Work Experience Placements Research Articles

Availability of work experience placements in psychiatry: the real picture.

We congratulate Kennedy & Belgamwar[1][1] for adding to the evidence base for the beneficial effects of work experience placements (WEPs) for secondary school pupils on stigma and recruitment, the two major problems facing psychiatry. We searched the websites of all 54 mental health trusts (MHTs)

Impact of work experience placements on school students' attitude towards mental illness.

Aims and method Research shows that 16- to 19-year-olds express the greatest level of negative attitudes towards people with mental illness. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of work experience placements in influencing secondary-school students’ attitudes towards mental illness and career choices. The Adolescent Attitude Towards Mental Illness questionnaire measured and assessed the adolescents’ attitude changes. Pre- and post-evaluation questionnaires assessed changes in their career choices.Results There was a statistically significant change in the adolescents’ attitudes, especially regarding categorical thinking and perceptions that people with mental illness are violent and out of control. There was also a positive shift in their career choices towards options in the field of mental health.Clinical implications Work experience placements can have a positive impact on secondary-school students’ attitudes towards mental illness and may improve the level of student recruitment into the field of psychiatry.

Momentum building for more women in senior appointments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the encouraging progress and increased momentum in both business and Government for more women to be appointed to senior positions. It traces this momentum since the author's last article: “Are cracks now appearing in the boardroom glass ceiling?” in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 45 No. 4, 2013. Design/methodology/approach – Critical review of recent initiatives by both government and business. Findings – The article highlights the positive momentum towards greater gender equality in the workplace. It emphasises the need for more career guidance beginning early in school for girls and to change the male-dominated culture found in many areas of business. Research limitations/implications – Review of literature and media articles in the past 12 months. Practical implications – The increased antipathy towards quotas and the need for greater career guidance in both schools and colleges, together with work experience placements for women. Recruitment and selection should be gender-free, based on ability and experience and carried out by selection panels of both sexes. Originality/value – Highlights and analyses the recent encouraging trends and increasing awareness of the value women bring to a company board.

Selecting the right students

ENTRY to veterinary school as an undergraduate student continues to be highly desirable, with application numbers far outweighing the number of places available in the UK. Applicants have often had...

Creative Contexts: Reflecting on work placements in the creative industries

Employability literature has consistently emphasised the importance of work placements for securing employment post graduation. This article presents findings from a project focusing on the experiences of higher education students who have undertaken course-related work experience placements as part of their ‘creative industries’ associated degree programme. The article outlines the approach of the Creative Contexts project of using personal stories to facilitate personal reflection and as peer learning resources. Empirical research is drawn on to evaluate the resource with reference to the concept of ‘student voice’ and challenges associated with reflective practice.

Undergraduates’ memories of school-based work experience and the role of social class in placement choices in the UK

This paper reports findings from a study of 49 young first-year UK undergraduates who had undergone one or two weeks of work experience at school between the ages of 14 and 16. Previous studies focusing on the whole school cohort suggested that the nature of work experience placements was strongly predicted by class. In particular, middle class families were seen as being able to secure higher-quality placements than working class families through their higher levels of social capital. This study of young people in the large minority subset subsequently progressing to higher education also found evidence of stereotypical placement choices. However, this was situated in low-quality placements that were irrelevant to the participants’ eventual career path. One notable finding was that a significant proportion of working class students had exercised considerable personal agency to secure high-quality placements. This could challenge structuralist interpretations of young people’s decision-making, although the possibility of a retrospective construction of an explanatory narrative is noted. This paper concludes that more effort is needed to push academically-able working class young people towards placements that will increase motivation and widen horizons and that government needs to be clearer about its policy aims in this area.

