A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
STEM employers rate relevant work experience very highly when considering applicants for graduate roles with some studies suggesting that this is now their main criteria above degree subject and transferable skills. Supporting students in gaining relevant work experience while they study is a dilemma for many HEIs. Different approaches have evolved towards providing students with a route to undertake placement including various models of awarding course credit for placement through to encouraging students to pursue placement as a co-curricular activity.
Through our work on e-Placement Scotland promoting paid placements for computing students we have mapped out the ‘placement landscape’ on computing courses across all of Scotland’s HEIs defining the points at which students can gain course credit and the models employed. Establishing the ‘placement landscape’ can provide employers with better information about where when and how they can engage with computing students in order to encourage more of them to benefit from this experience.
Elements of the landscape are used to contextualise recent innovations at Edinburgh Napier University where an employability track is being embedded in computing courses with a range of different routes for students to access work experience and to better prepare students for these opportunities. The presentation offers up a number of options for HEIs wishing to embed placement and provides some useful ideas about how to resource students to take best advantage of these.
