26 February 2025
Bilbao Campus
Deusto opens its doors to talent on February 26 and 27 with the celebration of the XX Employment and Entrepreneurship Forum, a classic event at the University that brings together more than 2,000 students and recent graduates in search of employment. More than 70 companies and entities from various sectors participate in this meeting, seeking and recruiting their future professionals. In the last edition of the forum, 237 people found jobs.
The rector of Deusto, Juan José Etxeberria, inaugurated the Forum on February 26 during a breakfast in which he spoke of university employment as “one of the great challenges of our time”. He assures that the global labor market is undergoing an unprecedented transformation and, in this context, the University must accompany professionals in their labor market insertion. “Today more than ever, guidance and labor intermediation are key to respond to a market marked by Artificial Intelligence, sustainability, demographics and globalization,” he points out. He also stressed that, at Deusto, employability is addressed from a comprehensive approach, combining guidance, training and connection with the business fabric.
In addition to employment, the Rector emphasizes that entrepreneurship is promoted as a means of professional development, providing support to those who seek to transform their ideas into viable projects. But beyond generating opportunities, he stated that the University's responsibility is to train new generations not only in technical skills, but also in values, with the aim of contributing to a more equitable and sustainable labor market.
This was followed by Marta Aguilar, corporate director of Deusto Business School-Madrid, whose conference on leadership and talent management offered a new perspective on caring for people in the professional environment. In her speech, she spoke of “giraffe leaders”, those who combine head, heart and action: leaders with courage who think about people. He also addressed the concept of humanism in the company, which occurs when the dignity of people is placed at the center. In this sense, he explained that the team is the main client of a boss, who must lead by example, care for and listen to his employees.
He also referred to the rule of the two Cs (in Spanish) to achieve excellence: quality + warmth, arguing that the “what” is easily replaceable, but the “how” makes the difference. In this line, he stressed that “it is necessary to lead from love and not from fear”, since, in most cases, people leave companies because of problems with their superiors. For this reason, he emphasized the importance of communicating, listening and dedicating quality time. Finally, he valued simplicity, describing it as “the virtue of the wise”.
Talent retention
The inauguration was followed by a debate moderated by Begoña Marañón, director of Cadena SER Euskadi, on “University employment: Attracting and retaining talent”. In her presentation, Susana González, Director General of Employment of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, said that rather than talking about talent retention, we should focus on building an economic and business system in which young people want to stay. Along the same lines, Javier Garcinuño, general manager of Bilbao Ekintza, argued that institutions should generate the right conditions for companies to take root and create quality jobs that attract talent from abroad, something beneficial for everyone.
For her part, María Teresa Martínez, director of labor activation of Lanbide, detailed the actions they carry out to accompany people in their labor market insertion and recruitment aids. Finally, Oihane Aldayturriaga, from Obra Social BBK, put on the table the importance of creating an ecosystem that facilitates the exchange of information on how to adapt to the new environment and improve the connection between training and the needs of the labor market.
The Forum includes, in addition to the companies' stands, a large number of activities to better prepare for the labor market. Among them, highlights the celebration of several round tables with industry experts who, organized in collaboration with the various faculties of the University, will deepen around the latest trends in consulting, banking, AI and Biga Data, digital transformation and sustainability of the industry, in fitness and sports training and tourism, as well as on the possibilities of work in European institutions. There are also company presentations, talks and workshops.
20 years of Forum
The Forum, with 20 years of experience, is an example of the University's commitment to professional development and incorporation into the labor market. For Deusto, employability means responding to the needs of university talent and accompanying its graduates in their preparation for the labor market. A task that the latest data on labor market insertion successfully endorse by raising the employment rate of Deusto graduates to 92% three years after completing their studies. As far as the activity rate is concerned, it is 91%, which means that nine out of ten recent graduates set out to find employment as soon as they obtained their degree.
More data: The average time spent looking for their first job is 3 months, employment related to their studies is 78% and 94% of the people surveyed work in the service sector. The weight of stable employment over the total is 68% and 76% work and live in the Basque Country.
