María José González Solaz
Microcredentials Director Rectorado Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera
María José González has a bachelor’s degree and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Valencia. Her specialty is Organizational Psychology. She was on a scholarship throughout all her career. She has a Master’s degree in Marketing from ADEIT. She entered the marketplace at the age of 19. She started working as a Postal Officer in Correos y Telégrafos with internship contracts that allowed her to make a living while she pursued her degree. This job was great at the time, but not what she wanted for the rest of her working life. Once she graduated, she began her professional career in various activities related to Psychology with part-time jobs that allowed her to afford her postgraduate Master’s degree and undergo doctoral courses.
Upon completion of the Master’s program, she became an entrepreneur. After 18 months in business, the company had to close. What she initially interpreted as a failure and even went so far as to hide it in during job interviews, finally turned out to be a priceless experience. Her next boss told her that he had hired her because she was much more seasoned than people her age. She joined a small advertising agency as a junior on commission in the Accounts department. Subsequently, the company was acquired by a consulting firm, and there she continued working as an account executive, adding to her profile the contents of a communications consultant.
At the same time, she began her career as a university lecturer. She joined CEU as an associate professor. Gradually, she reversed the trend: from full-time consultant and part-time lecturer, she became a full-time lecturer, maintaining, during this time, her relationship with the professional world. As a professor, she has also worked as an associate professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Valencia, and in various business schools, companies and associations throughout Spain. When CEU went from being an Appointed Center to the CEU Cardenal Herrera University, she assumed management responsibilities: Department Director, Vice-Dean, and PhD Program Coordinator. And from November 2011 to June 2023 she was Vice Provost for Students and University Life. Her teaching experience highlights her participation in various activities to improve the student experience and in international networks. She has several scientific publications and has led doctoral theses. As Vice Provost, the focus of her work has been the students: taking care of them to ensure their integration, that they have a rich experience at the University—for which she created Campus Life–, that they learn in a safe environment, and that they achieve a competitive graduate profile in the marketplace.
Her basic training leads her to ensure that students acquire a complete competencies profile that will allow them to function in a globalized world. Therefore, one of her most innovative projects is the Certification of Competences: They started the course in the 2012-2013 academic year by defining their own Soft Skills model; in 2015 they began to certify the various competencies that a CEU undergraduate student acquired during their time at the University; in 2019 the model was transformed and accelerated as they incorporated the emerging concept of Microcredentials and began to use Open Badges as digital certification of competencies. They currently have a Microcredentials Ecosystem that is audited by their Quality Assurance System and use the most advanced technology: Open Badges V3.0. And in fact, her next responsibility at the University is to be Director of Microcredentials, something she values very positively since it is the consolidation and growth of a project that started from scratch and is now a brilliant reality that has a brilliant future.
In this changing world, she continues studying because the need for upskilling-reskilling affects us all: she has been certified as a EuroPsy Specialist in Work and Organizational Psychology, (WOP)—the highest European standard—and has been accredited in the ISO 10667 Standard for People Assessment. She was selected as a CEU facilitator under the CEU-CCL agreement, which has meant for her leaving her comfort zone with the incorporation of facilitation skills for teaching.
She is married and has two college-age children. In them, she sees firsthand the commitment that universities must have with their students and society itself. She likes to think of herself as one of those people who “makes things happen,” and that’s the impact she wants to have on students, so that they will be the ones who move society in the future.