External placements – students

External placements

External academic placements enable students to complete tutored stays at companies to perform the kind of tasks associated with the professional practice of engineers and to complement their university training.

What are external academic placements?

Placements are a training activity carried out by students and supervised by the University. The aim is to provide students with an opportunity to apply and complement knowledge acquired in their academic training, foster the acquisition of skills that prepare them for professional practice, enhance their employability, and strengthen their ability to innovate.

Placements may be completed at companies, public or private institutions/entities (national or international), or the UPC itself.

Educational cooperation agreements

External academic placements are governed by educational cooperation agreements signed by the company, the participating student and the University. Each agreement covers a specific period and number of hours. Agreements must ensure that students gain experience which enriches their academic training by participating in the activity carried out by the company. Objectives are defined in a specific work plan appended to each agreement.

Placements are intended to serve as a training activity for students. Therefore, in no case shall a placement give rise to the type of obligations associated with an employment relationship, and tasks performed by a placement student may not substitute for work performed by employees. However,companies that take on placement students must register them with the Social Security System. 

Types

Placements may be curricular or extracurricular, depending on whether or not they are recorded on the student’s academic record. The EPSEVG offers curricular placements because they are integrated and assessed on the academic record of participating students. These placements complement academic training and bring students into contact with the working world.

The UPC’s regulations on external academic placements stipulate as follows:

Access to the summary table of practices with the number of hours and credits for the different options.

Students can make arrangements for internships through the internship offers published in the school website Borsa de Pràctiques en Empresa or by directly contacting companies.

In case the student arranged the internship directly with the company, and in order to have the needed information to continue with the process, the company will need to publish the offer in the Borsa de Pràctiques en Empresa, the student must apply as a candidate and the company select them.

Once the company select their candidate for the internship, the registration of the agreement will start automatically.

The first step is for the student to verify the information in the menu tab “pràctiques externes” that will appear in their e-secretaria, complete the missing information and give their approval.

After that, the centre manager at the school will validate the agreement information and the tutors from the company and the EPSEVG will complete and sign the Training Plan.

Once this is done, EPSEVG will send the internship agreement document to the legal representative of the company to sign it digitally. When they return it, the document will be uploaded to the Portafirmes UPC so first the student, and then the School Director, can also sign it.

When the document is signed, all parties will get a copy of the agreement.

As the internship cannot start until the agreement is signed by all parties, and it is not possible to formalize it with retroactive effects (previous date to the signature) it is highly recommended to start the procedure at least one week before the starting date.

The External Internship Student Reception Guide must be completed, signed and submitted to SIAE either in person or by Demana.

Students over the age of 28 must take out private insurance. To this end, the UPC has signed an agreement with the CONFIDE Insurance Brokerage.

Any changes to the initial conditions of the internship agreement, as well as cancellations and extensions, must be communicated at least 15 days in advance.

In case the internship ends before the date established in the agreement, the student must inform the school and submit the internship agreement document modification to the SIAE either in person or by Demana.

Documenation:

Credits that may be recognised for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering, and documentation required

Curricular placements may be recognised on a student’s academic record as follows:

See the regulations for work placements at companies. The forms that need to be filled in can be found in the “Documents” section.

Documents for assessment purposes.

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