Placements and Internships: Opportunities beyond the Student

ExperienceProf Andy Phippen

andy.phippen@plymouth.ac.uk

With data from Sophie Carbonell

About MeProfessor of Social Responsibility in ITAssociate Head (External Relations), Plymouth

Business SchoolAcademic Accreditation Committee for the BCSExperience in both tech and management disciplinesHave been involved with

HE/Industry liaison for 20 yearsResearchStudent opportunitiesCurriculum development Policy making and lobbying

What is the point in us?The role of placements/internships in

addressing some of the tensionsThe impact on the studentIs there anything else?

Drawing fromMy own experiencesData from my own studentsData collected by Sophie for her dissertation

Agenda for today

Make A-Levels much harder so fewer people go. That will drive up the value of the degree and the A-level. Fewer university places will bring down tuition fees. Shop assistants will only need A-Levels instead of a degree in Harry Potter Studies

Comment from a reader...

academic: not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest.

 "The object of universities is not to make skilful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated human beings.”Adam Smith

A liberal education helps inspire in us "a love of our neighbour, a desire for clearing human confusion and for diminishing human misery... The most noble aspiration to leave the world better and happier than we found it".Matthew Arnold

Perspective in the 1800s

In the present day for some“There are many reasons for going to

university, including – naturally – a love of the subject to be studied, and the opportunity to experience a different way of life. Higher education is much more than a production line for work-ready graduates. “Lord Baker of Dorking in Foreword for

Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., and Lewin, J. (2011)

UK Government 2010“It is like we have one opportunity at the age of 18 to go to university – the kind of Club Med application. People can have other opportunities.”

“Students do not need to rack up this debt. Amazingly, there was a load of this hard up students, behaving disgustingly, sex in public place, walking around almost naked and totally no morals. We all know that the 1st year at Uni is spent partying and doing very little studying. So cut the course by 1 year, saving £9000 in fees and loads off the bar bill.”

Opinion seemingly shared with a Daily Mail reader

Why do students go to University?

“University should be seen as a stepping stone to get you to where you want to be.”

“I wanted to build my knowledge on a subject which would benefit my future career, enabling myself to aim towards a certain path. As Moreau and Leathwood (2006) state, there is a greater emphasis for an individual’s own ‘employability’, using the university and various employers as stepping stones in the pursuit of their lifelong learning”

“Employers expect graduates to demonstrate a range of skills and attributes that include team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking, problem solving and often managerial abilities or potential. Employers are frustrated that higher education courses do not meet their needs.”Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., and Lewin, J.

(2011)

How do we address this issue?Is there an issue to address at all?

I came to University to learn how to program and I leave knowing how to use the Harvard Referencing System (just what every employer wants).... when I look at the course title “Computing for Business Applications” I see a vocational course.

The placement experience

A happy medium?Let academics do what they do bestAnd let employers help make it applicable to

the “real world”

And let students benefit from the best of both worlds

Is this really the case?

Placement should be compulsory for all - its life changing.

One of the best decisions I made at university, the experience was invaluable.

I feel that a degree is not enough anymore, as most people have them. A placement year experience gives me a higher competitive advantage to those who have not done work experience.

It has shown me exactly what I DON'T want to do. Which is both a positive and negative experience.

My placement completely changed my perception of working and studying. Without it I would have probably finished my degree with a low 2.2 but now I have a strong work ethic and am on target for a first. I cannot recommend doing a placement enough, I think it should be compulsory for business students.

My aspirations were originally orientated around my own self development, however with an increased social and moral consciousness after my placement year I felt more inclined to aspire to assist in the development and resolving of broader external issues concerning society.

HOWEVER!!!

I do not feel that I had sufficient contact with the university during my time as only had one visit

I found the work given to me by the University to be very unhelpful and completely irrelevant. I also found that my tutor was basically absent and unwilling to help, if I had any serious problems with my placement I do not feel I would know where to turn. I think it would be better to have more regular contact between tutors and students, and less formal arbritrary forms which I felt did little to show progression.

Issues arising such as How do we assess the placement?

Should we assess the placement?Why isn’t there more tutor involvement in the

placement experienceIn some cases administration staff manage the whole

placement processIs there an academic disconnect with the

placement process?Are they undersold once students embark on their

courses?E.g. PBS this year 1000 placement opportunities for

300 students

The value of placementsThe placement is not just “work experience for

students”

It’s a bridge between academia and industryIts an opportunity to:

Understand the leading edgeUnderstand student destinationsBetter support our students in their career aspirationsAlign curriculum with need (and offering better

“product”)Do research

But…Is institutional strategy hampering the

willingness of academics to engage with employabilty/non-research based activities?

Are we experiencing “institutional split personality disorder”?And failing to exploit the potential of

placements beyond student employability…