Estudio de inserción laboral y competencias en ingenieros agrónomos titulados por la Universidad de León

Abstract

At present, engineering degree programs in Spain are in the process of conversion to the European Higher Education Area. The competencies and skills required of graduates by the labour market should be considered in order to reform the curricula appropriately. In the present work, general and specific competencies and entrylevel workforce corresponding to graduates in agricultural engineering at the University of León were analysed. Five academic year cohorts of the Master's degree in Agricultural Engineering participated in this study. Online questionnaires were designed and implemented on graduates. Selection of the general and specific competencies was performed by analysing some previous studies and the legal framework in Spain: two European research projects, CHEERS and PROFLEX; the White Paper on Spanish Degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Forestry; the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area; the Ministerial Orders CIN/323/2009 and CIN/325/2009, which establish the general requirements for university degrees qualifying for the exercise of the profession of Technical Agricultural Engineer (Bachelor) and Agricultural Engineer (Master) in Spain; and two European thematic networks on agricultural engineering, USAEE and ERABEE. The questionnaires administered to graduates consisted of 30 initial questions regarding academic and personal details, present employment status, and work history, followed by assessment of general and specific competencies, both the level of expertise required in their current job and the level acquired through their university studies. The procedure was successful, obtaining information from the 23.8% of the subject population. The 81% of the respondents had a job at that moment, most of them into the agricultural engineering field. Moreover, the mean time they needed to find their first job was only 3.84 months. The most important sectors according to the work history of our graduates seem to be the following: engineering services (engineering and environmental consultancy, health and safety, etc.), civil works and construction, and the food industry. The idea of defining the agricultural engineering degrees at European level was judged very positively by the graduates. Finally the questionnaires provided information on the level of expertise in the various competencies acquired by graduates in the course of their studies, the level they need in their current jobs, and those competencies that should be incorporated in the curriculum.