Investing in the Future Construction Workforce: CSR and Work Experience Placements

The UK construction industry plays a large part in the UK economy and social fabric with the potential to make a significant contribution to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. While the reasons for construction companies’ participation in CSR activity may vary research suggests that it can add value to companies in financial terms as well as reputation (BITC, 2010). This article adopts a case study methodology to explore the approach taken by one major UK construction company delivering educational activities for young people who would otherwise be unlikely to choose a career in construction or in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) associated careers. The company works with a university leading a national project to enhance the careers awareness of young people to STEM and built environment careers in order to tackle a significant national skills shortage in the sector (CBI, 2009)

UK Work Placements: A Choice Too Far?1

Increasing expectations are being placed on higher education institutions to ensure the economic relevance of research and knowledge creation as well as developing the skill needs of workers in modern knowledge‐based societies. In the UK, workplace learning has long been a feature of higher education in certain subject areas, and in the late 1990s the idea of work experience for all students re‐emerged as a significant issue. Various studies have considered the relationship between work placement experiences during higher education and students' subsequent transition into employment after graduation, but there has been less recent research exploring how the placement experience translates into academic development. This article presents some of the findings of a study on the effects, as perceived by undergraduates themselves, of work experience placements on aspects of learning as well as employability. The majority of placement students indicate personal and intellectual development and report increased ...

Abuse – a day in the life of a student nurse

Unbelievably (to me at least), according to new research presented at the Royal College of Nursing’s 2007 International research Conference on 1st of May, nearly half of student nurses surveyed by a London University have been verbally abused while on their work experience placements.

The Rhetoric and Reality of Structured Tourism Work Experiences: A Social Representational Analysis

This paper reports on a study which explored the social representations of structured work experience (SWE) placements in university-based tourism education held by students, academic work placement coordinators, and industry professionals, and portrayed in public presentations of university tourism curricula. Social representations can be defined as everyday or lay theories about social phenomena. The paper explores the nature of the every day theories held by these different groups of actors. In particular, the analysis focused on perceptions of why structured work experiences are a necessary component of tourism education and the perceived benefits that such educational activities can provide. The analysis is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with academic coordinators, a semi-structured survey of industry professionals or placement hosts, a survey of students in one Australian tourism management programme and a content analysis of the public information about structured work experiences available on the websites of 25 universities from North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. Two representations were identified—one based on emphasizing skill building and one on reducing risk for employers and students. The data shows that the skill building representation exists only partially amongst academics and not at all amongst the other actors and this lack of specificity, and the fact that it is only held by academics, contributes to the range of problems that have been associated with SWEs. The second representation about risk is the one that closely connects students and employers and offers the best opportunities for reducing the operational problems of SWEs.

Will increasing academic recognition of workplace learning in the UK reinforce existing gender divisions in the labour market?

In the United Kingdom there has been a considerable increase in the academic recognition of workplace learning, and a number of new awards drawing on workplace learning have been introduced. These include apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships, both of which contain National Vocational Qualifications, and the Foundation Degree. In addition, academic practice based on a credit framework has allowed recognition of workplace learning at higher levels of achievement, including postgraduate level. The facility to recognise a broader range of learning across the range of workplace awards has been welcomed as an aspect of widening both participation in and access to formal learning. This article will consider these developments across the spectrum of educational awards from apprenticeships to work‐based Master’s programmes in the context of existing arrangements in the labour market. There is evidence from Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) reports that work experience placements (the main component of work experience at school) are segregated by gender. Statistics relating to some of the new awards also indicate the type of gender divisions which reflect established workplaces. Additionally, the effect of employment factors (such as the glass ceiling and full‐time versus part‐time working) constrains the extent to which women can take advantage of recognition of workplace learning at higher academic levels, where learners must be in a workplace position which supports the development and exercise of sophisticated skills. Consideration across the range of qualifications and employment supports the EOC’s case that, given the lack of explicit recognition of equal opportunities and gender segregation in national developments and policies, the new opportunities for workplace learning are likely to reinforce the status quo.

School guidance counsellors learning through work experience placements

Work experience placements feature increasingly in mainstream schooling. They are seen as presenting young people with engaging and relevant learning opportunities. As with other changes in our understanding of schooling, this shift carries implications for the ongoing education of teachers. One way of preparing teachers with some of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to implement work experience programmes in school is to give them the opportunity to taste ‘work experience’ for themselves and then to reflect on their own learning. This article reports on the reactions of trainee school guidance counsellors to placements in a variety of settings as a compulsory part of a one‐year, full time training course. The data suggest a pattern of course participants moving from initial resistance towards greater empathy for young people in workplace situations.

Gendered identities and work placement: why don't boys care?

