| 5. Placement module: applying geographic skills in the workplace
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Glynne Watkin
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Background
The initial decision to incorporate a final-year Work Placement module within the Geography programme at Wolverhampton stemmed from a number of factors. Foremost among these was the Division of Geography 's own commitment to the maintenance and enhancement of teaching quality. Staff sought to add variety to the learning experiences and opportunities offered to Geography students, which capitalised upon their expressed personal interests and vocational inclinations. Over and above the experiences provided through the medium of fieldwork and dissertation work, it was considered that students would benefit from exposure to an "environment" in which they could apply that knowledge and those skills acquired in lectures and workshop classes, whilst simultaneously extending and refining that knowledge and those skills. It was felt, furthermore, that students needed to be encouraged and enabled to emerge as active partners in the learning process and to assume some of the planning and organisational responsibilities involved in structuring their new environment. Additionally, it was considered that students would benefit from exposure to a more extended range of assessment approaches and techniques, and to a variety of additional learning resources that would be difficult, if not impossible, for divisional and university library budgets to provide.
Staff endeavours were based on a conviction that work-placement opportunities in Geography represented a logical and worthwhile curricular development within a multi-faceted and applied discipline with diverse career outlets. Exposure to, and direct involvement in, more student-centred and student-driven learning approaches, fostered in part by the Enterprise in Higher Education and Higher Education for Capability initiatives, had also convinced divisional staff of the benefits to be derived by allowing students to assume greater responsibility for their own learning and personal development.
Such endeavours were given added impetus by the increasing demand from some students for work placement to feature as an integral part of their undergraduate study programme. It was noteworthy that such demand emanated, in the main, from those students who had first entered the university as traditional school-leavers. Mature students, some with prior experience of the "real world", seemed less anxious to return there quite so soon!
The outcome was the introduction of an optional third-year Work Placement module within the Geography programme; students are required to negotiate, and subsequently work to, a tripartite written contract for the equivalent of 10 hours per week throughout one semester (15 weeks). The initial responsibility for identifying and making contact with an appropriate host organisation, mainly within the West Midlands region, rests with the students. The off-campus element of the module normally extends over a 10-week period (hours per week negotiable) and students are required to attend tutorial sessions at the University with an academic supervisor for the equivalent of 12 hours during the semester. Time is made available for the student at the beginning and end of the semester to negotiate and formulate a detailed workplan and to make an oral presentation of its outcome. The module leader ensures that all negotiated placements are broadly comparable in format and that similar expectations and workloads apply within the various work placements.
Aims
The interrelated aims of the module are:
- Toenablestudentstoacquiredirectexperienceofcommercial,publicorvoluntary-sector work environments, and to develop an understanding of management strategies, structures and operational routines within workplace situations.
- To enable students to develop and apply a range of academic skills in a workplace context. More specifically, to enable students to apply their geographical knowledge and skills in a task or problem-solving context, to acquire new subject-related knowledge and skills, and to experience at first hand the professional application of related skills in workplace situations.
- To enable students to develop and refine a range of personal and interpersonal skills in a workplace context.
- To encourage and enable students to assume greater responsibility for the planning and evaluation of their own learning, within the context of negotiated terms of reference.
The module does not have a prescribed syllabus in the conventional sense since the experiences offered to students, and the tasks undertaken by them, vary from one placement to another. However, all work placements place the following generic demands upon the student:
- To identify and negotiate a clearly-defined, realistic and manageable workplan with academic supervisor and host organisation.
- To work independently and as part of a team within the parameters of the agreed workplan and time-scale.
- To acquire, organise, synthesise and evaluate information methodically and systematically with a view to producing an investigative report on a topic appropriate to both their work placement and their academic discipline.
- To make a reasoned self-assessment of personal and academic capabilities upon completion of the work placement.
The workplan, negotiated and agreed at the outset, is designed to ensure that such generic demands can be met. Such workplans are moderated by the module leader.
In addition to the above, individual work placements provide students with an opportunity to acquire, develop and/or refine a number of more specific personal and academic skills. These opportunities are also identified by the student, the academic supervisor and host organisation at the outset. Such skills are identified from a Divisional "checklist" (see Figure 4) and often include the following:
- data accumulation, analysis and interpretation
- interviewing skills and questionnaire design
- the use of information technology
- verbal, written and graphical presentations
- participation within group discussions and meetings
- minute-taking, recording and report-writing
- the precis and synthesis of written documents
Once negotiated and agreed, the workplan and time-scale are formalised within a written contract. The latter specifies:
- the generic skills to be practised during the placement
- the specific personal and academic skills to be practised
- the operational detail and logistics of the placement
- the responsibilities of the academic supervisor
- the responsibilities of the host organisation
- the methods and criteria by which the student's workplace experience is to be assessed
Students are assessed in terms of their personal and academic performance on the module. The former is assessed by the host organisation on the basis of agreed criteria, the latter by the academic supervisor. Students are given credit for:
- the production of a written rationale and workplan for the proposed work placement [20% of module marks]
- the personal commitment, capabilities and aptitude demonstrated whilst on work placement [20%]
- the production of an investigative report on a discipline-related topic arising from their own involvement in the work placement [25%]
- the production of a log-book/diary that documents the placement activities undertaken, and which provides a critical assessment of the students' own involvement and contribution [25%]
- an oral presentation which provides an independent self-assessment of the personal and professional benefits gained from the work-placement experience [10%]
Outcomes
Student performance on the module has been encouraging. The investigative topic reports - on Derelict Land Reclamation programmes, the City Challenge Scheme, pedestrianisation schemes and environmental health programmes, among others - have been generally well-researched and well-substantiated with statistical and other evidence made available by the host organisations. Students have accompanied their "work colleagues" to field sites, internal meetings and public forums and have, as a consequence, been able to develop valuable professional insights of local authority planning objectives, strategies and instruments. They have visited other local authority departments and units to contextualise the work undertaken by planners, and to observe the challenges and constraints with which local authority planning personnel have to wrestle. Academic supervisors remark on the positive personal benefits which work-placement students acquire, and point to the increased resourcefulness and tenacity with which academic challenges are met - skills which are also advantageously brought to bear upon their other work in the university. Host organisations comment on the enthusiasm, commitment and energy with which students have approached and undertaken their placement work. Initial reticence and reservedness soon give way to increased self-confidence, a desire to get involved and to contribute to the limit of their technical expertise. Students have demonstrated, both verbally and in their written log-books, the way in which the placement experience quickly exposed their personal weaknesses and how they have attempted to rectify these during later stages of the placement.
