Organising student placements - issues to consider

1: How do I get started?

It is useful to consider early on the size and importance of the placement to the programme overall. If it is bigger than a single module, this is likely to affect both the structure and content of programmes. 

-   In terms of structure, it may mean that the duration of a programme is altered.  For example, a student taking up the opportunity of a placement may graduate one semester later than their programme peers.  This would have an impact on timing of progression and Graduation Programme Boards.  Also placement students may be out of step with the normal graduate recruitment round.

-   In terms of content, students need the skills appropriate to their target placements prior to placement.  This might mean that years 1 and 2, for example, are designed as foundation years in which students gain an introduction to a broad range of knowledge and transferable skills necessary to satisfy the needs of Placement Providers. 

Sources of useful advice can be found here (Resources page- Ac Dev links, QAA Code of Practice, ASET) and  here.(What are Staff Doing Already) page

2: What can I offer my students?

Here are some options to consider:

3: Before the placement

The ASET Code of practice suggests “the reasons for including a placement or other period of work-based learning need to be made clear, and result in well-defined objectives and procedures, from enrolment through to award.”

Issues you might want to consider include:

• How the learning outcomes of work-based learning integrate with those for the whole course.
• The minimum duration of the work-based learning experience.
• Whether the work-based learning is to be a compulsory or optional element.
• If the experience is optional, at what stage and on what basis can students elect not to do it? [If the choice is made too easy or available too soon in the course, there is a danger that the students who most need the experience will opt out]
• What provision is made for students exempt from work-based learning, or unable to find a suitable opportunity, or choosing not to follow that route – do they simply proceed, [with potential attendant difficulties of mixing with students who have not experienced the same academic diet,] or is there some other academic provision leading to a different award?
• What provision is to be made for Equal Opportunities compliance e.g. gender and disability?
• Whether the work-based learning or some aspect relating to it is to be assessed, and how.
• Whether the learning is to be supported by technologies such as electronic portfolios.
• How the work-based learning is to be accredited, for example by grades that feed into a main degree award, or by an adjunct such as “and Placement with Distinction”, or by separate internal award, or by external accreditation.
• Whether any exceptions to the general conditions are to be made for students undertaking a work-based learning period overseas - e.g. alternatives to visits.
• Grievance and disciplinary procedures, both for the student as student and recognising that an employer will normally also have similar procedures for the student as employee.
• Procedures for termination of the contract, by any party and for whatever reason, while so far as possible not compromising the best interests of each party.

Operational procedures and preparations fall into the following areas:

• Securing the opportunity. Students need support in several areas, from self-awareness (potentially impinging on the whole area of career choice) and knowledge of what employers expect/how they recruit, to help with conventional mechanisms such as applications, CVs, psychometric tests and interview techniques. Edinburgh Napier’s Careers Service is here to help support such activity. Students also need help to recognise and identify in themselves more general employability skills- both Careers and Confident Futures staff can help with this and they can be contacted here.
• Health and Safety. Please see University policies.
• Optimising the work-based learning. You should have a procedure for approving employers for the purposes of providing appropriate learning opportunities, and for supporting students in their own search for appropriate opportunities if undertaken separately from any institutional provision.

4: During the placement

During placement the student remains a student of the University. You should make provision for ongoing student support to optimise the learning experience. This might include:

• developing and implementing procedures for visiting students’ workplaces which define what will take place and how such visits will be arranged and conducted.
• developing procedures to deal with problems discovered during such visits
• arranging for students to return to university during the period to share experiences with each other

5: After the placement

Key tasks after placement include:

• making provision for reflection, consolidation and dissemination of the students’ learning experiences, both individual and collective.
• capturing student experience and learning, in order to refresh curricula and to develop partnerships with employers for research and commercial activity,

as well as for ongoing work-based learning opportunities.

See also the relevant sections of QAA Section 9 and guidance from Academic Development coming soon to replace the (withdrawn, but still useful) A7: Quality framework

6: What about the responsibilities of employers?

Please find details on page 10 of the document linked here:

http://www.asetonline.org/documents/ASETCodeofPractice-Version2.1_000.pdf