Internship and Professional Placement

It is recommended that the student has already attended all the other curricular units of the course in order to have developed the basic knowledge of the area of study and that related to the internship, the oral and written communication skills necessary to communicate with colleagues and superiors , the mastery of tools and technologies used in the area, the ability to think critically and solve problems in order to make the most of the internship experience.

The teaching methodology applied in this unit is situated learning. This teaching method places the student in real and relevant situations for their learning, allowing them to apply the theoretical knowledge already acquired in other curricular units in real contexts and to apprehend new knowledge resulting from contact with these environments. Thus, it is expected that the knowledge acquired in real situations will make it more meaningful and lasting.

The main objective of the Internship and Professional Insertion curricular unit is to provide, in the work context of public and private institutions, non-profit and for-profit, students with Commercial Management skills, namely those necessary for the development of procurement activities, promotion of products/services, sales and distribution/delivery, in both domestic and international markets, as well as developing capabilities in the decision-making process in all internal areas of the value chain, ranging from procurement to distribution.

The integration of the student/intern in an entity (whether for profit or not), in the form of an internship, has the following specific objectives in mind:

• provide student contact with the reality of the academic training area;
• promoting the link between theory and business and institutional practice in a work context;
• create work routines for the student;
• allow interaction with experienced professionals capable of valuing their personal knowledge;
• increase your networking skills;
• develop the student’s soft skills, with the aim of continuous improvement;
• facilitate the student’s insertion in the job market.

The main skills to be developed will be:

• Techniques, that is, increasing your knowledge about the area of study (commercial management, in a national and international context) that will allow you to participate in the design, development, implementation and control of commercial and marketing plans and actions; analyze the company’s surroundings and conduct prospecting studies; acquire and manage clients; apply commercial management methods and techniques suited to the specificity of international trade and the internationalization of Portuguese companies. Elaborate internationalization strategies that identify new business opportunities and enable the deepening of existing relationships; coordinate, monitor and control the journey of goods (at an operational, logistical and documentary level) from dispatch to reception at the corresponding destination, in order to ensure the provision of a quality and excellent service to the customer.
• Professionals, such as teamwork, time management and problem solving.
• Networking, derived from relationships with experienced professionals and increased contact with other professionals in the field.
• Knowledge about the organizational culture and the best practices carried out by the entity where they interned.

The internship has at least 187 hours of business/organizational practice and will preferably be carried out in the areas of procurement, promotion/marketing, sales and distribution/delivery of the product/service and follows the following steps, foreseen and developed in the 1st Cycle Internship Regulations of Studies at ISCAC:

1) Submission of the internship proposal, which must include the indication of the company and the supervisor (you can also, at this point, suggest a supervisor) and the internship plan, defined jointly by the supervisor, student and with the help of the proposed supervisor (if any);

2) Assistance to prior training with the aim of assisting the frequency of the internship and the preparation of the respective report;

3) Frequency of the internship in the continuous period modality, foreseen in the school calendar, whenever possible and provided that it has the acceptance of the company or in another period since it extends between the first day of classes of the second semester until the 31st of August at the latest ;

4) Preparation of the internship report, following APA standards for citations and bibliographic references, with a maximum page limit of 40 (counted from the introduction and excluding appendices), and adhering to the minimum structure and content outlined in the template provided during the pre-training.

5) Submission of the report, accompanied by the other requested documents (for example, the student’s attendance sheet at the internship location, supervisor’s agreement opinion and supervisor’s evaluation report);

6) Presentation and defense of the report.

Note: It is the responsibility of the internship supervisor to accompany the student through the various phases of its completion, gathering and maintaining contact with the supervisor to address any potential issues that may arise. Whenever problems are identified, a meeting between the supervisor and the intern should be scheduled. If the distance to the internship site justifies it, meetings between the internship supervisor and the intern’s supervisor can be conducted remotely, with the possibility of the student being called to participate in these meetings.

SIM

The bibliography, taking into account the context of Internship and Professional Insertion, should always be in accordance with the purpose and scope of the internship and internship plan, which will always be defined by the host entity, the intern or the internship supervisor.