Search results

This study investigates the relationship between perceived supervisor support (PSS) and learner career curiosity and tests the mediating role of sense of belonging, engagement and learning self-efficacy.

The authors used a three-wave repeated cross-sectional data collected from 509 final-year undergraduate students of 11 Nigerian public universities, who had completed the compulsory work placement to analyze the influence of PSS on learner’s career curiosity via a parallel mediation involving sense of belonging, engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive) and self-efficacy.

The results show that engagement mediates the path through which PSS influences career curiosity. However, the authors found no evidence that sense of belonging and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between PSS and learner’s career curiosity in this population.

The findings of this study highlight the importance of PSS as a resource that influences learner’s career curiosity, particularly during a work placement.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate short-term, unpaid placements offered to students reading for a degree in public policy. They provide added value to their tertiary education experience. Elective placements were offered in 2012 and became a mandatory requirement for students reading for a three-year bachelor of commerce degree in public policy in 2018. To date, no research has been carried out on these placements and this may serve as a model for a post-evaluation assessment.

Data were collected from students who undertook placements, embedded in the public policy undergraduate programme. A document analysis of selected student and placement provider's reports was carried out to complement the students' responses to an online questionnaire.

Placements are of value to students as they served as an introduction to the working world. They enable students to establish connections with the course content and carry out research. They were exposed to real-life situations, developing their knowledge, acquiring soft skills and learning new tools, sought after by employers. These placements were valued as a route to graduate employment tailor-made to the degree's requirements. Students were able to embark on a soul-searching, introspective discovery and journey which made them mature and shed light in the direction of future work prospects.

Placements give students the opportunity to gain insights into real-work environments and are able to link theories learnt in the class-room with real-life situations. Placements have positive implications on students adjusting to their work life easily after graduation. The limitations are that the sample size was small and that the reflective reports which were randomly selected may not have necessarily been representative of the full complement.

The practical implications are that the placements system and process can easily be implemented and replicated in other academic disciplines and universities as a compulsory component of their studies.

Placements gave students the opportunity to reflect on their learning, develop non-technical skills and enhance their confidence levels. They were also able to network and communicate with different employees.

Placements provided exposure to relevant organisations and personal enrichment in terms of acquiring skills, autonomy and independence. Students with placement experience are also more likely to secure future employment, relevant to their undergraduate degree.

This article reviews the opportunity provided by the work placement year for human resource management students to gain professional membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD). A case study approach is used to reflect on findings related to the first two cohorts. It concludes that the benefits of the opportunity to gain a separate professional qualification are twofold. First, it ties in closely with what appears is a more strategic career decision‐making process on behalf of the student and, second, the CIPD qualification provides a robust framework for the placement period during this important stage of student studies.

This study aims to explore the views of criminal justice and allied sector organisations and agencies, of why they provide placements for the Applied Criminology programme at the University of Worcester, UK.

The study took a qualitative approach to tease out the underlying contributory factors that featured in the decision to offer placements. It used semi-structured interviews of key personnel, and thematic analysis was subsequently undertaken on the data collected.

Several themes emerged, in particular reciprocal learning, dynamism, employability and social investment. These appeared to be the most impactful on the organisation in relation to the future recruitment of staff as well as the enhancement of current staff practice.

Based upon the scale of the research, the findings may have limited transferability.

There is a hidden benefit to organisations, which could be capitalised upon as a reciprocal learning process, which enhances practice and therefore outcomes.

Stereotypes are challenged, resulting in students overcoming preconceived ideas about particular service user groups.

Whilst research into work-based learning and the benefits of placements for students is not new, research enquiring as to why organisations are prepared to offer placements remains in its infancy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between work placements and employability, through an analysis of the impact of a work placement on students’ self-efficacy.

The basis of this paper is a large-scale work-based learning module at the University of Birmingham, the “Professional Development Module”. Students completed questionnaires both before and after they undertaken their placements and the results from the questionnaires were compared. These results were then combined with the results of semi-structured interviews undertaken with students.

The paper's findings support the view that a work placement has a positive impact on students’ self-efficacy, especially in relation to their confidence in making applications and/or attending interviews, and in articulating their skills and strengths.

While the relatively small sample size means that the paper's conclusions must remain provisional, it highlights the need for careers practitioners to encourage students to engage in critical self-reflection. The paper suggests that it is important for careers practitioners and researchers to engage in more collaborative projects in order for a fully rounded picture of the relationship between placements and employability to emerge. The paper shows that more research is needed into the relative impact of short- and long-term placements.

The paper demonstrates the value of assessing students’ views both before and after their work placements so that these views can be compared directly.

Work-based placements are central to the university education of allied health and social work (AHSW) students. As a result of COVID-19, the clinical learning environment of students' work-based placements was dramatically altered resulting in numerous documented challenges. This inter-disciplinary study aimed to evaluate AHSW students' perceptions and experiences of completing a diverse range of work-based placements during COVID-19.

