work-based learning

It was reported that the fifth university, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), may consider offering co-operative education programs when it becomes an autonomous university by 2014. As we know, co-operative education provides a means for students to acquire practical work experience while pursuing their studies.

The idea sounds good. The challenge is to make it work and sustain it.

Internship or Industrial Attachment Program has been for many years an integral part of the curriculum of the polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE). The goal of the internship program is to give students relevant work experience similar to the co-operative education. Under the internship program, the participating companies will pay the interns allowance and assign them to work on real projects.

At the university level, there are similar programs installed for their students as well. Whichever the forms, the ultimate aim remains the same, i.e. putting theory into practice.

Whether we call it co-operative education or internship, the main concern is: given the small and tight local industrial space in Singapore, are there sufficient work placements for every students? Or at least for most students?

By looking at the number of students who are due to work placement on a yearly basis from the five polytechnics and three ITE College Centrals, four universities and now added with two more, I guess the answer is quite clear, in a Chinese idiom, it is called 僧多粥少 (not enough to go around).

To be selected as an intern (or co-op student) is akin to applying to a job, there are bound to be disappointments in the process. This could be due to a combination of reasons such as the academic performance, competencies, attitude, soft skills, quality of portfolio, interview/test performance and others such as job availability. What should we do with these students whose applications have been rejected?

Quality is also an issue because not every students will receive equal amount of quality experience through the work attachment. The discrepancies could be attributed to the size of the company, nature of the project, comfort level of the supervisors, and competency of the students. How could we ensure students gain relevant work experience upon completing the work placement?

Predictability or consistency is the other. It is probable that the same company may not be offering or offering fewer work attachment to the same institution because of an unpleasant experience with the current batch of attached students, for example. It could also be due to keen competition during that period, where there are better and bigger pool of students to choose from. And in some occasions, the participating companies do not honour the terms of the contract and hence the changes in the scope of work may affect the learning experience and outcomes.

How could we ensure that students are equipped with the required knowledge and skill closely matched the job requirements of the companies for the interns? How could we ensure consistency and sustainability in the learning outcomes?

The noble idea of co-operative education requires a novel approach to address the quality, quantity, sustainability and consistency issues as I have highlighted in the abovementioned. But how?

In my previous post entitled new problem-based learning, I suggested a studio-based (or work-based) learning environment as an alternative curriculum design that may hold the key to addressing the issues and concerns of the internship program.

Work-based learning is not foreign to some industries, for example, the hospitality industry where a "training hotel" or "training restaurant" is set up to provide the hospitality students an opportunity to gain work experience.

To a certain extend, a simulated aircraft cockpit simulation is a best way to give the aerospace engineering students to experience beyond classroom teaching, where it may not be practical with a real aircraft cockpit.

Mass communication students may work in a simulated newsroom, campus radio station or content publishing studio to acquire journalism, disc-jockeying, and content publishing experience.

How about work-based learning environment for Information Technology (IT), Interactive or Digital Media (IDM), Game Development, Digital Animation students where projects are often long-drawn, complex, required multifaceted skillset, and involved a group of people, large or small, to complete? 

A best practice I could find for IDM is the GAMBIT Game Lab experience where selected students formed into teams and go through a two-month production cycle in the US to produce casual games under a setting as close to the real world as possible.

For your information, GAMBIT is a five-year research collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the government of Singapore, and supported and funded by the National Research Foundation.

If we are looking for a sustainable strategy to engage most, if not all, students in production and gain valuable work experience, how would this kind of work-based learning environment look like?

• Setting: I will envision that the studio be located in close proximity to the campus. This setting enables the industry developed within an institution while giving students a fresh look at themselves as employees of the studio. Ideally, the projects should be sourced from real clients and development fees be charged to maintain the studio operational needs under the guidance of the alumni and teaching staff.
• Premise: The studio would be owned and run by either the teaching staff or students. When students own and run the studio, they are operating under a relatively fail-safe environment to gain entrepreneurship - a key 21^st century skill. When the teaching staff own and run the studio, they will continually develop their expertise and maintain close links with the industry.
• Project Types: To differentiate itself against the professional studios, and to better achieve the learning outcomes as depicted in Figure 1, the project development philosophy should be focusing on concept and innovation.
• Format: Students form into teams and each student will take up a main role and secondary roles throughout the life cycle of a project. Recent graduates take on the project leads and closely coach the students and develop their competencies. The teaching staff assume the role of functional supervisors, mentor and guide the students on the aspects of work quality. Professional mentorship will be provided from time to time. Each team will go through the full production pipeline from concept, pre-production to production and post-production.
• Learning Outcomes: Personally, I will like to see students acquiring a spectrum of skills ranging from technical execution and conceptualisation to leadership, management, innovation and enterprise as depicted in Figure 1. Specifically, I will craft out the niche areas for each institution in the following:

• Institute of Technical Education: The emphasis could be placed on Competency (90%), i.e. technical execution with Speed and Quality. Entrepreneurship (10%) element is minor. This strategy will facilitate ITE graduates immediately find a job upon graduation.
• Polytechnic: The focus could be in three areas: Competency (70%), Conceptualising (20%) and Entrepreneurship (10%). This emphasis focuses on skill acquisition for immediate job employment while preparing students for future higher job requirements.
• University (applied pathway): Directing (30%), Conceptualising (40%), Competency (20%) and Entrepreneurship (10%) as I would expect these students be able to carry out independent and self-directed learning.

The percentage attached to each skill may be subjective but the point I want to bring out is the accumulative and progressive manner of skill acquisition from ITE to Polytechnic, and from Polytechnic to University.

FIGURE 1: The learning outcomes must be clearly identified. ITE stands for Institute of Technical Education.

Industries in need of skilled manpower meet co-operative education. When the fifth university announced that it may consider offering its own co-operative education degree programs in the public transport, shipping and marine industries, I thought that this is really a smart move! The work setting of these industries cannot be easily emulated inside an educational institution!

Work-based learning environment, on the very basic, gives most students, if not all, the opportunity to gain relevant real world work experience in a systematic, structural and controlled setting.

It is only one of the many possible solutions to the implementation issues of internship/co-operative education, and I believe that it may facilitate better attainment of the intended learning outcomes for the internship program or co-operative education.