Internship diversity & mobility: first experiences on spanish universities

Abstract

After 13 years of Jaume I University (UJI) experience on international mobility programmes (Leonardo da Vinci, Erasmus Placements, Socially-oriented internships in impoverished countries), more than 500 university students have benefited from them. The project coordination corresponds to the Careers Services (OIPEP), in consultation with a system of coordinators and tutors. As a result of this coordinated work, the quality of this project has been recognised several times by the Autonomous Organization of European Educational Programmes (AOEEP), bounded up with the Ministry of Education. Furthermore, Jaume I University (UJI) relies on a set of services implied on diversity such as the Support Educational Unity and the Careers Services, both of them linked to Vice-Rector for Students, Employment and Educational Innovation. Especially, the Diversity Attention Programme (DAP, 2015), implemented from the UJI's origination, is a model for the rest of the Spanish universities. As a matter of fact, UJI is nowadays in charge of coordinating the network of Service of Assistance to Disabled People (SADP). The Assistance Diversity Programme (DAP) pretends to give academic support to this university community which requires a specific educational need (SEN) and its teachers. Inside this context of international and diversity internships, we set the present paper, submitting a pioneering experience in Spain. Concretely, between the years 2013 and 2014 through Leonardo's programme (People in the Labour Market) we implemented an international internship with a graduated disabled students, sponsored by the AOEEP. The complexity of this international internship implied the creation of an ad-hoc group with professors and professional workers in the required areas for the good development of this task. The results were important, not only for our university, but for future and similar experiences in other universities.