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Work Placement

Code: 101265
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Social and Cultural Anthropology OP 4

Contact lecturer

Name :
Isidoro Ruiz Haro
Email :
isidoro.ruiz@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

To enroll in the Pràctiques Externes course, students must have completed 120 credits at the time of registration.This subject is not recommended for third-year students.


This is an elective course offered in the second semester. It is highly recommended to take it simultaneously with course 101254 Seminari de Pràctiques Externes, also an elective in the fourth year and taught in the same semester. Both courses are closely complementary, and it is therefore crucial to enroll in them at the same time and take them in parallel.


It is essential to have an accident and civil liability insurance - it can be done by enrolling the course for a minimum additional cost of approximately 5 euros marking that you want "additional insurance" -. If you do not have the insurance, you will not be able to sign the Specific Agreement of Practices with the corresponding entity and therefore you will not be able to carry out the practices.


For the “Pràctiques Externes” course, students must preregister according to a calendar that is made public every year on the Faculty website. The calendar can be consulted here: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/grados/oferta-de-grados/informacion1345722453729.html


Failure to preregister results in the impossibility to register for the course Pràctiques Professionals. Students will only be assigned to an internship position if they have preregistered within the established deadline. The pre-enrolment of students takes into account the prioritisation of a maximum of five places offered. Places are assigned according to the grade point average shown on the student’s transcript.


Only those students who have completed the pre-enrollment application in the Internship within the term established by the Faculty of Arts and have received their consent will be able to formalize the enrollment in the course of External Internships.


It is necessary to have a digital signature certificate (IdCAT or FNMT) for the signing of internship agreements.

Objectives

Pràctiques Externes is an elective course offered in the second semester, preferably aimed at fourth-year students in the Bachelor's Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology. It is recommended to take it in conjunction with course 101254 Seminari de Pràctiques Externes, as both are designed to complement each other. The course carries a workload of 6 ECTS credits.


The course of External Practices aims that the student:


  • Have the possibility of joining projects and / or teams of entities or institutions of different types and experiencing the challenges of acting as an anthropologist or professional anthropologist in real situations with people and real problems.
  • You can discern, in practice, the technical characteristics of the job and the possibility of applying them in accordance with the teams in which the student is incorporated and within the projects and populations with which it participates.
  • Develop critical thinking and participate, insofar as the characteristics of the place of practice offers, in the proposals and work and / or intervention projects, in order to identify problems that can be derived from them and common interests regarding the implication of anthropology
  • Openly develop interdisciplinary and interprofessional relationships, insofar as the situations in which the student participates allow it.
  • Facing the ethical dilemmas that raises all professional and / or intervention collaboration, both in relation to the inequality between entities, services and population, such as those thatarise from the population itself or those that emerge from the role itself as a professional of the anthropology
  • Facing a perspective on the professional development and on the application of the anthropological knowledge, which prepares for future labour insertion.


The student must have previously been trained in the general theoretical fields of Anthropology and in the ethnographic field, both at field level and documental analysis, so that during the course of the practices, the possibility of applying the knowledge acquired and the challenges of teamwork and understanding of specific professional realities and learn to value their own learning process and adaptation to the work contexts where they participate.


The parameters of focus of professional specialization are always structured, from honesty towards each and every one of the parties involved in a process, project or action, towards their own critical function and awareness of their own limitations and capacities and on the value of human relationships as a participant and as a professional.

Learning outcomes

  1. Carrying out oral presentations using appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  2. Effectively expressing themselves and applying the argumentative and textual processes of formal and scientific texts.
  3. Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
  4. Carrying out an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  5. Solving problems autonomously.
  6. Knowing and implementing the professional involvement in interventions into different contexts and areas of implementation of Anthropology within the field between culture and society.
  7. Reconciling the Administration demands and those from the affected populations in the intervention projects.
  8. Reconciling the targeted population's demands and needs.
  9. Being capable of carrying out ethnographic designs corresponding to planned changes, and intermediate and final evaluation designs.
  10. Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
  11. Intervening in different contexts and areas of implementation of Anthropology in the field of relationships between culture and society.
  12. Participating in sociocultural intervention and cooperation and development programs, evaluating its cultural adequacy.
  13. Acquiring experience in an ethnographic professional involvement by knowing the factors involved in a planned change of a population.
  14. Using specific techniques that allow ethnological immersion and relationship in order to study the marginalized and hidden populations.
  15. Express ideas with a specific vocabulary appropriate to the discipline.
  16. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.
  17. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  18. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  19. Carry out ethical use of the information especially when it is of a personal nature.
  20. Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.

