EMPLOYABILITY IN FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECTORS. THE EMPLOYERS’ POINT OF VIEW

Employability of university graduates should be a priority issue in the strategic plans of the titles of the Universities. This depends largely on the existence of communication channels between the productive sectors and the university community. That communication is, in many cases, insufficient or residual.

The aim of present work is to improve the employability of graduates from degree and master qualifications taught at School of Forestry Engineering and Natural Resources of Madrid Polytechnic University. All of it, promoting an interaction between University and the related productive sectors. Thus, an analysis of traditional productive sectors with a Forestry and Environmental scope has been made, as well as the potential market niches which are little or not represented in the current study plans. To do this, information from different national and international organizations has been analyzed and compared.

Additionally, direct data from employers has been collected through personal surveys and interviews. With this, it is intended to have a data base with data of the employers and enterprises involved with the university education directly related with their sectors and a continuous feed-back between.

Preliminary results of the sectoral analysis are presented, as well as interviews and surveys conducted to date. Also, lines of improvement for qualifications as well as for surveys and interviews are suggested, in order to extend this work through the network.