The objective of this paper is to analyze university graduate students’ assessments of the attainment of skills acquired in a Training Programme (TP) to develop entrepreneurial skills and transversal employability competencies. Both are vital for the success of today’s societies and play an important role in the sustainable development agenda. The TP was a 12-week programme with six modules combining entrepreneurship training and traditional teaching methods. There were nine editions and 148 students worked in teams preparing business plans to present to consultants and potential investors. First, the nominal group technique was used to identify which competencies can be acquired through TP. Second, a survey was designed to identify the level to which the competences were attained. The results suggest that the students attained two types of skills, acquiring a higher level of proficiency in entrepreneurial skills and those transversal competencies. Additionally, different levels of attainment of entrepreneurial skills were found in different groups of students. We provide new evidence that TPs, as compulsory subjects in the core curriculum of degree programmes, will help accomplish both objectives: the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and generic university educational competencies. The overall outcome of this research highlights the value added by the TPs.

Despite policy initiatives aimed at promoting female access to jobs, the information and communication technology (ICT) professions have traditionally been largely monopolised by men. Segregation, gendered stereotypes and environmental factors have a clear impact on educational and professional choices, as well as on working conditions. The spread of ICT to all economic activities has meant that ICT specialists are now to be found everywhere, not only in the ICT sector where many stereotypes related to technical jobs persist. This work aims to analyse the gender wage gap and discrimination in ICT professions, with the emphasis on how working in an ICT‐intensive industry might affect that situation. The study uses the Spanish Earning Structure Survey data for 2014, and applies wage decomposition techniques to the wage distribution. The results show that female ICT professionals face unfavorable working conditions, especially in highly qualified jobs and in ICT‐intensive industries.

Education is imperative to driving sustainability and gender equity. Moreover, it is extremely important to develop initiatives in sustainable leadership education for women in order for them to acquire skills and competencies in leadership and to improve their self-perception of their capabilities. The purpose of this study was to assess a Women’s Leadership Program for university students. The sample consisted of 50 students enrolled in the program. A mixed-method approach was applied. Quantitative methods with a survey were conducted to evaluate the training and attainment of leadership skills. In the data analysis, a descriptive statistics variance analysis, using a Welch statistic and T2 Dunnett test, was applied. Qualitative research methods were conducted through three focus groups to evaluate changes in their perceptions of themselves and their self-confidence. The results suggest that the female students in the program obtained a level of leadership knowledge with practical tools for their future. The program inspired them and confirmed changes in their self-confidence and view of their personal capacities, including reflection on facing challenges in the work environment. The findings support the effectiveness of specific education in breaking two barriers, identified in the literature, for women in managerial positions: lack of training and self-confidence.

The involvement of competences in the teaching–learning planning process in Higher Education is essential for their success in the European Higher Education Area. This study presents a participatory multi-criteria model based on Voting Analytic Hierarchy Process (VAHP) analysis, focusing on the attainment of competences that permits consensus between lecturers and students in the design of teaching plans using two assessments: the assessment of competences by students and the lecturers’ assessment of the contribution of teaching strategies to the attainment of each competence. To validate the methodology, a survey was carried out to determine the preferences of 211 students on the competences of a quantitative subject in several business degrees and a survey of 11 lecturers to assess the contribution of the teaching strategies in the acquisition of each competence. The results show that practical lessons and group work should receive more importance in the teaching plans of the subject Financial Management according to the defined competences, the students’ preferences and the criterion of each lecturer for each teaching strategy. The results show the applicability of the participatory methodology proposed to formally agree on the design of teaching plans in higher education organizations between lecturers and students.

Society recognizes the need to progress towards equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of political and economic decision-making for women and requires that companies work to reach that goal. Nevertheless, leadership education should begin in the educational stages. This research presents a collaborative model of leadership education for high-potential female undergraduate students carried out at the university level between 2017 and 2020, with 75 students. To be successful at improving student leadership skills, self-esteem, self-confidence, and personal inner transformation, this women’s leadership development program was based on four lines of innovation: (a) attracting external stakeholders to develop training jointly; (b) making an open program with multidisciplinary students in social sciences and STEM subjects tailored to the professional environment; (c) measuring the learning with all the participants: trainers, directors, managers, program staff and students, using a 360-degree evaluation; and (d) designing an ongoing research process to incorporate improvements from multiple stakeholder perspectives. A multi-source program assessment was used. The results not only show a positive impact on the students’ acquisition of leadership skills but also, on the increase in self-confidence and ambition. The study provides a pioneering model for women’s leadership education that could be used in other similar programs.

Small family-owned companies are the most common type of European business structure and are characterised by their orientation to long-term goals. Therefore, they can play an important role in the launching of businesses related to sustainable growth. However, access to finance is difficult for start-ups. Mutual Guarantee Institutions (MGIs) mitigate this problem by facilitating long-term guaranteed loans, but they must assume responsibility for default losses. This paper analyses, as of the end of 2018, the loan default of the portfolio of guarantees formalised by Spanish MGIs with new companies between 2003 and 2012, a period including both economic growth and recession. The objective is to identify the annual evolution and the average global cost of default, as well as the differences in said portfolios according to the purpose of the loan, company size and economic activity. The analysis was developed while considering two scenarios: one determinist, using a ratio method and another stochastic, using an analysis of variance. We found differences in the distribution of defaults for the variables company size and sector of activity. The findings provide relevant information for managers and Public Administrations to improve the distribution of guarantees between Spanish MGIs and public institutions, and their coverage of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loan defaults.

The Analytical Hierarchy Process is a very common method used in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to analyze participative assessments. However, due to the qualitative nature of this methodology, a high percentage of inconsistencies need to be addressed when analyzing user preferences. This work analyzes the efficiency of the Goal Programming model in order to reduce inconsistencies with pairwise comparisons when working with inexpert participants and time limitations. A case study has been carried out that assesses online courses in higher education with the Analytical Hierarchy Process in order to understand the usefulness and feasibility of the method. Evaluation of four e-learning tools (collaboration tools, content tools, tutorial sessions and evaluation tools) used in an online business degree were collected from 72 students through a ‘Saaty-type’ survey, and the model was applied to improve the consistency of these results. This model has been able to minimize the inconsistencies of individual preferences while avoiding the loss of primary information.

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