International Conference on Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow 9-11 June 2015 Welcome

Dr Colin Smith & Patricia Durkin Presentation Enhancing the ‘Employability Journey’ for Year 3 Direct Entrant Computing Students

A Placement Culture School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University – largest year-long placement programme for computing in Scotland Students spend their 3 rd year in industry, earn half a year’s course credit 44 students on the programme in Placement has a significant impact – placement is a transition and also a ‘pipeline’ towards a graduate job

A Placement Culture Embedded infrastructure to support and maintain the programme: Placement Office, Placement Administrator, Module leader, Visiting Tutors An ‘installed’ based of employers returning year-on- year Organised transitions between students finishing their placement and new students arriving on placement

e-Placement Scotland New source of placements for computing students across FE and HE in Scotland – 3mth to a year, f/t and p/t Funded by the SFC in 2010 with initial 750 target (exceeded), refunded in 2014 for a further 5 years with 1500 placement target Partnership between Edinburgh Napier and ScotlandIS

e-Placement Scotland

Direct Entrants into 3 rd Yr Miss the lead times and application deadlines for Edinburgh Napier’s year-long placement Focus on acquainting themselves with the processes, culture and requirements – as well as opportunities – presented by the transition to university e-Placement Scotland should be a source of placements for these students to take after third year, yet few applied – don’t feel ready, lack awareness and confidence

Appreciating Accelerated Transitions Transitions are fundamentally a change in self- identity (see for example Crafter and Maunder, 2012) The discourse often anticipates that these occur at regular, paced stages Accelerated transitions - where students transition from one state to the next and perhaps on to a third state over a shorter timescale than that anticipated A mainstream and common experience of a significant cohort of students How to ensure equality of opportunity around placement in this context?

The Placement Landscape

Direct Entrant Access to Placement Direct entrants from college into university tend to: Have lower high school grades Be slightly older than students who have come to university from school Have had a distinct experience of studying at college where a more supportive culture dominates ….and so have difficultly transitioning immediately into the quite different university environment. The question therefore arises of what efforts can and should be made by universities to ensure that direct entrants are well-resourced and prepared to take advantage of placement?

Placement Academy for Professionals An approach to properly resourcing and supporting direct entrant students to consider applying for placement Aims to take advantage of the ‘change state’ in order to help students move quickly towards another transition - actively considering and preparing for a summer placement A direct and timetabled intervention, led by Placement support staff, Careers and Confident Futures ‘Soft skills’ and ‘hard information’ Key inputs – ‘People Like Us’

Placement Academy for Professionals WeekFocus 1Welcome & Intro – meet the placement students 2Finding Placement Opportunities 3Building your Network 4CVs & Cover Letters 5Application Forms 6Interview Skills 7Meet the Employers 8Business Networking ** Speed Networking Event **

Student Perceptions Three core themes evidenced via an ‘exit survey’ and follow-up focus group 1.Growing realisation of the importance of time management skills – in the context of time investment required to research and apply for roles 2.Surprise on the emphasis placed by employers and by current and past placement students on the need to research employers rather than simply ‘present’ yourself 3.Growth in confidence through undertaking the programme – soft skills complemented by hard knowledge is a good mix

Conclusions The concept of Transitions needs to be carefully thought through for particular audiences When valuable opportunities such as placement are available, investments to underpin student opportunity are worthwhile Placement Academy for Professionals represents a good proof-of-concept in the computing domain to give employers access to students and give students equitable access to placements