Supporting placement learning

This topic provides insight in to the variety of placement opportunities that exist and how students are effectively supported throughout such experiences.

Placements can provide students with a highly valuable and distinctive learning opportunity that complements their academic studies.

The style and approach to placement learning can be very different to other parts of an academic programme with unfamiliar routines, practices and expectations. Therefore students require support at several stages, including preparing for a placement, during the placement, and upon return to university on completion of a placement. In particular students will often need support to understand what it is that they are learning while on placement. Reflection is an especially important part of this process – and is a skill in which students will require practice and guidance.

The ways in which placement learning is documented and assessed may also be unfamiliar to students and needs careful consideration and explanation. It is also important to ensure that a student can provide evidence of their placement learning, both for assessment and for presentation to others upon graduation.

Employers and placement providers also provide considerable support for placement learning, often supporting that learning on a daily basis. It is therefore important that employers are provided with the resources and information regarding programme aims and assessment requirements in order to support students accordingly.