Centro de estudos sobre a Mudança
Socioeconómica e o Território

The purpose of this research project is to examine employers' strategies to access the skills they need by either recruiting skilled employees from the labour market (LM) or by training internal labour force. Due to the crucial roles played by graduates from higher education (HE) institutions in shaping growth and innovation processes, this RP focuses on HE under- and post-graduates. It explores both anticipative and remedial strategies and pursues five specific goals: 1) identify the employability skills for younger HE graduates in national and international LMs; 2) examine firms’ strategies to access and develop required skills; 3) explore employers' expectations from HE institutions; 4) explore how employers' skill policies affect job quality of younger graduates; 5) explore the relationship between HE and firms. This project has a strong empirical focus and uses national and EU datasets but also collects original data through job advertisements, qualitative interviews and an ad hoc survey.