Abstract:

The external academic internships are an academic activity in which students develop learning in a professional context. This is a training experience, which aim to supplement and apply, in a professional context, the competences and knowledge acquired during the degree. The overall aim of internships is to enable students to develop competences that prepare them to become competent professionals capable of coping with current and future job demands.

The aim of this work is to present the information collected during several academic years from the reports of curricular external internships carried out by the students of the last academic year of the Degree in Food Science and Technology.

The skills acquired in the university degree necessary to carry out the internships as well as the development of new skills in the industrial context have been analysed. In addition, the impression of the students in the internship experience has been taken into account, as well as the evaluation of the company tutor.

The experience of the analysis of academic internships shows that the practices contribute the comprehensive training of students by completing their theoretical and practical learning. Possible improvements in the monitoring and adaptation of these practices in the university learning context are proposed, being a useful tool to successfully develop this subject.

Keywords:

Higher education, academic internships, learning experience.