Being professional

Employability has been defined by the European Commission as a “combination of factors which allow individuals to get a job, stay employed and progress during their career” (European Commission, 2011). This combination of factors represents a key part of the strategy of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University, as this lies behind our desire to ensure our students and alumni have a complete professional profile, based on values, competences and attitudes.

We seek to boost our graduates’ employability by cultivating the value of being different, which, when combined with sound knowledge, will enable them to develop the right competences. These competences will allow our graduates to find a job, continue to grow and finally become distinguished and prestigious professionals within their field. They will be professionals with the skills to be able to drive their career forward, to reinvent the kind of job they have, and even to create employment. .

For this purpose, we provide our students with opportunities to undertake voluntary external practical training, enabling them to gain their first taste of a working environment, to establish contact with real companies, to experience companies’ selection and training processes, and to develop their soft skills. With the commitment of the University and those involved, our students and graduates are more competitive and have a greater chance of success in the job market.

Certificate of Competences

One of our innovations has been to create a new resource for our students to help them stand out from other graduates, find their first job, continue to grow professionally and, if they wish, start their own business. To do this, we have determined a unique set of competences which we believe can differentiate an excellent professional from a good one.

We know that the difference between having studied Medicine, Architecture or Veterinary Medicine and being a doctor, architect or veterinarian are the skills that the latter possess. Therefore, we have set ourselves the goal of ensuring our graduates obtain the full range of competences that they need to be the professionals they have always wanted to be.

On graduation, our students can receive a personalized Certificate from the University, which will record the complete set of competences that they have acquired while at the University.

You can see a sample version of the Certificate of Competences here:

• Model Certificate of Competences in Spanish
• Model Certificate of Competences in English
• Model Certificate of Competences in French

The Certificate of Competences is structured as follows:

• The skills specific to the study program
• Fundamental skills
  • Languages and internationalization
  • Information and IT
  • Research
• Occupational social skills
  • Practical training: compulsory and voluntary
  • Experience at the University
    • Collaboration grants
    • Student interns
    • Internal facilities: clinics, radio, music production, television production, newspaper, school, pharmaceutical practical room, animal husbandry unit, professional services, etc.
• Soft skills developed at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University)
  • Volunteering and ethical commitment
  • University life
  • Personal skills
    • Self-awareness and personal development
    • Interpersonal and social skills
    • Adaptation to and integration into teams
    • Planning for the future and innovation

Go beyond your CV: the Certificate will be of great value to those that know that knowledge is useful, but know-how, willpower and ability is even better.

Catalogue of Competences

Students can develop their range of competences year on year during their Bachelor’s Degree. For this reason, each academic year has its own Catalogue of Competences which are verifiable by the University. Students can periodically check their draft Certificate to ensure that it records all the Competences they have acquired.

Catalogues

How to obtain your Certificate of Competences

• Complete your Bachelor’s Degree Studies at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University. The Certificate is exclusive to our students.
• Request your Certificate via the student intranet. Bachelor’s Degree students can do this via the virtual Secretary’s Office (Secretaría Virtual) on the intranet. The University will undertake all the necessary checks and then create the personalized document for the student, which will be emailed to them. To facilitate this process, it is important that students check their draft Certificate each year to ensure that it records all the competences that they have acquired.