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This chapter describes the characteristics of each of the courses in the sample. The case study courses are described first, followed by the non-case study courses.
Each course is considered under six headings. These are:
In all cases, the literature produced by the relevant faculty or department describing its course is used.
Background
The Professional Practice component of the Medical Laboratory Science degree has been a part of the course since the degree was introduced. It is a sandwich course occupying the whole of the third year of the degree and is designed to give students their first major experience of professional practice. Students are involved full time for a full year (40 weeks, for 37.5 hours each week). All students on the course are involved. Students have some choice as to which laboratory they join for their placement.
The aims and objectives of the Professional Practice subject are clearly stated in the subject guide.
Subject Aims
On completion of the subject Professional Practice students should be able to:
Subject Objectives
On completion of the subject Professional Practice students should be able to:
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
The Professional Practice subject is aligned closely to the units of competency defined for medical scientists. While it is recognised that the competencies achieved will depend upon the type of laboratory in which the students undertake their professional practice, the work experience is carefully planned to follow the eight units of competence identified for medical scientists. These are reproduced in the subject guide as a syllabus structure and they spell out clearly what students must do while they are in the laboratory and what it is expected they will achieve. These units are reproduced below.
Unit 1. Prepare and analyse biological materials.
Unit 2. Correlate, validate and interpret results of investigations using clinical information.
Unit 3. Report and issue laboratory results.
Unit 4. Maintain documentation, equipment and stock.
Unit 5. Maintain and promote safe working practices.
Unit 6. Liaise with health workers and others to improve the service.
Unit 7. Participate in education and training of health workers.
(Units 6 and 7 are not considered appropriate at this stage of the student’s education.)
Unit 8. Participate in research and development activities.
Unit 9. Demonstrate continuing professional development.
Unit 10. Demonstrate professional accountability for Medical Scientists’ practice.
How is the placement assessed?
There are four components to the assessment of Professional Practice. The assessment of student work during the work placement is a formal requirement of the subject and is done in four ways. Each component of the assessment attracts a mark and students must receive a pass mark for each of the four components to pass the overall subject. The final assessment is graded either a pass or fail.
The assessment requirements are clearly set out in the subject guide and are provided below.
Professional Practice Journal (25 percent)
A journal must be kept during the period of professional practice on a weekly basis. Entries should cover problem situations including defining the nature of the problem, the strategy used to resolve it and the outcome.
This record of problem solving situations provides the basis of the Professional Practice report.
Supervisor’s Reports (40 percent)
Academic supervisor (20 percent)
Laboratory Professional Practice supervisor (20 percent)
Professional Practice Report (25 percent)
A report of between 2000 and 2500 words must be submitted towards the end of the placement. It should be a reflective essay on the experiences of the Professional Practice.
Seminar (10 percent)
All students must present a 15 minute seminar on their Professional Practice experiences.
Do the students receive payment for their work?
Students do not receive payment for their professional placement work but they are able to apply for a bursary which is offered by the university if they have no other means of financial support. They do not incur a HECS liability in the Professional Practice program.
The Electrical Engineering work experience and placement scheme is conceived as a major project, negotiated between a business or industry client and the student and university department. Students work to develop tenders for the projects during the first semester of third year. During the second semester they undertake preliminary project work with the support of academic staff as well as receiving feedback from the client. For between eight and twelve weeks of the summer vacation students are employed with the client and for the whole of their final (fourth) year they work with the client on the project. The whole project is estimated to take 600 student hours over 16 calendar months.
The timing of the project is shown below.
3rd Year |
4th Year |
|
Project negotiation—1st project semester |
2nd project semester—3rd project semester |
|
July
November–March November |
||
The projects may be of an investigative nature, or may be aimed at product, process or technical innovation or improvement. Multi-student projects are encouraged as these are seen to allow more ambitious project objectives to be achieved and to help develop team skills in students. Typically, between one and six students are engaged on a project.
The scheme has been developed over a ten year period and now operates in a number of Australian universities. Its central idea is that work experience for students offers the opportunity for a productive partnership of universities and business. The publicity for the scheme emphasises that involvement offers business and industry the opportunity to both influence the training of future graduates and achieve valuable results from projects.
Information about the scheme is directed to both students and to potential clients.
Consequently, the scheme has an educational mission:
to produce distinguished graduates with skills enhanced through cooperative education experiences on real-world projects.
There is also an industrial mission:
to promote enterprise development through a university–industry partnership in training, expertise transfer, innovation and development.
The program claims to be an improvement on traditional work experience programs for three reasons:
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
The project is developed through a specified management and tracking process designed to maximise the prospects for success. These are outlined below.
