Alberto F. Cabrera, Wietse de Vries y Shaquana Anderson acaban de publicar un interesante análisis sobre este tópico en el artículo Job satisfaction among Mexican alumni: a case of incongruence between hunch-based policies and labor market demands, en Higher Education (DOI 10.1007/s10734-008-9119-3).

Se trata de un tema escasamente explorado en América Latina que aquí se aborda a partir de un estudio empírico entre graduados de las Universidad de Puebla.

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Según explica Wietse de Vries, uno de los autores, en comunicación personal, durante más de dos décadas el Banco Mundial y varias agencias internacionales han recomendado que las universidades latinoamericanas diversifiquen la oferta de programas educativos a nivel de educación superior. En particular estas organizaciones han favorecido la creación de nuevas carreras universitarias y el que se restringa el acceso a carreras consideradas como saturadas e irrelevantes ante las necesidades de la nueva economía.

La Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) acató estas políticas educativas. Por más de dos décadas, la BUAP restringió el acceso a carreras tradicionales tales como derecho y la medicina, adoptó pruebas de admisión y creó nuevas carreras que supuestamente están más alineadas a las necesidades de la nueva economía de la información y tecnología.

En este documento exploramos la contribución de distintas carreras al trabajo de egresados, con especial énfasis en la satisfacción del egresado en su empleo y el grado de congruencia entre el trabajo y la preparación recibida en la carrera universitaria.

Nuestros resultados contradicen décadas de discursos y de políticas diseñadas para modificar el comportamiento de estudiantes.

Abstract
Like many other public Mexican universities, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) has tried to contribute to the national development of Mexico by offering new undergraduate majors presumed to be better attuned to the needs of the labor market, while capping enrollments in traditional majors presumed to be redundant.

Using data from one of the most extensive alumni studies in Mexico, we found that BUAP alumni who graduated in traditional majors do not show high unemployment or low satisfaction. On the contrary, the lowest levels of job satisfaction and the highest rates of unemployment are found among the graduates of non-traditional majors.

Otros artículos de W. de Vries en la Red

La acreditación mexicana desde una perspectiva comparativa, 2007

¿Privado vs. Público?, 2005

La gestión de la universidad. Interrogantes y problemas en busca de respuestas, con E. Ibarra C., 2004

Efectividad de las Políticas de Educación Superior en Jalisco y Guanajuato durante los años noventa: ¿Cómo explicar las diferencias en el desempeño de dos sistemas estatales?, junto con R. Kent, 2004

Conclusions
For almost two decades, public policy has favored those majors believed to prepare a labor force suited to the needs of a new economy. Such policies resulted in capping enrollments of traditional majors, while favoring new majors. Antithetical to commonly held beliefs, the traditional majors do not show high unemployment or low satisfaction. On the contrary: the lowest levels of job satisfaction and the highest rates of unemployment are found
among the graduates of non-traditional majors.

Several potential reasons come to mind to explain why enrollment policies did not work. One plausible explanation may rest on the validity of the assumptions about the new economy. Perhaps the new sectors that were to accompany the looming knowledge society never materialized. National and regional labor markets remained dominated by organizations that never adopted the new technologies at the same pace as American and European organizations. If so, the graduates of novel majors were prepared for a labor market that is incipient at best.

Another scenario is that the supply of new majors may have outpaced its demand. Saturation indeed may have taken place among the graduates of novel programs compelling them to take on job positions bearing little resemblance with their college qualifications.

A third explanation could relate to the content of the new majors themselves. Majors like urban design, urban development, industrial engineering and international relations might be considered by employers to be overspecializations of architecture, engineering and law, respectively. Narrowly prepared, their graduates would have to compete with graduates of traditional majors who may be more flexible to adapt to new job requirements.

Graduates of traditional majors may enjoy more possibilities to create their own company (usually an office or practice) or to become an associate of one. Additionally, their preparation may enable them to hold positions in the public sector with more job stability.

