Do you study, practice or work?

Do you study, practice or work, beyond the topic of the question we have learned that there are 3 andFundamental stages in our professional life which should not be seen as excluding or assigned by default to a specific time in our learning or work schedule, but must be simultaneous and compatible.

The purpose of this entry is to value a mixed model of interaction of the 3 with an emphasis on internship learning from the company's point of view (in its dual capacity as tutor and apprentice)

Taking advantage of the summer season, in which the vast majority of us have done internships, we take a break from our usual, more technical editorial line to dedicate a space to basic business issues.

As far as our memory of people in their forties and business knowledge goes, we have seen firsthand, or from our elders, four models that we list below chronologically and could be broadly characterized as:

1. Years 40/60. A significant percentage of workers lacked prior specialized training and were limited to having specific previous studies related to the profession; this was combined with the figure of the apprentice, without the current guarantees and formalities, and the absence of concepts such as continuous training.
2. Years 70/80. It was followed by another antagonist where the theoretical training section (mainly university) took precedence over the profile of the labor market and where this was a requirement to be able to access a job; the figure of the apprentice, limited to a few professions, was lost along the way, due to questions of supply and demand, or reinventing himself with new formulas such as that of the intern.
3. 90s/10 years. Extension of the previous one but distorted by sectors such as construction and related sectors that attracted a large number of workers without previous theoretical or practical training to meet an unleashed demand that somehow revitalized the figure of the apprentice by obligation rather than by vacation, this combined with the consolidation of regulated practices in the rest of the sectors and especially in the service sector (being made up of universities, companies and other agents that formed an organized structure of bidders and claimants that facilitate their regulated implementation).
4. 10/News. We observed a certain mixture of the 3 previous models, in terms of strengths and weaknesses, but with a clear tendency, that of excellence in previous training + continuous improvement as the key to access the labor market, job stability or business success; in turn combined with a more ambitious concept of “practices” that gives them a value similar to that of the study phase as an opportunity for subsequent insertion, learning, self-employment or further extension within a process of technical or professional specialization.

It is here and now that internships occupy a space just as important as that of basic training or subsequent specialization, both for companies and for candidates to join them; combined in a reality where the 3 stages (study-practice-work) do not give up and overlap, since continuous training is an indispensable requirement in the labor market regardless of whether we are active or not, and where this learning is an essential part of being better professionals or forming companies with a future.

In short, practices should matter equally to workers and companies, although in this post we speak as a company, as creators of employment or growth opportunities.

That is why we make the following statements without being so clear who is the most favored in this relationship, but with the evidence that it is always a positive experience.

• it is a natural action to attract, promote and incorporate talent or values such as commitment or proactivity, as well as the path to guarantee the survival of a long-term business project.
• they should not be understood as a stage specific to people who have just finished their studies, but rather as an opportunity for learning and collaboration valid for any stage of our professional life, regardless of whether or not we are active.
• the best CSR policy that a company can apply is, together with creating employment, to bet on the inclusion of people who want to learn, provide their experience or vision, or simply favor giving the opportunity to join a project.
• opportunity to propose ideas, take advantage of the structure and knowledge of the company to promote new lines of production, strategy or organization,... that ultimately facilitate subsequent employment in case traditional lines cannot generate opportunities. We all have ideas and some good ones, we just have to lose the fear of sharing and working on them because with complexes or zeal we sometimes only increase the risk of not carrying them out (always based on a basis that ensures ethics and consistent rules of the game for both parties)
• they must be approached responsibly by providing them with resources (tutor, plan, etc...) to facilitate their ultimate purpose.
• the remuneration of the practice, the eternal debate together with the vision of “cheap labor” that we are not going to enter into, because we understand that it should focus exclusively on what must be quantified by the degree of mutual learning acquired by the individual and the company.
• Finally and most importantly, forget the more traditional concept of practices, they go further and can be understood as being part of networks, forums, collectives or professional communities, both physical and digital, as a space for learning and exchanging experiences that also enrich our curriculum at a technical level or in terms of social or business abilities/qualities.

This post is still a personal opinion, but we hope that by putting into practice the trinomial “theoretical specialization, practice or essay and daily work” we can continue to improve as individuals and companies. In any case, you will soon have the opportunity to learn in this space another opinion from the other angle, although in these relationships it is difficult to know “who gives and who receives” in reality, making it clear that we all have a lot to learn and teach.

As a finishing touch to this article, we just want to thank all the people who have helped us to grow and above all to learn and improve during these 16 years, especially those of you who are part of Environmental Ideas.