Job satisfaction of Catalan graduates and the determinants of their assessment of the training received in university

Abstract

This article analyzes the main elements that characterize the employment of graduates from the Catalan public universities, with special reference to the University of Barcelona (UB). In particular, we pay attention to the determinants of job satisfaction and factors also influence the assessment of the training received in university, in relation to its usefulness for the job position four years after graduation. The data comes from the study on the employment of graduates from Catalan universities, carried out by the Agency for the Quality of the Catalan University System (AQU) for 2014. The first hypothesis tests the question whether the quality of the occupation and its determinants; while the second hypothesis discusses the evaluation of the training received in the university when the current job is evaluated. Generally speaking, the variables "job quality index" and "occupational category" explain much of the observed results. Overall, graduates positively value their own efforts in the past, and positively assessed the specific tools in terms of knowledge and skills that the university provided them.