Students' post‐compulsory pathways and occupational aspirations in the UK have been shown to differ considerably according to gender, social class and ethnicity. School‐based work experience provides many pupils with their first significant encounters with the world of work, and is positioned as providing diverse experiences in this regard. Yet gender‐stereotypical patterns manifesting in pupils' occupational aspirations have been found to be replicated in pupil take‐up of work experience placements. This paper draws on a study of gender issues in work experience placement in England commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission to show how work experience exacerbates, rather than challenges, pupils' gender stereotypical trajectories. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been shown to be a particularly gendered and classed occupational field, and is one that is currently experiencing staff shortages. Hence we focus on the area of ECEC as a case, analysing pupils' talk about their ECEC placements and about ECEC as a gendered area of work. In this way we reveal the discursive practices by which pupils construct occupations as gendered, providing explanation for the perpetuation of gender stereotypical patterns in pupils' uptake of work experience placements and occupational aspirations.

Is the time right for direct entry into a career in health and biomedical informatics?

These three educational pathways appear to offer a range of complementary entry routes, targeting different student groups. However, we in the health informatics community need to consider what additional support potential students might receive to ease their passage from learner to a career in health informatics. Our suggestions for the UK, which could be replicated internationally, are: • The BCS should consider improved access to its healthcare specialist groups and conferences for students on recognised courses. • The NHS should systematically develop work experience placements for health informatics students on approved courses. • UKCHIP could consider providing provisional registration for newly-qualified health informaticians while they acquire the necessary experience for full registration. It could approve specific courses for particular levels of registration. • Journals and conferences associated with the major health informatics associations could consider much lower subscriptions for health informatics students. Higher education is developing a professional health informatics community. The time is right for school leavers to have a direct route into this career. Within the next five years larger numbers of school leavers will start to move into health informatics de novo. © 2005 PHCSG, British Computer Society.

Learning and teaching

Learning and teaching

Responsibilities of employers providing work experience placements

Responsibilities of employers providing work experience placements

Choice, volunteering and employability: evaluating delivery of the New Deal for Young People’s Voluntary Sector Option

Using findings from ethnographic research of the New Deal for Young People’s Voluntary Sector Option (VSO) delivery in London, this article discusses three elements of the policy: choice, the voluntary sector role and improving employability. Choice is looked at in relation to the allocation of work experience placements within the VSO. Choices made either by the client or on their behalf, may not maximise their employment opportunities when influenced by a lack of clarity as to their occupational futures and the short-term pressures of those advising them. The findings also outline participants’ lack of affinity with the voluntary sector and the challenges to delivery that this presents. Finally, the research finds that employability is often a very personal phenomenon and questions whether welfare-to-work interventions can or have the remit to ‘improve’ it.

Employment Aspirations of People with Learning Disabilities Attending Day Centres

A small but growing number of people with learning disabilities are obtaining paid work through supported employment initiatives. A survey of 275 persons attending three day centres in Belfast suggests that upwards of one-third aspired to having a job and their key workers thought that one in five would be able to hold down a job. These proportions were higher among those who had work experience placements. Key workers viewed poor concentration, communication skills and motivation as the most common obstacles to obtaining paid work, with the main benefits to the individuals being increased self-esteem, independence and confidence. These findings confirm that new forms of day services are required for this client group in order to meet their aspirations. These should provide work experience opportunities alongside vocational and social skills training, job finding assistance and support in the workplace.

TEACHING NOTES

The text of the article is available in the PDF.

School pupil allowed to observe intimate examination

A hospital trust has been forced to apologise after it emerged that a 15 year old work experience student was present during an intimate examination without the patient's consent. The female patient who has not been named lodged a complaint after noticing the girl during the procedure at North Manchester General Hospital. The trust refused to go into details, but emphasised that the girl, who was wearing a white coat, had taken no part in the patient's treatment or care. However, the trust confirmed that she had been shadowing Roger Williams, a consultant general surgeon at the hospital, who is thought to have allowed the girl to attend checks in several other cases. Thousands of school pupils undertake work experience placements in hospitals each year as it is now an almost essential prerequisite for applying for a place at medical school. However, the policies dictating what they can and cannot do are normally very restrictive. A spokesperson for the trust said, “We have already acknowledged that [our] policy for work experience students was not followed in this case. The staff involved have been warned against this in future and all staff have been reminded …