La evaluación de las prácticas externas universitarias. Hacia un modelo mixto de medición de la adquisición de competencias y la satisfacción de los agentes implicados

Abstract

The continuous improvement of management and assessment processes for curricular external internships has led a group of university teachers specialised in this area to develop a mixed model of improvement that combines the verification of skill acquisition by those students choosing external internships with the satisfaction of the parties involved in that process. They included academics, educational tutors of companies and organisations and administration and services personnel in the latter category. The experience, developed within University of Alicante, has been carried out in the degrees of Business Administration and Management, Economics, Advertising and Public Relations and Sociology, all part of the Faculty of Economics and Business. By designing and managing the research tools, validated outside the centre, a system of continuous improvement and quality assurance has been created, clearly contributing to the improvement in satisfaction, efficiency and efficacy indicators at a global level. As this experience of educational innovation has shown, the acquisition of curricular knowledge, skills, abilities and competences by the students is directly correlated with the satisfaction of those parties involved in a process that takes the student beyond the physical borders of a university campus. Ensuring the latter is a task made easier by the implementation of a mixed assessment method, combining continuous and final assessment, and characterised by its rigorousness and simple management.