Second graduates´ absorption study: A tool measuring graduates´ career success [updated period 2006 – 2009]

This electronic document is a “live” template and already defines the components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] in its style sheet.The Career Office of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete is an innovative structure which sets a common framework of cooperation activities of Career Office with Entrepreneurship Units. Career Office provides the comprehensive and innovative career services to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as graduates, and manages to succeed the interconnection with the labor market. The main aim of the second study, was the systematic observation of the career of students, in continuity of the first study [2002 - 2005], and furthermore an analysis of personal and business profile of Graduates. In addition to that, the increased need for knowledge of Academia (students and academic staff) and entrepreneurship, was the greatest motivation for the implementation of the second study for Students´ absorption in the job market (for the years 2006-2009), to depict today´s students´ integration in the working environment. In this paper, the results of the second updated study will be presented, and the ´pros and cons´ of students´ career development for the specific time period, as realized from the graduates themselves. This research took place, via telephone - fifteen minutes - interviews, and aimed to record the (un)employment status of the graduates for the years 2006 - 2009. Among other characteristics, great emphasis was given on the job mismatches of the field of education, the type of employment and education chosen and the reasons of unemployment. This study was conducted by the Career Office and funded by the Greek Ministry of Education. Main aim of all the informative Studies in total, was the optimization of Curricula, as well as of the Academic Departments themselves, according to the extracted results.