Project Definition/Specification
Very early in the project it is the student’s responsibility to meet with the client and establish a definition of objectives, priorities and constraints. Organisational arrangements need to be clarified at this stage. These are all written up in the form of a ‘Client Requirement’ to be agreed with the client, followed by later in the project, a full technical ‘Development Specification’.
Project Documentation
Students must record their project work in an easy to follow format which provides a continuous track of design progress and decision making. This documentation folder is passed to the client at the end of the project.
Project Planning
A project plan is developed as a basis for goal setting and performance monitoring. Students must develop this in detail prior to their vacation employment in order to aid the transition of supervision from the academic supervisor to the client.
Project Review
Approximately ten weeks after beginning, the project is submitted to a peer review by an independent team of senior students and a representative of the client company. The review addresses the state of project definition, the student’s coverage of information sources, evaluation of possible solutions, planning and risk consideration.
Regular Tracking and Reporting
Routine contact is maintained with the client during all phases of the project. Clients nominate preferred reporting arrangements.
An informal agreement is made between the business client and the university whereby supervisors and students have to ensure that the project proceeds successfully. Roles and responsibilities are spelt out.
Client Role
The client is to provide project guidance and supervision as follows:
University Role
The university will:
What are the expected learning outcomes?
The precise learning outcomes for students and for business clients are dependent on the nature of the project undertaken, but generally, the scheme expects that generic skills such as oral communication, self confidence, the ability to be creative in solving problems and to work in teams will be significantly developed by students during the project. The scheme also expects clients and students to benefit from the opportunity offered to business to cultivate graduates with skills and interests that match future business interests and to acquire recruits with significant experience within the organisation.
How is the placement assessed?
Each project is managed and monitored through a structured quality control system. Constructive feedback is invited from students, clients and academic supervisors and is sensitively fed back and discussed by the combined project management team. The university also undertakes periodic performance audits of students as well as routine monitoring of their progress. Students receive a pass or fail result.
Do the students receive payment for their work?
Students and the university receive payment for their work on
the project. The first student is paid between $11 600 and $12
500 plus expenses. Each subsequent student on the same project
attracts a further payment of between $20 000 and
$21 900 plus expenses. These payments are made over four periods:
July, summer vacation employment, and March and July of the
following year.
A year of supervised compulsory professional practice (typically around 40 weeks of work experience), together with a series of assessment tasks, comprises the whole of the third year of the four year Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree for all full time students.
The department makes every effort to secure employment for students but they are encouraged to find work for themselves. Where students have associations with business overseas, they are encouraged to find employment there.
The students considered by the present study are also involved in a leadership and management skills component being trialed for the first time. Concern about different levels of training through the host organisations has led to the development of this leadership and management skills component of the course. It aims to ‘ensure equivalent exposure to skills training in some management and leadership areas for all students.’ This involves release from work to attend five workshops covering key aspects of leadership and management as well as a series of assessment activities involving reflection on their own leadership and management and on those of their fellow workers.
In detail, the program consists of three components.
These five workshops are designed to provide training in management and leadership skills and are conducted by academic supervisors. Guided reflection on experiences is an integral part of the workshops. The topics cover:
- understanding self and others;
- teamwork and group dynamics;
- decision making and problem solving;
- leadership; and
- management and the change process.
Students must do this in their work placement and also observe the application of some of the concepts covered in the workshops to the wider organisation.
Students must document their observations from two viewpoints—the particular and personal (what is happening to them) and the general and organisational (what is happening in the company).
The stated aims of the program are to:
In general, the stated aim is to provide students with an education that enables them to integrate the theory acquired through course work with the practical environment, such that a greater understanding of the nature of business results.
The objectives are:
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
The course outline explains that through their placement students should have the opportunity to:
In addition, students should also:
Appropriate placements where students are likely to have these opportunities are seen to be offered by a ‘business or organisation which is involved in operating an accounting system and which can provide supervision through an experienced manager.’
As well as a workplace manager, the student is supported by an academic mentor. The mentor is expected to make two visits to the workplace to monitor student progress and is responsible for the final assessment of the placement.
What are the expected learning outcomes?
It is envisaged that this full year of work experience, coming as it does after two years of course work, will provide students with an education that enables them to integrate the theory from the first two years into the practical environment and then return to the course for a fourth year with a much improved understanding of professional practice.
It is also expected that the professional practice year, including the leadership and management component, will provide students with a series of generic skills attractive to employers, including oral communication, organisation skills, team work skills, skills in written communication and skills in leadership and management.
How is the work placement assessed?
In order for students to receive a Pass grade for the professional placement subject (no higher grade is available), a satisfactory report has to be submitted from the workplace supervisor. This report must include an ongoing evaluation of the students’ ability to apply and evaluate aspects of the management and leadership program to the work situation. In addition, the following is required from the students:
Do the students receive payment for their work?
