Technical internships as a means of acquiring professional skills for future metrologists

Abstract The Polytechnic University of Santa Rosa Jauregui (UPSRJ) is a Mexican public institution where the Industrial Metrology Engineering undergraduate program (IMEUP) has recently been initiated. The program’s curriculum develops the skills required to enjoy a successful career in metrology. To achieve this goal, the program includes two part-time internships as a fundamental part of the student’s academic training. Before the students graduate, they must complete a third full-time 600-h internship at an off-campus facility that employs metrologists. The main purpose of these internships is that undergraduate metrology students have the opportunity to apply previously acquired knowledge to real industrial (cased-based) problems by integrating theory and practice, a fact well known to foster significant learning in students. Thus, these industrial experiences are performed at real-life professional metrology environments such as research centers, testing or calibration laboratories, and in the industry. This article highlights the experiences of the undergraduate metrology students at the end of their first and second practical stay in a real-life production or research metrology company. The information gathered suggests that exposing undergraduate students to metrology related enterprises would likely stimulate the generation of highly-skilled graduated metrologists.