Different types of internships in VET in Argentina: Challenges for their implementation and for defining the role of tutors

CLAUDIA JACINTO; JOSÉ POZZER

Workshop; El aprendizaje basado en el trabajo como una vía para la educación basada en competencias: estrategias de investigación e implementación desde una perspectiva de VET comparativa y global; 2017

Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)

Different studies reveal that internships provide a useful complement to the theoretical and practical training offered by the educational institutions as they introduce students to the routines and rituals of a real workplace and to the professional codes, values and norms of an occupation and an employment setting. But the development and implementation of this model has been limited and uneven. The presentation will discuss experiences in work-based learning in Argentina. It will include and compare the ones related to secondary technical schools (through the model known as vocational practicums) and others linked with youth training programmes related to employment policies (called ?training in companies?). In general, the work based training take the model of internship consisting in specific number of hours in companies as a part of the training. Evidence will show that the implementation of the internships face a great number of challenges and may vary a lot. Depending on the type of internship, they may or may not be integrated into the curriculum, they may be offered to all students in a class or only to the best, learning plans may or may not be officially approved, the relationship between the school or training center and the companies may be fluent or in parallel, etc. In particular, the role of tutors and mentors is defined in different ways depending on the type of internship. The only common evidence seems to be the importance of this relationship between ?tutor and student? not only in the transmission of technical knowledge but especially in the transfer of social key skills related to work.