Authorities of the Senescyt call young people to apply in non-traditional careers that are necessary for the ...
Authorities of the Senescyt call young people to apply in non-traditional careers that are necessary for the country.
The first phase to apply to access superior education started on August 6th to 9th. There are 124,590 vacancies this year in 2,233 careers. However, certain degrees tend to overload due to a higher demand.
The authorities of the National Secretary of Superior Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (Senescyt) recommends young people to choose a career with a lower demand and high profitability and employability, such as those linked to the environment.
According to a statement delivered by this institution, degrees in Environmental Engineering, Renewable Natural Resources Engineering, Forestry Engineering, and Tourism are poorly demanded among students, despite the fact that the supply is diverse and has a high level of employability and entrepreneurship. Technical degrees are also recommended, as students can get a degree in a shorter period of time which shall enable them to access the labour market.
The Senescyt suggests making responsible decisions when applying for a degree, considering every aspect that might help students to achieve their goals in the future. In order to do that, young people must analyze their real options to get a vacancy based on their Ser Bachiller test score, and the level of demand of the degree to prevent drop outs.
Edwin Palma, deputy secretary of access to Superior Education, invited young people to apply in 24,445 vacancies available in Technical and Technological institutes, which have a lower demand than universities.
“We are making this call for three reasons: to begin with, these are also superior education level degrees; secondly, these degrees enable entrepreneurship and labour market access; and thirdly, they are shorter”, he explained.
Medicine is one of the most demanded degrees. “The demand in Medical School degrees is too high and it reduces the chances of applicants of getting a vacancy. Therefore, we recommend them to start looking into different career possibilities instead of traditional degrees, which are not necessarily linked to the greater formal employment opportunities”, said the expert.
Around 64% of applicants are interested in only 16 degrees, but the employment opportunities of the five most demanded degrees –Medicine, Business Administration, Law, Psychology, and Communication- are around 4.3% in the country’s labor market.
Authorities suggest students to pursue careers linked to healthcare, such as Chemical Technology, which is rather unpopular and would enable graduates to work in healthcare areas with greater employment opportunities. Other examples include Geosciences, Polymers, and Industrial Maintenance, highly demanded in the country’s manufacture sector, and only selected as first choice by 17 people during the first semester of 2018.
According to the Senescyt, by June 2018, 29.4% of employment in Ecuador was developed in sectors such as Agriculture, Cattle, Hunting, Forestry, and Fishing. However, degrees in Bioeconomics, Ecosystems, and Water Science Engineering registered a small number of applicants.
“Efforts must be focused on providing more information on these degrees, telling people about subjects, the graduate’s profile, employment opportunities, etc.” said Palma.
