1.1
- A growing
interest in combining standard education with hands-on experience
There
is a clear trend throughout Europe to increase the importance of placements[1] within engineering
education, where they exist (Germany, UK, Sweden, France), or to introduce
them if they are not usual practice (Spain, Italy). This move is a recognition
of a process where standard educational activities (i.e. lectures and practical
works) alternate with hands-on experience. It corresponds to a widely expressed
wish to set up a new balance between the acquisition of knowledge and actual
experience. Such
a development has its roots in the academic world, where studies are often
seen as too theoretical, but also in the corporate world, where a new stress
is put on competencies - or generic skills - which refer to an employee’s
ability to perform a task in a specific context.
The
importance given to hands-on experience varies with different countries
-
A
traditional approach - still dominant in Japan, in the US and in many countries
- is to prepare the professional engineer through a first period of study
dedicated to acquiring basic knowledge in sciences or in applied sciences,
followed by a training period in industry.
-
The
growing interest given to placements corresponds to a more modern approach
where some ´clinical periods, - the young student being confronted
with real situations - are associated with standard courses.
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There
are two philosophies of engineering education around the world
- Engineering education mainly seen as an opportunity to get the necessary
basic knowledge, and related know-how, the acquisition of practical
skills being delayed to a training phase (UK) or to the first work
experience (US).
- Engineering education being built up as a coherent process, where
graduates receive at the end a full title of engineer (Mainland
Europe, France or Germany), which confers a
recognised professional status.
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·
More and more international placements
A complementary trend, linked to the
emergence of an international job market, is the development of industrial
placements abroad. This move is in pace with the greater mobility of young
students, who increasingly see a clear interest in gaining experience within
foreign companies. Educational institutions have choice no other than to follow
this trend.
3.1
- Assessment as a front-line management tool
Special
attention is presently being paid to assessment, in practically all facets
of human activity, wherever public (or complex) policies are involved (transport,
health, education, etc.). Assessment procedures are
supposed to give information on the efficiency of the process, as well as
on the satisfaction of the users. Assessment practices appear as a front-line
management tool, giving crucial information to correct what is going wrong.One
has to keep in mind that assessment of complex processes involving people
and social organizations is not as simple as physical measurement.
3.2
- The right way to meet users' expectations
In
the present case, assessment should be understood as a part of the overall
process of managing academic institutions and has to be run within a solid
methodological framework. Evaluation appears in the educational context
-
as
a counterweight to the growing autonomy of academic institutions, which
leads authorities to underline the importance of performance evaluation,
-
as
a response to ever more demanding users (students or companies) wanting
to obtain some insurance – indeed, objective signs - on the quality
of the service. Evaluation is a part of a quality policy
3.3
- Evaluation remains a "risky business"
Everybody
is able to express a personal judgment based even on partial knowledge, but
this judgment will be difficult to exploit.
To
obtain credible judgments one may, of course, rely on highly qualified experts.
But in more informal cases one has to observe minimal methodological rules:
-
by defining a so-called system of reference (making explicit the elements
checked in the evaluation)
-
by defining criteria giving credibility to the system of reference
- by measuring the value of criteria
-
by drawing up a synthesis reporting understandable conclusions.
Evaluation
has a strong link with quality policy: all efforts which are made for evaluation
may be considered as elements of a quality policy, which is quite often built
around an evaluation procedure
3.4
- The challenge of monitoring the process effectively
It
appears that the planning and progress of an internship should be controlled
and assessed, and that without this framework enabling actual supervision,
the process may go off track in various ways (poor organization, transformation
of an educational period into a simple job experience, etc.).
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Students,
firms and state authorities quite legitimately request
-
transparency in practices
-
feedback on the experience
-
some elements to verify the efficiency of the process.
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This
guide is at the crossroads of three main concerns for higher education institutions
- to develop
links with the professional world and give students the best chances
of success for their future career in a demanding and rapidly changing employment
market
-
to
foster the international dimension in education in response
to the mobility requirements of students and companies and to enrich academic
institutions through exchanges with the outside world
- to
carry out a quality policy through evaluation
and assessment, in order to control, adapt and improve training processes
to meet students’ and companies’ expectations.
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How
to use this guide ?
This
guide does not intend to be prescriptive but rather to present a
first set of guidelines, to outline methodologies and to record practical
experience related to the implementation of student industrial placements
in six European countries. In the following pages, the reader may find :
- A source of information
- A
typology of placement practices and rules in six European countries
- Addresses
and reference documents on the subject
- A source of advice
- Specific
guidelines for organising and managing international placements
- A
methodology on placement assessment with various systems of
reference
- Opinions
from different companies
- Benchmark material
- A
collection of case studies showing placement experience and
best practices of managing, following-up, assessing and validating
student industrial placements
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