Work Placement
Code: 106545 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2503743 Management of Smart and Sustainable Cities | OT | 3 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Antoni Durą Guimerą
- Email:
- Antoni.Dura@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Teachers
- Francesco Maria Camonita
Prerequisites
As set out in the progression rules, in the section on enrolment continuation. As this is a third-year subject, students must have successfully completed at least all first-year subjects and obtained a total of 120 credits for the first three academic years.
However, as the main objective is to put the knowledge acquired on the degree into practice, it is recomended that students should have the first years completed, and be nearing the end of the programme to have enough time to devote to the placement and to other subjects.
Students cannot begin the placement unless they are enrolled and have paid for the complementary insurance policy, and the university-company cooperation agreement has been signed.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The practicum is a training activity performed by students and supervised by the University. So, the training objectives are:
- To allow students to apply and complement the knowledge and skills, both theoretical and practical, that they have acquired on their study programme.
- To familiarise students with the real methodology of work used in the professional context they will be joining and compare this with what they have learnt in their studies.
- To consolidate personal competences, such as teamwork, entrepreneurship, problemsolving in new environments, creativity and communication skills.
- To help students acquire the technical, methodological and participatory competences they will need in their future careers in Smart Cities Degree.
- To give students practical experience that will boost their future employability.
Competences
- Carry out projects related to the management, equality and sustainability of cities applying elements of technological innovation such as ICT.
- Critically analyse work carried out and demonstrate a desire to improve.
- Generate innovative and competitive proposals in professional activity.
- Identify and interpret social, economic, technological and sustainability challenges in different areas such as: town planning, infrastructures, mobility, urban economies, services and equipment, cultural diversity and social inequality, energy and natural resources, waste, etc.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Work cooperatively in complex and uncertain environments and with limited resources in a multidisciplinary context, assuming and respecting the role of the different members of the group.
Learning Outcomes
- Critically analyse work carried out and demonstrate a desire to improve.
- Describe the relation between work developed and the social, economic, technological and sustainability-related challenges in cities.
- Evaluate the discrepancies between the project's objectives and its intermediate results.
- Generate innovative and competitive proposals in professional activity.
- Identify the causes of discrepancy and take the necessary corrective measures.
- Identify the regulations (laws, directives, etc.) that should be considered by the project.
- Identify the specific objectives of the project.
- Plan the tasks to be accomplished in solving a problem.
- Search, present and explain distinct alternatives by highlighting their importance and risk in relation to the execution of the project.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Work cooperatively in complex and uncertain environments and with limited resources in a multidisciplinary context, assuming and respecting the role of the different members of the group.
Content
The placement companies and institutions all work in different areas, which means that the content of the placements will also vary, depending on the tasks to be performed. Before beginning the placement, the training project has to be defined (and included in the placement agreement) with the placement organisation: detailing the tasks to be performed and the educational aims. This training project is validated by the lecturer in charge of the subject.
The subject content, therefore, is established in each student's training project, which will contain the following.
- Start and end dates, timetable, placement venue, and name and contact details of the company tutor.
- Description of the specific, transferable or general competences, to be developed, with their corresponding learning outcomes.
- Details of the content of the placement and the tasks to be performed.
- Monitoring procedure to be used by the company tutor.
Methodology
Students carry out a placement with an external company or institution of
150 hours in duration. The student's role and tasks in the company are specified in the training project, which the student must know before starting.
It is the student's responsibility to be selected by a placement organisation. Students send their CV to the contact person specified in the offer and go through the selection process determined by the company.
There are three possible sources of offers, as follows.
- Proposals made by the Degree, for placements in collaborating organisations. Offers are posted in the subject's teaching space in the Campus Virtual intranet
- Offers of non-curricular placements made by the "Servei d'Ocupabilitat de la UAB" (employment service). The placement coordinator verifies that the training project meets the subject's needs in terms of its competences and characteristics. An agreement on curricular placements must be drawn up between the School and the company, and signed.
Proposals from students themselves through direct contact with a company or based on an offer posted on online platforms or social networks. Before signing the agreement and starting the placement, the placement coordinator has to confirm that the training project meets the requirements of the subject.
In all cases, students will be supervised by an academic tutor and an external tutor.
- External tutors belong to the host organisation. They receive the students, assign work to them as set out in the training project, monitor their progress and submit the corresponding assessment reports.
- Academic tutors are university lecturers. They oversee students' progress to make sure that the subject's objectives are met and they submit a final assessment report.
