(718)GAPS THAT IMPEDE CONSTRUCTION GRADUATES ENTERINGTHE SPANISH LABOUR MARKET

摘要

The global economic crisis that has hit the European Union economy has also strongly affected theconstruction industry, although with a different degree of intensity between countries. Spain has beenone of the European countries where the economic crisis affected most the construction industry. Inthe Spanish case, it is recorded that in the last three years, more than a million jobs in the constructionsector were lost. The increase in the unemployment rate is particularly worrisome for recent graduatesin the construction industry. There is therefore a significant need to adapt the graduate programmes inorder to ensure that graduates have the adequate skills required by the labour market. The aim of thispaper is to identify the major gaps that impede construction graduates entering the Spanish labourmarket. For this purpose, a questionnaire was undertaken to postgraduate students of the last twoclasses (2011 and 2012) of a Master degree programme in construction management at theUniversitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). A statistical analysis of the survey was developed. Thisway, responses of the students can highlight what are the main difficulties encountered to find a job.This study also shows the way to further improvements of skills of the professionals in the constructionsector claimed by the industry.