Perception of university graduates and employers on employability skills in a global and competitive world

Abstract

His article presents an analysis of the perception that graduates and employers have of university skills, considering as dimensions the eight competences of lifelong learning. Indicators were: mastery, impact on employability and need for strengthening. The applied methodology was quantitative analytical, with a cross-sectional design, not experimental and descriptive. A tool for ranking closed questions was applied to employers and graduates from Mexico and Colombia. The hypotheses presented by each group of analysts (employers and graduates, women and men, residents in Mexico and Colombia) are verified, with different perceptions of the hierarchy given to competencies. Employers considered that the skills with the greatest impact on employability are literacy and personal, social and learning-to-learn skills, the latter also perceived as the most relevant in terms of mastery. On the other hand, the graduates identified the Citizen Competence as the most important in the domain and the digital Competence as the one with the greatest impact on employability. Both graduates and employers agreed that multilingual competence requires the greatest strengthening. The characteristics of employees and employers have evolved in response to the current context of organizations, which has generated a growing need for knowledge and mastery of technologies.