Transforming work experience Lee Harvey Visiting Professor Copenhagen Business School http:www'quali

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Transforming work experienceLee
HarveyVisiting Professor Copenhagen Business
Schoolhttp//www.qualityresearchinternational.co
mleecolinharvey_at_gmail.com
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Introduction

• What is work experience?
• Types of work experience
• Link to employability and employment
• Effective work experience
• Employer views
• Student views
• Conclusion transforming work experience

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Definitions
Work experience
Any experience from a work setting
Any experience from a work setting directly
linked to the programme of study
Any experience from a work setting linked to the
programme plus extra-curricular experiences
What is work experience?
Initially, a specific form of work experience, a
structured learning environment within the
workplace
Recently, any learning that takes place in a work
setting
Work-based learning
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Reflection
Work experience
Not just experience but reflection on experience
Placements/ internships/ cooperative
Work-related learning
Work-informed learning
Work-integrated learning
What is work experience?
Learning and reflection linked to a particular
work setting
Work-based learning
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Types of work-related learning
organised work experience as part of a programme
of study
organised work experience external to a programme
Types of work experience
ad hoc work experience external to a programme
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Embedded in programme
Placements sandwich (thick)
Year-long
1 or 2 weeks
Placements professional (thin)
Several
2-12 weeks
Employer-linked project work
Individual
Team
Types of work experience
Work visits and job shadowing
Individual/groups
1 -5 days
Modules accrediting part-time paid or voluntary
work
Individual/groups
term/sem
College-based simulations
Groups
Pt of unit
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Organised external to programme

• Wide range of activities
• the extent to which the higher education
  institution is involved in making the opportunity
  available
• whether or not explicit support is provided to
  help the student recognise the learning gained
  from the work experience.
• (Little, Harvey, et al., 2001)

Types of work experience
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Examples
Support for learning
No support for learning
HEI involvement in making opportunity available
Aberystwyth YES
Business Bridge
Types of work experience
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2
York Award
Job shops
No HEI involvement in making opportunity available
CRAC Insightplus
AIESEC
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4
Shell STEP
Millennium volunteers
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Ad hoc work experience

• Work undertaken by HE students during term-time
  or in the vacations.
• Paid, or may be unpaid (for example, in the
  voluntary sector).
• Not planned, at the outset, as a part of a taught
  programme of studies, nor is it organised as a
  work experience process that integrally
  encourages reflection on experience.
• Can be used to gain credit in some institutions.
  (overlap)

Types of work experience
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Employability and employment

• Work-related learning develops employability
  skills as well as (or in some cases more than)
  enhancing subject knowledge
• Work-related learning enhances employment
  opportunities
• marketable skills,
• employment with placement organisation

Employability and employment
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Employability

• Employability ? graduate employment

Employability A set of achievements,
understandings and personal attributes that make
individuals more likely to gain employment and be
successful in their chosen occupation (ESECT,
2006) whether or not that is paid employment.
Employability and employment
Employability skill development continues in work
and is often enhanced via CPD
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Magic bullet
Graduate employment rates
HEI
Employability development opportunities
graduate
employability
employment
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Model
Subject area
Employability development opportunities
HEI
pedagogy
Graduate
engagement

• employability attributes
• work experience
• self-promotional skills
• willingness to develop

Extra-curricular experiences
reflection
External factors
Employability
articulation
Employment
Employer
Recruitment
Self-employment
Market
Portfolio
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Initiatives
new courses and qualifications
enhanced curricula
developments in work experience
Bologna and the EHEA
Employability and employment
progress files and personal development planning
assessing employability?
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Bologna (Bled 2004)

• Employability is a major objective towards the
  establishment of EHEA
• Employability takes different emphasis in
  different programmes. (ESECT def)
• Internships/placements are a recommended element
  of degree programmes.
• Employability requires flexibility and full
  advantage should be taken of the flexibility
  provided through the new two-cycle structure.

Employability and employment
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Employment placements

• Study showed that for most disciplines students
  on degrees with a sandwich placement had a higher
  rate of graduate employment within 6 months than
  students on programmes in same subject area
  without placements.
• (Excluded nursing, teacher training, etc. where
  placement compulsory)

Employability and employment
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Employment placements
Employability and employment
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Employment placements
Employability and employment
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Employment placements
Employability and employment
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Employment placements
Employability and employment
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Learning from work experience

• Meaningful experience
• course into practice
• develop work-related skills
• mature
• finance
• Intention
• planned and recognised
• designed to encourage reflection and identify
  the learning
• Reflection and articulation
• What has been learned not just what has been done
• Work experience portfolio

Effective work experience
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Assessment

• Depends on the type of work experience
• Captures learning
• Motivator
• assessment to make work experience valuable to
  students (instrumentalism)
• making work experience equivalent to non-work
  experience (equal amounts of assessed work)
• assessing the development of a range of
  attributes not just written output (assessing the
  experience)
• shifting the emphasis to give the student more
  opportunity and responsibility to develop as an
  independent learner.
• Conventional assessment (not appropriate?)
• Employer commitment (who grades?)

