Os estágios acadêmicos e suas reverberações na construção dos sentidos do trabalho: uma investigação com estudantes da UFC Fortaleza

Abstract

The research described here highlights academic internships and had as main objective to understand how the internship experiences reverberate in the construction of the meanings of work in interns. Reflections were proposed about the activity from the articulation between the categories related to it, professional training and the meanings of work. To achieve the objectives set, we opted for a qualitative investigation whose main tool was semi-structured interview. Nine different course interns were interviewed whose inclusion criteria for participation in the interviews were: the link with the UFC and the participation of some type of internship (mandatory or not mandatory). From the data produced, four theoretical categories were built, which allowed us to weave discussions about the trajectory of the internship (insertion, development and evaluation); about the senses built on the internship; on the relation between professional training and the precarious work environment in the neoliberal context; and about the meanings elaborated about the work from the experiences of internships. We identified that the internship emerges as a fertile place for the elaboration of the meanings of work, either by approaching the work context of the chosen profession, either by experiencing the reality of the labor market, or by the interpersonal development provided by the activity. We emphasize that the internship cannot be considered only as a period of practical application, regarding that the experience of the internship activities are permeated by feelings that directly influence the student's learning. It seems clear to us that the work context of the internship is linked to the precarious work scenario, either directly by reproducing the characteristics of this scenery in the internship daily routine, or indirectly by the precariousness of the training processes. Work continues as a central element in the meanings attributed by the interns, this centrality articulates, above all, the conditions for survival and the elaboration of life plans.