Placement Podcasts - the Employer's Perspectives

Placement Podcasts – Project Update Including the Employer’s Perspective

The University of Huddersfield is one of the UK’s top providers of sandwich education. Like other UK institutions, there is an awareness that as student expectations change the take up of placement opportunities needs to be more actively encouraged.

Often the best ambassadors for placements are the students who have already benefited from them. Therefore in 2007 an original project ‘Placement Podcasts’ was instigated which set out to document students talking about their placement experiences. This work was presented at WACE, 2007 in Singapore. Materials can now be viewed at: http://www.hud.ac.uk/tqef/placementvideo.html

Now, into its second phase, selected students are being ‘followed’ throughout their placement year, with the aim of recording their personal and professional development. To enable a broader perspective and cover the alternative dynamics of this partnership the views of both employers and placement tutors are also being sought. In particular, how the university sector is supporting the development of higher level skills.

The paper will focus on:
• The triangular partnership that exists between employer, student and the university.
• The views of the employers:
o The benefits they receive from the recruitment of work placement students.
o How employer insights may be used to inform course and curriculum development in a broad sense.
o How employers’ views can influence our practice.
• Other topics to be covered include:
o Progress to date on the project
o Ongoing dissemination
o How technical issues have been addressed.
Video clips will additionally be used at the conference.