Employers are requested to pay students ‘an appropriate industry rate’ for their work, usually an average of between $18 000–$23 000 for a 40 week placement.
The work placement component in the Bachelor of Arts in Youth Affairs is known as field education, the area where the students’ developing abilities are directly tested. It is defined as educational experience which aims to achieve learning through actual practice. The approach of the department is to give equal emphasis to field and classroom education: to ‘knowing, understanding and doing’.
Academic staff known as field tutors have the responsibility of guiding an effective inter-linked program of field study for each student in his/her tutorial group. Field tutors provide support to the students and the interaction is designed to lead to a flow of regular reflection, discussion and a practical framework for the students’ learning.
Field tutors are an important feature of the course. All academic staff have some involvement in field studies and are involved in tutorials where students discuss the issues arising in their placements.
The aims and objectives in the area of field studies and professional practice are as follows:
The overall aim of the field studies component is stressed at the beginning of the department’s Field Studies Handbook:
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
A three year sequence of supervised field practice is undertaken, including weekly professional practice tutorials. In first year full time students undertake a total of 25 days of field studies, consisting of a four week block placement and five days of one day a week. They observe and experience it in an agency and focus on recreation, employment, accommodation, youth welfare, and education.
Second year students have 29 days of field practice in a four week block and nine days once a week. The task is to be involved in the operation of a localised program in a youth work agency related to group work skills.
In third year students undertake 50 days of field practice, including a four week block, and three days per week during first semester. The emphasis is on a research project in an agency with a community, regional, state or national focus.
Part time students do proportionate numbers of hours in their place of employment together with receiving tutorial support. They also undertake a major piece of research in third year related to the general area of their work.
Regular monitoring sessions are important features of the experience; they take place between the regular tutor, the field tutor and the student and are designed to evaluate the student’s progress in the placement, diagnose learning needs and relate field studies to academic learning.
What are the expected learning outcomes?
By the end of the course, it is expected that students will have acquired through the combination of academic study and field experience, application of each to the other and reflection on both, the skills, knowledge, understanding and experience to work effectively with young people.
The outcomes from their field studies should include being able to:
How is the placement assessed?
Assessment of fieldwork is ongoing and includes written assignments by the student utilising what has been learnt in the field and applying theoretical understandings to the experience. It is based on a mutual process of discussion between the field studies tutor and the student about the student’s performance and progress in the field. The tutor monitors the student’s progress and writes a final report. The tutor also has to complete an assessment of the student’s skills using a skill inventory. Aspects of this are drawn from observation, from reading the student’s log book recording placement experiences and from discussing with the student his or her understanding and application of the skills.
Do the students receive payment for work?
Students do not receive payment for their field placements because these are seen as a learning experience, not as a job position. However, students involved in additional periods of work beyond the required field study period may be offered remuneration and thus become an employee of that organisation.
A year of supervised practice (40 weeks) forms an optional third year of what then becomes a four year Bachelor of Business (Accounting). Typically, about 40 percent of the students (20 students) take this option. The supervised practice option was introduced into the course ten years ago and has become increasingly popular over this time. Students must have received a 70 percent average in their grades across the first two years of the course to be considered. The department, through its contacts with employers in the area, is able to arrange a number of placements, but students are also encouraged to organise their own.
An arrangement is undertaken between the university department and the employer that certain support and training will be provided and that a minimum wage will be paid to the student. The department insists that students keep a regular journal of their work experience and this, together with two assignments, one during each half of the year, are submitted to the department as part of the assessment of the placement. The workplace employer has to complete a report on the student and recommend if they should be given a pass grade for the placement experience.
The first assignment asks students to take some aspect of work addressed as part of the course content during the second year of their degree and to describe and comment upon how this is practised within their placement workplace. The second assignment describes a small project they have developed and undertaken during the placement.
All students have a workplace supervisor and an academic supervisor. They can expect no more than a couple of visits from their university supervisor, though if they are experiencing difficultly they can request additional visits and help. There is a mid year one day seminar at the university when all students return to discuss their experiences and hand in their first assignment.
The stated aims of the program are to:
The objectives are left unstated as it is expected that these will be developed according to the specific nature of the workplace and the qualities of the student.
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
It is intended that this also will become clearer when the individual arrangements between placed student and employer are finalised.
An academic supervisor and a workplace supervisor have the responsibility for drawing up objectives for the placement and also to ensure that opportunities are provided for the student to develop in appropriate ways. The student has a progress meeting with the work-based supervisor once a month. The academic supervisor is expected to make a minimum of two calls and be available for consultation if the student experiences problems.
