Dr Sue Bartlett

& Professor Helen Williams

Cardiff Business School

Background & programme structure

Rationale

Linking theory and practice

Story so far:

Demand

Student outcomes

Student views

Employer views

3 year programme

Incorporates a 20 week paid work placement in

semester 2 of second year which:

Is assessed and contributes towards the final award

Is aligned with the academic programme of study

Involves a competitive application process

Demand from students for placements

Make our students more employable

Add real-world relevance to the degree

Closer contact with the employer

community

Theory and Practice of Managing People

Theory and Practice of Organisational Behaviour

Theory and Practice of Marketing & Strategy

Describe the corporate culture in operation in your

placement company.

Critically evaluate the role of people management

practices and leadership behaviours in developing

and sustaining this culture.

Programme has grown from 10 students in 2014

to 26 students in 2016 even though eligibility

numbers have remained constant

Number of employers has grown from 7 to 15

Positive employability outcomes:

2015 graduates – 90% have graduate jobs

2016 graduates – 80% have graduate jobs:

JP Morgan; PwC; Mazars; Admiral; Renishaw;

Deloitte; Accenture; Nestlé

Around 25% remain with their placement provider

Integrated degree

First class - 44%

2.1 - 56%

Traditional degree

First class - 9%

2.1 - 62%

Year 1 average - 64%

Year 2 average - 66%

Year 3 average - 67%

Year 1 average - 65%

Year 2 average - 70%

Year 3 average - 67%

I have matured immensely, particularly due to

the realisation that my actions would impact

not only myself but also Deloitte and/or the

company which I was auditing. Taking part in

this programme has arguably been one of the

most rewarding experiences and periods of my

life thus far.

It helped me learn to speak

and behave professionally.

I definitely feel more confident going into

the workplace and I think this showed when I

had interviews. It also gave me lots of great

examples to talk about, especially with the

competency interviews, and I have no doubt

that it definitely helped me get a graduate

job.

It gave me an understanding of

things that I wanted to get out

of a job, areas I wanted to go

into and areas that I have ruled

out as a career.

It gave me the confidence to apply for more

opportunities. This is because the skills I

developed on placement gave me the

confidence to believe that I could do a good

job in these various opportunities.

University can be quite overwhelming at times especially when it's not exactly where you want to be, but the work placement allowed for the knowledge we had learnt about in lectures to help make informed decisions on the work placement. Also the same the other way around, I learnt valuable examples on the work placement that I was able to reintegrate back into my studies.

It was unnatural at times to apply the

organisation to assignment titles, which felt

like they were designed retrospectively in

order to satisfy academic/university standards

rather than being the best use of our time or

the best way to extract thought or conclusions

about the experience and how this related to

our course.

I would definitely say that it helped in the sense that

you could relate to issues after seeing them first

hand, and this then helped with the overall

understanding of the concept. However, I wouldn't

say that it necessarily helped achieve a higher grade

because lecturers don't like it when we bring our own

opinions and real life examples into answers, and

they prefer when we argue it from an academic

perspective, so it's very limited in how you can use

the experience.

We have found the students to be very enthusiastic and all have made a great contribution during their

time with us. I am delighted to have been able to utilise the programme as a talent pool for future

graduate recruitment. (Arriva Trains)

Admiral is a keen supporter of the 'Integrated Placement Programme'. The students who

worked here have shown great commitment, demonstrated a high level of professionalism, met the business challenges we have set them

and their standards of work have been outstanding. It's also an opportunity for

Admiral to 'talent spot' and make the students aware of the opportunities we have to offer.

The placement student undertook a benchmarking exercise; discovered valuable points about the industry

and about our business that has allowed us to transform the way in which we operate and in turn create

more wealth for the organisation.

Positive impact on employability

Great feedback from employers

Benefits of linking theory to practice are

tenuous