Study on technical capacity and transversal competencies developed in university internships

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the employers’ and university students’ perceptions about the students’ technical capacity and level of acquisition of transversal skills established through external internships. In addition, it also examines the content of the degree course specifications to check if they include all the skills evaluated in external internships.  For this purpose, the external internships undertaken by the students of the Business and Tourism degrees for a period of 4 consecutive academic years were analyzedand both degree course specifications were reviewed. The results show a very positive assessment for students’ transversal skills, especially for teamwork. Additionally, in the analyzed degree course specifications we observe a great deal of arbitrariness in the use of the terms applied to define the different competencies as well as incongruences in their identification based on the existing legal framework.