Adaptation and validation of the Work Experience Questionnaire for investigating engineering students' internship experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-820
Author(s):  
Lillian Yun Yung Luk ◽  
Cecilia Ka Yuk Chan
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Experience Questionnaire

Perceived value of internship experience: a try before you leap

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonali Bhattacharya ◽  
Netra Neelam
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Learning Orientation ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Task Variety

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how internship value is manifested in the context of a business school. The authors have examined the internship experience in terms of experiential learning and employability. Specifically, the authors investigate the factors that determine internship at four phases: design, conduct, evaluation and feedback. Design/methodology/approach The authors have applied a mixed method approach. In all, 110 students of a busines school were first surveyed on their expectation, motivation and level of preparation through a self-administered questionnaire before internship. Based on the survey result, eight of these students were interviewed in details about internship expectations from industry, the selection process for internship, communications or exchanges between intern and companies prior to internship and perceived industry expectation from interns. At the next phase, authors used a qualitative research approach by conducting semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 14 interns and their mentors after internship period. They were interviewed on design, conduct, evaluation and feedback process of the internship. Interviews tried capture what kind of leader-member exchange led to satisfactory internship experience and outcome from view of both inter and mentor. Findings The authors find that at various stages of internship program quality of mentor – intern exchanges (as defined by leadership exchange theory), and task characteristics as indicated by autonomy, task variety, task significance and performance feedback determine intern’s performance. An intern’s performance is antecedent to an intern’s and a mentor’s satisfaction and overall internship value. The authors also found that intrinsic capability of intern such as critical thinking ability and learning orientation result in enhanced value of internship experience. The proposed models, postulate that at designing stage, lower the level of communication from employers, higher the feeling of ambiguity and lower the perceived internship value in terms of experiential learning and perceived employability. Feeling of ambiguity is moderated by existence of prior work experience of interns. At conduction stage, mentor-intern exchange is directly related to flexibility in structure of the program and inversely related to dependency on peer learning. Mentor-intern exchange also related to mentor and intern’s learning value. However, the learning value is moderated by learning orientation of the intern. Originality/value The authors have tried the summer internship experience from the perspective of interns and mentors. This is the uniqueness of the research.

scholarly journals Development and delivery of a work experience week programme for mechanical engineering

2020 ◽  
pp. 030641902098104
Author(s):  
A Gonzalez-Buelga ◽  
I Renaud-Assemat ◽  
B Selwyn ◽  
J Ross ◽  
I Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Legal Term ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
Engineering Design Problem ◽  
Hands On ◽  
University Of Bristol ◽  
The University

This paper focuses on the development, delivery and preliminary impact analysis of an engineering Work Experience Week (WEW) programme for KS4 students in the School of Civil, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (CAME) at the University of Bristol, UK. Key stage 4, is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs in England, age 15–16. The programme aims to promote the engineering profession among secondary school pupils. During the WEW, participants worked as engineering researchers: working in teams, they had to tackle a challenging engineering design problem. The experience included hands-on activities and the use of state-of-the-art rapid prototyping and advanced testing equipment. The students were supervised by a group of team leaders, a diverse group of undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, technical staff, and academics at the School of CAME. The vision of the WEW programme is to transmit the message that everybody can be an engineer, that there are plenty of different routes into engineering that can be taken depending on pupils’ strengths and interests and that there are a vast amount of different engineering careers and challenges to be tackled by the engineers of the future. Feedback from the participants in the scheme has been overwhelmingly positive.

