Early youth is that vital period full of multiple uncertainties and challenges, in which many people ask themselves questions that are difficult to answer about how the adult world really works. It is also the moment when students are “forced” to choose the academic path that will determine their future professional dedication, often without having much information, and without complete advice that will help them make a satisfactory and sufficiently mature decision. .
Jorge González de la Fuente was, years ago, one of those young people who chose to study a career – in his case, Industrial Engineering – without knowing very well the scope of his decision. As he himself explains, “at that time, I would not have dared to tell my father that I wanted to study Fine Arts, for example, because I was expected to choose something that would allow a practical and well-paid integration into the professional field. ”. Later, he discovered that he had a more entrepreneurial and social profile.
For this reason, even though he had a good job as a Director of Key Accounts in a company, he did not hesitate to join his brothers to start NextPlay Z, a professional guidance company that helps young people between 14 and 25. years, to know themselves better, to be able to opt for the best educational option and focus on a more successful professional future.
A study carried out by the SM Foundation confirms that, currently, only 13.8% of students feel accompanied when trying to discover what their professional vocation is. Likewise, 30.3% of those surveyed consider that the guidance information provided is very general, and 20.3% believe that it is rather outdated.
“In Spain, the figure of the vocational counselor has existed for a long time,” explains González de la Fuente, “but it is still very little present in educational centers; and if he is, he usually does not have the necessary tools for his work. Many young people make decisions based on social pressure or job expectations. For this reason, we later found high dropout rates in careers such as Computer Engineering, where in some courses it has reached almost 50%.”
An initiative that fits perfectly with the commitment that Banco Santander has had for more than 27 years with education, employability and entrepreneurship, through a wide range of initiatives from which more than a million people have already benefited. people and companies, with a global investment of more than 2.2 billion euros. The entity is clear that decision-making about future professionals, by the youngest people, is of capital importance when determining their professional success and continuing to contribute to the progress of society as a whole.
As González de la Fuente says, “those people who carry out their work passionately tend to stand out naturally in their environment. Therefore, choosing what really makes us happy is also a good way to obtain the results we want to achieve.” For 5 years, the co-founder of NextPlay Z worked, together with his brothers, on a platform that analyzes the different curricula of the training offer in our country, to cross them with data on the needs of the labor market and the skills that are available. required in the different job profiles.
“Our methodology is based on the analysis of groups of professionals who are happy on a daily basis, in order to identify the personality traits and interests that tend to appear most frequently for each profile,” says this professional counselor. Thanks to this, they have given birth to "a tool that facilitates the fit between students and a possible range of academic and professional options, and that seeks to multiply the effectiveness of the work of counselors in schools and institutes."
The platform also gives special importance to the so-called soft skills, those personal abilities of the students – such as, for example, empathy, communication, the ability to work in a team or social orientation – that are often not sufficiently possessed. taken into account in the selection process, but which are later essential for the performance of many jobs. Reorienting our professional career can also be a key factor in increasing our professional satisfaction and performance throughout life. For this reason, NextPlay Z also offers advice to young people of university age and even professionals looking to relaunch or transform their careers.
In the words of González de la Fuente, “motivation is the key to everything. When we manage to clearly identify our competencies, that is when we are truly in a position to make mature decisions. Self-esteem increases when we really have confidence in our own professional abilities. And this ends up influencing the ease of insertion into the labor market.”
The latest complete study, prepared by the Ministry of Universities, on the abandonment of university studies – which dates back to the period 2015-16 – produces figures that are undoubtedly worrying: 33.2% of new students in the academic year analyzed arrived to drop out of the grade (that is, 1 in every 3 students).
This not only represents a significant expenditure of resources for the Administrations, but also reflects the existence of a social problem regarding the orientation that requires continued decisive progress in this field. For this reason, Banco Santander continues to support initiatives such as the one mentioned above, which offer solutions to young students to help dispel their doubts and help them face their professional future with greater enthusiasm and hope.