The placementwith the collaborating organisation must last 150 hours. The calendar and timetabling must be compatible with the students' university activities (academic work,representation, participation, etc.) and are tailored to each student, in line with the nature of the placement and the capabilities of the collaborating organisation.
At the end of the placement, the students write a report, for which the format and submission deadlines are set by the coordinator. A model report can be found in the teaching space in the Campus Virtual, which will be the media space.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Placement at the company or institution | 140 | 5.6 | 1, 3, 9, 2, 4, 7, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Writing the report | 10 | 0.4 | 1, 3, 9, 2, 4, 7, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 |
Assessment
EVALUATION
Items of the evaluation
- Academic tutor's assessment report on the placement
- External tutor's assessment report on the placement
Criteria for evaluation
At the end of the placement, the coordinator assesses it on the basis of the reports from the academic tutor ( 25% of the final mark), the placement report submitted by the student and the report from the external tutor (75% of the final mark).
Unjustified non-fulfilment, on the part of students, of the terms of the agreement signed by them is cause for rescinding the agreement and assigning a "Fail" grade (0) for the subject. Once the placement has started, a grade of "Not assessed" cannot be obtained.
Students may not change to another organisation once one of the parties to the agreement (collaborating organisation, student or university) has signed it.
The external tutor assesses the degree of satisfaction with the placement undertaken through a document prepared by the coordinator, to be submitted to the School's academic tutor within a maximum of ten days from the end of the placement. This report must contain the total number of hours contributed by the Student and must assess the student's acquisition of the general, specific and transferable competences set out in the training project.
Students have to submit their placement report to their academic tutor within a maximum of ten days from the end of the placement. They can do this by email, requesting confirmation of receipt. Students must not disclose any confidential information from the collaborating organisation that they may acquire as a result of engaging in the placement.The report must be 9 to 12 pages in length, and keep to the format and content set out by the coordinator.
Academic tutors send their assessment reports to the lecturer responsible for the subject within five days of having received the reports from theexternal tutors and the students.
External practices are not recoverable.
RECOVERY
The External practices are not recoverable.
PROCEDURE FOR REVIEW OF QUALIFICATIONS
For each assessment activity, the coordinator of the subject will indicate a place, date and time of the review. In this context, the student can claim about the assessment activity qualification, which will be reviewed by the coordinator of the subject. If the student does not submit to this review, this assessment activity will not be reviewed later.
QUALIFICATIONS
Honors. Granting an Honor is a decision of the coordinator of the subject. The UAB regulations can only be awarded to students having obtained a final grade of at least 9. It can be granted up to 5% of Honors of the total number of students enrolled.
A Student will be considered non-evaluable (NA) when it has not been presented the assessments activities whose weight are two thirds of the total grade of the subject.
PLAGIARISM AND OTHER IRREGULARITIES
Assessment activities qualified in this way and by this procedure will not be recoverable. If it is necessary to pass any of these assessment activities to pass the subject, this subject will be suspended directly, without opportunity to recover it in the same course. These irregularities include, among others:
- the total or partial copy of a lab exercise, report, or any other evaluation activity;
- let another student to copy; present a group work not done entirely by the members of the group (applied to all members and not only to those who have not worked);
- present as own materials prepared by a third party, even if they are translations or adaptations, and generally works with non-original and exclusive elements of the student;
- have communication devices (such as mobile phones, smart watches, pens with camera, etc.) accessible during theoretical-practical assessment tests (individual exams);
- talk with classmates during the individual theoretical-practice tests (exams);
- copy or attempt to copy from other students during the theoretical-practical assessment tests (exams);
- use or attempt to use written material related to the subject during the theoretical-practical evaluation tests (exams), when these have not been explicitly allowed.
REPEATING STUDENTS
In case of repeating students, the mark of the practices of the previous course cannot be validated. Without prejudice to other disciplinary measures deemed appropriate, and in accordance with the current academic regulations, irregularities committed by a student who may lead to a variation of the qualification in an assessable activity will be graded with zero (0).
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic tutor's assessment report on the placement | 75 | 0 | 0 | 1, 3, 9, 2, 4, 7, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 |
| External tutor's assessment report on the placement | 25 | 0 | 0 | 1, 3, 9, 2, 4, 7, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 |
Bibliography
The bibliography will be refer to the specific task that each student will develop during their placement and what they need to prepare the final report.
Software
As required by the institution or company. Uusually, software will be similar to that explained along the degree. Nevertheless, some differences may occur.