Practicum IV (19BBA99009)

General information

Type:	OB	Curs:	4	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	20 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Ed: 1	Joan Noguera Ustrell	Dirección de Personas y Organización	ESP

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Ed: 2	Joan Noguera Ustrell	Dirección de Personas y Organización	ESP

The internship course is a key learning opportunity within the BBA curriculum for a number of reasons. Amongst these is the fact that, depending on the basis of the tasks the students perform in the company, they will be able to put into practice the knowledge acquired from the range of courses they have completed. Therefore, applying the knowledge required to carry out the responsibilities assigned to students by the companies will enable them to revise what has been learnt in the different courses studied up until then.

The proposed workload for the internship are set out below and correspond to 20 ECTS,awarded on its successful completion:

Hours dedicated to the professional component of the internship: a minimum of 450 hours within the company. Students may extend their work placement up to a total of 900 hours. However, this is considered voluntary.

Hours dedicated to the academic component of the internship: 50 hours

The approximate distribution of the hours dedicated to academic activities is as follows:
- Pre-internship classroom sessions: 5 hours
- Independent study: 40 hours
- Tutorials with an Academic Tutor: 5 hours.

The two dimensions of the internship course involve work experience in conjunction with critical reflection on this professional activity. It thus contributes to one of the aims of the undergraduate programme, namely, to train students to be both people and professionals capable of self-reflection and critical analysis of what occurs around them as well as the ways they can contribute to undertake their respective business activities.

Carrying out the different learning activities included as part of the academic track will contribute to develop the core educational elements of the BBA:
a) Foster students' self-organisation,
b) Learn about questions and problematic issues with full awareness of their complexity,
c) Apply the acquired knowledge to tasks related to real professional activity.

The general learning objectives of this course for students upon completing the internship is for them to be able to:
- Analyse the work environment context
- Analyse their own activity in the aforementioned context, while being conscious of the form in which they have participated as well as their contribution (added value) that they have made to the professional activities undertaken.
- Explain what they have learnt, by making reference to the development of the chosen competences
- Self-manage their own development of the competences in order to become professionals who are conscious of their own strengths and areas for improvement, as well as being able to assess their own performance in the organisation in which they wish to pursue their professional career.

1. Phase 0: Feedback and reflection on specific competences Students will have received feedback on their own competences in all the courses and activities undertaken as part of the BBA programme: on which competencies they have achieved an adequate or even optimum level and on which competencies they should continue to develop. The internship is an opportunity for students to choose a maximum of three competences to develop further during their work placement in the company. These competences will be included in the Learning Agreement that the students define with their Academic Tutor and Company Tutor. Over the course of the Internship, students will have to evaluate their progress with respect to these chosen competences. This will be undertaken by completing the Internship Journal which they will submit to their Academic Tutor. Prior to beginning the internship, it is therefore very important that students take time to review and think about what they have learnt about themselves and their competences up until then. The feedback they will have received will be a basic component to undertake this critical reflection exercise. On the basis of this critical reflection, students will be in an ideal situation to choose the competences that they wish to work on over the course of the Internship.

2. Phase 1: Pre-Internship The Pre-Internship phase requires students to attend and participate in training sessions related to the search for professional work experience opportunities in the job market and to successfully undertake a selection process that will enable them to take up a work experience position in a company and thereby undertake the internship. These Pre-Internship training sessions are given by Career Services. They are compulsory and consist of several workshops during which students will learn how to write their CVs and letters of introduction to submit their candidacy for companies' selection processes. In addition, simulations of recruitment processes with real companies will be held on campus. Upon completion of the Pre-Internship sessions students will be ready to begin their proactive search for work placements. Once a work placement has been obtained, students must notify Career Services and apply for an educational cooperation agreement before the work placement starts (or submit a copy of the employment contract which must specify the internship's requirements). ESADE will then assign an Academic Tutor to each student who will, in conjunction with the Company Tutor, monitor students' progress throughout the internship.

3. Phase 2: Professional activities during the internship ESADE believes that the professional activities undertaken as part of the internship are clearly enhanced if, in addition to the effort made by students to fulfil their assigned roles to the highest levels of excellence, they are also capable of critically reflecting on their own activity and on the contexts in which it is undertaken. Once again, we stress here the difference between the two dimensions of the internship (business and academic) which the internship's very design specifically includes as part of the students' learning experience. The tasks involved in the two dimensions are as follows: Business dimension: fulfilment of the responsibilities assigned by the company during a 450-hour period, following which time the internship will be considered to have ended (for further details on this issue, see "Workload distribution" in this guide). Academic dimension: fulfilment of the tasks required to develop a series of critical reflections on the professional experience in the company.

Students clearly play an essential role in the success of their internship experience in the business setting. Their responsibilities may be divided into those related to their roles as professionals (which must therefore be fulfilled in the company) and those concerning their role as students (which must be fulfilled through their relationship with their Academic Tutor and essentially with ESADE). The main responsibilities that students commit themselves to when signing the Learning Agreement are as follows.

Responsibilities to be fulfilled in the company offering the internship:
- Agree with their Company Tutor on the tasks to be carried out during the internship and set this out in writing in the Learning Agreement
- Adapt to the company's disciplinary regulations and organisational norms.
- Cooperate with the staff in the company where the internship is being carried out by following the instructions given in order to ensure all tasks are undertaken to the highest standard.
- Attend all company meetings that students may be invited to, always adopting a wholly professional manner
- Respect the confidential nature of the company's information

Responsibilities towards ESADE:
- State the 3 chosen competences in the Learning Agreement and submit to the Academic Tutor's via the latter's website and then take full advantage of the opportunities to develop them as offered by the company
- Attend the programmed individual tutorials, and treat them as work meetings during which students should give a report to their academic "boss" of their activities in the company; 3 days before the meeting they should submit an executive progress report on the activities undertaken during the internship via the Academic Tutor's website.
- Notify the Academic Tutor of any incidents that could affect the progress of their internship
- Complete the 3 entries for the Internship Journal as stipulated.
- Write the Internship Report using the model posted on the Academic Tutor's website and submit it to the Academic Tutor via the same website.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Group	Teacher	Department
Ed: 1	Joan Noguera Ustrell	Dirección de Personas y Organización

Group	Teacher	Department
Ed: 2	Joan Noguera Ustrell	Dirección de Personas y Organización