Abstract:

The university degree in Labour Relations and Human Resources of the University of Almería was verified in 2010. The curriculum includes 14 modules, all of them mandatory, except for module 11. These modules mainly concern basic training (60 ECTS), Law (48 ECTS) and human resources management (24 ECTS). The rest of the modules are related to complementary subjects that include: sociological, psychological, economic and entrepreneurial training and social and labour policy (90 ECTS). The Spanish universities have approved generic skills that identify them specifically in the University of Almeria are 10: UAL1- Basic knowledge of profession, UAL2- Using Information and Communication Techniques (ICTs), UAL3- Capacity to solve problems successfully, UAL4- Writing and oral expressing with clarity in Spanish language, UAL5- Development of a sense of criticism and self-criticism, UAL6- Ability to work in a group, UAL7- Learning a foreigner language, UAL8- Commitment to Ethical Business, UAL9- Capacity to design, manage and undertake a task by oneself, and UAL10- Social Responsibility of Business. The distribution of these competences among the different subjects of a curriculum is a vital issue to analyse its implementation and adaptation of the title to the current society and the labour market. This paper analyses the 10 generic skills of the University of Almería in the 41 subjects that make up this degree, both for the nature of the subject: basic, mandatory, and optional; and by the departments that teach them. The results show imbalances in the generic skills where, for example, the UAL3 skill is in 48.8% of the subjects and yet others such as the UAL7 are only in 12% of them. This work shows the need to rethink the distribution of skills between the subjects to reinforce those that are less present. As a main conclusion of this study, it is recommended that the skill to learn a foreign language should be reinforced. Given that in a globalized world, professionals with knowledge of a second language will be most in demand and will be able to compete for jobs abroad.

Keywords:

Labour Relation, Human resources, Labour market, Generic Skill.