Optional External Practicum

Coordination

• Anna Maria Dalmau Roda

Objectives

The Elective External Practices subject is fundamentally designed to improve the application of knowledge in professional practice. It allows you to do a longer internship or delve into other subjects when changing institutions with respect to the mandatory internships.

The subject Elective External Practices has as objectives:

• Learn more about the organizational structure of a company or entity.
• Make the tasks of a biologist your own.
• Apply the knowledge to your professional practice.
• Deepen and relate scientific and technological concepts from various subjects of the degree.
• Participate and reflect on the situations specific to a professional activity.

Learning outcomes

• RA1. Design and develop a work plan based on previous instructions from the expert that are different from, or complementary to, those of the External Practices I subject.
• LO2. Learn more about the use of the laboratory instruments needed to carry out the practices correctly.
• LO3. Knows and applies teamwork and communication mechanisms.
• LO4. Critically analyzes the results obtained in the experiments and exercises developed in the practices.
• LO5. Poses and solves problems that have not been dealt with in the subject External Practices I.
• LO6. Write an internship report correctly using the appropriate terminology.
• LO7. He knows the dedication and perseverance that scientific work requires.
• LO8. Acts with commitment and responsibility in the usual situations and in those typical of the profession.
• RA9. Solves problems and situations specific to professional performance with entrepreneurial and innovative attitudes.
• RA10. It moves with desymboltura in the general use of ICT and, especially, in the technological environments specific to the professional field.
• RA11. Uses oral language (verbal and non-verbal) appropriately in personal and professional interaction in Catalan, Spanish and English.
• LO12. It collects and interprets data and information on which it can base its conclusions, which include reflections on matters of a social, scientific or ethical nature.

Skills

General skills

• Be prepared to overcome adversity in professional activity and learn from mistakes in order to integrate knowledge and enhance one's preparation
• Endeavor to combine independence and personal initiative with teamwork in multidisciplinary activities.

Specific skills

• Master basic laboratory techniques in biology, apply protocols and use appropriate instruments, observing safety norms and correctly interpreting the results obtained.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues.

Core skills

• Display professional skills in complex multidisciplinary contexts, working in networked teams, whether face-to-face or online, through use of information and communication technology.
• Project the values of entrepreneurship and innovation in one's academic and professional career, through contact with a variety of practical contexts and motivation for professional development.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

• Organizational aspects of a company or entity
• Functions specific to a biologist and his professional environment
• Methodologies for working with interdisciplinary teams of professionals
• Research methodologies, data analysis and report writing
• Processes developed in the company or entity
• Communication with professionals of the same or different discipline

Evaluation

The annex to the agreement specifies the tutors associated with the student in this practice subject, both from the company or entity and from the University.

The tutor of the external entity is the person appointed by the entity who maintains constant contact with the student and accompanies him throughout the internship period. The institution's tutor must fill in the evaluation form provided by the UVic-UCC academic tutor, in which:

• General aspects of the student's activity
• Achievement of the learning outcomes associated with the competencies
• Development of the assigned tasks during the stay at the institution
• Overall assessment of the student's activity during the internship
• Strong points to highlight and aspects to improve

The UVic-UCC academic tutor ensures compliance with the internship program, monitors it and asks the company or entity for an assessment of the internships completed by the student. The academic tutor is the person responsible for correcting and evaluating the report.

The final evaluation of the subject is made by the UVic-UCC academic tutor, who obtains the grade taking into account the following items:

• Evaluation of the external tutor: 60%
• Practice report: 20%
• Assessment of the academic tutor: 20%

They are grounds for "suspension" in curricular practices:

• Non-compliance with the hours corresponding to the internship stay at the company or entity.
• Failure to submit the internship report within the deadlines and with the established requirements.
• Non-fulfillment of the tasks assigned to the student (as part of the internship) in the company or entity.
• Lack of discipline, breach of the code of ethics or breach of confidentiality.

Methodology

In the year you want to do an internship, you must register for this subject together with the other subjects of the course during the July registration.

1. Notify that you want to do an internship

At the beginning of the year in which the internship is to be done, the student must notify it by filling out the form "Notification of intention to do an internship during the course" which is in the center classroom, in the practice section.

Once the internship coordination knows which students want to do an internship that year, mandatory orientation and training sessions are planned to help students prepare their resumes and cover letters and to learn how to conduct an interview.

From internship coordination and the Professional Careers Service, the student is accompanied in the search for their internship position.

2. Request for an internship agreement

When the student has already contacted an external company or entity and been accepted, they must fill out the form "Application for internship agreement", which you can find in the center classroom, in the practice section.

Once the form is filled out online must send a copy of the DNI and CV by email to carreres.professionals@uvic.cat.

3. Signature of the annex to the agreement

Once the agreement request form is filled in, the Careers Service prepares the annex to the agreement for the student in question. The agreement between the company or entity and the UVic-UCC must already be signed (if not, it is signed then).

This annex to the agreement is sent by email to the company or entity, the student and the UVic tutor. In this way, all parties involved have all the information associated with this internship (the UVic-UCC tutor, the company tutor, the period...).

4. Realization of practices

• It is essential that the agreement and the annex have been signed before starting the internship in order to have valid insurance coverage (compulsory school insurance, accident insurance and civil liability insurance).
• When starting the internship, the student must contact the UVic tutor to establish how the follow-up will be done, to find out how it will be evaluated and how the report should be.
• You cannot be at the company from the final date stated in the annex to the agreement.

5. Delivery of the memory

Once the internship period has ended, a report must be handed in through the corresponding space in the internship classroom within 10 days after completing the internship. In internships that end at the end of January, the beginning of June or the end of August, the report must be prepared during the stay and must be delivered no later than January 30, 5 of June or September 5. That way they can evaluate before the closing of the proceedings.

It must be remembered that each internship subject has an associated report, even if consecutive internship subjects are taken at the same company or entity. In addition to sending it to the UVic tutor, the report must be posted in the corresponding space of the Moodle practice classroom.

6. Evaluation

Based on the monitoring of the student, the internship report received and the report made by the tutor or external tutor, the UVic tutor evaluates the internship.

others

• The agreement is the document that regulates the collaboration between the company or entity and the University. The annex to the agreement is the specific document for a specific student in which all the details of the internship are specified (student details, tutors, period, tasks, skills...).
• It should be borne in mind that carrying out an internship in a company or organization does not entail any employment relationship (Royal Decree 1791/2010, of December 30).
• No annex can exceed the date of September 14, the official day of the end of the academic year. In addition, to facilitate the evaluation of practices, agreements are only made until August 15.
• In case either of the two parties, student or company, wants to end the internship before the established deadline, it is necessary to notify the UVic tutor and fill in the termination form in the annex.

Extracurricular practices (PEC)

If they want to do extracurricular internships, the student must contact the company where they want to do the internship and fill in the "Agreement Request Form" with all the data. You can find it in the center classroom. Once sent, the Careers Service prepares the documentation so that the agreement between University and company can be signed and a tutor can be assigned to the student. From here the procedure is the same as in the curricular practices.

In UAcademic, accessible from the main page of the UVic Virtual Campus, you can consult the University's PEC offers for each degree.

The evaluation of the PEC follows the same procedure as the curricular practices (PC): based on the follow-up done to the student, the practice report received and the report made by the tutor or external tutor, the tutor of UVic evaluates the practices. Since they are not curricular practices, the grade can only be pass or fail.