• Employers as partners through placement creation – a regional perspective
• e-Placement Scotland project overview
• Findings
• Recommendations
• Q/A
Introduction
Project Objectives
• Create 750 paid placements for computing students across Scotland; in HE and FE
• Partnership between Edinburgh Napier University, ScotlandIS and e-skills UK – started August 2010
• Employers pay students – average salary is £15K pro rata
• Placements to last between 3 months and one year, full-time or part-time
• Sector focus – tie in with subject discipline
• Programme leader engagement – in-lecture presentations
• Directed advice to students – CV for computing jobs, assessment centres for computing etc
What’s working? 1. Sector focus
• Visits to employer premises
• Network with employers locally around their interests
• Employers offering masterclasses to bring students in – not all will be placed –added value
What’s working? 2. Regional focus
• Registration and “matching” service
• Tackling low numbers applying?
• Campaigns – knowing the HE placement landscape
• Flexibility – employers rose to the challenge eg p/t
• Listen to employers in your sector – in computing, 3 month summer placements for third year students is the dominant model
What’s working?3. Skills-based recruitment campaigns
• Over 200,000 businesses have been created since 2011 (BIS, 2012)
• 53% of our placements in SMEs
• Not easy but build brand – reputation, repeat custom,
What’s working?4. Collaboration to widen access to SMEs
• Trade bodies – formal & informal networking
• Regional approach – manageable regions eg across Scotland
• Help & support – development of job specifications, IP statements, contracts, shortlisting, H&S checklist
Three secrets to accessing SMEs
• Application rates were an issue initially – students intimidated by job specifications – e.g. 7 essential skills, 6 desirable skills
• College students gaining placements – employers want highly qualified students. Many students who articulated from college were successful.
What’s difficult?
• Academic credit OR pay OR both (never neither)
• We looked at placement projects across Scotland
• Can pay, should pay? – funded by HEA
• e. g. Smith, C., Smith, S., Irving, C (2013) Can pay, should pay? Comparing employer and student outcomes of paid and unpaid work opportunities, HEA STEM Conference April 2013, Birmingham
Finally, paid/ unpaid
• Wilson T (2012) A review of business–university collaboration
• https://www.ukecc-services.net/ukpbata.cfm
• http://www.britishservices.co.uk/associations.htm
• Federation of Small Businesses http://www.fsb.org.uk/
• Smith, C., Smith, S., Irving, C (2013) Can pay, should pay? Comparing employer and student outcomes of paid and unpaid work opportunities, HEA STEM Conference April 2013, Birmingham
References
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