Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying social representations of business administration students regarding the concepts of the graduate profile, professional training, and business engineer to subsequently interpret and contrast them with the stated graduate career profile and to review the social relevance thereof. This research study has a cross-sectional design and is descriptive in nature, based on qualitative methodology using the natural semantic networks technique, and the applications were developed in group form. The results show that the concept of the graduate profile does not appear to have been considered in-depth, with participants focusing on peripheral traits and setting aside a large part of what the profile establishes regarding innovation and problem-solving skills in a citizenship education context. With regard to professional training, the concepts associated with this construct are mainly ethics, responsibility, and knowledge, with no mention of the knowledge and skills that are more apposite to the profession. Finally, and in terms of the business engineer stimulus, we note that there is a better understanding of the concept, coinciding more precisely with the business engineering profile UC Temuco wishes to achieve.