Innovación Docente y Sostenibilidad: Jornadas de Innovación Docente e Investigación Educativa UZ, Zaragoza, 9 y 10 de septiembre de 2021

Abstract

The promotion of employability and employment is one of the priorities and challenges of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for all universities. In this line, in this Innovative Teaching Project (PIET_19_152), the Master's Degrees in Auditing (MA) and Accounting and Finance (MAF) are evaluated in terms of employment. We monitor the degree of employability of their graduates and their professional careers so that the coordinators of both university master's degrees can have relevant information to improve the link between the formation provided by these master's degrees and the labour market. We applied the methodology used in the Barometer of university employability andemployment in Spain, edition 2017, (Michavila et al., 2018). We have carried out a surveyof graduates from the latest editions of the Masters in Auditing and Accounting andFinance, which allows us to evaluate their work trajectory and assess the impact of theirMaster's degree education on their careers. The results show that the MA has an unequivocally professional focus because ofthe direct impact on employability in 75% of the sample, while in the MAF the 57% ofthe respondents were able to get a job or to promote or improve their working conditions after completing it. The impact on their professional career had a very significant influence on the evaluation that graduates gave to the study, who would repeat the same Master's degree in 85% and 75%, respectively. Master's Degree graduates usually find their first job within one year after completing the MA (92%) and almost half of the sample find their first job before the end of the Master's degree. The MAF follows similar patterns, with percentages of 84% before one year and 36% before its end. We detected that the labour market does not fully value the training effort made, which is evident in the professional category recognised in their contract, in the type of contract and fundamentally, in the remuneration they receive for the work carried out. This gap is especially important in the case of MAF master's graduates, in our opinión because there is no specific employment market niche for its master's graduates, as it is the case of the MA in the auditing profession. In any case, the comparison of our results respect to the masters at national level (Michavila et al., 2018) show that the employability of the analyzed master's degrees from the University of Zaragoza is somewhat above average in the case of the MAF, while the Master's in Auditing has an impact on employment that far exceeds that of the Spanish average.