In search of work experience: the choice of internships by anthropology students at the University of Antioquia.

la elección de prácticas por parte de estudiantes de antropología de la Universidad de Antioquia

Abstract

With the recognition by the Colombian government of internships as work experience, several university careers have made it mandatory or optional to carry out internships, normalizing the university landscape. For some anthropology students at the University of Antioquia, doing an internship, although not necessary for graduation, has become an important step before finishing their degree, seeing it as a way of acquiring skills that are not taught in the academy and facilitating insertion into a working world that privileges experience above all else. The internships become the space to dimension and project oneself in the possible fields that an anthropologist can inhabit; to acquire contacts, gain experience, as well as to know and adapt to the dynamics that occur within the working world from a position apparently safeguarded by the student's situation; where there is an accompaniment by the company and the university.
In this paper I will expose the situation of students of the Department of Anthropology of the UdeA who decide to do internships; which in the process face the complexities of the working world, encountering challenges and learning, which directly influence their future expectations. At the same time, I intend to show how internships, besides being a formative space, account for the difficulties that a recently graduated professional must face to enter the working world and the logics to which universities and university careers must submit themselves in order to demonstrate their relevance in the contemporary panorama.