Effective work experience
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Accreditation (apart from statutory requirement)

• towards the programme award
• satisfactory completion, sandwich placement
• specific academic credit, module credit
• separate award of the institution
• certification
• separate award of an external body
• exemptions from professional body requirements
• City and Guilds licentiateship/NVQ
• Corporate recognition
• Why?
• To encourage students to take WE seriously?
• For employers? Qualification or reflection?
• Employer preference national

Effective work experience
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Quality pyramid
student
clearly-defined expectations (learning
contract /objectives)
supported by trained staff
ongoing reflection and articulation
Effective work experience
effective debriefing
tutor
employer
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Endorsement of work experience

• employers graduates are more effective
• recruitment route
• added success in the job market
• employers would like more
• small resurgence in United Kingdom
• prefer year-long placements
• admit dont provide enough opportunities
• students are positive about impact.

Employer and student views
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Advantageous
Business awareness and maturity... are
significantly improved by work placements. Those
people who have worked in organisations
previously have a host of examples of experiences
that they are able to share with us. That makes
them stronger candidates than those who have just
gone from school to higher education and then
come straight to us. So it is an advantage to the
individual concerned to have done a
placement. (Senior manager, large financial
institution)
Employer views
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Recruitment
he came here on work experience, went off and
did some other things, contacted us and, based on
the work experience he had here, we didnt have a
vacancybut we created one for him. We have
benefited in that he got very specific training
relevant to us during that part of his course and
has come back now and we have someone who could
step in without requiring any additional
training. (Chief executive, small medical lasers
manufacturer)
Employer views
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Development
At the end of his year with me he applied for a
job as a training officer and he is now a
training officer, and yet when he started that
wasnt what he wanted to do he wanted to be an
operations manager. So its that kind of thing
that hopefully we can develop people to their
strengths, while at the same time we are taking
strengths away from them that help to progress
the business. (Training and safety officer,
medium-sized private leisure and entertainment
complex)
Employer views
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Better results
Those that went on the industrial year tended,
over all, to get better degree results than those
that hadnt been on the industrial year. I think
it is because they had a real-world experience
and most of the jobs were economics-related and
in lectures and discussions you could see things
come out of peoples experience. Thats because
they had been out in the environment for a
year. (Recent graduate, large public financial
institution)
Student views
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Skill development
Most of the stuff I learnt when I was at
university was through my placements. I picked up
management skills by being on placement and
seeing how the managers of those placements ran
things. The whole time youre on placement youre
developing your skills. (Recent graduate, senior
community worker, youth service)
Student views
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Time management
I developed a get up and go attitudeas opposed
to get up and mope around and then think about
doing work. Because for that year I was getting
up at half seven getting in for nine That was
how I worked for a whole year, it was pointless
changing my whole routine after a year of doing
it this way. (Business and Technology, marketing
assistant, mortgage company)
Student views
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Higher level academic skills
I know what Im looking for a bit better now. I
think Imquicker at finding stuff and Im a bit
more on the ball when it comes topicking out the
most relevant stuff, because I was expected to
learn quite quickly when I was down there. So it
wasessential that I was able to find information
quickly, find the relevant bit and then use that
as a basis for my testing. (Information Systems,
product tester, software company)
Student views
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Criticism
So I definitely question my work a lot more and
why people say certain things and how things are
looked at from a different angle, which is useful
in my essay writing because it makes me a lot
more critical.. and made me also question a lot
more why..the text books are written in that
manner (Economics and International Development,
micro-finance firm, Zambia) Another thing was
learning to take on board criticism because a lot
of our work, people came back and said, I dont
think it works like that or You can do better
or I dont agree with you. Some people would be
really quite harsh and they really, like, have a
go (Business Administration)
Student views
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Approaches to learning
Other thing I noticed in my final year that I am
really taking completely different approach to
learning now. I am challenging everything here
because I now have the experience almost all the
research I have done now, I have quite active
mind and quite aware of everything. While I was
on placement, I was always thinking about what it
means, what it means for my degree. (Business
Administration student)
Student views
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Encouragement

• More opportunities for work experience
• students can become acquainted with work-place
  culture
• develop higher-level academic abilities in a work
  setting.
• Employers benefit from providing work-place
  learning opportunities and should continue to be
  encouraged to become more involved.

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Conclusion

• Work experience can be a transforming experience
  for students
• Employers like students with WE/WIL
• WE/WIL enhances employability
• Impact on employment opportunities
• Institutions provide employability opportunities
  work experience central
• How to transform WE to make it effective
• Contract
• Support
• Reflection
• Debriefing

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Quality pyramid
student
clearly-defined expectations (learning
contract /objectives)
supported by trained staff
ongoing reflection and articulation
Effective work experience
effective debriefing
tutor
employer
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Thank you
leecolinharvey_at_gmail.com www.qualityresearchintern
ational.com/glossary