This study was a mixed-method inter-disciplinary study using an anonymous online survey consisting of multiple choice, Likert scale and free text questions. Mixed-methods design supported amalgamation of insights from positivism and interpretivism perspectives and enabled research questions to be answered with both breadth and depth. 436 students were invited to participate who were enrolled in five AHSW educational university programmes: speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, radiation therapy and social work. Data collected was analysed using both quantitative (descriptive and analytical statistics) and qualitative (thematic analysis) methods.

118 students participated (response rate: 27%) representing a range of AHSW disciplines who attended diverse placement settings. While there was extensive disruption in the learning environment leading to increased levels of stress and concern, a triad of individual and systemic supports helped to ensure positive work-based placement experiences and student success for the majority of AHSW students during COVID-19: (1) university preparation and communication; (2) placement site and supervisor support; and (3) students' resilience and capacity to adapt to a changed work-place environment.

This inter-disciplinary study reports the work-based placement experiences from the professional education programmes of healthcare students during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving a unique view of their perspectives and learning during this unprecedented crisis.

The objective of the pilot study reported on here was to identify some of the more elusive “costs and benefits” of work‐based learning (WBL) placements. This was addressed by exploring the views and experience of a small number of human resource development (HRD) professionals who currently offer supervised work‐based learning placements to full‐time post‐graduate HRD students.

The small qualitative study outlined was a pilot, focused initially on the perceptions of one set of stakeholders within the placement process, the HRD professionals. By means of questionnaires and interviews the participants were invited to reflect on their interpretation of the tangible and intangible costs and benefits to the organisation, the supervisor/mentor, the student and the university.

The findings imply that there are a number of non‐financial costs and benefits that may not be widely recognised but which may have significance when seeking/agreeing placement opportunities.

This is a small‐scale study, and may have limited transferability.

In due course the study will be extended to examine the perspectives of other stakeholders.

Evidence from the literature suggests that obtaining and sustaining good quality WBL placements can be difficult. A reflection on potential “non standard” costs and benefits may assist organisations to weigh up these more ephemeral but potentially important factors and aid decision‐making about the viability and desirability of offering WBL placements and at the same time develop awareness of non‐standard costs and benefits amongst those seeking to set up placements for their students.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of a workplace placement on the student participants’ self-reported entrepreneurial attitude (EA).

A review of relevant literature informed questions incorporated in the university’s annual feedback questionnaire completed by students (n=461) on return from a work placement of between 44 and 52 weeks.

The study has shown that both gender and entrepreneurial legacy influence baseline and post-placement EA (p<0.05). The interaction between EA, social learning, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms and perceived relational support was also considered.

This research provides context for further qualitative work in this area, especially the influence of gender and entrepreneurial legacy on reported baseline EA and EA post work placement and will inform pedagogical development in terms of embedding entrepreneurial teaching in future curriculum development at the university.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and understand whether students who complete a work placement as part of their degree course achieve a better classification of degree than those students who do not include a placement.

The study was conducted by extracting the profiles of computing students from the database of a UK based university. Data collected included the marks and academic performance throughout the course of the students’ degree, educational background, age and gender. In total, the profiles of 290 students were analysed to understand the impact of a work placement on their degree.

The results show that 58 per cent of those students who had been on a work placement achieved an upper second or first class degree, whereas only 37 per cent of non‐placement students achieved the same academic standards. Furthermore, this study also established that this result is not because work placement students are academically more capable to begin with, as originally believed by many researchers.

Direction for further research would involve investigating different cohorts of students and in different subject areas. However, the initial findings from this study could be used as a starting point in an attempt to encourage students to include a work placement as part of their degree.

Rather than simply performing a comparison of degree classifications between the placement and non‐placement students, this study goes further and investigates student performance during their entire three or four year degree course. Furthermore, this study also considers influences such as age, gender and educational background on the results.

There is strong evidence that year-long work placements make students more employable and produces better academic performance. Despite this, UK participation rates remain stubbornly low. The authors examine the influence of academic performance on students' willingness and ability to complete work placements.

This study’s novel conceptual framework distinguishes students by their intentions regarding work placements indicated at enrolment as well as whether they completed a work placement. The authors use a sample of 226 business and economics students, employing propensity score weighted multiple regression to analyse the influence of academic performance.

The results indicate that academic performance has a significant influence on the decision to include a work placement option at enrolment. For those students who do pursue work placements, first-year academic performance had a significantly positive impact on their ability to secure a placement job. Finally, completion of a work placement was beneficial to final year academic performance.

Work placements are beneficial. Since low academic performance deters students from pursuing such opportunities, universities may need to communicate the benefits better to encourage greater interest. Further, universities need to realistically manage the expectations of students with low academic performance who want to do work placements and provide targeted support during the application process. Furthermore, alternatives to work placements should be provided.

This research adds to the literature investigating the influence of academic performance through academic self-concept on students' investment decisions to include a work placement in their degree study and in students' ability to secure a work placement.