In order to provide a broad definition of the practicum in the FEP the following aspects must be mentioned:

The practicum, the backbone of the study plan.

The majority of the students who register for classes at the University have professional interests. Classrooms can provide an important base of knowledge in this sense, but the clear and solid connection between this base and the professional practice they are being prepared for must also be kept in mind. This is where the practicum provides the genuine backbone of all degree studies: it is designed to prepare students to carry out professional responsibilities as competently as possible.

The knowledge acquired by overlapping academic activity with professional practical placements should be the basis for the excellence pursued in the initial training period.

The European Higher Education Area. Lifelong training.

The current path to a European Higher Education Area places even more emphasis on the relationship that must exist between initial training and future professional practice. In light of this, students and professors must position new teaching and learning methods on the right track. The practicum, in and of itself, provides appropriate opportunities to delve deeper into this new dimension of collaborative and contextualized learning, while at the same time promoting learner autonomy in individual students.

Lifelong training is one of the principles of the convergence of European universities. Professionalized training must train people to maintain the strong and vital connection between initial training and continued training. Once again, the practicum is an instrument of great potential bridging these two concepts.

Agile and functional development.

Defined briefly, the practicum in any of the areas of study of the FEP is developed according to the following steps:

• The Faculty informs the students of the placements offered for the following academic year. This information is usually provided during the months of April and May.
  
  
• Each student has an opportunity to select from among the available placements the one that is most suitable to his/her interests and needs. Each area of study has developed its own mechanisms for making placements which, in all cases, are structured and familiar to everyone before they are applied. An effort is made to assign the placements before the end of the academic year, so that everyone knows their placement for the coming academic year by summer.
  
  
• The course coordinator assigns an academic tutor to each student’s practicum. In some cases this assignment is made before the end of the academic year, and in others it only occurs during the first weeks of the semester in which the practicum takes place.
  
  
• From this moment, and following the timetable of each area, the practicum begins. From that moment an autonomous team made up of the student, his or her academic supervisor and his or her placement supervisor is formed within the corresponding plan of practicum to make specific decisions about carrying out the practical placement. We understand that the practicum of each student is unique and as beneficial as the team behind it is capable.
  

Improvement and innovation.

Starting from the Practicum Improvement Plan developed by the Faculty beginning in the year 2000, and the assessments made of its implementation, as well as the reports specifically requested in the year 2004-2005, the Practicum Committee has defined the areas of improvement in which it will be interesting to look into and explore. They are all related with drawing the academic world closer to the professional, paying particular attention to each area of study, understanding that their cohesion should result in good initial training.

Assessment and grading.

The assessment and the follow-up to the practical stays must also be a first-rate training instrument for improvement. In this sense the Faculty, through each course coordinator and the practicum coordinator, beyond the processes of assessment within each practicum plan, is open to all comments and proposals for improvement considered appropriate by any person involved in the practicum: students and academic and professional supervisors.