We aim explore and characterize student’s perceptions about what they have learnt during their work placement period, and how they have learnt it. 

Our start point is an empirical study of A. Virtanen, P. Tynjälä, and K. Collin (2009) who examines Finnish students perceptions of their workplace learning. The theorical background is models of learning process for adults at work, developped in the last few decades. These models give some characteristics of how employees learn at work and some typologies of what they learn. We can retain in brief : firstly that workplace learning is often informal, experiential, context-bounded and shared (Billett 2002, Eraut 2004), secondly that we can distinguish 3 categories of learning content : conceptual and theoretical understanding, practical skills, and self-regulating learning (Tynjälä 2008).

In addition, we would like to test the hypothesis that we can elaborate some typical configurations of internships environments and that each one favours some learning contents.

Billett, S. (2002). Workplace pedagogic practices: Co-participation and learning. British Journal of Educational Studies. Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 247–273. Tynjälä, P. (2008). Connectivity and transformation in work-related learning: Theoretical foundations. In M.-L. Stenström & P. Tynjälä (Eds.), Towards integration of work and learning: Strategies for connectivity and transformation, pp. 11–37. Dordrecht: Springer. Virtanen, A., Tynjälä, P., Collin, K. (2009). Characteristics of Workplace Learning Among Finnish. Vocations and Learning.