Is the future of work experience online? An examination of stakeholder attitudes towards online internships.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Irwin ◽  
Joy Perkins ◽  
Leah Hillari ◽  
Darja Wischerath
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Flexible Work ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Employer Perceptions ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Stakeholder Attitudes

PurposeThe world of work is becoming digital, a process accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and resultant remote working guidelines. Online internships have become more popular in this context, and yet there remains a lack of research investigating how these internships are perceived across stakeholders. The purpose of this paper was to begin to address this research gap by exploring academic, student and employer perceptions of online internships with a focus on employability.DesignThe research explored 156 stakeholders (53 students, 50 academics, 53 employer / professionals) perceptions via a mixed-methods online study encompassing quantitative responses to internship vignettes, alongside open-ended questions designed to explore stakeholder attitudes in more depth.FindingsStakeholder groups reported similar attitudes towards online internships. Overall, online internships were viewed as valid, flexible, work experience, linked to skill development and likely to enhance student employability. However, concerns were raised regarding communication protocols and development, intern isolation and a lack of organisational immersion.ImplicationsBased on our research we make three recommendations to continue to enhance and develop the online internship experience; ensure multiple methods of regular communication between student and organisation, attempt virtual immersion in the organisation, and assign each intern additional support beyond their immediate supervisor.OriginalityBased on a holistic and novel analysis of key stakeholders’ viewpoints, this paper provides much needed insights and evidence on how to design and quality assure effective online internship practice.

Educating Engineering Students on Probabilistic Risk: Effects on the Perception of Ethics, Professional Responsibility, and Personal Agency

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy M. Gernand
Keyword(s):  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Professional Responsibility ◽  
Petroleum Engineering ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Personal Agency ◽  
The Public

To better understand how improved understanding of uncertainty and probability concepts in an engineering systems context would affect undergraduate engineering students’ perceptions of professional responsibility and ethics as well as personal agency (one’s ability to affect the outcome of events), an assessment of these principles was conducted during a related course. A course entitled Engineering Risk Analysis was offered and conducted with a mix of undergraduate Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Environmental Systems Engineering, and Architectural Engineering students. This course presented and trained students in the use of system analysis techniques from the disciplines of Reliability Engineering, Policy Analysis, and Economics for understanding how uncertain circumstances interact with technological systems to produce failures and disasters. As engineering systems become increasingly complex and command greater quantities of energy, the risk of failures even when very rare, become much more severe. While there have been previous initiatives to increase engineering students’ understanding of statistics, probability, and risk, usually in response to previous disasters, this preliminary study is the first to begin to examine how this kind of knowledge affects engineering student’s perceptions of ethics, responsibility, and their concept of how their own individual decisions affect the potential for the failure of complex systems and the consequences of such failures. Students completed 5 regular survey-based assessments to judge their qualitative and quantitative skills, personal perceptions of the causes of engineering failures, and the professional and ethical responsibilities of engineers. Analysis of the response variance and a linear regression model demonstrated some significant effects after controlling for education, age, and professional work experience. Results indicate that questions related to probabilistic understanding of risk demonstrated the most significant change during the course. Indicators of agreement with strong professional ethics and greater professional responsibility as well as personal agency did not significantly change during the course. More importantly, while personal choices on risk did not appear to reflect one’s view of how engineers actually do or should treat questions of risk professionally, the amount of previous technical work experience showed a small positive association with increased agreement on statements of ethical responsibility towards workers and the public. These findings suggest that future research is needed to assess the types of instruction and personal experience that can best encourage the combination of strong ethical responsibility and personal agency that could empower engineering students to act when they have the opportunity to reduce risk to workers, the public, or the environment.

scholarly journals PARLAYING STUDENTS’ WORK EXPERIENCE INTO PRACTICE-ORIENTED ESP

2018 ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Koenig ◽  
Katherine Guertler
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Experience Level ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Perceived Importance

