Abstract:

The need to adapt Spanish universities to the new European Higher Education Area and the commitment made by higher education institutions to improve the quality of university education has involved competency based on learning activities aimed at developing the skills of graduates. College graduates are required to face a large number of demands and requirements during their transition to the labor market. Therefore, not only is it necessary for graduates to have developed the right skills to perform successfully their job, they must also keep their skills up to date to meet the constantly changing requirements and needs in organizations.

This paper highlights a methodology to detect the most relevant behaviours and skills to develop Total Quality Management (TQM) Competence. TQM refers to the wide range of management and control processes designed to lead the entire organization and its employees to do the best job possible, so as to supply products and/or services that satisfy the customer. According to Sashkin and Kiser (1993), TQM means that the organization's culture is defined by and supports the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through an integrated system of tools, techniques and training. This involves the continuous improvement of organizational processes, resulting in high quality products and services. Thus, the management philosophy of TQM is customer focused. All members of an organization implementing TQM struggle to find a way to systematize the improvement of the organization through the ongoing participation of all employees. TQM incorporates the concepts of product quality, process control, quality assurance and quality improvement.

The objective of the research was to determine the level of TQM training and knowledge needed by engineering graduates to successfully perform their jobs after joining a company. The study aims to answer the following questions: do engineering graduates need to have acquired competence in TQM to perform their job successfully? and, what is the profile of the jobs which require the most TQM raining and knowledge?

This research was carried out using a graduate employability survey conducted by the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia on graduates two years after they had completed their university studies. We carried out different multivariate statistical analysis to analyse the dataset.
Results shown that need any knowledge of this kind of philosophy of management is necessary for an appropriate job performance. The job profile demanding most Total Quality Management is described.

Keywords:

Total quality management, training and skills, competence, graduates, higher education, labour market.