On 30 March, the Chair of Family Business (CEFUV) promoted by the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), the School of Entrepreneurs (EDEM), the Valencian Institute for the Study of Family Business (IVEFA), the Institute of Family Business (IEF) and the University of Valencia (UV), and sponsored by CaixaBank and Broseta, held the first session "Importance of the Family Business", the Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (IEF) and the Universitat de València (UV), sponsored by CaixaBank and Broseta, held the first session "Importance of the family business in employment" of the course on Employability and Professional Development in Family Businesses.

This first session was divided into two parts, the first one "Understanding the importance of the family business in the labour market and in the economy" given by the professor and director of the Chair of Family Business, Alejandro Escribá from 10:00 to 11:30h; and the second part "Employability as a metacompetence that creates value in the family business" given by the professors of the Faculty of Psychology Pilar González and Lucía Llinares from 12:00 to 13:30h.

Class 30 March 10:00

Alejandro Escribá opened the employability course with a short introduction about the history of the Family Business Chair and the importance of family businesses in Spain and the Valencian Community. He wanted to show his support and gratitude to the companies collaborating with the AVE Chair, EDEM, IEF and IVEFA, and also to its sponsors, Broseta and Caixabank.

The session began with an essential question for this course "What is a family business?" with the aim of finding out the stereotypes that are held about them, most of the students agreed in their answers, "small companies that pass from parents to children", "small companies that are inherited and sometimes hire people from outside the family". However, Alejandro changed the students' perception by pointing out that family businesses account for 88.8% of companies (companies) in Spain, and 91.1% in the Valencian Community, and two great examples of this are the Inditex or Grefusa companies.

During the session, a student shared a very interesting point of view, implying that for her, many family businesses fail when they are inherited, because when the heirs, cousins or children, take over the company, they do not feel any affinity or motivation for it. On this occasion, Alejandro agreed with her and commented on possible solutions for this type of situation, suggesting that the heirs of the company should consider investing more in their training as shareholders or owners, and hire someone qualified to run the company (a manager, for example).

During the rest of the session, Alejandro showed comparative data and graphs about family and non-family businesses both nationally and in the Valencian Community. In general, family businesses show better data both in performance and employment generation, although they still need to improve in certain sectors, especially in technology and development; and highlighting that the weight of family businesses in Spain is enormous, so much so that 57% of GVA (gross value added) belongs to family businesses, and 66% of employment as well. 

To conclude, a discussion was held with the students in which they commented on the strengths and weaknesses they saw in family businesses and argued their answers with Alejandro through a pooling of ideas.

Class 30 March 12:00

Psychology lecturers Pilar González and Lucía Llinares opened the mentoring session "Employability as a meta-competence that creates value in family businesses" with a series of questions put to the students, both individually and in groups, to give way to the three main themes of the session.

The first topic was about learning in family businesses, followed by the question "What does this course bring to our professional future? The second topic showed the objectives of family businesses and the people who wish to work in one of them. Finally, the importance of family businesses and their contribution to the social and economic sphere was discussed.

Finally, the teachers discussed and deepened the values, attitudes and skills useful for employability within a family business.