EVALUATING STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE OF THE VALUE OF WORK PLACEMENTS AND SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING AS ASSETS FOR VOCATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

Aims:
The aims of this paper are to explain the significance of the nature and quality of student work placements by lecturers in higher education and how the innovative implementation of practically based active learning methods affect student motivation. This paper is based on the experience of scholarship funded international projects conducted beyond the context of the United Kingdom by two academics in higher education; one in nursing and the other in the mechanical engineering discipline.

Background:
The challenges confronting students in higher education in today’s competitive environments have highlighted the importance for graduating students to feel competent and prepared for practice. In vocational disciplines such as nursing and engineering, the significance of student work placements experience together with other elements of real world practice built into the course is especially crucial in terms of achieving readiness of newly graduates for employment.

Design:
Qualitative non-participation observation and students’ focus group discussion.

Method:
The data was collected in the period between July 2012 and January 2013 when the authors undertook separate international scholarships from the Higher Education Academy to explore challenges and innovative pedagogic practices in other countries. The use of work placement was explored based on the nursing discipline in Singapore and the engineering project explored student the effects of learning methods on motivation in Australia, North America and Continental Europe.

Result:
Work placements, albeit in different parts of the world and very different disciplines in health and engineering, are regarded as important by students as a vital platform for linking theory to practice. Whilst students from both disciplines felt that they gain abundantly from placements, weaker nursing students, especially those at a lower academic level felt that they could only benefit from work placements if nurse lecturers from higher education were present in placement to illuminate the elements of learning.

Conclusion:
Work placement environments are important for developing students’ confidence and organisational skills. Hence, work placement has an important role in preparing students for employment. This can also be effectively supplemented by innovative on-course teaching and employer contributions to HE courses. Nevertheless, effective learning requires individuals who had good disciplinary knowledge and at the same time proficient pedagogic skills to guide students to effective learning in placement.