They may also profit from holding degrees that are easily recognized by employers. Partial support for these scenarios can be found in studies on the condition of labor markets in Mexico and Latin America. In regards to the adoption of new technologies, the World Bank recently reported that Latin American economies have lagged behind other emerging economies in technological achievement during the years of 1998–2007. For instance, Mexico, like the rest of its Latin American counterparts, was found to have installed less broadband equipment and having fewer subscribers of Internet services than poorer East Asian countries (Economist 2008). The World Bank also noted that Latin American universities rather than private companies led in absorbing technological developments and spending in research and development. Low levels of technological absorption by companies also seem to correlate with a low demand for highly trained workers. In 2002, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported that the Mexican economy had difficulties absorbing an increasing supply of qualified professional workers into the labor force. Many college graduates were found to be employed in lower-paying positions in the service sector. Additionally, support for the lack of congruence between college preparation and job demands in provided by Katz (2000). While examining job descriptions in different economic sectors, Katz reported a decline in the levels of knowledge and skills needed to perform many jobs in the industrial sector, particularly those in the areas of engineering and computing innovation.

Our study has important implications extending to enrollment policies, college enrollment management and research. From a policy perspective, this study exposes the danger of enacting college enrollment policies that are not aligned with the realities of national and regional labor markets (ECLAC 2001). Contrary to expectations, public policy for almost two decades has favored majors associated with higher than anticipated job dissatisfaction and unemployment rates. This policy has also favored majors that are incongruent with labor market demands. Our examination of changes in enrollment distribution also underscores the little influence federal and state governmental actions and policies have on individuals’ choice of college majors. Enrollment caps, rather than shifting the distribution of students from traditional to novel majors, altered the distribution of public-private enrollment. Students voted with their feet enrolling at private universities eager to offer the kind of college majors public universities shied away from (ANUIES 2003a, b).

From a college enrollment perspective, the importance of major-job congruence connection indicates that universities can and should play a crucial role in the link between higher education and the labor market. Their effort may concentrate on the major itself by making certain it fulfills vocational interests and abilities functionally aligned to occupations (e.g., Holland 1997; Pascarella and Terenzini 2005; Elton and Smart 1988; Wolniak and Pascarella 2005). The literature seems to follow two approaches for making certain this linkage takes place. One approach seeks to single out those competencies deemed critical by educational leaders and employers (Jones 1996). The other approach adopts content validation strategies targeted to jobholders. The basic tenant is to define the relevant knowledge, values and abilities that enable a college graduate to succeed in the job under a variety of conditions (Roberson et al. 2002). It is also important to note that the correlates of job satisfaction among Mexican college graduates are remarkably consistent with the literature. Income, economic sector, type of job, job position and congruence between college major and the job are as valid correlates of job satisfaction among European (e.g., Vila et al. 2007) and American college graduates (e.g., Wolniak and Pascarella 2005) as they are among Mexican college graduates. This finding argues on behalf of conducting international studies that would provide a better context for understanding how these factors operate for different majors across different countries. Finally, future Latin American alumni studies could profit from some of the lessons learned in this study. Those include the need to incorporate multi-facet measures of job satisfaction similar to those developed by Hackman and Oldham’s (1980). Of course, they should be modified or even revamped to better reflect the conditions and characteristics of these societies. Equally important is to work with multiple objective indicators of congruence. Some objective measures could be developed by having an inventory of different occupations. Others could be collected via standardized instruments while the individual is still in college. Having a variety of congruence measures collected over time could greatly help Latin American universities enhance their knowledge as to how vocational choices in Latin American countries operate in the labor force. Certainly this information could assist their college counselors in orienting college students as to the occupational opportunities open to different majors, while paying attention to their vocational inclinations and abilities (Spokane et al. 2000; Wolniak and Pascarella 2005).

Altogether, these measures would greatly help universities to move from hunch-based policies to a better knowledge of the actual demands in the labor market.