What are the expected learning outcomes?
It is expected that the student will become familiar with a number of aspects of professional practice; for example, that they will understand how to operate in a professional workplace and know how to use the skills and knowledge learned in the degree course in day to day professional situations. It is expected that they will learn how to get along with professional colleagues and how to work in teams and that they will know with certainty if this aspect of professional work is what they wish to pursue.
How is the placement assessed?
Information is provided on assessment under the paragraph on Background on the previous page.
Do the students receive payment for their work?
The students receive a minimum wage of $12.00 per hour. Frequently, the rate is above this.
Electrical Engineering (Non-case Study)
The course has a compulsory, two days a week work placement scheme which operates for around 30 weeks in third year. Students attend classes for the rest of the week. It is intended that classes relate to aspects of the work being undertaken in the workplace. One of the subjects taken during this time is Professional Communication.
In up to 80 percent of the placements, students work on specific problems. Sometimes these are major ones and the students’ involvement lasts for several months. Other times, the problems demand more immediate solutions. In the remaining 20 percent of cases, students assist generally in the workplace, often providing technical support for other employees. Students are requested to keep reports of the work they undertake. These reports have to be signed by both workplace and university supervisors.
The stated aims of the program are to:
As with the other programs, it was expected that more detailed objectives would be drawn up between students and individual employers.
What are the expected learning outcomes?
All workplaces were told in writing that it was expected that students would have the opportunity to experience the demands of professional practice in the workplace. Individual agreements were drawn up between the workplace and the university for each student. There was, however, considerable variation in the nature of the learning outcomes.
How is the placement assessed?
The reports are assessed by the university. The students receive a report from their workplace and present to their peers and teachers an aspect of their work experience. Usually, students discuss a problem they have addressed. There is only a pass or fail grade for the placement.
Do students receive payment for their work?
Employers provide the university with a lump sum of around $3 000 from which the department provides the students with a payment of around $10.00 per hour.
Youth Work Studies (Non-case Study)
The Bachelor of Social Science (Youth Work) is a three year degree with allocated in each year for placements. The course description emphasises that the placement component is not work experience. It is designed to give students the opportunity to assimilate theory and skills learnt in other course units with youth work practice in action. For this to be effective, workers in the agency are needed to work as supervisors in partnership with the department.
Each student has an agency supervisor and a university supervisor. The latter is responsible for liaising between the university and the placement agency and, in particular, for trying to keep some consistency in the level of demand placed on students by the various agencies and in the level of performance expected of them. The agency supervisor is responsible for the daily supervision and learning of the student in the placement.
In each semester of the course, students spend the equivalent of 20 days within an agency, normally at the rate of one day a week for half of it and, for the rest, in a mid semester block placement. The placements are attached to specific unit subjects and students work on associated tasks relevant to the subject.
Placements are organised by the university department, although third year students can negotiate their own. Students are required to have a variety of placement settings to ensure a range of experiences.
The stated aims of the program are to:
How will the aims and objectives be achieved?
First year students observe the daily functioning of an agency so that they can develop an understanding of its operations. In the second semester in their placement, they learn to apply helping skills in working with young people.
Second year students’ tasks in the agency consist of planning, conducting and evaluating group work with young people. In second semester, their placement tasks include needs analysis, agency promotion and community education.
In third year, students are expected to undertake project planning, submission writing and project evaluation. They are also expected to participate in the field with the same level of competence, apart from their limited experience, as employed youth workers.
In all years, the emphasis is on relating the theory learned in the subjects being studied to the actual practice in the agency.
What are the expected learning outcomes?
Students should learn to exercise skills in the following areas:
In addition, students are expected to develop general competencies in the range of skills required for reasonably independent functioning within the agency and the ability to integrate theory covered in the course with the needs of a practical setting. They are expected to gain an understanding of the agencies at which they undertake placement, including being able to describe the functions and processes of the agency, its philosophical values base and its interrelationship with other agencies.
How is the placement assessed?
Students are awarded a pass or fail for their placement component. There are two elements to assessment: students must write an evaluation of their placement experience in a minimum of 1500 words and include a self assessment of the activities undertaken. Areas of strengths and weaknesses are examined. Agency supervisors also report on the students by completing a student assessment form and recommending a pass/fail assessment based on the students’ performance.
If both the university supervisor and the agency supervisor believe the student should fail the placement, a meeting can be arranged between all parties where the student can put his or her case. The Coordinator of Youth Work Studies is the final arbitrator.
Do students receive payment for their work?
Because the placement is not considered as work experience, students do not receive payment. Students are regarded as being guests in the agency. The agency supervisor does not receive additional pay or a reduced workload for supervising students.