Placement Training in Pune

BENEFITS Of learning Placement Training

• From the student perspective, high quality placements can bring a range of benefits and positive impacts. There is strong evidence to suggest that placements and work experience are extremely valuable to students, both in terms of their academic performance and their employability skills.¹ 
• The Wilson Review of higher education argues that such opportunities may alleviate barriers to employment for graduates, and notes that both sandwich placements and student/graduate internships hold considerable value for the students personal and professional development, and should be encouraged and provided as opportunities to all where possible. At a high level, the benefits for students include:

Improved skills and knowledge, including ‘softer’ employability skills, and specific technical skills and competencies.

• Placements give students the opportunity to gain skills specific to their subject or industry of choice as well as the employability skills required for real-life work. It also increases their knowledge of an industry or sector, allowing them to make better informed decisions about future career choices.
• Research undertaken at the University of Aston also explored the possible causal link between placements and academic achievement, and found that placements do improve degree performance. However, the research suggested that more able students are more likely to undertake placements in the first place, and that degree performance is not improved by a placement per se, but by a successful^2.

Increased understanding and awareness of the world of work, accelerated personal maturity, self-awareness and ability to articulate skills and achievements.

• Placements provide the opportunity to be involved in team-based working, which provides a welcome contrast to the typically more individual-centric approach taken to academic study. This kind of experience is beneficial, and builds on the self-management and problem solving skills typically gained at university, with the ability to work collaboratively.
• A clear beneficial output for students from undertaking a placement is the ability to effectively evidence their experiences on their CV, providing documented contextual proof for their skills and abilities, coupled with a reference. Placements can also provide useful examples to use in competency based job applications or interviews.

Enhanced employment prospects and ability to compete in a turbulent graduate recruitment marketplace. Specifically through:

• Completing a placement can sometimes lead directly to subsequent employment with the same employer following graduation. It can be “a foot in the door” that could lead to a temporary or permanent contract.
• Interaction with other professionals while on placement can also bring strong benefits in terms of networking. For example, engaging with professionals in their chosen career-field can provide a foundation of contacts on which to build and draw upon in a future career.
• Placements may also have a significant economic impact on graduates throughout their careers, and contribute to improved social mobility and success in later life. It is estimated that the average salary of students who have completed sandwich placements is 8% higher than those that did not, six months after graduating. Other evidence that suggests that placements can and often do lead to firm employment opportunities include the Real Prospects 2011 survey (involving 22,000 graduates) which found that the number of respondents indicating they had worked for their employer whilst a student had risen to 22 per cent; and of these, 45 per cent had been on a work experience placement or internship and 27 per cent had been on a placement as part of their degree programme.

BENEFITS FOR THE INSTITUTION

Improvement in the university’s reputation amongst students.

Placements play a role in improving student satisfaction in general, and in aiding healthy retention and achievement rates.

Raising the institution’s profile.

Providing placement opportunities enhances an institution’s reputation for graduate employment as quality placements are felt to improve student employability, therefore institutions benefit from more satisfied students and graduates having had a better quality HE experience. In theory this also translates into better performance in league tables based on student employment levels post-graduation. This could significantly improve the attractiveness of the institution to prospective students, who are increasingly mindful of the value of their studies to employers, and improving their job opportunities.

Increased positive contact with employers.

High-quality placements can improve a university’s broader engagement and relationships with business. If a placement experience is high quality, employers are more likely to come back year after year with additional placement vacancies, as well as look for other opportunities to link with the university.

Form part of a broader, institution-wide emphasis on business engagement.

Placements can form an important part of building constructive relationships with local and regional organisations, in particular with small and medium-sized enterprises, and large organisations with whom a variety of income-generating mechanisms may be developed. As such, placements are mentioned in most institutional strategy documentation and frequently sit alongside other types of activity, such as knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs), CPD, consultancy and work-based learning.