Employability skills developed by non-traditional students along their undergraduate program

This paper was developed in the context of the European project EMPLOY (Enhancing the employability of non-traditional students in higher education, Erasmus Plus Program 2015-2017), a qualitative, interdisciplinary and biographical research focusing on nontraditional university students and graduates from six European countries (Sweden, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal and Spain). The project aims are, among others: a) to understand the employability from the perspective of students and graduates; b) to increase knowledge and understanding of the factors that promote or hinder employability; c) to explore the impact of age, gender, social class, ethnicity and disability in employment prospects of students; etc. In spite of the fact that university graduates are in better conditions when accessing to the labor market, non-traditional students might experience special difficulties related to their specific characteristics. We lack of disaggregated information related to employment rates for higher education graduates and there is not specific research which deepens in the transition process of non-traditional groups. Our study is concerned with identifying which employability skills have been developed by non-traditional students during their stay at the University of Seville. For this purpose we consider the formal learning associated to their syllabuses, the extracurricular training they have been involved in, as well as the previous work experiences. We have carried out seven biographical in-depth interviews with students of the University of Seville (4 females, 3 males), all of them studying degrees in different areas of knowledge: Pedagogy, Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, Pharmacy, Biology and Business Management. All participants were in the final year of their undergraduate program. In addition, all of them represented different characteristics of non-traditional students: adult and mature students (3), immigrants (2) and learners with low economic and cultural capital (2). As for the results and following the classification of professional competences raised by Bunk (1994), we note that through the university syllabuses students developed the methodological competence, that is the reaction from previous experiences and problem solving skills. However, work experience and extracurricular activities promoted social competence, one that enables them to collaborate with others in a communicative and constructive way, showing interpersonal understanding. In addition, in the three training fields, the specific skills or qualifications of the job, technical competence, were also developed. Finally, it can be noted that in the three areas considered in our analysis, there is a lack in the development of the participatory competence, which refers to coordination and organisational skills, leadership and ability to make decisions and take responsibility.Unión Europea 2014-1-UK01-KA203-00184

Growth in an oil abundant economy: The case of Venezuela

This paper has been presented at DEGIT-X held in México 2005.-- Revised: 2008-08.non-renewable resources, growth accounting, TFP, oil rents

Growth in Overlapping Generation Economies with Non-Renewable Resources

Published as an article in: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2005, vol. 50, issue 2, pages 387-407.overlapping generations, exogenous technological progress, non-renewable resources, balanced growth path

R&D Policy in Economies with Endogenous Growth and Non-Renewable Resources

The aim of this paper is to analyze how active R&D policies affect the growth rate of an economy with endogenous growth and non-renewable resources. We know from Scholz and Ziemens (1999) and Groth (2006) that in infinitely lived agents (ILA) economies, any active R&D policy increases the growth rate of the economy. To see if this result also appears in economies with finite lifetime agents, we developed an endogenous growth overlapping generations (OLG) economy à la Diamond which uses non-renewable resources as essential inputs in final good’s production. We show analytically that any R&D policy that reduces the use of natural resources implies a raise in the growth rate of the economy. Numerically we show that in economies with low intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES), active R&D policies lead the economy to increase the depletion of non-renewable resources. Nevertheless, we find that active R&D policies always imply increases in the endogenous growth rate, in both scenarios. Furthermore, when the IES coefficient is lower (greater) than one, active R&D policies affect the growth rate of the economy in the ILA more (less) than in OLG economies.endogenous growth, R&D, non-renewable resources, overlapping generations, infinitely lived agents, balanced growth path

Puesta en marcha de un protocolo de extracción química de colágeno de huesos arqueológicos

Proyecto fin de carrera en Biología Evolutiva y BiodiversidadEste proyecto se ha centrado en el establecimiento de un protocolo de extracción de colágeno de restos óseos, que ha permitido extraer este componente de una manera más o menos rutinaria, sin contaminantes, y además con un buen rendimiento, en el Laboratorio de Poblaciones del Pasado (Dpto. de Biología) de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. El material utilizado para este propósito han sido restos óseos humanos procedentes de un osario excavado en Almansa, datado entre los siglos XIII-XVIII. El protocolo seguido para su extracción ha sido el empleado por el Laboratorio de Geocronología del Instituto de Química-Física Rocasolano (CSIC) derivado del método descrito por Longin (1971) con modificaciones (DeNiro y Epstein, 1981), en el que existen tres pasos fundamentales: la desmineralización de la muestra, la eliminación de contaminantes orgánicos, y la gelatinización o solubilización del colágeno. El objetivo de ello es aplicar técnicas modernas al estudio del registro osteoarqueológico como el análisis de isótopos estables de carbono (C) y nitrógeno (N) (δ13C y δ15N) a través de IRMS (Espectrometría de Masas de Relaciones Isotópicas), que permiten conocer aspectos biológicos de estas poblaciones tales como los referidos a la alimentación e incluso a los patrones de destete

"Avía caído una gran torre": la asimilación de funciones entre el gigante y los seres híbridos mitológicos

El presente artículo estudia la asimilación de funciones narrativas entre la figura del gigante y algunos seres mitológicos (sagitarios o centauros y grifos) como una de las innovaciones narrativas de los libros de caballerías de la segunda mitad del siglo xvi. Los resultados se presentan a partir del análisis de algunos episodios del Libro primero del valeroso y inuencible Príncipe don Belianís de Grecia y del Félix Magno