Internships as one of the core aspects of employability

Abstract

The current situation of universities in Spain, immersed in the process of adaptation to the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which coincides with one of the most serious economic crisis, led to placing particular emphasis on the employability of university graduates. A few years ago the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) took on the responsibility for the employability of its graduates within the educational process and with particular emphasis on university-enterprise relationships, and the opening of new forms of collaboration beyond technology transfer. The programs related to the employability of the graduates are connected via: Employment observatory, internships in companies, international mobility programs and business-sponsored chairs. Over the last 10 years the UPV has arranged in excess of 60 000 internships thus offering experience in this aspect of the formation process. The target was to analyze if the alumni who had on-the-job training evidenced a higher employability than those who did not. The study considers three data collection points: the first one upon requesting the academic degree (upon termination of the studies), the second two years after graduating, and the third five years after graduating. Said methodology enables a longitudinal analysis of the access to the job market and, thus, learn about the impact of internships on the employability of the graduates over the time they stay in the in the labor market.