Introduction: Skills are understood as the ability to respond to demands and perform tasks properly. Students of all programs must develop them during the course of their training to respond to the requirements of the labor market. Objective: To explore the perception of nursing students on the acquisition of generic skills through the service learning methodology. Materials and methods: A qualitative research was conducted using an intrinsic case study. A non-probabilistic, intentional by criteria and convenient sample was used (16 fifth and seventh semester nursing students). The information was obtained using focus groups, and data analysis was done through data reduction technique; informed consent by all participants was obtained. Results: 237 relevant units of meaning and 2 qualitative domains were obtained: “Benefits of the service learning methodology in the training process of nursing students” and “contributions of the students in relation to the use of the service learning methodology”. Conclusions: The service learning methodology is a contribution to the training of nursing students and offers a certain possibility of developing generic skills in different fields.