Employers’ perceptions of the benefits of university-level placements for placement providers

Theme 1: Students bringing new perspectives to the employer

Students bringing new perspectives to employers was the most common theme in this project and was developed from six of the 21 interviews. There are four elements to this theme: students encouraging employers to reflect on their activities through the new perspectives they bring to their placements, their curiosity, and the questions they ask; the attitudes that students display during their placements; students’ technical (primarily digital and research) skills; and the employer’s approach to the placement. One employer noted that ‘it was really good to have a student come in and see the organisation from a different perspective’ (Participant [P] 3). This idea which was discussed in more detail by another employer:

‘[Students] always tend to ask really good questions about okay “why is this so complicated?” “why is it not simple like this?”, and I'm like “oh that's a really good point that, you know”, and even for me having to distil my knowledge down into something that's quite simple, sometimes can force you to have a different perspective, which is really useful and stops me over complicating things for myself.’ (P2)

Participant 2 also stated that the short timeframe of the placement has an impact on what students can work on, saying that ‘I can’t give them something that’s billable deliverable [because] the timescales just aren’t right, but [students] do provide a lot of impact and helping out’. We have seen in the literature review that it has sometimes been argued that long-term placements are more beneficial to students than short placements, and these comments suggest that the duration of the placement likewise has an impact on the employer’s experience of it: this idea will be explored in more detail in theme 6. Participant 3 also noted challenges in engaging with placements. They said that it was important to ensure that what the student did enabled them to complete their university assignments based on the placement, and that it was sometimes difficult to work out what was needed for this, which highlights the importance of strong two-way communication between the universities and placement providers. Despite this, Participant 3 felt that hosting placements had a positive impact on the employer generally, and on their own individual practice, because of the new perspectives brought by students. This suggests that the employer’s approach to the placement (theme 8) is important to the success of that placement, and that in this case meeting the students where they are in their professional development and thinking beyond core (‘billable’) workplace tasks, helped the employer to benefit.

The importance of meeting students where they are in their professional development, and on drawing on the skills and strengths that university-level students bring to workplace settings, was also implicit in other interviews. Another employer noted that while it was not always possible for students to do project work, the employer provided their placement students with research projects because they recognised that students were ‘professional researchers’. This employer also noted that students’ ‘energy and enthusiasm and new approaches to things’ were beneficial (P16), which implies that the individual characteristics of placement students – in this case their mindset – may also influence the extent to which the placement is deemed to be successful by the employer. The idea that a student’s mindset influences the benefits an employer receives is not present in the current literature. Another employer reported that students’ engaging in research was beneficial because it helped employers to develop projects (P4). Research skills were also mentioned by an employer, who said that they were able to adapt the content of the placement based on their students’ research interests and what was needed for their university courses (P21). An employer with a large (described by the employer as mainly ‘older’) volunteer based reported that having people ‘with different ideas and different perspectives is really, really useful’ (P7). Two employers also highlighted students’ digital skills as being valuable to them: one said that their placement student produced a report on social media during their placement, which was helpful as the organisation’s Board of Trustees were not regular social media users (P3); another said that the students ‘are digital natives, unlike probably the majority of the team, so [their] focus is technology and they can look at it from a different perspective to ourselves’. This employer also felt that ‘having [students’] experience and their viewpoints on different areas makes you focus differently on your own projects’ (P11). In both these cases university-level students were able to compliment the skills and strengths of existing staff members and volunteers, which reinforces the idea from the existing literature on this topic that an employer’s context is important in influencing the benefits that they will receive from a placement. Unlike earlier studies (for example Atfield et al., 2009), however, the interviews suggest that not only is the size of the placement provider and their sector important in influencing how they benefit from placements, but perhaps more important are the attitudes and mindsets of the individual(s) managing placements. Indeed, the interviews suggest that when employers ‘meet students where the students are’ and focus students’ activities on key strengths and skills that students bring to their placements, then employers are more likely to benefit from those placements. It is therefore important that employers and universities work together closely to develop placement opportunities that will enable students to most effectively utilise their skills and strengths.

