A participação discente em empresas juniores e o desenvolvimento de competências profissionais na área de vendas

Abstract

The development of professional skills of higher education students occurs through university education, which consists of the content provided by universities, as well as practical experiences by participating in extracurricular, for example, junior enterprises – educational and non-profit associations, managed only by students and supervised, in Ceará, by FEJECE, responsible for promoting the journey of junior enterprises, organizing initiatives that provide extension and support to the business experience of junior enterprises in Ceará. Through this combination, it is possible to bring students closer to the theoretical knowledge obtained in college and the practical experience obtained outside the classroom, providing the students’ professionalization. Given this context, the general objective of this research is to understand how working in junior enterprises, in the sales area, contributes to the development of students' professional skills. Thus, a descriptive and qualitative research was developed through a quantitative survey, with technical bibliographic and field procedures, with data collection from primary sources, through the application of semi-structured interviews with a group of 10 students who are, or have been, part of the Junior Enterprise Movement in the state of Ceará, using the content analysis technique. The research showed that the main hard skills developed during the experience in the junior company in the sales area are knowing how to use the Customer Relationship Management tool, the Office Package and applying sales techniques. While the soft skills are knowing how to relate to customers, instilling confidence in customers, emotional self-control, conflict resolution, leadership, proactivity and knowing how to speak with the right words. In addition, it was also discussed that the main contributions of student participation in the junior enterprise are the promotion offered to the development of skills so that students can enter the job market, the initiatives of business enterprises and FEJECE to develop students' skills, through events and actions, and the view on the part of students that FEJECE contributes more to the development of behavioral skills.