Identifier: TDX:1162
Authors: Souto Romero, María del Mar
Abstract:
The creation of the European Higher Education Area highlights the need of a learning-centered education opposite to a teaching-centered one as a main aim in the common education approach sponsored by the European Community. By placing teaching opposite to learning, we intend to emphasize the importance education should have in terms of capacity, ability, competences and values that promote and develop life-long learning skills. Moreover, The European Higher Education Area mentions a new and innovative concept due to the fact that it refers to the job market, and in particular, to specific professionals who are sought in order to design higher education curricula. The framework on the integration of the Spanish Higher education system (Ministry of Education, 2003) states that “The main goals of the official teachings will mainly be job-oriented, this is to say, they should promote a higher education where basic specific competences and crosscurricular competences are integrated. The basic specific competences will aim at developing job-oriented skills that allow professionals a quick integration in the job market, whereas crosscurricular competences aim at achieving integral training skills. The growing concern about employability means that people will have to take an active role in the decisions they make regarding their degrees and their later careers ( Coetzee and Schereuder,2009). In order to achieve the goals we have commented so far the people holding a bachelors degree will have to be competent to manage their employability. Cotzee(2008) thinks that people in XXIst century will be no more than competency traders and their easiness to find a job will just depend on their awareness of transferrable competences, experience and differentiated skills. Employability will depend on meta-competences which will derive to the acquisition of subcompetences that will help people find a job such as emotional competences, Taking into account the reviewed literature, It seems reasonable to assume that the emotional competences in future bachelors are a key point for them to be able to find a job and , subsequently, to increase their work placement and their ability to develop life-long learning skills.