It is widely acknowledged that integrated industrial placements present various advantages:
For students, placements abroad have proved to be particularly beneficial regarding
· Higher education institutions find in placements abroad a good opportunity to
· For the corporate world, welcoming foreign trainees appears as
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A recent CEFI survey on transnational placements supported by the Leonardo programme showed that Companies that took on trainees from foreign universities for the first time were very satisfied and willing to develop this activity further. |
Higher education institutions are faced with various challenges in the development of industrial placements:
The first obstacle to overcome is to convince firms to involve themselves in the process, making it clear to them that they will have a good return on time and money invested. A basic objection is that a firm is reluctant to train somebody who may be employed elsewhere. Japanese firms are used to first recruiting graduates, then training them inside the firm. The main argument, which will be mentioned several times, is that placements provide an opportunity to recruit a young graduate after a rigorous test.
But three other important concerns may at least be identified in this integration of industrial placements within engineering education:
To organize placements properly, several steps have to be taken
Placements are part of an educational process, where assessment is a strong obligation. However assessment may be understood in several ways
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The association of standard periods of education and full-experience periods in industry should be seen as a complex process, which has to be carefully controlled and assessed |
International industrial placements more often require a higher investment in time and skills than national placements, because of the distance involved and the different rules that apply :
· for the student
- communicating in a foreign language
- working in a team with foreigners
- adapting to different working methods and different systems of hierarchy
- living in a foreign cultural environment
- experiencing independence while living sometimes for the first time away from the family and the school
- making a financial investment to go abroad
· for the Higher Education institution
- Finding suitable placements abroad, adapted to the student's curriculum and objectives, are often seen as the greatest difficulty to be solved
- Arranging administrative and material questions such as housing, social insurance, financial support
- A specific preparation of the student (linguistic and cultural preparation, and the association of the foreign language department with the process), to give him or her the best chances of success (failures of placements abroad have greater consequences : a firm having problems with a foreign trainee will be reluctant to welcome other trainees from the same country and/or university).
Further questions may arise :
- How to appreciate the quality of placements abroad.
- On what criteria should placements abroad be assessed ?
· for the Company
- it may appear more risky and complicated to welcome a foreign student whose background is not well known
- problems of confidentiality may arise
- immediate return on investment is uncertain (the majority of the students take placements abroad as an experience and do not plan to have a career in the foreign firm). Welcoming foreign trainees is part of a long term policy of international development for a firm.
Despite the higher investment required from all the participants, placements abroad are a rich and rewarding experience from the human, educational and professional point of view, as well as in terms of international development and opportunities for all the persons and institutions involved. They aim at a wider range of objectives and require a wider range of skills than national placements, because they mix the cultural and the technical-professional dimension. The challenge is to make them successful and to ensure their quality.
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To meet this challenge of quality and to have a significant return on time and effort invested, good evaluation of the process and of the results appears essential. |