Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Industry: Issues And Solutions - Embracing Employability Through Placements In Higher Education Conference - University Of Huddersfield - 09/09/13

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Sandwich Year Placements Within
The Computing Discipline: Issues
And Solutions
Embracing Employability Through Placements In
Higher Education Conference
Thomas Lancaster
Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Placements Within Computing

Why I’m Interested
In Placements
Thomas Lancaster
Senior Lecturer in Computing at
Birmingham City University
Programme Leader BSc Computer
Science
Teach Professional Skills (including
Employability and Placement Skills)
Visit and Assess Placement Students
Develop and Deliver HEA Workshops
Related To Social Media and
Employability

The Research Project
15 month project (January 2012 to March 2013)
funded by a Higher Education Academy Teaching
Development Grant
“Improving Industrial Sandwich Year Placements For
Computing Students”
Supported by two Research Associates
Kawal Banga and Nzinga Deenah
Kawal conducted most of the primary research – and some
of the content of this session is reproduced from his
slides

The Big Questions
Why aren’t all Computing students undertaking
a Sandwich Year Placement?
How do placements within the Computing
discipline compares with other subjects?
What initiatives and best practice can we
identify from Computing that will assist the rest
of the sector?

The Research
Agreement
1. A Literature Review, identifying current practice
within Computing Placements
2. A survey, aimed at all Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) in the UK providing three year
undergraduate degrees in Computing subjects
3. Focus groups held with students and staff at 10
representative UK Computing schools
4. Collation of learning resources available from
around the sector

Research Challenges
Getting a viable and correct database of HEI
contacts
The end results saw 116 HEIs identified
Gaining participation in the survey and for
holding the focus groups
Getting HEIs to share their learning resources to
make them available across the sector
This challenge was not really overcome

The Focus Today
Selected highlights from the research
Key numbers and examples from the Survey, Focus
Groups and Research Workshops
The usefulness is on sharing the knowledge of
what is happening across the sector (good and
bad) and applying this on a local level

Key Survey Research Findings

Survey Participation
In Scope HEIs Response
# % # %
Universities 107 92% 73 68%
Colleges 9 8% 3 33%
Wales 10 9% 8 80%
Scotland 13 11% 10 77%
NI 2 2% 1 50%
England 91 78% 57 63%
12 Month Sandwich 79 68% 56 71%
Other 37 32% 20 54%
Total 116 100% 76 66%

Top Reasons Why
Students Don’t Complete
A Placement
1 – Lack of motivation or commitment to take a
year out (23%)
2 – Lack of communication and employability
skills and not prepared to apply (21%)
3 - Lack of confidence to apply and fear of
rejection (21%)
4 – Too time consuming to apply (20%)
5 - Lack of suitable placements (20%)

Top HEI Resource Types
Made Available To
Students
1 – Application and CV Advice (100%)
2 – Presentations from employers (95%)
3 – Interview techniques training (93%)
4 – Student placement handbook (88%)
=5 – Student placement web portal (71%)
=5 – Work skills workshop (71%)

Top Activities Undertaken By
Students Returning From
Placements
1 – Presentations for prospective placement
students (89%)
2 – Peer mentoring to students going out on
placement (14%)
=3 – Peer mentoring to students who have
recently started their placement (4%)
=3 – Present about placements at Open Days
(4%)

Top Alternatives
Offered To
Placements
1 – Guest speakers from industry (90%)
2 – Summer vacation working (75%)
3 – Networking events with employers (70%)
4 – Employer led projects (60%)
=5 – Short-term work experience of 1 to 4 weeks (50%)
=5 – Entrepreneurial activities, e.g. working for student
led commercial companies (50%)
Note – This question was only asked to 20 HEIs not offering 12 month placements

Key Focus Group Research
Findings

Focus Group
Participation
Focus Groups
Universities 9
Colleges 1
Wales 2
Scotland 1
NI 1
England 6
12 Month Sandwich 9
Other 1
Total 10

Numeric Findings
5% of 617 students in 2011-12 (across the 10
focus group HEIs) were on unpaid placements
4 out of 10 HEIs used credit bearing placements
(the credits were substitutable for other
modules)
1 did not use a credit bearing placement, but did
provide successful students with a diploma in
professional practice

The 80% Rule
Study at one of the HEIs (5 years ago)
80% of students who had done a placement ended up
in a job related to their degree
80% of students who had not done a placement ended
up in a job unrelated to their degree

Common Challenges
General decline in students undertaking placements
HEI Placement services under threat from
centralisation
For the HEIs managing to grow their placements,
number of visits per student is decreasing
Need to look at alternatives, such as Skype ‘visits’, or
Student Partner visits

External Employer
Developments
Placement opportunities are reducing due to
companies outsourcing aspects of their services
Where companies are offering placements, an
increasing number of them are using the placement as
part of their graduate recruitment process

What Are The Focus
Group HEIs Working On?
HEIs are looking for ways to support students
undertaking entrepreneurial activity as their
placement year
HEIs are considering allowing accumulated time to
count as a placement year
They are aiming to increase uptake of summer
internships for work experience
HEIs are expanding placements to MSc degree
students

Good Practice
HEIs are offering internal placement
opportunities
Including setting up Student Run Companies (Software
Houses, Consultancy) to provide work experience
HEIs are making more placement opportunities
available overseas, for instance through Erasmus
HEIs are providing placement opportunities to
international students

Future Developments

Recommendations
Continue to present the benefits of placements to
students
HEIs need to directly capture, collect and analyse data
relating to their own placements
Make placements credit bearing, or offer a suitable
incentive for participation
Make the cost of a placement year transparent to students
Use Peer Mentoring and Peer Support more within
the end-to-end placement process

Key Research
Opportunities
Strategies for getting both students and employers
motivated and interested in placements
Alternatives to placements and measuring their
success
Cultural issues towards placement participation
Assessment and accreditation of placements
Social media use throughout the placement process
Activities carried out by students returning from
placements

Workshop Initiatives
Success observed from ensuring that all staff push
placements within their own teaching
Students explicitly told when taking tasks to place on their CV
Record keeping of students seeking employability support
Those not seeking support contacted directly
More flexible career support services
One university doubled the take up of its services by offering
electronic CV checking
Present degrees with a placement as a premium product

For More Information

Resources Related
To Research Project
HEA Computing Workshops
“Improving Computing Sandwich Year Placements Workshop”
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/07_March_Computing-
Bham-City
“Improving Computing Sandwich Year Placements For Scottish HEIs
Workshop”
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/02-May-Computing-
RGordon
Other External Sessions
HEA STEM Conference 2013 (Two Papers and Talks)
Various Research Seminars Delivered During Focus Group Sessions

Contact Details
Thomas Lancaster:
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
thomas.lancaster@bcu.ac.uk
Or Tweet Me:
@DrLancaster
Slides Available At:
http://slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Industry: Issues And Solutions - Embracing Employability Through Placements In Higher Education Conference - University Of Huddersfield - 09/09/13

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Sandwich Year Placements Within The Computing Industry: Issues And Solutions - Embracing Employability Through Placements In Higher Education Conference - University Of Huddersfield - 09/09/13