Theme 2: Students supporting employers’ recruitment ‘pipelines’

This theme is important in the current literature on the impact of placements on employers, and the theme was developed from five of the 21 interviews. One employer with over 500 employees said:

‘I think that [universities] should really carry on with [placements]. I mean it helps employers as well, understanding the student world, I think [is] really useful. I think you have to do some convincing some places, but it's worthwhile. (P1)

It is interesting to note that colleagues can sometimes take ‘some convincing’ to engage with placements, which shows the importance of understanding the benefits for employers of hosting university-level placements, especially for employers who do not have formal and structured internship schemes. This reinforces the work of Jackson et al. (2017), where just over a third of employers who participated in their study said that engaging staff was challenging, very challenging, or extremely challenging. Another employer reported that an important reason for their organisation to provide placements was to ‘increase awareness of the business’ (P6), and Participant 7 likewise felt that there was ‘a word of mouth benefit [in offering placements because] once we get students in there working, then there’s a possibility that this generates interest from other people within their peer group or the students that might be interested in work placements themselves’. The context in which this employer is working is once again relevant here (theme 7): this placement provider does not have a formal extra-curricular internship scheme and works extensively with volunteers. The employer is therefore unlikely to be well-known by students, and so informal or ‘relational’ placement experiences may be helpful in increasing awareness of what the employer does, thus supporting its future ‘pipeline’ of volunteers. From a student perspective this also has the benefit of opening up new horizons in relation to career goals, in this case experiencing alternatives to large organisations, which we have seen is an important part of the literature on the impact of placements on students (Mello et al., 2021; Tennant et al., 2018).

A large employer said that engaging with placements ‘really helps’ them because placement students sometimes stay on and continue to work with the organisation after the end of the placement (P8). Recruitment of students after the end of the placement was also mentioned by another employer (Participant 2), who felt that their organisation’s recruitment ‘pipeline’ still benefited from placement students even when those students were not recruited directly to the organisation. The employer said:

‘From a company perspective, they like getting workplace students in because not only does it give students the opportunity but it allows us to kind of sound out our potential future graduate pipeline. And, you know, getting good graduates in is really important business and showing people you know what life is like [at the employer], even if that particular placement student doesn't take a role with us. You know, students have heard of [the employer] and that they consider it’ (P2).

The interviews therefore support the idea in the current literature that placements bring potential benefits to employers’ recruitment processes, for example helping employers to recruit students through non-traditional pathways (Murtazin et al., 2020), and that the creation of a talent pool is an important reason for employers to engage in Work-Integrated Learning (Jackson et al., 2017).

Theme 3: Additional capacity for work

This theme was developed from five of the 21 interviews, and the context in which the employer works is important in relation to how they experienced students’ providing additional capacity for work (theme 7). Participant 3 reported that a challenge for them is that they are a small organisation with relatively few staff. They said that ‘what [the placement students] did is genuinely useful to us, [and] helps our work on a day-to-day basis’. They reported that students undertook a wide range of activities, and implied that the content of the placement was determined by the employer’s immediate needs, noting that this ‘may’ be ‘because we don’t have just volunteers’. A small organisation similarly noted that the research undertaken by their placement student would not have happened if they had not provided that placement (P10). This was reinforced by another small organisation, who said that having placement students was ‘really useful’ and that ‘a lot of work we physically can’t do without them really’ (P21). Similar comments were made by another small organisation, who reported that the ‘general support’ provided by placement students was ‘quite useful help’ (P20).

