Abstract:

When young graduates are hired by an organization, they start using knowledge, skills and competencies acquired during their academic educational period, and develop a role linked with his job position.

In the present century, job requirements have evolved, asking for changes in required professional and personal competencies, related with the field of knowledge. These changes affect attitudinal, operative, strategic and organizational aspects. There are some factors that years ago were positive for job success and now are disadvantages for a good job development.
On the other hand, the growth in the number of university graduates generates doubts about the possibility that all these future professionals find jobs according to their educational level.

In this paper we analyze the role developed by young university graduates in the organizations where they work. We try to answer the following questions: What are the functions they develop? Is there any relationship between labor satisfaction and the role they play in organizations? Are there any differences between graduates’ role in Europe and Latin-America?
While the background for this paper can be found in three Research Projects (CHEERS, REFLEX and PROFLEX), supported by the European Union (EU) and oriented to the analysis of different aspects of graduates’ careers, this research is directly based in REFLEX and PROFLEX.
The acronym REFLEX corresponds to the project titled “The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society. New Demands on Higher Education in Europe”. With the starting point in CHEERS, the survey was improved and increased. Twelve European countries were included in the final survey, directed to European graduates five years after their graduations in 1999 – 2000. Important conclusions were obtained from the analysis of about 38000 surveys, referred to the role of these graduates in the knowledge society, factors affecting success of these young professionals, and other aspects (Marshall, J. 2008).
The second project, PROFLEX, is an ALFA Project that replicates REFLEX for Latin-American universities and graduates. Their objectives include obtaining results about higher education and graduates employment in various Latin-American countries, and to analyze role of different abilities and attitudes in the professional careers of these graduates. PROFLEX analyzes 8.000 graduates from ten Latin-American countries, graduated in 2002-2003.

As result, we have characterized the graduates’ role in organizations and take a look to the value they recognize to their academic education. Differences and similarities between higher education graduates from Europe and Latin America, and between some specific countries, show interesting results.

The valued of this study, lies in the great number of surveys used and the wide geographic area covered by the research, and also in the use of powerful statistical tools.

Keywords:

Role, university graduates, jobs.