Wednesday, Febrary 2th, 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 which has the sponsorship of CaixaBank and Broseta,  has held Employment Forum 2022: Family businesses generate 66% of jobs. Do you know what skills they are looking for? by the hand of two professors of the faculty of psychology: Lucía Llinares y Pilar González.

The talk began with a brief introduction to the concept of employability by Pilar González who wanted to highlight that employability is an umbrella in which a series of skills must be integrated. Thus defining competition as a concept that encompasses power, knowledge and wanting. Both professors have presented their EAS project, which is an instrument resulting from a research project by the University of Valencia, which is based on the fact that employability depends on individual factors, personal circumstances and external factors.

Subsequently, the students have been asked what are the factors that they considered to make them more competitive when looking for a job, which have answered perseverance, proactivity, initiative, creativity, being innovative, among others.To all these skills for employability, teachers have added the value of autonomy, flexibility and social and technical skills.

Highlighting, and adding to these ideas, Pilar González has remarked that the important thing for family businesses in employability is not that their workers have everything, but that they must know how to adapt to the situation. 

Skills are important, but so is achieving fit in the company- Pilar González

To end the talk, both professors of social psychology have stressed that students looking for employment should be honest with themselves and know their skills before conducting an interview. They wanted to emphasize that after a study carried out by both and more colleagues, the five basic components that a family business seeks in its workers are, in the following order: the interest in learning, the will and willingness to work, time management, productivity and social skills.

In the final round of questions, attendees participated and were interested in the differences that exist between looking for employability in a family business and a non-family business. Lucía Llinares has remarked:

A family business has a family culture and not only seeks performance but skills from its employees that are adapted to their ethics and moral characteristics. - Lucía Llinares