“PROFESIONAL.ES - EMPRENDEDOR.ES”. A MIRROR TO DISCOVER COMPETENCES AND SKILLS LOOKING AT THE PROFESSIONAL FUTURE. A COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE WITH THE STUDENTS OF FIRST YEAR OF CHEMISTRY

摘要

“PROFESSIONALS - ENTREPRENEURS. Let's talk about our future! An open meeting organized and carried out by the students of first year of Chemistry of the University of Alcala. Virtual companies. Interviews and colloquia with professionals. What should we know today for not complaining tomorrow?” This was the text of the first announce of the act, with a typical meeting format, in which the students showed their job in both a poster session and oral presentations, and the guest lecturers were professionals from different corporations. This activity was promoted and carried out as a part of the academic activities of the subject “Fundaments of Biology”, entirely based on a Client-Provider method of active learning and continuous assessment. The spotlight of this meeting was on the professional future of the students. The idea was proposed in the classroom three months before. Several tasks were distributed among the eight teams previously established: three of them had to create virtual companies, four had to perform interviews to professionals and businesspersons, and another one was in charge of organizing the meeting. The event was published as an official press release of the University, obtaining spaces in newspapers, a television channel as well as live interviews of the students in a radio station of national coverage. The performance of the students, all of them newly enrolled in the University just five months before, was simply extraordinary. The result exceeded our expectations as teachers, but most importantly, it was much better than what students imagined capable of doing. The following sentence was the end of the presentation of a student: “This experience has made us grow very much as persons, it gave us a lot of new knowledge and more confidence for our future.”