Abstract:

Internships have been widely used in higher education, particularly in courses with a more practical component (e.g. nursing or medicine), but also in education and business studies courses, among others. More recently, different scientific fields have introduced an internship period in their syllabuses, which presupposes the training of students in a work context. Some of these internships are compulsory subjects, while others are optional.

The benefits offered by an internship are diverse. For the majority of cases, it acts as the student's first contact with a real work environment and provides an opportunity to apply and amplify the knowledge acquired in the degree. Simultaneously, the internship is vital for the consolidation and development of transversal competencies viewed as fundamental for students' employability. Although it is recognized that internships are positive learning opportunities, this experience is not always useful in the short term. Often the success of the internship is dependent not only on a process of students' adaptation to the business reality, but also on how they are guided and monitored by supervisors.

Since 2006, with the creation of short-cycle higher technical courses (Cursos Técnicos Superiores Profissionais - TESP), the Portuguese Government and Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have bet in this compact format to prepare pre-adults and adults for future professional careers.These courses last for two academic years (120 ECTS) and are composed of a set of subjects organized into general, scientific, and technical components with a 30 ECTS internship in the last semester of the course. In order to enhance the learning outcomes resulting from these short-cycle courses, a more sustained understanding of the benefits and obstacles perceived by students during their internship is needed.

There are some studies on the usefulness of internships undertaken at undergraduate and graduate levels. However, to the best of our knowledge, literature has been disregarding this specific technical level of education.This paper aims to fill this gap, describing and presenting results of perceptions of students enrolled in the internship subject of one TESP. More specifically, the objectives for this paper are:
(i) to explore students’ perception of internship benefits;
(ii) to identify the obstacles students faced; and,
(iii) to examine the skills students consider to have improved as a result of their internship.

A survey was conducted to ask all 28 students enrolled in the internship subject of the Sales, Management and Marketing TESP course at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in the second semester of 2018/2019. The purpose was to identify benefits and obstacles perceived during the initial months of training and to evaluate improved skills. A quantitative methodology was used to describe and analyse the results. Despite some difficulties pointed out by students in adapting to a work context in the first weeks, the results show that they considered having improved their learning outcomes,and some interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, oral and written communication, autonomy, and decision-making, were highlighted. Additionally, students mentioned that the internship opened doors to future employment. Thus, this study provides relevant cues for teachers and course directors in order to minimize weaknesses and maximize strengths of internships, aiming at a better articulation between HEI and companies.

Keywords:

Benefits, employability skills, internship, obstacles, skills, students’ perception.