Las prácticas en empresa como estrategia de enseñanza e inserción laboral: las empresas de inserción social

Authors

Fernando Marhuenda FluixáSalto de línea Joan Carles Bernad i GarciaSalto de línea Almudena Navas SaurinSalto de línea Universitat de València. Facultad de Filosofía y CC. de la Educación i Ciències de l’Educació. València, España.

Abstract

In-company work experience as a strategy for educating and inserting people into the labour market. Work integration social enterprisesSalto de línea Salto de línea INTRODUCTION. Upon the increase of the use of work experience in education and training systems and its extension, as well among employment policies, we question the usefulness of such a device within a political context in which strategies for the insertion into the labour market relay upon fostering employability, a notion widely spread, and yet limited to an individual approach for which we introduce a relational dimension. Our research is contextualized within a research project about Work Integration Social Enterprises in Spain, where working practice is also educational practice. METHOD. We devised a questionnaire addressed to the approximately 170 Work Integration Social Enterprises in Spain, out of which 57 answered. Upon descriptions obtained through the analysis of the questionnaire, we proceeded to select eleven companies linked to eight non-governmental organizations. Methods of data gathering beyond questionnaires were interviews to managers, human resource managers and workers in charge of integration processes as well as in situ observation. Questionnaires were analyzed by means of statistical procedures, and the remaining information through qualitative analysis procedures. RESULTS. Work Integration Social Enterprises value unforeseen situations, trust is a key element in the process and personal experience weights more than received knowledge, being the emotional dimension at work specially relevant. They have hardly formalized their procedures and tools. CONCLUSIONS. Our analyses support our hypothesis: the high component of informal learning and the importance of collective competence, in particular with regard to the esteem and consolidation of independence, as well as developing and employing the collective knowledge base. Concerning limitations, we should point out the need to interview workers undergoing integration processes, the adaptation of our reference literature to low qualified positions in the same way as that offered in Work Integration Social Enterprises, the need to pay attention to routine practices, not only to isolated incidents.

Keywords

Work experience, Work Integration Social Enterprise, informal learning, employability, vocational identity, experiential learning, work process knowledge, collective competence.