A colleague from a large employer, but who worked personally within a small team which, they said, was ‘extremely busy’, felt that hosting placement students ‘worked very well’ as the students provided the small team with additional capacity. They gave an example of a time when students were very helpful with dealing with ‘an emergency’ that occurred part way through their placements, and which provided the opportunity for students to deploy the skills that they had developed earlier in their placements (P5). The employer’s context is once again important within this theme: all but one of the employers within this theme were small organisations, and the one participant who worked for a larger organisation was working within a small and ‘extremely busy’ team. This suggests that placements bringing additional capacity for work is particularly beneficial for small organisations, or in situations where limited workplace capacity makes it is difficult for colleagues to have the space to think beyond immediate day-to-day activities. While Atfield et al. (2009) have shown that sometimes employers – especially small employers within the arts and media sectors – can be reliant on a continued supply of students to keep their organisations running, and while Wond and Rambukwella (2018) mention that placement students support employers with ‘projects’, the idea that students utilise the skills developed throughout their placement is not discussed in the current literature. Placements focused primarily on providing additional capacity for work did not appear to limit the value of the placement experience for students, at least according to the employers interviewed here. All of the employers in this theme said that their students benefitted from doing placements – Participant 5, for example, said that students ‘do get a lot out of [their placements]’ and said that they had acted as a referee for placement students – and so within the content of this study at least, placements appeared to be a mutually beneficial experience for students and employers, including when the content of placements was focused primarily on supporting the day-to-day activities of the employer.

Theme 4: Additional benefits beyond the direct scope of the placement

Four employers reported that placements can result in benefits beyond the direct scope of the placement, something not noted in the current literature, and so which makes an important contribution to that literature. Once again, the employer’s context was important in relation to how they experienced this benefit (theme 7). Employers talked in a more exploratory way within theme 4, as the benefits to them were necessarily less direct and tangible compared to other benefits. Participant 1 said that the work undertaken by their placement student was ‘good for us’ and ‘a kickstart into a new area that we wanted to branch into’. The idea that the work produced by students might have value beyond the immediate benefits to the placement provider, and might be built upon in the future, was also noted by another employer, who said:

‘Sometimes students might come to us on our work involves a small research project which may have an intrinsic value in itself, as a research project, but it also opens up avenues of research opportunities for us in the future as well. So it opens our eyes to the possibility that they may not otherwise be aware of. (P7)

Two employers with over 500 employees, felt that placements could have indirect benefits to providers. When asked about the impact of placements and the value that students bring, one employer said that for them ‘it’s kind of an indirect thing’. They felt that students might come back to the placement provider for further tuition or help in the future and that this led to a ‘kind of long-term gain’ (P19). The other employer said that although the work undertaken by their placement student was similar to work done previously within their organisation, the approach taken during the current placement was different to what had been done before. This, they said gave ‘an exposure for us to the kind of work that could be done, it was somewhat exploratory. So in that vein, it’s helped us to understand what can be done by a student at the undergraduate level, and also [what] could be done with the kind of work that she was doing as well’ (P13). Three of the four employers whose interviews contributed to the development of this theme had over 500 employees, and the fourth had around 20 employees plus approximately 60-80 volunteers, which suggests that having the space and capacity to think beyond immediate and day-to-day tasks with a direct and immediate benefit may be more straightforward for larger organisations providing placements.

Theme 5: Placements providing opportunities for staff development within the placement provider

While this theme could have been developed as a sub-theme of theme 4 (additional benefits beyond the direct scope of the placement), it was decided to present it as a theme in its own right because it was discussed in a less exploratory way compared to theme 4, and because the benefits to staff members appeared to be more tangible. The theme was developed from one interview. It has already been noted that Participant 16 said that students often bring research skills and ‘new approaches’ to their placements. Having done so the employer reported an additional benefit, i.e. beyond the tasks that students were engaged with:

‘There's also benefits to our more junior staff, in terms of managing other people as resources, you know, managing students, giving them a brief, checking in on them and all that kind of stuff. It's a good opportunity for our graduates and people with a few years experience to get some people management, task management skills in a low pressure [setting] (P16).

The idea that working with placement students can support the skill development of individual members of staff within the provider has also been reported in a previous study, which argued that the management experience gained by employees in planning placements or mentoring people on placement was ‘the most frequently mentioned benefit relating to improved skills, knowledge or experience of existing staff’ (Atfield et al., 2009). This included when placements were of a very short duration, which suggests that even if this limits the content of the placement, and, therefore, the amount of work that can be done, placement students can contribute to employers in other ways, ensuring that the placement is a mutually beneficial experience for both students and employers. It is important for universities and employers are aware of this potential benefit to the employer, so that it can be built into the design of future placements.

