1976. The institute develops innovative learning systems including pedagogy, content, support and technology, starting from user needs analy-sis, pedagogical and technical implementation, up to evaluation and valorisation, in a spirit of self-determined lifelong learning. ili has an interdisciplinary team of 20 staff members, embedded in a full scale university with about 4800 employees and 27.300 students.

naTIonal aUThorITy for QUalIfIcaTIon, romanIa (anc)

anc is a public institution with legal personality, subordinat-ed to the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports. Among its main tasks and activities, it elaborates methodolo-gies, instruments and procedures for developing and updating the National Qualifica-tions Framework; it develops unitary criteria and procedures for the certification and recognition of qualifications and it develops methodologies, instruments and proce-dures for correlating the national qualifications system with the existing instruments in the field of qualifications at European and international level.

Documents

Student Handbook on Employability