Contents

This course is structured around learning through experience with human teams working in real-life settings, engaging with real communities and addressing real problems.


The course is designed as an opportunity to come into contact with the professional world through organizations and institutions that carry out activities of diverse nature, format, and content. Its objective is to understand how the professional practice of anthropology is materialized in different contexts, how anthropological knowledge can be applied in real situations, and what it means to work professionally “from anthropology” in a variety of environments. All of this aims to foster an understanding and appreciation of its possibilities across different fields, orientations, and real professional contexts.


Students are expected to understand the meanings behind the actions of the organization, the people they work with, and the populations involved in the intervention. They should be able to identify and analyze the incidents, effects, impacts, resistances, convergences, adaptations, and synergies of the processes in which they participate. Furthermore, they are expected to develop a formal understanding of the organization and the different professional groups within it, while maintaining an open and receptive attitude toward the diversity of perspectives, criteria, and interests of the groups involved in the project or program in which they are engaged.


The course also offers the opportunity to integrate, within the student’s learning process, a critical reflection on professional practice based on direct field experience, with all its methodological, ethical, and relational implications. It is thus conceived as an open and flexible learning space, as each student carries out their internship in different organizations, contexts, and projects.


In this sense, the course content is not defined in a closed way, but rather articulated around the connection between previously acquired theoretical and methodological knowledge and the real-life situations and challenges that emerge in practice. The course promotes the ability to interpret, adapt, and apply anthropological knowledge in specific contexts, while also fostering new learning derived from active participation, collaboration, and involvement in sociocultural projects.


In this way, the internship experience becomes a privileged space for the development of professional, reflective, and critical skills, as well as for the construction of a personal stance toward the challenges and opportunities of professional practice in anthropology.


The organizations that have so far established educational collaboration agreements to carry out unpaid professional practices with the Degree of Social and Cultural Anthropology for the 2026-2027 are:


  • AlterNATIVA. INTERCANVI AMB POBLES INDÍGENES. Barcelona.
  • ARXIUS OVNI, OBSERVATORI DE VÍDEO NO IDENTIFICAT. Barcelona.
  • ASSOCIACIÓ CATALANA DE PROFESSIONALS DE L’ANTROPOLOGIA (ACPA). Barcelona.
  • ASOCIACIÓN DE FUNDAPICA. Barcelona.
  • ASSOCIACIÓ INTERCULTURAL DIÀLEGS DE DONA. Barcelona.
  • CASA ÀSIA. Barcelona.
  • CASAL LAMBDA. Barcelona.
  • CENTRE AFIN. Dept. d’Antropologia. Campus UAB.
  • COL.LEGI D’EDUCADORES I D’EDUCADORS SOCIALS DE CATALUNYA (CEESC). Barcelona.
  • FUNDACIÓ AKWABA. L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
  • FUNDACIÓ AUTÒNOMA SOLIDÀRIA. Campus UAB.
  • FUNDACIÓ BAYT AL-TAQAFA. Barcelona.
  • FUNDACIÓ CARULLA - Programa de Mediació Artística Comunitaria
  • FUNDACIÓ i2CAT. Barcelona.
  • FUNDACIÓ JAUME BOFILL. Barcelona.
  • FUNDACIÓ SECRETARIADO GITANO. Sabadell.
  • GINESTA ASOCIACIÓN - Proyecto Lucas
  • GRUP DE RECERCA EMIGRA. Dept. d’Antropologia. Campus UAB
  • ICTA-UAB - Projecte ERC IEK-CHANGES
  • INSTITUT CATALÀ D’ANTROPOLOGIA (ICA). Barcelona.
  • MUSEU ETNOLÒGIC I DE CULTURES DEL MÓN. INSTITUT DE CULTURA DE BARCELONA – ICUB – MECM. Barcelona.
  • METZINERES. Barcelona.
  • SEAPEOPLES LAB. GRUP DE RECERCA. Dept. d’Antropologia. Campus UAB.
  • SOS RACISME CATALUNYA. Barcelona.
  • SPORA SINÈRGIES, SCCL. Consultoria Social. Barcelona.
  • XAMFRA - L’ARC TALLER DE MÚSICA FUNDACIÓ PRIVADA. Barcelona.
  • XIPE – XARXA D’INTERÈS EN EL PATRIMONI ETNOLÒGIC. Dept. d’Antropologia. Campus UAB.



Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Presenciality at the entity: Stay at the entity under supervision. Participation in specific tasks of the project where the student is inserted. Doing a field diary, interviews or other techniques. 130 5.2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Intermediate tutoring sessions by the course's responsible teaching staff 7.5 0.3 2, 3, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20
Theoretical sessions and courses organized by the Employment Service - UAB 5 0.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20

Once the student has agreed to undertake the internship, a collaboration agreement will be formalized between the university, the host organization, and the student. This agreement will specify the workload, duration, and the tasks or project in which the student will participate, taking into account that the total number of hours at the institution is 130.


These hours will be supervised by the partner organization and linked to the specific project under which the internship is carried out. They will include an initial period for familiarization with the organization, its teams, and lines of work, as well as for project design, development of interviews, critical reflection, and contributions to the team and the organization, or the set of tasks agreed upon where applicable. The remaining 20 hours will be devoted to the preparation of reports, supervision meetings with the Department’s tutor, and participation in courses and theoretical sessions aimed at improving employability.


Each organization or institution will have at least one tutor responsible for supervising each student. Together, they will define a placement proposal that will take the form of a training project or set of tasks, which will be included in the agreement.


Therefore, the student must carry out the internship under the guidance of the tutors—one from the University and one or more from the host organization. The student must comply with the specific conditions set out in the agreement governing the placement, complete the assigned tasks, and successfully fulfill the course assessment requirements by submitting a mid-term report and a final report.


The quality assurance system associated with the external internship period is primarily linked to the student’s prior and adequate training in Anthropology, the careful selection of the host organization where the internship will take place, and the quality of the training program. It also depends on effective communication among tutors, continuous supervision throughout the process, and, whenever possible, the provision of intellectual, ethical, and even personal support to the student.


Students must attend at least two mentoring sessions (in-person or online) with their UAB mentor during the Internship period. . The tutor is responsible to complete a brief report on these two sessions (model provided by the Dean’s Office).


The supervisor from the partner organization will prepare a report on the student’s progress, using the template available on the UAB website.


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.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Intermediate report and final report of the student 30% 7.5 0.3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

The evaluation of the subject is organized as follows:

1. Follow-up by the coordinator of External Internship (10%)

2. Intermediate Report and Final Report of the student (30% = 5% + 25%)

3. Final report of the person in charge of the internship organization (60%)


Additionally, and as part of the training activities specified in the assessment for the External Internship, students must fulfil these two requirements:

  • have attended at least one 2 of the group professional orientation courses organized by the Servei d’Ocupabilitat and show proof of attendance by adjoining the certificate to the Final Report.


Possible grades for this class are:

  • Not evaluable. When the student has not reached 10% of the hours prescribed in the agreement.
  • Failing the subject. When the student has exceeded 10% attendance but has not completed the hours in the agreement or is assessed negatively.


Honours. No Matrícula d’Honor (Honours) grade is awarded due to the optional nature of this grade and the heterogeneity of this subject in the different degrees taught in the Faculty. The course Pràctiques Externes cannot be reassessed in the event that the student fails.


Re evaluation. This subject cannot be reassessed if the student fails.


Plagiarism. In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinaryprocess that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities ofthe same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


This subject does not incorporate single assessment.

ON THE USE OF AI TECHNOLOGIES

This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.


Bibliography

Given its essentially practical and context-based nature, the bibliography associated with this course is not defined in a uniform or centralized manner, but instead varies depending on the organization, institution, or project in which each student undertakes their internship. In this sense, reading materials and bibliographic references may be provided by the host organizations themselves, according to the specific needs of the training project and the tasks assigned.


It should be noted that not all organizations explicitly include bibliographic work as part of the internship. However, when relevant, this may take different forms, such as consulting internal documents, technical reports, specific regulations, or specialized literature related to the field of intervention.


In any case, theoretical reflection and conceptual development regarding professional practice are mainly carried out within the complementary course taken simultaneously, the Seminari de Pràctiques Externes (code 101254), where the connection between practical experience and analytical frameworks is systematically addressed.

Software

The student must ensure they have access to the Teams platform, which is the one established by the UAB for online activities.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(PEXT) Pràctiques externes i pràcticum 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed