International Conference on Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow 9-11 June 2015 Welcome

Neil Lent University of Edinburgh Placement is a two way street! An exploration of the impact of work place experience on academic transition among information technology students

Effect of placement on academic performance Direction of placement usually one-way: transition into work Academic benefits noted anecdotally but not yet explored Incorporated as part of bigger study on transition into work Introduction

Employability  Employability made up of skills, attributes and dispositions / behaviours (eg Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2009).  These are commodities that individuals ‘have’  Stable and therefore transferable between situations There is an ‘experience gap’ to be filled (eg Atkins, 1999)  Work based learning (especially placements) bridge this gap (Hills et al, 2003)

Placements Assumptions about placements: All involvement in workplaces is good therefore all work placements are good Simple linear relationship: students are better prepared for work (in predictable ways) Eg: Gomez, Lush and Clements (2004) We found a more complex relationship involving interaction between: Nature of the placement Student identity Breakdown of contextual boundaries

The Project Three year study of transition from IT degree into work Six participants who had undertaken a placement chosen from cohort of 36 Not all 36 did a placement Each participant interviewed up to three times See Clark, Zukas and Lent (2011) for more information

Participants StudentAge at time of interview ProgrammePlacement type Hamed:21ComputingIT department of a law firm Toby22ComputingLarge transport related IT project Alan21Computer Science Large health- related IT project Hermione21Management and Information Systems Finance related IT work Clark23Computing and Management Large health- related IT project Todd:22ComputingLarge health- related IT project

Method Transcribed lightly structured interviews Topics included: choosing their programme, their experiences of study and work placement, and career plans and expectations Analysis with reference to an Activity Theory framework

Activity Theory (Engestrom, 1999)

Placement and programme Prog Outcome Prog Placement

Hamed … I would never really consider coming to uni for more than few hours a day, just coming for lectures probably 10 or 11 o’clock in the morning and I might have an hour or two gap in the day in which I might do some work and then if my lecture finished at 3 o’clock I’d go home whereas now after being used to working every day 9 til 5 o’clock…

Toby …Just generally cos I’ve got in to a better routine, I’ve had two years of no routine and then a year of routine, I kind of hold on probably, getting up, coming in for most of the day and then, so it’s changed and I think I’m gonna do better, now I’ve done the placement, in the third year than I would’ve done if I’d just gone straight into third year after second year.

Alan When I came back I think about in week six or something, about halfway through the semester I was realising that I was beginning to think more like a mathematician in modules where I needed to and more like an architect of systems when I needed to. I realised I was able to put on these different hats more easily and I began to feel like I was becoming a computer scientist

Hermione One of the big things from my placement was think outside the box, don’t just look at what’s in front of you, look at other areas and I do that now with my work. … Even though it’s a hands-on module reading around the area, looking at the bigger picture is very important. [I was] doing the same as everyone else in that team so … you learn the tasks you’re doing because it’s so fast-paced, if you don’t understand it you ask someone…

Clark I’m usually the sort of person that, two weeks before the exam, I will do my work. …I seem to get by, by two or three weeks before the exam, actually you could say cramming but not really – just actually doing the work then and I seem to get by. I had heard that apparently if you do a work placement you have more of a work focus when you go back. I think it’s actually been the opposite for me, which is a bit weird.

Todd I expected it to be challenging and interesting and it wasn’t. I mean there’s parts that were helpful. I guess I wanted to know what it was like doing this sort of thing in the real world I and I’ve gained that knowledge... There were things, the blurb that you get told when you go and apply for placement you know ‘you’ve worked for a year, you’ve learnt how to organise your affairs and you’ll come back not leaving stuff ‘til the last minute which isn’t the case for me’.

Conclusions Relationship between placement and degree not simple nor linear Commodified experience limits placement learning Placement experiences can help students change identity Or impose limits A relational account which includes work, knowledge, activity and identity can explain placement learning more fully

References Atkins, M J (1999) Oven-ready and self-basting: Taking stock of employability skills, Teaching in Higher Education 4, no 2: Clark, M, Zukas, M and Lent, N (2011) ‘Becoming an IT Person: Field, Habitus and Capital in the Transition from University to Work’ Vocations and Learning 4:133–150 Engestrom, Y (1999) Activity theory and individual and social transformation in Engestrom Y, Miettinen, and Punamaki-Gitai, RL (eds). Perspectives on Activity Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Gomez, S, D Lush, & Clements, M (2004) Work placements enhance the academic performance of bioscience undergraduates. Journal of Vocational Education and Training 56, no 3: Hills, J. M., G. Robertson, R., Walker, M. A. Adey, & I. Nixon (2003) Bridging the gap between degree programme curricula and employability through implementation of work-related learning. Teaching in Higher Education 8, no 2: