Peer mentoring to secure student placements

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a case study where student peer mentors were employed to motivate and assist undergraduates to secure optional professional placement positions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the reasons for establishing the project, the recruitment and work carried out by the mentors. It explains a survey of students who had not undertaken placements the previous year to try to identify the activities that would be most effective on the part of the mentors. The mentors, together with the placement co‐coordinator, devised support ranging from one‐to‐one mentoring, drop in “clinics”, online support and large group talks. It discusses the results of this work and evaluates the responses of both mentors and mentees.FindingsThose mentees who took part in the mentoring were typically those who were already enthusiastic about placement opportunities. The majority of students did not take advantage of mentoring support, including support on a drop‐in basis or one‐to‐one basis or support available online through a social network. It was found that the mentoring scheme did not significantly affect the proportion of students seeking or securing placements. However, the mentors themselves gained tremendous benefits from the mentoring scheme, in particular developing their communication skills and confidence.Research limitations/implicationsA thorough survey of potential mentees was not carried out after the project to ascertain the reasons for their lack of engagement.Practical implicationsThere are two separate implications of this project. First, the mentoring scheme was valuable primarily for the mentors and not the mentees; and second, the level of support provided by the University is not the main factor in the low take up of optional placement opportunities. If these are felt to be sufficiently valuable for the student learning experience they need to be compulsory with appropriate support available – a mentoring scheme might then be of far more value to mentees.Originality/valueThere is very little published concerning the use of mentoring to facilitate work‐based learning so this paper is valuable for that alone. Furthermore, most published work on mentoring is located in the “best practice” school of pedagogical research where it is implicitly assumed that one must report on the success of an intervention. Frequently it is more valuable to examine more unexpected results of an intervention. This paper however shows much greater benefits achieved by the mentors than the mentees.

Are employability and entrepreneurial measures for higher education relevant? Introducing AGILE reflection

“…Scrutiny of and focus on achieving against these metrics can create responses and activities that may, ironically, be contradictory or unhelpful to the achievement of intended objectives (Holmes, 2013a). For example, mentoring support for students seeking placement does not necessarily improve numbers placed, even though it may indirectly enhance the employability of mentors (Procter, 2012).…”

Au fait law placements

“…For students taking a year out for a placement, it results in a years' delay in entering the labour market with a degree and that is a time commitment some students cannot afford especially during an economic downturn (Balta et al, 2012). Other barriers to students undertaking placements include financial restrictions (Balta et al, 2012;Curiale, 2010;Education for Engineering, 2011;Feeley, 2007), fear of uncertainties (Jones, 2004), reluctance to relocate (Balta et al, 2012;Procter, 2012), insufficient knowledge about the working industry or lack of the competences that employers require (Balta et al, 2012). There are also some issues with readjustment to campus life after the placement is completed (Little and Harvey, 2006;Paisey and Paisey, 2010;Procter, 2012).…”

“…Other barriers to students undertaking placements include financial restrictions (Balta et al, 2012;Curiale, 2010;E4E, 2011;Feeley, 2007), fear of uncertainties ( Jones, 2004), reluctance to relocate (Balta et al, 2012;Procter, 2012), insufficient knowledge about the working industry or lack of the competences that employers require (Balta et al, 2012). There are also some issues with readjustment to campus life after the placement is completed (Little and Harvey, 2006;Paisey and Paisey, 2010;Procter, 2012).…”

“…Compulsory work placements, on the other hand, are assessed and count towards the final degree classification, and hence the assessment strategy should be developed to an adequate level and match the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2014). Placement students are typically assessed by means of an industrial training report (Bullock et al, 2009;Little and Harvey, 2006;Owens, 1997;Procter, 2012;Wallace et al, 2009), presentation (Procter, 2012), project work (Wallace et al, 2009), reflective logs (Wallace et al, 2009) and/or assessment of performance in the workplace (Procter, 2012;Wallace et al, 2009). In some programmes placement students are required to attend a follow-up interview after submission of their reports (Owens, 1997).…”

Reflective practice in a capstone business internship subject

“…Based on the quality of assessments submitted, it was also apparent that many students had failed to allow sufficient time to complete the complex tasks required (Richards and Miller, 2005). This lack of effort might be attributed to some students' perceptions that the internship subject was a "soft" option, merely a hurdle to surmount to obtain their degree (Procter, 2012). While students performed very well in their workplaces, receiving glowing evaluations from their workplace supervisors, another factor contributing to the poor quality of the assessments could be that they did not understand, or perhaps did not value, the nature of the reflective assessment tasks (Fletcher et al, 2012).…”