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Work experience for higher education engineering students. A STEM South East project for the royal academy of engineering. aims. The overall project aims were:
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Work experience for higher education engineering students A STEM South East project for the royal academy of engineering
aims • The overall project aims were: • To develop strategic partnerships between industry and HEIs in the "Greater South East", establishing a collaborative framework for future research and development of good work experience provision. • To investigate the extent and nature of engagement between employers, HEIs and other stakeholders in relation to internships, work experience and work based learning for undergraduate engineering students. • To spread knowledge among STEM employers (particularly SMEs), HEIs, students and other stakeholders about effective work experience practice by disseminating the results of case studies that illustrate the benefits and barriers of work placements in undergraduate engineering education work experience and internship.
methods • Mainly qualitative methods • Three employers, each linked with an HEI or HEIs, across the Greater South East • Interviews with: • University staff • Students • Employers • Also literature reviewing, looking at relevant documentation etc.
Employer case studies • A public utility: National Grid, Grain, taking students from University of Greenwich • A large company: SELEX Galileo, Basildon, taking students from a number of universities • A small firm: Hanover Displays, Lewes, taking students from University of Brighton
Links with other projects • Other RAE funded projects, mainly engineering curriculum development • Other STEM South East projects, including some on work experience • HEFCE work experience project
Analysis framework • Communities of Practice approach • Students in workplaces engage in “Legitimate Peripheral Practice”
Findings • Three main areas under which findings come: • Learning • Support • General policy
Other comments: What have you learnt? • The student believes that she is in the correct industry, but has learned through her placement that she wants to be hands on, not office based. Prior to her placement, she wondered if the apprenticeship route would have been more appropriate for her. • (Have you been able to practice the knowledge and skills acquired during your degree course in this work placement?)“Yes, the learning did kick in and processes made sense.”(Student interviewee)
Considerable responsibility • A student was assigned her own projects, with budgets, and was also able to shadow technicians for some real hands on experience. She also lent support to the site administrator from time to time, and felt this gave a good insight into contracts.
Employability • (Do you think the work placement experience has enhanced your employability? ) • Yes, very much so and the year out has also had a knock on effect to other parts of my life like my part-time job. I know what to expect from employment, expectations for professional behaviour and how to find her way in a place of employment. (Student interviewee)
How is student achievement measured? • Using objectives. • Measuring success of outcomes. • Soft skills, timekeeping, deadlines • (Large company) • Those undertaking the industrial diploma must produce a log book spanning the duration of their 36 week placement, do a presentation and a summary report • (Public utility) • We ask them what they have learnt. • They make their own connections inside the company and suggest improvements to business communication and organisation. • (Small company)
HEFCE useful typology • ‘Individual’ placements • Company schemes • ‘Supported’ schemes • HEI/regional schemes • GTP • Commercial schemes • Sector schemes • The placements we examined in this project were mainly “Individual” placements, but “supported” schemes were also present.
Are you on a sandwich course? • (Did you enrol on a sandwich degree course?) • Originally no, but I always knew that Iwanted to do a placement. • (Student interviewee) • No HEI seemed to differentiate between students applying for sandwich or non-sandwich modes of their courses, despite them having different UCAS codes.
Paid placements • All the placements found were paid. We didn’t come across any unpaid placements in engineering, although they are common in some related fields such as product design. • Generally yes, sandwich year students are paid £13-£15k per annum by the employer … the student was also able to save some money towards her final year’s tuition. (HEI interviewee) • The student benefited from external training opportunities whilst on placement, paid for by the company. (Employer interviewee)
Intermediary organisations • The student arranged her own placement through an organisation called “A Year in Industry”. There was a £25 administration fee and companies paid a fee (roughly £2000) to secure a student for placement. The student was entirely responsible for joining the placement finding scheme and found out about it through friends. Once joining the finding scheme, the company sent out CVs and arranged interviews on behalf of the student, who was at liberty to turn down any interviews that she chose. (HEI interviewee) • The school does not promote the concept of a year out actively enough or help the students to find the place. (Student interviewee)
Multiple Mentoring • A student interviewee had a mentor (senior engineer), a line manager and also a mentor from A Year in Industry. She also had visits from a member of the School of Engineering staff from the university, so “felt support from all angles”. • Student interviewees in the small company did not have formal mentors, but had trusting and informal relationships with their line managers and colleagues. At least one colleague was a former graduate of the same course.
Can all students be placed? • Poor students are a difficulty – as they alienate the employer and often don’t follow through with the placement. The university vets students as well as they can, by obtaining tutor references and interviewing students for the placements that the university finds directly.(HEI interviewee)
Re-integration of knowledge post-placement • An advantage of the “sandwich course” model is that students return to university and share knowledge acquired on different placements. • Seminar discussion with employers, HEIs and other partners indicated the vital role of the “third year project” in helping students the theoretical knowledge and practical skills they had gained during their university course and the placement. • Employers and HEIs keep in contact through liaison about these projects and the final exhibition of degree work. There is scope for more involvement of employers in assessment of student work, as happens in some other sectors.
Possible implications of white paper • Pressures towards more offer and take up of paid placements • Students will expect more “value for money” • Emphasis on employability • Post-graduation placements, no longer just KTP • More scrutiny of the inequities of unpaid placements, conflict with WP objectives • Realisation that unpaid placements violate minimum wage law
questions for an uncertain future • Does the relatively generous pay in engineering limit the number of placements on offer? • Is the learning on placements – in contrasting environments – shared and built on in the final year? • Is workplace learning an essential part of the engineering curriculum – if not all students take up placements? • Can the engineering model be spread to other sectors?
