Placements and their impact on Graduate Employment

Sarah Flynns.j.flynn@herts.ac.uk01707 286370 (3370)

Session outline

• Assumptions and rhetoric• What are the benefits of placement?• What does the policy literature tell us?• What does the research say?• Everybody is doing it…• How do we know what works?

Outcomes• Seen what we know, and what is yet to be discovered• Have thought about what you will do as a result of having come along today

Why do a placement?

1. No choice2. Only way to get a graduate job3. Get work experience4. Parental / peer pressure5. Break into the industry / make contacts6. Earn money7. Get some ideas for a career8. Get out of University9. Travel10. Ideas for final year project

• Academic theory into practice• Improve their academic performance

What does the policy literature tell us?

• CBI and Universities UK report Future fit Preparing graduates for the world of work March 2009

• Students who undertakes a placement or internship are immersed in the experience of being in a real workplace, finding out what it’s like working at graduate level. This can help them understand more quickly what skills they need and how to apply their learning

• Credits towards a student’s degree from participation in work related learning signal the importance placed on the employability skills and can be a very effective incentive.

What does the policy literature tell us?

• CBI and NUS report Working towards your future, making the most of your time in higher education March 2011

• Maybe your course goes further [than skills development] and includes live workplace experience as part of the package.

• Whatever the length of the placement, that kind of workplace experience is enormously valuable if you’re fortunate enough to have it built in to your course.

What does the policy literature tell us?

• Wilson Review of Business and University Collaborations February 2012

• Sandwich degrees should be encouraged through a new compact between students, universities, government and employers, reflecting the benefits to all parties from the enhanced employment outcomes

• Every full time undergraduate student ‐should have the opportunity to experience a structured, university‐approved undergraduate internship during their period of study

What does the policy literature tell us?

• Institute for Public Policy Research and Pearson EducationAn avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead March 2013

• The first fundamental challenge facing the sector all round the world is how can universities and new providers ensure education for employability?

• How can the link between cost and quality be broken?

• How does the entire learning ecosystem need to change to support alternative providers and the future of work?

Meat in the sandwichTimes Higher Education 4th April 2013

• The UK must build work experience into higher education with the same vigour as it did in the 1950’s, Quintin McKellar argues

• 2009 7.2% placement yr (9.5% in 1999)

National Apprenticeship Service• 250,000 mid 1960’s• 53,00 1990• 520,000 2012

Could placements learn from apprenticeships?• Shared sites advertising?• Government support for SMEs taking

students – £1500 for first ten• Could incentivise more placements within

SME (UH <40%)• Guaranteed minimum wage – believes we

should only advertise those paying this

What does the research say?

• 2004Survey of 66 graduate employers who take placement students, 69% of placement students were offered graduate jobs, 80% of employers recruited placement students with the primary aim of attracting them back to permanent jobs, and 40% of annual graduate intake from these employers consisted of former placement students (University of Manchester and UMIST).

• 2012Traditional sandwich placement 75-100 students annually in Engineering. Those who were on placement in 2009/10, 100% gained graduate level employment within 6 months. Of the returning placement students joining 2012/13 final year (82) 22 are conducting final year projects with their placement company and an survey to all the students at Christmas showed that 26 had secured graduate job offers so far and most others been offered a fast track on graduate recruitment.(Queen’s University, Belfast)

In much of the early research there are similar (mixed) messages….• Duignan (2002,2003) found no significant difference between the performance (using

mean module percentage scores) of placement and full-time business undergraduates.

• Gomez et al. (2004) analysed students on a bioscience degree over a two-year period; found that females performed significantly better than males in the final year and those taking the optional placement course performed significantly better than those following the full-time degree in the final year.

• Mandilaras (2004) also found that placement students in an economics degree had a significantly better chance of achieving a first or 2:1

• Rawlings et al. (2005) examined students graduating from information systems degrees; found that the probability of gaining a first or upper second degree classification was greater for students on placement rather than full-time courses and also found that there was a significant interaction between second-year marks and placement status on degree classification.

What about “non-traditional” subjects?

• Reddy and Moores 2006• Psychology• 414 students, 225 who took placement year (Aston University)

• Median final year percentage marks for students who had taken a placement year are consistently better than students who had not; following further two factor ANOVA analysis this was controlled for second year performance, and improvement from 1st to 2nd year and still shows greater academic improvement for placement students

• Also asked dissertation tutors to participate in a comparative analysis in terms of their self management, attributes and research skills and students from placement were ranked higher by their supervisors

what makes for employability in graduates overlaps substantially with what makes them good researchers

What attributes / skills did the students identify they developed on placement?1. Teamwork2. Networking3. Time management4. Statistical analysis5. Office etiquette6. Making presentations7. Research8. Confidence9. Decision making10. Writing skills11. Communication12. Business awareness13. Taking responsibility14. Organisation15. Self presentation16. Maturity

1. Communication (11)2. Time management (3)3. Confidence (8)4. Taking responsibility (13)5. Self presentation (15)6. Making presentations (6)7. Writing skills (10)8. Teamwork (1)

Everybody’s doing it….

• Develop our curricula to enhance student employability and to incorporate opportunities for work experience

• Introduction of the Graduate Attributes; enabling our graduates to express these in the workplace is vital

• Challenging students at induction to make the most of their experience

• An aspiration of mandatory work placements for all undergraduates by 2020; because of evidence linking this to graduate success

• 95% of students in graduate employment within six months of leaving

• Very high student satisfaction levels

• 4 year courses with a voluntary placement• 60% took up the option last year• Work in about 600 different locations• 15% took a placement overseas• University first offered it 40 years ago.

