Curricular dynamics at the Universidad Autónoma del Noreste. Development of soft competencies in students for employability. Thematic core of the conference: Employability practices

Abstract

Yturralde (2016) points out, that whether social or labor environments, demand to go beyond just recalling data, follow procedures to obtain a result, to have knowledge based on the time and discipline: he explains that to succeed today, you need to have well-developed soft competencies, or social skills, as Harvard University, Carnegie Foundation, and Standford Research Institute research exposed, on the importance of aptitude against social skills. They concluded that specialized technical knowledge generates 15% of success in professional and occupational activities, while 85% lies in the soft competencies, attitude, self-determination, the capacity of communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and conflict resolution primarily. The Universidad Autonoma del Noreste (UANE), aware of the requirements of the moment and future ones, to develop in students strategic skills, hard and soft competencies required by society and the labor market, began in the year 2005 this longitudinal research with a mixed approach to determine an application methodology for the four teaching techniques (4TD) throughout the learning process of the student and a continuous improvement system through the analysis of results of each semi-annual cross-section. Application of the 4TD strengthens UANE’s educational model, which focuses on the construction of learning for life and work. It encourages student’s learning by relating the curricular objectives with problematic situations of the professional practice and also promoting constructive social interaction among members of work teams, through Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Project-Oriented Learning (POL), Case Method (CM) and Collaborative Learning (CL). In the Students’ Self-Evaluation of both semesters in 2018 and the first semester of 2019, students expressed that applicating the 4TD strengthened their cognitive and social skills. All our university campuses are qualified above 8 in the 4TDscale, which implies strength. It is also an excellent indicator of the teaching performance on developing the students' abilities, which gives relevance to the project. In 2018 the student satisfaction level of all UANE was 97% very satisfied with the application of the four teaching techniques, in general. In the 1st semester of 2019, students expressed 99% being very satisfied with the implementation of 4TD, the level of employability of our students is 70%. This project benefits the teachers with continuous training in the 4TD application, strengthens their teaching practice, and has an impact on the formation commitment to students to cover all current requirements. The project is sustainable over time, given the interest of the UANE in academic quality that sustains the student formation according to our institution Mission of: “Create opportunities to develop exemplary people, committed to their future.”