Abstract:

The curricular internships that students carry out in companies are part of the student's study plan as part of their training. However, the practices provide an additional element in the training: the possibility of developing knowledge and skills different from those acquired in the classroom. For this reason, it is important to analyze these competencies from the perspective of the role they play in the employability of the students who participate in the internships. Before starting the empirical analysis, we have proceeded to validate the questionnaire. This is a common requirement of any survey, which can be done in two steps: qualitative validation and quantitative contrast. In this case, a qualitative validation is performed. We have used qualitative methodology. A questionnaire has been developed based on three main aspects: the bibliographic review of the contributions of experts in the analysis of competencies for employability, the requirements of labor market and the sociocultural environment of students and academic. We first obtain a questionnaire made up of thirty-seven questions that cover all aspects of the competence, as well as the motivational aspects and the relationship between the practices and the studies carried out. In addition, the basic hypotheses of the dimensions that make up employability will be extracted. The items in this questionnaire have been classified according to the main employability criteria or factors. Subsequently, the questionnaire has been subjected to the evaluation of six experts who have evaluated each item according to two criteria: relevance and importance of each item of the questionnaire. Finally, a questionnaire has been obtained with 21 questions that include the four basic aspects of the role of practices in the enforceability of graduates and that we justify from a theoretical point of view, so called the employability dimensions: “motivations”, “learning, reflection and maturity competences”, “organization and management competences” and “suitability of the internships”. The process described here allows the use of the questionnaire to carry out the empirical analysis of employability.

Keywords:

Internships, Skills, questionnaire validation.