RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

406 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Only one of the people interviewed has a high opinion on the young graduates’ training,
while 5 believe that universities train them well, but professional training courses are needed
to deepen theoretical and practical knowledge and facilitate integration in the workplace. There
is a number of 4 persons interviewed who consider that the youngsters’ training in school
was insufficient and their competences do not meet the company’s exigencies, as the youngsters
are not connected to the market’s realities.
In what regards the curricula being adapted to the company’s development needs, the
answers identified the following directions: 5 of the people interviewed said that the current
curriculum implies theoretical approaches but insufficient practical aspects (which should test
theoretical notions).
“The student needs to cease being anonymous, by participating in various events/trainings/by
volunteering…something which shows the willingness to make efforts, to go outside
the comfort zone…or else you will not be able to rely on him in project crises” (General director,
software company).
Other answers are given by interviewees who believe that the curriculum is obsolete and
does not answer the challenges of the work market. There is also a group of people who appreciate
the quality of the curricula, but this group is represented by a mere 2 people.
“I believe it depends very much on a person’s profile. With young people in IT, the level
is generally, good, and they are supported in training well, but in other fields, it is more difficult”
(Product Developer, IT company).
We need to highlight, however, that most employees have a positive opinion about the
quality of the curricula (7 out of 10 appreciate it as good and very good, yet the most frequent
criticism is that theoretical approaches are more frequent than practical ones). This aspect
can be correlated with the employers’ opinion about the employees’ quality (treated above),
where the company representatives made recommendations for trainings, to facilitate integration
in the workplace (from employees), and the need to develop supplementary competences
to the ones built during studies (from young employees). This shows that there is a
need to find ways in which to go from theory to practice or from the general to particular.
In what regards the best ways to ensure collaboration between universities and private
companies, 8 out of the 10 interviews specified explicitly the notion of internship. We can
illustrate this by means of two opinions that we consider relevant:
“The very existence of a connection/collaboration between companies and universities is
a step forward for both entities. No matter the form taken by this collaboration, while things
work well and both parties are open to collaboration, everybody will have something to gain:
companies (for image and easy access to the human resource), universities (to differentiate
themselves from other universities, in terms of facilities offered to students), and last, but most
importantly, students, who can get in contact with prospective employers while still studying”
(Managing Partner, private PR company)
“Through internship, the student connects to the life as employee, learns a lot of things,
is motivated – even if by an insignificant sum – and also has the possibility to know new people,
trained in his/her field of interest. In this way, upon graduation, his will not be yet another
CV in a stack of 1000 more, but the one who worked as an intern in company X and someone
can tell me what sort of person s/he is” (Marketing specialist, representative of Embassy
in Romania).