Against the stigma of low employability of some Social Sciences degrees, institutions are getting involved and turning this old situation around. Various public and academic employment policy measures, the social context and the involvement of the business and organisation world have allowed the employment results of these studies to experience a significant upwards change. An example is the employment rate of Social Education that, in the Universitat de València, has gone from a 65.6% in 2016 to 85.9% in 2018.
There has been a 20.4 points difference in two years. This increase adds to the overall figures presented by the last Labour Market Entry Study: Graduates (2018) carried out by UVjob. Thus, the professional experience following the completion of studies has had an increase of 10.8 points and has gone from 86.7% in the second study (2016) to 97.5% in the third.
However, this increase has been more evident in the findings of current or last employment. In terms of quality, for example, the percentage of graduates whose employment required university education has increased in 25.4 points (from 49% to 74.4%); the employment related to the degree has increased in 25.7 points (from 53.8% to 79.5%); and the employment related to the degree that also requires university education has increased in 23.4 points (from 47.1% to 70.5%).
Furthermore, the percentage of graduates employed as technicians or that are in charge of other employees has increased in 21.6 points (from 54.5% to 76.1%); permanent contracts have also increased, in this case less than 20 points, from 13.6% to 29%; and full-time jobs might have been the most remarkable indicators with an increase of more than 30 points, from 39.8% to 71.6%.
The same labour market entry study has pointed out that the most usual employment developed by Social Education graduates is that of social educator (although there are, to a lesser extent, other job opportunities like school supervisors); that the department these professionals are destined to the most is the Education Department; and that the sectors they are destined the most are education, investigation and cultural services; health service and social work; and non-profit associations.
Alba Jiménez graduated from the Universitat de València’s Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences and works as a social educator in one of these organisations: the Brúfol Association at the Valencian neighbourhood of El Cabanyal. As Alba explains in the following chapter of ‘Treballem. From the University to the labour market’, she is in charge of social care and training in this organisation, whose main work is the community development of the neighbourhood’s residents.
But before getting there, Alba studied the Social Education degree, did an internship and even enjoyed an international stay in Argentina to complete the studies with skills and abilities only provided by direct contact to different realities.
However, Alba does not settle and she is thinking about specialising and improving her education with a future doctorate, a very common aspiration among Social Education graduates, since around 80% continue their education after the degree through retraining (continuing education and training) or postgraduate education.
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