Learning through work placements and beyond

Work-based learning at higher education level has long been a feature of UK higher education: for example, in the 1950s, the National Council for Technological Awards advocated that undergraduate programmes in engineering and technology should incorporate planned periods of industrial placement. Since that time, undergraduate programmes incorporating such work-based placements have been introduced across a wide range of subject areas. In some programmes the placement is a year-long activity 'sandwich' between significant periods of on-campus learning and the sandwich placement may be optional. In other programmes, often those seen as meeting both academic and professional development objectives, shorter 'blocks' of placements are interspersed throughout the undergraduate programme (and the blocks are compulsory). More recently, there has also been a growth in undergraduate programmes that allow students to opt to take a 'work-based' unit, which involves a short, 6-10 week, placement as part of their overall programme. This study focuses on the effects, as perceived by the students themselves, of work experience placements on learning as well as employability. The overall aims of the study are to: (1) investigate students' perceptions of learning from placements (planned as part of the undergraduate curriculum); (2) explore how values and ethical positions are developed on placement; and (3) investigate the extent to which students try to transfer and build on such learning in subsequent stages of the taught curriculum.

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