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Types of employer/university co-operation: advantages and disadvantages. Placement schemes W. Wallace (Sheffield Hallam University)
Advantages to students
Context
Advantages to Employers and University
Disadvantages
It was once said by one of my colleagues, who was charged with
recruiting undergraduates onto the Applied Statistics degree at
Sheffield Hallam University (then Sheffield City Polytechnic),
‘Enroll on the B.Sc. Applied Statistics Honours degree
course and you will be on a ladder to success’. See figure 1.
Strictly speaking, this is not absolutely true. In fact the
picture is more like that shown in figure 2.
Well, to be really honest, this is a slight distortion of the
truth. To be really SPC (Statistically Politically Correct), a
better picture would be that shown in figure 3.
I wonder if I’ve painted too rosy a picture. Anyway, how is
all this possible? Yes, it’s because of the opportunities
provided during the placement period in business / industry and
other organisations.
For the third year of the Management Sciences Programme (Applied
Statistics is part of this), students work in appropriate
organisations. The obtaining of these opportunities is
competitive with prospective employers often putting a lot of
effort into the selection of suitable candidates. This has
probably one major aspect of change that I have observed during
the years (lots of!) that I have been involved in this process. I’ve
also observed an increase in demand for statisticians across all
sectors of employing organisations. At Sheffield Hallam
University we spend time in the first two years of teaching to
prepare students for their year out in aspects not directly
related to statistics, e.g. in communication, consultancy and
aspects of organisations relevant to work. In addition we also
give guidance on preparing CV’s, interviewing techniques,
job search and give introductions to our pool of participating
employing organisations. It is not this that I intend to discuss
further, however, since we need to look at advantages and
disadvantages.
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First, let’s look at advantages. To students, the
following list is not necessarily exhaustive but, I feel, focuses
on the major aspects:
1. The opportunity to put into practice what has been learnt in
the first two years of the course.
2. The increase in IT skills through both training courses offered by employers and ‘ on the job’ training and mentoring by placement supervisors and colleagues. This raises a point in relation to the requirements that SHU places on employers. These are not burdensome, but a placement supervisor within the organisation is expected.
3. The development of a professional approach to work is encouraged. This may be in time management, keeping a tidy filing system, recording progress as appropriate, noting meetings etc. in diaries , and the list goes on.
4. The approach to solving problems is enhanced. These problems are not necessarily statistical. They relate quite often to aspects of communication and an understanding of the organisation and its internal ‘customers’.
5. The pragmatic style is encouraged. I suppose this relates to 4 above. Listening skills, flexibility and empathy in handing issues are useful talents for a statistical consultant.
6. Personal skills are further developed. These relate to managing time, report writing, communication, presentational skills, etc.
7. Motivation for studying in the final year is radically elevated.
8. An understanding of career opportunities is developed.
9. The potential to prepare for a final year placement related
project that can be continued back at the University with the
assistance of a project supervisor.
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Let us put this year out on placement within the context of
the teaching on the Management Sciences Programme.
When teaching our undergraduate statisticians at Sheffield Hallam
University we see consultancy skills as a very important part of
their training. We provide a theoretical underpinning in this
area via courses on Business and Professional Skills and
Environment. These introduce students to the organisational and
communication skills which are necessary to function effectively
in a working environment, but they only provide a foundation for
extensive practice. We have found that the most effective way to
develop consultancy skills is by guided and supported practice in
actually using these skills. Indeed we believe it is just the
beginning of a lifelong cycle of learning from experience. This
cycle begins early in the first year for the students, with
extended practicals where theory is put into practice, a process
which continues throughout the course. The realism of these
exercises is enhanced in the second year of the course by the use
of group consultancy projects and is put into practice in the
third year when students spend the full year on placement in
industry.
The aim is to develop consultancy skills by actually carrying out consultancy activities of increasing complexity and reality but with decreasing support. The process can be likened to riding a bicycle where learning the theory is no substitute for actually getting on the bike and giving it a try. At first a large degree of support from a teacher will be needed to keep the bike upright but as time goes on and the rider becomes more confident this support can gradually be withdrawn. The consultancy skills which are developed in this way include vital communication skills, particularly the all-important listening skills. Above all the students are encouraged to reflect on their experiences in carrying out the consultancy in order to learn from both their successes and their failures. This approach will enable them to carry on learning by reflection throughout their professional life in much the same way as is advocated by Schön (1991). This idea of learning by reflection was described by Kanji and Wallace (1994).
The whole process can be seen as cyclical building on
experience and learning from both success and failure at each
stage, in a way which is analogous to both the Deming cycle (Neave,
1990) and Alan Graham’s PCAI approach to statistical problem
solving (Pose the question, Collect the data, Analyse the data
and Interpret the results) (Graham, 1990). However, we take this
idea one stage further to adopt a spiral approach with the
same cycle being repeated at each stage of the learning process,
but with increased realism and decreased support. We include
realistic problems throughout the course but also use a program
of practicals and case studies which involve wider-reaching
problems. Initially these practicals will be accompanied by
detailed instructions about how to tackle them but as the course
progresses students are increasingly expected to develop their
own problem-solving strategies to solve more open-ended problems.
In the second half of their second year we have a whole unit
devoted to a group consultancy project in which a group of
students work for three months on a real problem for an outside
client. They then go out on a full year work placement in the
third year where they will have varying levels of support and
mentoring from their employers and only minimal support, but
close monitoring and contact from the university.
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What about the advantages to employers and the University?
Employers have the opportunity to put students on an ‘extended
interview’. This can be very important if in the next year
or so they see a likely recruitment requirement. Not all students
on placement go back as graduates to their placement employer,
although there is a tendency for this to be more common than it
has been. It has certainly been the case that employers like to
see new faces that will liven up offices and bring in new ideas.
The pleasure and pride in training and mentoring is not to be
ignored. Also general concerns about ensuring a consistent and
continual supply of graduates for the employing organisation’s
sector of work are taken seriously.
The University benefits in many ways. Firstly, employers spend
a lot of time and money in giving IT training to the placement
students. A conservative estimate, putting a monetary value on
supervisor time, and including in-service training and short
courses is in the region of about £5,000 per student. For one
recent student who was sent on six short courses in Switzerland,
this figure is a considerable underestimate! The placing of
students in competitive environments toughens them up and makes
them eminently employable, thus giving prestige and favourable
graduate destination statistics to publish. The University has
developed a ‘barometer’ of employer demands and can
move to adjust courses and emphasis as needed in a timely and
relevant way. Visiting tutors have an opportunity to see what is
‘going on’ outside in the ‘real world’ and
project supervisors can see some ‘real’ data.
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What are the disadvantages?
Being too successful may be causing problems! It has never been
easy to encourage new recruits to an applied but nevertheless a
mathematically orientated subject. This problem is getting worse!
To secure a continuous supply of suitably trained and educated
graduates to satisfy an increasing demand from employers needs
urgent attention. More publicity is needed to expose and,
therefore, rectify the problem. This is the responsibility of
both educators and employers.
References
Graham A. (1990) Investigating Statistics, a beginners guide,
Hodder & Stoughton
Kanji G.K. and Wallace (1994) Learning to Learn: the
continuous development of a professional statistician.
Proceedings ICOTS IV, Vol. 1 315-322
Neave H.R. (1990) The Deming Dimension, SPC Press
Schön D.A. (1991) The Reflective Practitioner, how
professionals think in action, Arena
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