What is new, though, is the students' determination to take advantage of it

What about us? 9.3% did placement

But what is “placement”

Company visitsUsually undertaken as a supervised, group activity either as part of the curriculum or outside, as an enrichment activity for students

Insight daysOffered and advertised by employers, aimed at first or second year undergraduate students.

Internships /Vacation placements

A short term placement opportunity usually offered and advertised by employers although may also be secured through a speculative application. Taken by students at any level of study in a vacation time or part time during an academic year. Elsewhere, the term “internships” is used in another context to describe opportunities for new graduates.

Practice placements

Governed by a formal agreement between the HEI and employers, these placements are usually undertaken on programmes where qualification leads to a licence to practice such as in health or education. Students will often do multiple practice placements as part of their programme of study and employers may be involved in the assessment of students.

ProjectsNegotiated pieces of work, either group based or individual that may be sourced by the HEI or the student and can be located at the employers’ premises.

But what is “placement”

Sandwich placementA placement equivalent of a year’s academic study (30-52 weeks depending on HEI regulations). Typically taken by undergraduate students as the penultimate year of their programme.

Semester placements

If a full time placement, it would be equivalent of a semester’s academic study (12-15 weeks depending on HEI regulations). May also be used to describe a part time placement where a student integrates spending 1 or 2 days a week throughout the semester on placement with their academic study.

Semester or Year Abroad

When a student opts to study at an overseas HEI which has collaborative / reciprocal agreement with their home HEI, this could include a period of work or may be study only. This may be part of, or additional to, their degree e.g. ERASMUS scheme

Work shadowingShort term, informal activities where a student will spend time on company premises but will have no contract or expectation of making a working contribution; it is an observation opportunity.

Work-based awardA full programme where the employment setting is used as a contextual focus for the learning regularly throughout the degree; either retrospectively through reflection or prospectively through the setting of specific projects.

Where do the “easy” statistics sit?

Practice placements

Governed by a formal agreement between the HEI and employers, these placements are usually undertaken on programmes where qualification leads to a licence to practice such as in health or education. Students will often do multiple practice placements as part of their programme of study and employers may be involved in the assessment of students.

Sandwich placement

A placement equivalent of a year’s academic study (30-52 weeks depending on HEI regulations). Typically taken by undergraduate students as the penultimate year of their programme.

Semester or Year Abroad

When a student opts to study at an overseas HEI which has collaborative / reciprocal agreement with their home HEI, this could include a period of work or may be study only. This may be part of, or additional to, their degree e.g. ERASMUS scheme

Work-based award

A full programme where the employment setting is used as a contextual focus for the learning regularly throughout the degree; either retrospectively through reflection or prospectively through the setting of specific projects.

Outside the “easy” statistics…

How do we know what works?Value and Impact Toolkit

• Non prescriptive• Context specifichttp://www.amosshe.org.uk/projects/vip

Understanding

ImpactValue

How do we know what works?

Can be difficult to directlymeasure impact and thereforewe look to find “strong surrogates”that provide a close approximation:InnovateMake a differencePeople matterAct with integrityCustomer obsessedTrust and respect

How do we know what works?

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say,

we know there are some things we do not know.But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Thinking about impact of placements on graduate employment in your context• What are your known knowns?• What are your known unknowns?• What do you think the unknown unknowns might be?

The Graduate Market in 2013

• The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2012

• 11,300 paid internships and placements for 2013• Increase of 5% on 2011-12

• 2,800 opportunities in investment banking (more than there are graduate roles in the sector)

• Lowest ratios are retail, accounting, consultancy

• Over half state “not very likely/not at all likely” to recruit a graduate with no work experience (irrespective of the academic results)

• 36% of 2013 entry level vacancies will be filled by applicants who have already worked for the organisation as an undergraduate; in some sectors this is over 50%

New research on the horizon…

• ASET is keen to work with other organisations to achieve our mission of advancing the prevalence, effectiveness and quality of work based and placement learning in Higher Education.

• CIHE (Council for Industry and Higher Education) undertaking a small scale research project looking at placement provision in their member institutions.

• The research is being carried out by HECSU (Higher Education Career Services Unit) in partnership with CFE, who provide research services to employers and organisations in the world of education and skills.

• Funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

• National Centre for Universities and Business

Keeping in touch with the sector

ASET Annual Conference3rd – 5th September 2013

University of Greenwich, London

Call for Papers open until 24th May

References• Driffield, N.L., Foster, C.S. and Higson, H.E. (2011) Placements and degree performance: Do

placements lead to better marks or do better students do placements?, ASET Annual Conference 2011

• Duignan, J. (2002) Undergraduate work placement and academic performance: failing by doing. Conference Proceedings HERDSA Quality Conversations International Conference, 7–10 July 2002, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. Available at http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/herdsa/main/ papers/ ref/pdf/Duignan.pdf

• Duignan, J. (2003) Placement and adding value to the academic performance of undergraduates: Reconfiguring the architecture—an empirical investigation, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 55:3, 335–350

• Gomez, S., Lush, D. and Clements,M. (2004) Work placements enhance the academic performance of bioscience undergraduates, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 56:3, 373–386

• Higson, H. Jones, C. and Green, P. (2012) Work placements and degree performance: Do placements lead to better marks or do better students do placements?

• Mandilaras, A. (2004) Industrial placement and degree performance: Evidence from a British higher institution, International Review of Education Economics, 3:1, 39–51

• Rawlings, P., White, P. and Stephens, R. (2005) Practice-based learning in information systems: The advantages for students, Journal of Information Systems Education, 16:4, 455–464

• Reddy, P. and Moores, E. (2006) Measuring the benefits of a psychology placement year, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 31:5, 551–567