Company placements correspond to a training activity that students carry out in a public or private, national or foreign organisation, with the aim of applying and complementing the training acquired on the master's degree, approaching the reality of the professional environment and developing skills that facilitate their insertion into the job market.
The 9 ECTS of placements contemplated in the master's degree correspond to 200 hours of face-to-face placements with the organisation, whether it be a company or research group, and 25 hours of tutorials (with the tutor of the organisation and the academic tutor) and the writing of a report.It is compulsory for obtaining the master's degree certificate.
Placements can be paid, depending on the conditions agreed with each organisation, except in cases where the student grant does not allow it or where it is voluntarily waived due to the interest in carrying them out in an organisation that does not offer remuneration.
Apart from the compulsory curricular practical classes included in the curriculum, students can extend their period of practical classes by doing extracurricular practical classes (non-compulsory) to complement their training. These must be carried out within the academic year in which the students is enrolled (i.e. until 31 August) and must be paid.
The regulations in force can be found in the Faculty of Science Regulations for external academic placements in master’s degree studies, as approved by Government Commission session 1/2022 of the UdG’s Faculty of Science on 31/03/2022.
Placement offers
The selection of placement offers and candidates by organisations (companies or research groups) is carried out during the first semester. The master’s degree coordinator collects the offers from organisations, informs the students and then informs the organisations of the interested parties. They carry out the selection process based on the curriculum assessment and the corresponding interview.
Once they reach an agreement, the corresponding contract is created which has to be signed by the company, the student and the UdG’s Faculty of Sciences.Students also have the option of proposing a company or research group where they can carry out practical classes without following this procedure.
The placement offers to be carried out, whether directly agreed with the students or derived from the selection process indicated above, must be submitted by the organisations (companies or research groups) on the faculty’s work placement platform. The procedure for formalising an offer is very simple.You can find all necessary details here.
In addition to the offers available through the coordination of the master's degree and the faculty’s placement platform, students have the following placements opportunities:
PLEASE NOTE: If you are an organisation and you are considering the possibility of presenting an offer, bear in mind that places can be offered throughout the academic year.However, our recommendation is to do so between September and October to have more time to inform the students.Placements can be carried out any time between December and August (deadline: 31 August).For more information, send an email to the master's degree coordinator.
Calendar
Practical classes can be carried out from the start of the course to 31 August, always in accordance with the calls established by the faculty.
The student has to post their report on the placement web platform before the deadline established by the coordinator of the master and the faculty. The submission date varies according to the enrolment group for the subject.
- GROUP J - the evaluation is in June
- GROUP S - the evaluation is in September
ATTENTION: Changing the assessment call has to be conducted online (through report procedures) before June.
Report's suggested format
The report must be at least 5 pages long and should be no more than 10 pages in length (including any appendices) and should include:
- Introduction to the subject of the placement carried out, description of the company/institution (type of activity, organisation, work dynamics, stakeholders involved, and so on)
- List of the activities carried out (methods, methodology, instrumentation, campaign design, analysis protocols, learned and practised techniques, and so on), usefulness of each of the techniques.
- Where possible, some examples of result gathering (laboratory files, field notes, placement diary) and the results can be added.
- Critical reflection on the learning and knowledge acquired during the placement and how the subjects of the master have contributed to this.
- - Research of information (data base, framework directives...),bibliography.
Evaluation
A numerical score will be given (between 1 and 10) and the following will be assessed:
- (50%) Company tutor’s report where the student’s adaptation (work habits) and the work carried out will be qualitatively appraised, depending on the necessary knowledge and the difficulties found.
- 50% Academic tutor's report (PAT tutor for work placements) - this will involve an assessment of the report and a final assessment of the work placement and the skills acquired by the student during their stay at the company, based on the report submitted.
Bear in mind too that:
- Students must remind their respective company and UdG academic tutors to assess their placements through the placement web platform.
- To enable the UdG academic tutor to assess the work placement, the report must be previously uploaded onto the platform and the company tutor must have made their assessment of the work placement on the platform.