Theme 6: The duration of the placement

We have seen that there has been debate over the relative impact of 12-month compared to shorter placements for students (Brooks and Youngson, 2016; Edwards, 2014; Hepburn et al., 2000; Tennant et al., 2018). This issue is not considered from the perspective of employers within the current literature, and so this study contributes to this debate. Five interviews were relevant to this theme. While employers reported that the short duration sometimes impacted on what students did during their placement, all reported one or more benefits to engaging with university-level placements: for example, we have seen that a short placement meant that one employer could not give students a ‘billable deliverable’ (P2, theme 1) the same employer said that engaging with students brought new perspectives to them, and supported their recruitment pipeline (P2, theme 2). It has previously been argued that while it takes time to set-up a placement, dialogue between placement providers and students, focusing on workplace tasks that are appropriate for a placement, and involving students in so-called ‘real’ workplace activities, can help to ensure that both students and employers benefit from placement and other Work-Based Learning activities (Clark and Zuka, 2016; Fleming et al., 2021; Morse, 2006). This study reinforces the importance of this approach as all of these ideas were present in the interviews.

The employer’s approach to placements was important in relation to the benefits they derived from short placements (theme 8). Thorough planning, which included providing students with discrete tasks which could be completed in the time available, seemed to make it more likely that the provider would benefit from the placement. One employer noted the potential challenges of short-term placements, especially those that took place remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, by saying that ‘the general barrier [for short-term placements] is the short amount of time to make a meaningful impact especially when it’s a remote placement’. But they also said that a ‘really crucial point [is] that a lot of preparation has to happen from everyone to make this work’ and that ‘it needs a bit of thinking about, how to make [the placement] work’ (P1). This idea was further developed by another employer, who noted that they ‘gave [the student] quite specific tasks to try to add some value to things that we felt were manageable and defined within, you know, a 6-week period’ (P9). Another employer (P16), who we have seen felt that placements provide continuous professional development opportunities for staff, likewise reported that the scope of the placement and the pre-placement planning were also important in ensuring that short placements are successful. They said ‘because [students] are there for such a short period of time, they were not necessarily able to move us forward unless we are setting [them up with] some very specific tasks which probably requires more planning from our side’. This employer also acknowledged that it was ‘a big ask for students to come in and get up to speed and then be where we already are without a defined scope’ and went on to say that ‘I think the length is okay’. Another employer likewise said that it was important not to ‘just give [students] the tea to make’. They said that ‘I will give [students] a very specific project that I know needs doing and make sure that the student has the support to deliver; I need it to be done, and if I need it to be done then its going to have impact’. The employer also said that they ‘recognise that when you get somebody new like that, you need to give them something tangible [so] that they can have results quickly’ (P18).

The debate about the relative impacts for students and employers of short compared to long placements is important in the current literature and would benefit from being explored more fully. From a student perspective this is because short-term placements enable students unable to undertake a 12-month placement to have a placement experience, and so support equity of access to placements (Edwards, 2014). From an employer perspective, this theme has important implications for practice, as it suggests that when employers have a clear view of the potential benefits and drawbacks of short placements, and work within structural limitations to maximise the benefit – i.e. by taking time to plan tangible and specific activities that can be achieved by students quickly, and then supporting students appropriately to complete these activities – this can help to ensure a mutually beneficial placement experience for students and employers. The context in which the employer works (theme 7) may be important here, and this would also benefit from further exploration in future studies: only one of the employers within this theme was an SME, and none of the employers in this theme reported challenges in workplace capacity, which could suggest that there is more scope for large employers to undertake the kind of pre-placement planning described above.

Themes 7 (the employer’s context) and 8 (the employer’s approach to the placement)

These themes have already been explored within the analysis of themes 1-6, above. This has shown that small employers or teams with limited capacity are more likely to focus the content of placements on activities with direct, tangible, and immediate benefits to the employer. Careful planning of the content of placements by employers, for example focusing on tasks which can be completed by students successfully within the time available, can help to ensure that placements are mutually beneficial experiences for employers and students. Indeed, when employers take account of where students are in terms of their professional development, and provide opportunities for students to utilise the skills and strengths they bring (for example research and digital skills), this can help providers to gain benefits from placements.