ANECA, CEOE, CEPYME, CCOO and UGT collaborate in the launching of an employability and entrepreneurship seal for universities

The National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME), the Trade Union General Union of Workers of Spain (UGT) and the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (CCOO) have signed an agreement for the implementation and management of ANECA's Seal of Quality in Employability and Entrepreneurship.

ANECA, which includes this quality recognition within its strategy of evaluation and certification programs, signed a similar agreement last July with the Ministry of Finance and Public Function. The signed agreement is materialized in the realization of a one-year pilot project for the implementation and management of the Quality Seal in employability and entrepreneurship, and, if necessary, subsequent ordinary calls for such seal.

Objectives

This seal of quality, which will recognize the university as a whole, not a degree or a center, and which is voluntary, aims to publicly recognize the outstanding work of each university to improve the employability of its students and graduates, as well as their opportunities for entrepreneurship. 

Specifically, the objectives can be summarized as follows:

• That students and graduates: 
  • Have a competency profile appropriate to the demands of the labor market.
  • Have specific competencies for active job search and entrepreneurial initiative.
  • Are able to plan their professional career based on self-knowledge and job search tools.
  • Have adequate information on employability, entrepreneurial possibilities and labor market insertion of the different degrees.
• That employers and entrepreneurs have adequate information on the employability, entrepreneurship and labor market insertion of the different university degrees offered, as well as the effect of the measures applied by the university.
• That students and graduates have continuous opportunities to meet with employers and entrepreneurs, and vice versa.

Institutional support

This seal has the direct institutional support of numerous key agents, since, in addition to the entities which have signed the agreement with ANECA, the evaluation model was developed with the participation of institutions such as CRUE Spanish Universities, Alumni Spain, the Coordinator of Representatives of Students of Public Universities (CREUP), the Conference of Social Councils (CCS), the Spanish Association of HR Directors (AEDRH), the Observatory of Entrepreneurship GEM Spain, etc.

In the words of Pilar Paneque, director of ANECA, "both the agreement signed now with CEOE, CEPYME, CCOO and UGT and the one signed with the Ministry of Finance and Public Function in July are magnificent examples of the strategic collaborations established by ANECA to provide the university system with tools for continuous improvement. In this case, it is also important to highlight the benefits that the program will have specifically for the students, as well as the participative process followed for its design, which managed to involve 64 universities of our university system".

For his part, Juan Carlos Tejada, director of the Department of Education and Training at CEOE, said that "from CEOE we value very positively this Quality Seal in employability and entrepreneurship with which the social partners and ANECA intend to bring the university world closer to the business world, so that we work together to, on the one hand, improve the employability of university graduates and, on the other, the competitiveness of our companies, since there can be no competitive companies without competent teams".

Teresa Díaz de Terán, director of CEPYME's Social and Labor Department, stressed the importance of "betting on the quality of training, especially university training, and at a time like the present when companies are finding it difficult to fill certain jobs".

Likewise, Sebastián Pacheco Cortes, training secretary of UGT-CEC, pointed out the "importance of the social agents being present throughout the process" of the new seal, and reaffirmed the interest of UGT in "everything that has to do with employability and entrepreneurship as a result of university studies".

Vicente Sánchez Jiménez, confederal secretary of Strategic Transitions and Territorial Development of CCOO, stressed "the need for agreements such as this one to serve as an example for similar collaboration agreements to be made between the regional accreditation and quality agencies and the social agents".

Framework for the self-assessment of universities in the improvement of their actions regarding employment and employability of their graduates

The ANECA Seal of Quality in employability and entrepreneurship has its main antecedent in the report "Framework for the self-assessment of universities in the improvement of their actions in the field of employment and employability of their graduates", which involved 64 Spanish universities.