Courses objectives
The objectives of the professional mission internship are to implement the knowledge and skills acquired during the teaching phase and to integrate the student into a professional network. It allows students to carry out an individual project, with the benefit of individualized supervision. In the context of the professional mission, the students are required to work in an international context and often in tropical areas that are sometimes geographically and economically isolated, where their capacity for adaptation, autonomy and initiative will be strongly required.
Course contents
The professional mission internship generally deals with environmental problems in the broad sense of the term in tropical zones, both in the context of "natural" ecosystems and production systems that include trees as a major component.
The preparation of this internship requires an investment by the student throughout the teaching sequence. It requires the solicitation of the various bodies and institutions that have historically been AgroParisTech's partners in the fields of competence of the teaching team: research (CIRAD, IRD, Inra, CNRS, Universities ...), higher education (Montpellier Supagro, IAMM), the public sector (central administrations, territorial and/or local authorities, parapublic establishments), the private sector (consultancies, technical institutes, private companies) and the organizational sector (international organizations, NGOs, local and/or national associations) both in France and internationally. The members of the teaching team provide support in orienting students towards professional structures and advise them on the chosen theme. The study is carried out in response to and in co-construction with an order formulated by the host organization, while at the same time implementing critical analysis skills with respect to this order. The subject and the material and supervisory conditions of the internship are validated by the teaching staff of the program and by the tutor after evaluation of a project document presented to a jury.
The "mission" part of the internship takes place, except in exceptional cases, abroad and aims to confront the students with the reality of the field and provide them with the experience necessary to understand local dynamics.
The internship leads to the writing of a professional thesis and a public defense before a jury composed of at least the internship tutor, the AgroParisTech teacher-referent, and an external reporter working on a theme related to the internship, one of these members having to be a teacher-researcher.
Teaching and learning methods
Communication and writing courses to help students adopt a scientific approach in the construction of their internship project.
Facilitate discussion and guidance on the problematic of the internship, the methodology and the feasibility of the project.
Course evaluation
The preparation of the internship is a graded exercise based on a thesis and an internship project defense. The internship work is evaluated during a public defense in front of a jury in Montpellier during which the content of the thesis, the quality of the answers to the jury's questions, as well as the student's behavior during the internship are noted.
Target skills
- Develop a formalized program of work involving local people in a developing country
- Discuss key issues related to natural resource management
- Produce a critical analysis and propose appropriate alternatives
- Contribute to the global debate on natural resource management
