Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Industry: Issues And Solutions - Embracing...

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Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Discipline: Issues And

Solutions

Embracing Employability Through Placements In Higher Education Conference

Thomas LancasterTuesday, 9 July 2013


Placements Within Computing


Why I’m Interested In Placements

Thomas Lancaster

Senior Lecturer in Computing at Birmingham City UniversityProgramme Leader BSc Computer ScienceTeach Professional Skills (including Employability and Placement Skills)Visit and Assess Placement StudentsDevelop and Deliver HEA Workshops Related To Social Media and Employability


The Research Project

15 month project (January 2012 to March 2013) funded by a Higher Education Academy Teaching Development Grant“Improving Industrial Sandwich Year Placements For

Computing Students”

Supported by two Research AssociatesKawal Banga and Nzinga DeenahKawal conducted most of the primary research – and some of

the content of this session is reproduced from his slides


The Big Questions

Why aren’t all Computing students undertaking a Sandwich Year Placement?How do placements within the Computing discipline compares with other subjects?What initiatives and best practice can we identify from Computing that will assist the rest of the sector?


The Research Agreement

1. A Literature Review, identifying current practice within Computing Placements

2. A survey, aimed at all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK providing three year undergraduate degrees in Computing subjects

3. Focus groups held with students and staff at 10 representative UK Computing schools

4. Collation of learning resources available from around the sector


Research Challenges

Getting a viable and correct database of HEI contactsThe end results saw 116 HEIs identified

Gaining participation in the survey and for holding the focus groupsGetting HEIs to share their learning resources to make them available across the sectorThis challenge was not really overcome


The Focus Today

Selected highlights from the researchKey numbers and examples from the Survey, Focus

Groups and Research Workshops

The usefulness is on sharing the knowledge of what is happening across the sector (good and bad) and applying this on a local level


Key Survey Research Findings


Survey Participation

In Scope HEIs Response

# % # %

Universities 107 92% 73 68%

Colleges 9 8% 3 33%

Wales 10 9% 8 80%

Scotland 13 11% 10 77%

NI 2 2% 1 50%

England 91 78% 57 63%

12 Month Sandwich 79 68% 56 71%

Other 37 32% 20 54%

Total 116 100% 76 66%


Top Reasons Why Students Don’t Complete

A Placement

1 – Lack of motivation or commitment to take a year out (23%)2 – Lack of communication and employability skills and not prepared to apply (21%)3 - Lack of confidence to apply and fear of rejection (21%)4 – Too time consuming to apply (20%)5 - Lack of suitable placements (20%)


Top HEI Resource Types Made Available To

Students

1 – Application and CV Advice (100%)2 – Presentations from employers (95%)3 – Interview techniques training (93%)4 – Student placement handbook (88%)=5 – Student placement web portal (71%)=5 – Work skills workshop (71%)


Top Activities Undertaken By Students Returning From

Placements

1 – Presentations for prospective placement students (89%)2 – Peer mentoring to students going out on placement (14%)=3 – Peer mentoring to students who have recently started their placement (4%)=3 – Present about placements at Open Days (4%)


Top Alternatives Offered To Placements

1 – Guest speakers from industry (90%)2 – Summer vacation working (75%)3 – Networking events with employers (70%)4 – Employer led projects (60%)=5 – Short-term work experience of 1 to 4 weeks (50%)=5 – Entrepreneurial activities, e.g. working for student led commercial companies (50%)

Note – This question was only asked to 20 HEIs not offering 12 month placements


Key Focus Group Research Findings


Focus Group Participation

Focus Groups

Universities 9

Colleges 1

Wales 2

Scotland 1

NI 1

England 6

12 Month Sandwich 9

Other 1

Total 10


Numeric Findings

5% of 617 students in 2011-12 (across the 10 focus group HEIs) were on unpaid placements4 out of 10 HEIs used credit bearing placements (the credits were substitutable for other modules)1 did not use a credit bearing placement, but did

provide successful students with a diploma in professional practice


The 80% Rule

Study at one of the HEIs (5 years ago)80% of students who had done a placement ended up

in a job related to their degree80% of students who had not done a placement ended

up in a job unrelated to their degree


Common Challenges

General decline in students undertaking placementsHEI Placement services under threat from centralisationFor the HEIs managing to grow their placements, number of visits per student is decreasingNeed to look at alternatives, such as Skype ‘visits’, or

Student Partner visits


External Employer Developments

Placement opportunities are reducing due to companies outsourcing aspects of their servicesWhere companies are offering placements, an increasing number of them are using the placement as part of their graduate recruitment process


What Are The Focus Group HEIs Working On?

HEIs are looking for ways to support students undertaking entrepreneurial activity as their placement yearHEIs are considering allowing accumulated time to count as a placement yearThey are aiming to increase uptake of summer internships for work experienceHEIs are expanding placements to MSc degree students


Good Practice

HEIs are offering internal placement opportunitiesIncluding setting up Student Run Companies (Software

Houses, Consultancy) to provide work experience

HEIs are making more placement opportunities available overseas, for instance through ErasmusHEIs are providing placement opportunities to international students


Future Developments


Recommendations

Continue to present the benefits of placements to studentsHEIs need to directly capture, collect and analyse data

relating to their own placements

Make placements credit bearing, or offer a suitable incentive for participationMake the cost of a placement year transparent to students

Use Peer Mentoring and Peer Support more within the end-to-end placement process


Key Research Opportunities

Strategies for getting both students and employers motivated and interested in placementsAlternatives to placements and measuring their successCultural issues towards placement participationAssessment and accreditation of placementsSocial media use throughout the placement processActivities carried out by students returning from placements


Workshop Initiatives

Success observed from ensuring that all staff push placements within their own teachingStudents explicitly told when taking tasks to place on their CV

Record keeping of students seeking employability supportThose not seeking support contacted directly

More flexible career support servicesOne university doubled the take up of its services by offering

electronic CV checking

Present degrees with a placement as a premium product


For More Information


Resources Related To Research Project

HEA Computing Workshops

“Improving Computing Sandwich Year Placements Workshop”http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/07_March_Computing-Bham-City

“Improving Computing Sandwich Year Placements For Scottish HEIs Workshop”http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/02-May-Computing-RGordon

Other External SessionsHEA STEM Conference 2013 (Two Papers and Talks)Various Research Seminars Delivered During Focus Group Sessions

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/07_March_Computing-Bham-City

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/07_March_Computing-Bham-City

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/02-May-Computing-RGordon

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/02-May-Computing-RGordon


Contact Details

Thomas Lancaster:http://[email protected]

Or Tweet Me:@DrLancaster

Slides Available At:http://slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/

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Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Industry: Issues And Solutions - Embracing...

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