Career Services in Higher Education: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

In recent decades, the higher and more flexible specialization and the emergence of new labor forms contribute significantly to set a new stage for career guidance. The labor market has been modified creating new ways of working. It demands a new type of employee that has interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and also with willingness to move in a global labor market. In this context universities play a key role, not only promoting training that is adapted to the new demands of the labor market, also offering their services to assist students and support them in their transition to the workplace, to inform them about the new changes, not only in academia, also on their exits and their career choices. So it’s necessary that the Universities offer to their students career services. This article shows a descriptive study whose purpose is to obtain an actual and global vision about these services, going into details about their organization and activities. The dates were obtained directly through a questionnaire which was answered by the managers of these services in 45 Spanish Universities (public and private). Results indicate that there is not a single organizational model and, what is more, these services have several lines of action, confirming that career counselling services are an appropriate tool in order to improve the employability of students and graduates.

Keywords

• educación superior
• empleabilidad
• formación
• necesidades de los estudiantes
• orientación profesional
• servicios de orientación profesional