From employability to employment: university education and employers’ requirements in Chile

Employability and competencies are familiar concepts in Chilean higher education but have not yet been fully assimilated. This chapter describes three studies that illustrate this phenomenon. One details an effort to implement employability and competency curriculum at the institutional levels. The second describes the planning and experiences of programme directors, students and employers of graduates of two professional-level programmes, Teacher Training and Psychology. A third assesses how graduates with employability skills have been received by a dynamic labour market. The conclusion drawn is that returns to efforts to date have failed to meet expectations. It proved difficult to match the range of interests and competencies of university graduates with the complexity of requirements of a changing labour market and at the same time increase economic benefits to both graduates and employers. The chapter concludes with a description of research required to understand and respond to these challenges.