The success of teleworking in the internships of the Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Psychology at the Universitat

As its director, Professor Vicente Martínez-Tur, explains, this Master's course "is always a source of innovation and, of course, a box of surprises and challenges to achieve the training of excellence to which the EU's Erasmus Mundus seal of approval commits us". This year, the surprise has come because just at the time of incorporation of the students to the companies in internship was declared in Spain and in many other countries the state of alert. The coordinator of the master's programme at the Universitat de Valencia, Professor José María Peiró, points out: "Our students do their internships in companies and organisations in many countries (several are in the United States, others in other European countries: France, Germany, Sweden, etc.). When the state of alert began, some had just arrived in the United States and had to be quarantined, and almost all started the on-line internship and continue like that.... That is to say, teleworking. In fact, many have never visited the company's facilities and practically all in the different countries are doing an internship through teleworking”.

Now, the administration of the master has followed up with questionnaires to find out about their experience and has just published the answers on the master's website (https://www.erasmuswop.org). As can be seen from the answers, Martínez-Tur points out, "the experience is very diverse and often fantastic. It is clear that we are in leading companies and organizations in various countries of the world, which always, in this master's degree, gives a great richness and provides great training capital for students and teachers”.

Even with the changes online, the students, who have already become professionals on internships, follow the protocol for reporting their internships, as they are doing them. This allows for on-line monitoring by the Master's tutor in order to assess and support the acquisition of professional skills, according to the model of the European professionals of Work Psychology, Europsy. "Thus, our students regularly report on their activities in the company and how they have enabled them to practice these skills. We have developed an on-line platform where they have to describe the activities they carry out, for which clients and with which technologies etc. The aim is for them to provide evidence that they are acquiring the professional skills that companies are currently demanding", says José Mª Peiró.

Logically, Professor Peiró concludes, "The new situation of tele-practice raises the opportunity to learn in the reality of the company (in many occasions companies with wide experience in tele-work, for being multinational and global) the on-line and digital work, which is going to be very necessary for the professionals in the so called new normality".

The Master EM WOP-P, which is coordinated by the Universitat de València and directed by Professor Vicente Martinez-Tur, is taught by a consortium of four European universities (Barcelona, Bologna, Coimbra, and Valencia) granting joint degrees to their graduates. The Universities of Guelph (Canada), Florida Institute of Technology (USA), Illinois Institute of Technology (USA), University of Baltimore (USA), University of Puerto Rico and University of Brasilia (Brazil) also collaborate.

The title of Master is the one that qualifies for the professional practice as a psychologist in Spain, Portugal and Italy. In addition, the training given in this Erasmus Mundus master's degree qualifies you to obtain the EUROPSY Certificate of Professional Quality as a Psychologist granted by the European Federation of Psychological Associations (EFPA) (http://www.europsy-efpa.eu)

The Erasmus Mundus Master in Work Psychology, Organizations and Human Resources has a duration of 120 ECTS. The study plan requires a minimum mobility of one semester in another university of the Consortium and a practicum that is often also in another country different from the university where the studies are carried out. The master's degree also has an international faculty in addition to that made up of the universities in the European consortium. Some fifteen visiting professors give lectures or complementary seminars in the Master's each year.

All teaching at the Universitat de València is taught in English and, in addition, the Centro Internacional de Gandía organises the Winter School (two intensive weeks as a boarding school) in which students from all the universities take part and to which a dozen students from other international master's and doctoral programmes, also selected by the consortium's coordination team, are incorporated.