To what can we attribute such commendable performances? Our experience at Wolverhampton suggests that the following factors have been particularly influential:
- The early notification given to students, during the preceding academic year, of the expectations placed upon them during the Work Placement module. This ensures that students committed to a period of field placement can begin to consider the types of host organisation that could offer appropriate experiences, and to think methodically about the academic tasks with which they wish to become engaged.
- The formulation of a detailed workplan and time-scale at the outset of the module. These clearly set out the expectations and responsibilities of all parties involved. Attainable personal and academic targets can be set and the workplace experience can be structured in a way that ensures that such targets can be met.
- The active involvement of a named representative (mentor) of the host organisation from the outset. This ensures that students secure continuity in their dealings with the host organisation and can speedily develop a working rapport. Fully briefed, the mentor can play an instrumental role in the formulation of a realistic workplan and can, subsequently, facilitate the student's progress by opening the right doors! It is particularly important to ensure that the host organisation and the mentor are made aware of the expectations and aspirations of the students since, at any one time, the organisation may be hosting a number of placement students from several academic institutions - all with different aims, objectives and assessment workloads.
- The granting of full module status to the work-placement experience. Students need to be assured of the significance attached to work-placement experience within their overaU study programme, and seek further assurance that the experience is awarded an assessment/credit-rating commensurate with the workload, personal commitment and time-scale involved.
- The use of assessment methodologies and criteria that are appropriate to the aims and intended learning outcomes of the placement module.
- The appointment of a placement module leader/co-ordinator who ensures that the expectations, workloads and other demands placed upon students are equivalent to those imposed by coequal modules, and that they are broadly similar from one placement to another.
- The requirement for placement students to attend tutorial sessions with their academic supervisor at the university (or some other neutral venue!) on a regular basis. This provides students with an opportunity to enthuse about their experiences, to have that enthusiasm directed upon tasks yet to be undertaken, to discuss minor modifications (or reemphasis within) the workplan and, occasionally, to release some of the frustrations that have built up in the workplace!
And finally, to confession time! To date, our greatest frustration has been the low uptake of the Work Placement module by our final-year Geography students, despite the fact that very real personal and academic benefits can and do accrue. True, the module is still in its infancy; student uptake may increase over time, particularly with the aid of "word-of-mouth" advertising by those who have successfully completed the module. It is clear, however, that the initial interest expressed by some students evaporates once the expectations placed upon them are fully known. Somewhat ironically, some final-year students perceive work placement as a "high risk" option module over which they exercise less than the desired level of control. Perhaps understandably, such students seek the security of "safer" taught modules in their final year. Other students simply express a preference for the alternative modules offered within the Geography programme.
Equally disappointing has been the way in which students have confined their work placements to local authority planning departments, despite the fact that module documentation highlights the potential of the commercial and voluntary sectors, as well as that offered by other public-sector organisations.
So, what's to be done? Other departments contemplating the introduction of a similar Work Placement module may wish to consider those issues which are currently the subject of ongoing discussion at Wolverhampton. In particular, answers need to be sought for the following questions:
- Should the Work Placement module be made compulsory for all final-year students, given the real personal and academic benefits that accrue? Should the Work Placement module serve as a complement to/ingredient of/substitute for the compulsory final-year dissertation? Or should the placement module remain as an option to be pursued only by motivated and committed students?
- Should the Work Placement module be offered at second-year, rather than final-year, level? Do second-year students possess an adequate level of geographical knowledge and skill to contribute to, as well as benefit from, a work-placement experience?
- To what extent should the Work Placement module be offered on a more open-ended, less formally structured basis? Are students inhibited by the formality of written contracts and workplans? Can desired learning outcomes be safeguarded within a more flexible arrangement?
- Should departments assume the responsibility for identifying and securing work-placement opportunities within a diverse range of host organisations, and offer these to interested students as and when the need arises?
Departments with well-established and successful Work Placement modules are invited to share their experiences and secrets. Those interested by the outcome of our deliberations at Wolverhampton must, alas, await publication of the second edition of this collection!
Correspondence: Glynne Watkin, Head, Division of Geography, University of Wolverhampton, Dudley Campus, Castel View, Dudley, West Midlands DYl 3HR.
Page created 13 January 1998
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