(MUSIC)
Economists In The First Person. A Mauro Hernández proposal.
We all talk about the economy, even if we don't understand it
so we should ask those who know best, graduates in Business.
They'll tell us who economists are, what they do and what their role is.
I'm José Miguel Moreno Sánchez and I teach Economics
at IES Ramiro de Maeztu in Madrid.
Economics is taught in baccalaureate
both first and second year, after the law was amended.
General Economics in the first year and Business Economics in the second.
Those are the two subjects we teach.
Economics in secondary school...
gives you some basic knowledge
of how a country is run, or a region, or a company.
What you study in your first year helps you learn about General Economics
at the macro and micro levels, with an emphasis on macro.
what's the GDP, CPI inflation, unemployment and how it's measured
public expenditure, public deficit, which are all topical issues
on which kids are interested.
It's quite useful.
I studied Economics and Law at Universidad Carlos III
not as a vocational thing at all.
I studied BUP and COU and we didn't have Economics or Law
which I find lacking in our educational system
that there's no Introduction to Law, Medicine or Health Studies.
If I had taken Economics at school
I'd have gone to university much more convinced.
It'd have been a vocational choice, but I didn't know what Economics was
and I thought about career prospects rather than my vocation
which would have been Journalism or Audiovisual Communication.
But Economics seemed like a good degree to take
even better if combined with Law
and much better at Carlos III with its prestige and all.
That was the reason.
I learnt more in a few months preparing for competitive exams
than studying my degree, because the global approach was missing.
The same happened with the basics, the fundamentals of Economics
which is now taught in baccalaureate.
While preparing for the exams, I came across new concepts
and that made me think: "How is it that I'm learning this now!"
Perhaps I had been a bad student, despite my good marks.
I should have learnt certain things
and kept saying to myself: "How is it that I'm learning this now!"
As I said, what degrees are missing, at least from my experience
is a more practical approach.
We tend to get engrossed in coursebooks
all that theory with its fundamentals
but the learning process, or the pedagogically meaningful one
is achieved through practice
taking a hands-on approach.
In a legal lawsuit, you draft a claim for a concrete case
and you absorb concepts better.
In Economics, I missed having access to research studies
or using statistical analysis tools
or having done some field study.
I do hope that is what Bologna will eventually become.
That students see practical applications after spending time on a subject.
Because I saw that was done in England during my Erasmus year.
I saw the difference between the British system and ours
especially in Economics.
Production: Guillermo Luna. Image: Juan Manuel Segura.
Voice-over and script: Mauro Hernández.