‘Internships and placements:
bringing learning to life and life to learning’
Vicki Doughty - Placements Manager (Essex Business School)
Heather Doyle - Placements Manager (Social Sciences)
Karen Gooch - Placements Manager (Humanities)
Susan Stedman - Employer Services Manager – E&CC
The Graduate Labour Market
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2013/14
2014/15
2013/14
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Proportion of vacancies filled by interns/placement students 26.5 to 31%
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2013/14
Total graduate vacancies 21,682
Predicted graduate vacancies 24,231
Applications per vacancy 74.5
Unfilled vacancies at least 5.4%
“Applicants lacked the soft skills and experience that
employers were seeking”
(Average figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters)
The missing links…
verbal communication
flexibility
commercial awareness
analysing & investigating
drive
decision-making
teamwork
time-management
initiative/self-motivation
leadership
numeracy
negotiating & persuading
global skills
self-awareness
written communication
stress tolerance
integrity
independence
creativity
planning & organising
emotional intelligence
developing professionalism
50% of AGR recruiters repeated their warning that:
“Graduates who had no previous work experience are
unlikely to be successful during selection process and
have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their
organisations’ graduate programmes”
The missing link?
Work(place) experience
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Opportunity to acquire, develop and demonstrate soft skills
Explore and learn about talents, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes
Chance to gain feedback and reflect upon performance
Able to list real experience and provide tangible examples
What are employers doing to bridge this gap?
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80% of UK leading graduate employers offer paid student & graduate placement programmes
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Over 2/3 of employers provide paid vacation internships for penultimate year students
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Over 1/2 offer industrial placements for undergraduates (6-12mths)
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Over 1/4 offer paid internships, insight days and other tasters that are for first years
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In 14/15 academic year an unprecedented 13,049 paid work placements were available
Over 50% of students undertaking a work placement will be offered a role with the company
(High Fliers Report on the Graduate Labour Market 2015)
“Students who have undertaken a work
placement consistently do better in their degree
than those who haven’t”
What Essex is doing to enable students to gain experience
Extra Curricular
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Frontrunners
Essex Interns
V-team
Big Essex Award – recorded on the HEAR
P/t work, student ambassadors and roles within societies
Insight Days
Alumni speed networking etc.
Major commitment to Curriculum based learning
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All U/G courses now offer the option of a placement year or study abroad year
Final year projects/ Capstone projects/ Q-Step Projects
WBL Professional Skills modules
Course specific placements (e.g. HHS/Maths Education module/Theatre studies/Law Clinic)
PSS offering coaching or placement options
Employer led practical skills delivery within modules (e.g. mock interviews/assessments)
Career Development Learning such as SK700/LT700 understanding employability modules
Star Guest…
Nicoleta
Solovastru
Final year student
BSC Banking & Finance
Returning from a placement year
with TE Connectivity
Former frontrunner & frontrunner Plus
Why in-curricular placements?
Student:
Enhanced CV
Enhanced
commercial
awareness
Applying
academic
learning to
real-world
practice
Department:
Positive
Marketing Tool
Improved DHLE
outcomes
Employer:
Build relationship
with relevant depts
Recruit trainees for
longer term projects
Funding may be
available
Case Study: Q-Step Programme
Funded by the Nuffield Foundation until 2018.
Aim is to improve teaching and learning opportunities in quantitative
studies in Social Sciences.
Essex is one of 3 Universities to secure Q-Step Affiliate Status.
3 participating departments: EBS, Government and Sociology
The Essex bid focused on new staff posts, module design, student
recruitment and funded work placements.
2015 Q-Step Placements
Colchester Borough Council
Sage Publications
World Land Trust
YouGov
Summer 2016: we will be looking to place 8-10 students
“Adriana has been great to work with and has been a pleasure to
have around. As an organisation we have been extremely happy
with this process and, if Adriana is a benchmark, we look forward
to repeating the process in the future.”
Dan Bradbury, World Land Trust
“I felt encouraged and appreciated all the way…I recommend this
placement to anyone who is interested in data analysis.”
Adriana Bora, BA International Relations
Q-Step: Embedding into the curriculum
- Two different methods of embedding.
• (Light-touch Sociology model) Students apply placement
learning in their final year dissertation.
• Stand-alone short placement module (GV836 in Government)
In both cases the students are assigned academic supervisors to
support them in linking theory and practice.
Stand-alone Short Placement Module (GV836):
Final year module.
A minimum of 150 hours of work experience is undertaken in lieu of lectures
and seminars.
Work experience can be undertaken at different points in the academic year.
Q-Step work was completed over the summer vacation between 2nd and 3rd
year, with assignments submitted during the 3rd year.
GV836 model could potentially be used for a variety of work-based learning
experiences e.g:
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Academic Research Assistant
Placement linked to a KTP
Relevant volunteering
School of Law – Embedded Placements
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Second or third year Law students can undertake a three week
placement in a law firm or law related environment
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The placement of 120 hours is taken as a block, or a day a week,
or a combination
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The 15 credit module, LW 237, includes a portfolio of work,
including reflective learning and writing, and oral presentations
linked to the module aims
School of Law – Embedded Placements
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Students are responsible for finding their own placements; some
have been in America, Cyprus and France.
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There are formal arrangements with law firm Attwells, (Ipswich and
London offices), Essex Legal Services and Ipswich & Suffolk
Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) who have taken a number of
students.
Troubleshooting Exercise (5 mins):
Individually or in pairs jot down a response to one of the following questions:
For Employers
List 2 difficulties you might encounter when trying to develop
partnership working with HE Institutions.
For Academics
List 2 difficulties you might encounter when trying
to embed WBL into your degree programmes.
If you are neither then try to put yourselves in
the shoes of one or the other..!
Thank you for bearing with us…
Any Q’s?