PROFESSIONAL PLACEMENT OF SOCIAL EDUCATION GRADUATES. ANALYSIS OF CHARACTERISTICS OF WORK INSERTION PROCESS AND PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION

Abstract

During the fifteen years, since the social education degree course was approved in 1991, the presence of professionals from this field in the labour market has increased. The aim of this article is to reflect on the level of professional recognition currently enjoyed by social educators. Our findings are based on data and conclusions obtained from recent studies of professional placement among social educators. Some of those studies contain research carried out with graduates in social education from the University of Girona, who completed their studies between 1996 and 2004. We present the most important data on the employability of social education graduates and the characteristics of the positions. Based on that, we assess their current level of professional recognition. In our conclusions we reflect on the university’s role in training social educators as an element which might have some influence on this recognition.