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Strong Program

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The FORTE agreements (Strengthening of Employability) are one of the lines of action of the profESIonalízate program launched by the Escuela Superior de Informática (ESI) of Ciudad Real.

This program seeks to strengthen the professional skills of ESI graduates. It is implemented through annual calls.

The fundamental objective of the FORTE is to allow students who are close to finishing their degree or master's degree, and who ideally only need to complete the TFG or TFM (TFE - Final Study Project), to immerse themselves in the development of some real project that is being carried out within a company and carry out the TFE within it. In this way, the student will have the opportunity to carry out internships together, within the company, and the development of their TFE. Each student will be tutored by a professor from the ESI and an Engineer from the company, who will have the most practical vision of the TFE. For his part, the ESI professor will be able to undertake both practical tasks, although always respecting the vision of the company but ensuring compliance with the objectives from the academic point of view, as well as more formal and academic tasks, verifying that the existing regulations and quality standards.

Therefore, students are given the opportunity to start in the business world before the end of the degree. Unlike company internships, the student is integrated into a real project and assumes greater responsibility from the beginning since it will be necessary to achieve the FORTE objectives, broader objectives than those that are intended to be achieved in company internships.

After the completion of the FORTE and the consequent defense of the TFE, the company can consider hiring the student, although this is the case in most cases, it is never binding and therefore does not oblige the company or the student to do anything. Therefore, FORTEs are a very useful tool for obtaining a more specialized professional profile that increases the chances of not only being hired, but also having a better [first] contract.

The process has these steps:

  1. Knowledge of the interest on the part of the students. Students are contacted to find out their profile, the companies they are interested in, the type of projects they would like to carry out, etc.
  2. Depending on the preferences indicated by the students, the most suitable companies are contacted and they are asked to show their interest in participating or not in the call. If you are interested, you must provide us with the FORTE that you offer and the characteristics of each of them.
  3. The call is published so that students can make applications.
  4. Students send the request, indicating the FORTE they are interested in. They must also attach a copy of their CV and the information sheet that contains their academic record.
  5. The list of possible candidates for each FORTE is sent to each company and the selection process by the companies begins. This process usually involves one or more interviews by students to prove their worth.
  6. The companies communicate the results, which are transferred to the students by the relevant person in charge of the ESI and possible conflicts are resolved. The conflicts are caused because there may be students who are selected by several companies and, therefore, have to reject some of the offers. That means that there is a list of substitutes to fill that vacancy.