Abstract:

The curricula of the degrees of the Faculty of Experimental Sciences at the University of Jaén include the possibility of undertaking curricular external internships (CEIs), a kind of practical training subject. The credits assigned to these CEIs are 6 in the degree of Environmental Sciences and 12 in the degrees of Biology and Chemistry. To access to this activity students must have passed at least 65% of the total credits required for graduating.
External internships are designed to offer students the opportunity to develop activities in one of the public or private companies and institutions that collaborate with our Faculty. For many students external internships may be their first real contact with the professional working environment. In this activity, students must develop some of the specific skills of their degree, but also other generic skills, such as the teamwork skill, the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, the ability to communicate, and improve their skills in interpersonal relationships.

After three years conducting this activity, it is necessary to evaluate the satisfaction level of students and external tutors, as well as the perception of the students about the role of the internships in their academic training. For this purpose, a descriptive study has been conducted, using the satisfaction surveys as data collection technique.

Each student fills two different questionnaires. The first one is a follow-up questionnaire that is filled during the CEIs period and the second one is a final questionnaire that is filled when the CEIs are finished. These questionnaires include some questions of identification and socio-demographic nature of students (gender, age, qualifications ...) as well as a series of items related to the student's perception about the planning and development of the CEIs. The answer choices range from 1 to 5, with 1 being "very inadequate", 2 "inadequate", 3 "acceptable", 4 “adequate” and 5 "very adequate".

Open questions are also included for complaints, suggestions and proposals for improvement. More specifically, items address the following issues:

• Information received about the organization of the companies or institutions.
• Information received concerning security and occupational hazards.
• Information received on aspects related to the work performed.
• Correlation between the performed tasks and those specified in the initial project.
• Participation of the external tutor on the work developed by the student.
• Knowledge acquired in the CEIs.
• Adequacy of the CEIs to the academic training.

The external tutors from the collaborating entity fill also a report when CEIs have finished. In this report, the external tutor evaluates the student activity during the CEI period and includes the assessment of the generic and specific skills listed in the initial project:

• Technical abilities.
• Learning ability.
• Oral and written communication skills.
• Sense of responsibility.
• Adaptability.
• Creativity and initiative.
• Personal involvement.
• Motivation.
• Relations with their working environment.
• Teamwork ability.

The objective of this work is to analyze the students and external tutors opinions about CEIs. A very important aspect is to detect not only the strengths but also the weaknesses in the development of CEIs. This global analysis could help to propose and to develop new strategies for the establishing of improvement plans from the Faculty in a future.