Skills Supply and Skills Demand Among Youth: Object of Concern or Object of Hope?

In the last decades, the world has known an increased demand for professional and high-level technical skills, but at the same time, due to the growth in educational participation, competition for this type of jobs became more intense. At international level, evidence shows that education enhances opportunities in the labour market, but still, in some developing countries, many highly educated young people remain unemployed (UN, 2004, 54-71). One of the key factors for this situation could be an inappropriate matching of university degrees with occupations’ demands. Lately, across Europe, intense efforts have been made to improve education and training systems so they can offer a better response to the economy and society’s needs. Universities are an important partner in this process, due to their statutory purpose of training and preparing viable qualified human resource, which can successfully access jobs on the labour market, satisfy their job demands and, at the same time, be satisfied with their accomplishments. This article explores the topic of skills supply and demand among university graduates, with a focus on the field of social work. In the first two chapters some general aspects of skills supply and demand in Europe and the instruments used in matching them are discussed. The third chapter highlights some specific initiatives of West University of Timisoara (UVT) in increasing employment opportunities for its graduates. The last chapter presents the findings of a recent study, focused on the employability of the students that graduated at the Social Work Department within the UVT.

Keywords: successful professional insertion, skills supply and demand, social work graduates, West University of Timisoara