Facilitating Student Engagement with External Organisations through Credit-bearing Placements

Wood, B. (2019) Facilitating Student Engagement with External Organisations through Credit-bearing Placements. British Ecological Society Annual Conference 2019, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 10-13 Dec 2019.

Abstract

The challenge of providing work-related learning within the confines of an undergraduate curriculum generates considerable discussion. The University of Glasgow’s BSc Environmental Science and Sustainability addresses this by offering students the opportunity to undertake a 60-credit placement in lieu of a dissertation. Engaging employers and students in this way has proved not only to enhance dialogue between the two organisations, but further benefits: THE STUDENT: through enhanced employability, real work experience, linking graduate attributes with work, employment offers, putting theory into practice, networking; THE EXTERNAL ORGANISATION: through recognition of the student’s transferable skills and up-to-date knowledge, employee recruitment, opportunity to utilise the student’s skills e.g. social media, academic writing, computing; THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW: through enhanced organisation engagement, voluntary/paid work offers to students, requests to have another student, field class/visit opportunities, internationalisation of the curriculum.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Keywords: Placements, employability, external organisations, students.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wood, Professor Bethan
• Authors: Wood, B.
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2361 Curriculum; Q Science > Q Science (General); S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 The Author
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the author