Enhancing Employability From An Academic Perspective

The 1999 Bologna Declaration already stressed the need to enhance competences and skills through higher education aiming to employability; consequently, the triple helix (higher education institutions, the business community, and education officers) became a must. Afterwards, the European economic recession resulted in unemployment for a high number of citizens. Entrepreneurship, pro-activity, problem solving, innovation, and surely foreign languages were then, described as foremost. Spain has the highest rate in Europe for youth unemployment, with the subsequent lack of motivation in young people towards higher education studies. Considering the above, at Florida Universitaria we have focused our education policy on ensuring that our students access the labour market in a competitive way. Therefore, we have implemented a thorough methodological change and adapted our Bachelors in the areas of Tourism, Engineering, Business, and Education towards a project-based pedagogy. We aim to provide our students with those skills and competences required by the labour market, mainly an ability to communicate in English and also, the development of both an entrepreneurial aptitude and attitude. In this paper, we will present two examples of how to implement entrepreneurship throughout a whole Bachelor: firstly, a first-year project in the Mechanical and Electronic Bachelors; and secondly, a third-year project in Tourism. In the former, students must start up a business in a simulated way. Regarding the latter, students must already deal with real clients by arranging a 4-day visit to Valencia for a group of 90 Norwegians. The results of the implementation of the project methodology are approached in terms of achievement related to students’ employability, focusing on three main areas: professional competences and skills, internationalization, and academic changes.