The Extension Activities in The Process of Training University Students

Abstract

Since colonial times, social inequality is the reality that insists on persisting in the country, even with the great economic advances obtained over the centuries. Faced with these problems, there are several responsible for acting on their resolutions and / or mitigations. The important role of government (federal, state, and municipal), justice, NGOs, and even religious institutions are the most popular forms of action outside the scientific community, but universities in extension actions to be an important vector for generating ideas and solutions so that we have a more egalitarian society. It was with this in mind that, in 2008 at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), the Nucleus of Social Attendance of the Faculty of Engineering (NASFE) was created to allow the generation of social projects of engineering and architecture, but also to enable the students to live practical experiences, acting in real cases and developing skills and competences essential for their academic formation. NASFE is currently an extension project that aims at good engineering practice in order to improve the quality of life of poor communities through the provision of free advisory services to engineering projects. With the guidance of teachers, students from the 2nd to 10th period of Engineering, Architecture, Arts and Design, and Social Service of the UFJF it is made possible to offer such services. Since November 2016 actions have been developing in partnership with the Center of Legal Practices of the Faculty of Law of the UFJF providing experience in multiprofessional and multidisciplinary activities. In addition to these services, students are organized into sectors to advance the practice of developing leadership skills so that they are able to assume leadership roles in the labor market and in public power. In this sense, NASFE is divided into three sectors: CIA (Communication, Infrastructure, and Service), Human Resources, and Quality and Projects, each of which is overseen by an academic member. Organization and opening of the requests, training, and management of the members and, finally, development, monitoring, and delivery of projects are the main activities of each sector, respectively. In 2016 and 2017, 71 consultations were carried out, divided into usucapian projects, proletarian projects, regularizations and architectural projects, mapping of risk areas, and technical surveys. Thus, even with the reduced number of students and professors facing the high demand of society for public engineering, a satisfactory productivity was obtained, as well as allowing members a practical vision of the social responsibility of their future professions. In addition, in view of the great problem of cities with natural disasters, the NASFE-EDUCATION sector was implemented in March 2018 with the aim of promoting prevention through the learning of elementary school children and the school community, regarding social and environmental risks, and to bring up the discussion on the subject and necessary care. The development of educational actions in public schools has partners such as the Fire Department and City Hall of Juiz de Fora.