Evaluation of projects carried out in companies by second-year Engineering students

The realm of Engineering education has great challenges; one of them being related to taking the students to real-life situations that can simulate the future challenges of their profession. Second-year Industrial Engineering students from the Engineering School of Lorena at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) were challenged to work on projects in companies of different areas and sizes. All projects were related to improvement opportunities identified in the companies. As a quantitative outcome, the students were asked to answer questionnaires at the end of their project by the end of the semester, in which they needed to assess the development of their individual skills and to evaluate the project carried out. The qualitative methodology applied to this study, thus, evaluated through a case-study some core concepts on behalf of the students through a questionnaire. The self-assessment demonstrated a positive development of technical and transversal skills by the students that are likely to have been useful in the development phase of the project development. Students highlighted on the project side that clarity on the definition and expectation is essential, as well as previous technical knowledge relevant to the development of the activities throughout the semester. They also stressed the fact that a deep skillset on project management, coupled with quality tools and methods, are desirable, if not, essential to a fruitful pace of activities. From a summary among all the obtained data, the greatest learning for the coordination of the discipline was the importance of receiving a critical analysis from the students at the end of the project