Ivory tower vs. workplace reality

Abstract

These days employability has not only become a veritable buzzword, but also one of the key indicators in the quality framework of Higher Education (HE) in so far as universities and degrees are regularly measured against the employability rates of their graduates and employers' satisfaction. Accordingly, HE seems to be torn between two conflicting priorities: legitimate academic freedom and teaching autonomy on the one side and the necessary adjustment to constantly changing professional demands and job requirements on the other. Drawing on the Spanish higher education context, the article touches on issues relating to the tense balance between academic and professional practice knowledge in curricular development and the embedding of employability enhancing contents and activities into the T&I curriculum. The main purpose of the present contribution is to take into consideration the TSP employers' view on T&I graduates' employability assets and to promote further discussion by trying to bridge the theory-practice gap and to advocate a curricular approach which allows for balancing academic subject matter and workplace skills in a way that they complement each other in a relevant and beneficial manner.