Abstract:

As it is the last activity of the student in the university, the final degree project (FDP) has as one of its objectives to be a synthesis of all the knowledge that the student has been acquiring throughout the different courses. At this point, the skills that the student has acquired during the degree are of fundamental importance. In the case of the degree in Economics we will highlight four general skills and two specific ones, which we believe are essential when facing the FDP.

The four general skills are:
1) Ethical commitment and critical and self-critical capacity;
2) Learning capacity and responsibility;
3) Creative and entrepreneurial capacity and
4) Communication capacity (orally and in writing).
The two specific ones are:
5) Ability to make decisions; and
6) Ability to elaborate, analyze and interpret economic information.

Although it is assumed that students have acquired the aforementioned skills throughout their careers, the reality we face as tutors and/or evaluators of FDP is very different and the tutorial work appears even more essential than in the rest of the subjects, throughout the whole FDP process: from the moment of choosing the topic to the final defense before the evaluating board. Our proposal consists of the elaboration of a guide to help FDP tutors in their task of guiding the process of elaboration and defense of the FDP by the student, as well as in the development of their skills in this process.

The first step will consist of relating the above skills (S) to the different stages of the FDP process (P). If we summarize the stages of the FDP as follows:
1) Choice of topic;
2) Collection of information;
3) Evaluate the information;
4) Writing of the work;
5) Oral defense of FDP, and we establish their relationship with the skills analyzed above, we can see the network that is woven between the two. S1 is related to P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5; S2 is also related to all P; S3 is related to P1, P3 and P4; S4 is related to P4 and P5; S5 is related to P1 and P3; and S6 is related to P1, P3 and P4.

The second step would be to establish the main responsibilities of the tutor, which we define as follows:
1) Advise the student in the selection of a suitable topic for the FDP;
2) To offer constructive feedback to improve the quality of the contents;
3) Help the student in the search and evaluation of bibliographic sources;
4) Resolve doubts and provide academic support in general;
5) Help the student to develop a work plan and establish clear objectives and necessary changes;
6) Provide guidance on appropriate methodology;
7) Review and comment on the student's progress in their work; and
8) Prepare the student for the oral defense of the FDP before the examining board, if necessary.

If we relate them to the previous network we can see how the tutor can indeed help to work on the student's essential skills throughout the process. He has to play a guiding and advising role providing the student with any tools he may need. In addition, it is also important that in order to complete the student's skills, the tutor makes him/her understand the importance of effort and motivation.

Consequently, we believe that both an adequate level of exigency and motivation must be combined in the development of the FDP in order to succeed in the objectives of this activity. Finally, the tutor's guide includes a rubric that will allow the tutor to evaluate the student's process step by step and make available proposals for change and improvement.

Keywords:

Student skills, mentoring, final degree project, tutoring.