Competencias profesionales de los postgraduados en el Máster de Ciencias de la Documentación de la UCM desde la perspectiva de empleadores y profesores

Abstract

The present study was designed to identify and assess the importance of the competencies that should beincluded in the curriculum of the Master’s Program in Documentation, Library and Archive Managementoffered by the Facultad de de Ciencias de la Documentación at the Complutense University of Madrid.A questionnaire was developed for the study, which included a set of 29 competencies (skills and knowledge)grouped into five categories: leadership and management, communication, information management,information technology and social skills. The questionnaire was sent to employers in the information sciencecommunity (libraries, archives and documentation centres) and they were asked to assess how important itwas for them to have these skills included in the Master’s Program. The same questionnaire was used forprofessors who teach the Master’s. They were asked, on the one hand, how important each competency is,and were also requested to indicate to what extent these skills are included in the discipline they teach.The three skills that employers value the most are problem solving, the ability to interact with users, and theability to work in teams. Conversely, for professors the most highly valued skills are the ability to synthesizeand analyze information, knowledge of information sources, how to store and retrieve information, andknowing how to navigate communication networks using search engines and other tools. According toprofessors, the skills that receive the most attention in the Master are: the ability to analyze and synthesizeinformation, oral and written communication in the students’ own language, problem solving andknowledge transfer.