One of the main challenges faced by university graduates is that of achieving early labor market insertion adjusted to the professional profile for which they have been trained. Not achieving this objective causes them to have significantly low expectations for the future (Gómez Acuñas et al., 2009), in which factors such as the development of training and labor market insertion actions (professional orientation), the possibilities of the labor market in terms of accessing and maintaining a job (employability factors) or the promotion of transversal competencies linked to greater employability, such as motivation for success (García-Álvarez et al., 2023)

This requires an assessment of the conditions of the labor market, since important changes have gradually been introduced in the logic of access to the world of employment. In a changing and competitive scenario such as the current one, companies require people not only capable of intervening at a technical level, but also with skills that allow them to relate to the environment, work in teams, adapt to change, self-motivate and be proactive (Riaño, 2012). In other words, they are expected to have certain skills that help them to define and manage a professional project in the short and medium term, for which they must set realistic academic goals, be perseverant, or develop tolerance to stress, issues linked to adequate achievement motivation (Preckel and Brunner, 2015).

It is a fact that motivation has a direct impact on students' education, constituting one of the most valuable competencies in order to achieve an effective academic and professional promotion (Polanco, 2005). Traditionally, students' effort has been linked to the overcoming of certain situations involving performances (Eison, 1979), as well as the establishment of educational standards that are oriented towards deep learning strategies and that allow achieving a remarkable mastery of skills for personal autonomy and adaptation to the productive environment (Cervantes et al., 2018; Kadioglu & Uzuntiryaki-Kondacki, 2014).

So much so that most of the studies developed have focused on the perspective of results, analyzing the influence of motivation on academic performance, taking into account variables such as learning situations, the type of content or the characteristics of the assessment (Cox, 2012). On the contrary, we did not find references that investigate the factors that determine the degree of motivation of students, such as previous education, social capital, personal characteristics or the socio-economic context.

Considering this last approach, and given the existing differences between degrees (training fields, professional opportunities, insertion logics, access channels, etc.), the aim of the work we present here is to analyze the factors that may influence the perception of a greater or lesser motivation for success in university students of education, selecting academic, personal and work-related variables.

By means of a quantitative methodology, the effect of certain variables on the motivation for success in university students of Education has been analyzed. Specifically, the information was collected through a questionnaire administered at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), which was completed by a total of 259 undergraduates. The 87.4% were women and 12.6% men. They have no previous training (81.9%) and, at the time of completing the survey, 17.4%, in addition to studying, were in active employment. In relation to the motivation for the choice of career, about half of the respondents (47.1%) stated that they had made a vocational choice. For data analysis we used the Mann-Whitney U test to study the existence of significant differences in students' achievement motivation according to the following variables: gender, vocation, previous education, average academic record and employment status. To analyze the influence of parents' educational level on student motivation, the Kruskall-Wallis test was applied; in this case, post-hoc comparisons were performed using the Dunn-Bonferroni method. The significance level chosen for all tests was α=.05.

The analysis of the data shows the existence of significant differences in terms of gender (U=2913.5, p=.048), in such a way that the female group claims to be more motivated. The fact of having previous studies is also a conditioning factor, finding differences compared to those who did not have previous degrees (U=7177, p<.000). In addition, a greater motivation is perceived in the students who carried out their studies in a vocational manner (U=7113, p=.041). Regarding to social capital, differences are observed in the level of education of both fathers (H=16.11, p<.000) and mothers (H=12.21, p=.002). Moreover, in the pairwise comparisons there is a strong significance in the fact that fathers (p=.03) and mothers (p<.000) have university studies, in relation to those who have not reached this educational level. The same occurs if the studies they have completed are primary or secondary, compared to those fathers (p<.000) and mothers (p<.000) who have no studies. However, no differences in motivation are observed when we compare parents with primary or secondary studies and those with university studies. Finally, no significant differences in motivation were found in relation to variables such as academic record or employment status. Thus, we identify a student profile whose self-perceived achievement motivation varies according to variables such as gender, previous education, vocation, or social capital.

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