[Last | Elements | UL Home | Next]
An old Chinese proverb says that "if you tell a man, he will forget; it you show a man, he may remember; but if you involve him, he will understand".
Anne Marie Cleary, an 1992 Graduate from the University of Limerick in Computer Engineering, now works with Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company in Basle, Switzerland. The Company employs some 53,000 people world-wide with over 7,000 employed in Basle. Anne Marie has been working as a Computer Software Engineer developing Computer Programmes that help to automate their production processes in the Sandoz plant. Anne Marie's decision to take up employment in Switzerland, a country with cultural and language differences to Ireland, did not pose any major threat for her because as an undergraduate she had been placed on work experience with Bruker Instruments in Germany for some nine months. While there she involved herself in a number of projects in the area of chip design. It was the knowledge and experience gained from living and working in another European country with a different culture and work ethics that Anne Marie found invaluable. This experience gave her the opportunity to assess whether or not she could adapt to and cope with a completely new environment. The fluency that Anne Marie gained in the German language has been of immense help to her in her present position in Switzerland. Anne Marie is one of a growing number of students in Ireland who are availing of this form of experience while still studying for their degree.
The concept of work-based learning is by no means new. Indeed the early Greeks in their medical education carefully balanced theory and practice in their programmes of study. In more recent times most of the trades have used this approach to their apprenticeship training, including both school-based learning and time spent working under a master craftsman. Many of the professions include on-the-job practical training as part of their qualification. A significant part of training to become a nurse is practical work carried out in hospitals and when training to be an accountant, it is a requirement to work for a number of years in an accountant's office.
Many higher education courses have included work experience as a requirement for their course. The best known of these would include teacher training where the trainees spend more than 300 hours teaching in a classroom under the supervision of a trained teacher. Doctors, Social Workers and Architects also have to spend a period of time working under a qualified professional before they are awarded their final qualification.
However, it was with the growth of Cooperative Education at higher education institutions in the United States and Sandwich Education in the United Kingdom that the idea of combining academic study, particularly in engineering and science, with relevant off campus work gained momentum. This concept was later adopted by business and humanities courses. In 1906 Dr Hermann Schneider, Dean of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati in the US decided to introduce work placements as a integral part of his courses. He felt that his courses were too theoretical so he looked to industry in his area to help him make his courses more practical and relevant. This idea then spread to many universities in the US where there are now some 1,000 degree programmes incorporating work placements. One of the largest being North Eastern University in Boston, which develops opportunities for some 9,000 students annually.
The Robert Gordon Institute in Glasgow, Scotland pioneered work-based learning in the UK higher education institutes. This was called Sandwich Education as the practical training periods fitted in between the periods of academic study. In 1993 there were over 54,000 UK students on such placements coming from courses that range from microelectronics to psychology. The majority of these were completing their practical training in geographical locations far removed from their campus.
Similarly in Ireland the concept of having work placements built into university degree courses began when the University of Limerick introduced the idea for some 80 students in 1972. This programme, at UL, has grown considerably resulting in over 2,000 undergraduates currently on work placement. Of these 2,000 some 30% are international placements in countries such as Japan, US, UK, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
One of the first UL graduates to take advantage of this opportunity was Joseph Portley, now General Manager of Donovan Medical Equipment Ltd., a French company in Ireland manufacturing artificial knee and hip joints. Joe, while studying for his degree in production engineering, spent his first work placement with Krups in Limerick where he worked as an assistant engineer helping to introduce a variety of new products to production. His second placement period was with Telemecanique Electrique in France. This placement gave him the opportunity to become fluent in the French language, as well as exposing him to the advanced production engineering methods of a French multinational company involved in the manufacture of electronic components. Though now a graduate for some 10 years, Joe feels that his time spent on undergraduate work placement was of enormous benefit to him in his career. Today in his present position, as general manager, he still calls on his early learning experience particularly when dealing with French customers and his parent company in France.
There is now a general consensus that work based learning in almost all higher education courses is invaluable. Today it is stressed that education is a preparation for life. If this is so, then practicality and applicability must become key issues in education rather than just theory. If relevance can be equated with usefulness, the work-based learning can be considered a most relevant form of education. The greater integration of classroom theory with actual practice imparts more relevance to a student's course work. The theories and principles learned in the classroom are reinforced and given concrete application on work assignments. Students increasingly perceive, as their experience continues, the relevance of what they are studying to the situations they encounter while off campus on the job.
Mr Padraic Gallagher is Cooperative Education Manager for College of Engineering and Science. He is responsible for the development of undergraduate placements, graduate placement and liaison activities with the industrial sector.