Instructors of English for Special Purposes often describe the challenge of determining which specific content and competencies to address in their courses. After all, it is the focus on technical subject matter which students expect to differentiate engineering ESP from standard EFL. Yet ESP instructors, who frequently have a background in fields such as applied linguistics or education, often receive little input from technical specialists as to which specialist topics are most relevant to their target domain.Our research indicates that ESP instructors in higher education can leverage a valuable resource to enrich teaching effectiveness: students who have already gained professional experience. As part of a longitudinal study at two universities of applied sciences (UAS) in southern Germany, engineering students at the beginning of their first semester of compulsory technical English participate in an online survey. The course participants provide relevant biographical information such as work experience and evaluate the perceived importance of a selection of skills and applications for a Technical English course. The surveys, administered in October 2016 and October 2017 and encompassing nearly 1000 respondents, provide compelling insights. Analysis reveals conclusive correlations between the perceived importance of course components and students’ declared level of previous work experience. Listening comprehension, reading comprehension, process description, and test and measurement are topics whose importance correlates positively with work experience level. In addition, there are clear trends relating work experience level with the importance of the reading and writing of technical documents as well as communication and interaction.This data provides empirically-founded criteria for selecting the topics to include in the scope of a Technical English course for engineers, informed by the judgment of students with occupational experience. Additionally, recognizing that students with work experience have legitimate practitioner credibility allows instructors to identify and select relevant subject matter in concordance with experienced students’ learning objectives. ESP learners will profit greatly from cultivating skills with proven practical applicability. 

scholarly journals Stakeholder perception of student employability: Does the duration, type and location of work experience matter?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Irwin ◽  
Emily Nordmann ◽  
Karrell Simms
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Stakeholder Perception ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Different Types ◽  
High Level ◽  
Job Role

Student employability is a key aspect of higher education, with multiple strategies utilised by Higher Education Institutions in an effort to support the employability of their graduates. Despite this little work has been done to examine, and compare, different types of work experience. To advise students appropriately it’s important to understand the factors that might influence the perceived value of work experience. The current study investigated three aspects of work experience: type (internship or volunteer role), location (extra- or co-curricular) and duration (six months or two years), and compared stakeholder (student, academic, employer) perception of work experience. The study utilised an experimental vignette design, presenting 175 participants (62 students, 57 employers, 56 academics) with CV excerpts that varied according to the variables of interest. Quantitative and qualitative items were also presented to explore perceptions of work experience. The results indicate that extracurricular experience was viewed more favourably by all stakeholders. The type of experience was also an influence, with internships viewed more positively when the job role was a high level graduate role (research assistant). The duration of experience did not produce a main effect. There were no significant differences in stakeholder perception of work experience. The qualitative data indicated that the relevancy of both experience and degree topic was important for employability, along with interpersonal and professional skills. These findings may support educators in providing students with advice regarding their activities outside the classroom, with a particular emphasis on extracurricular and internship experience, tied to student career aspirations, recommended.

A Mandatory Internship Program at a Land-grant University: The Case of Oklahoma State University

HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 556c-556
Author(s):  
Brian A. Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Department Head ◽  
Added Value ◽  
State University ◽  
Oklahoma State University ◽  
Land Grant University ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Core Requirements ◽  
Student Reports

Internships provide well-documented advantages to students, colleges, and employers. The core requirements in Horticulture and in Turf Management at Oklahoma State Univ. were expanded to include 3 h of credit in an internship course, effective with the 1991–92 option sheets. All of our departmental teaching faculty advise undergraduate students, and each individual professor supervises the internship experiences of his/her advisees. Coordination is provided by a common syllabus booklet and by leadership from a faculty Undergraduate Horticulture Teaching Coordinator and the Department Head. Outcomes are assessed through student reports, cooperator evaluations, and a formal internship assessment seminar. The mandatory internship has added value to our degrees. Our students graduate with documented work experience in addition to their academic credentials. When our graduates are employed, they tend to more readily adapt to their jobs because they already have been exposed to some of the “real-world” aspects of their profession. This is especially true when an internship experience results in permanent employment with the same firm upon graduation.

Project-Based MOOC

2017 ◽  
pp. 282-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miri Barak ◽  
Abeer Watted
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Massive Open Online Course ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Subject

This chapter describes a project-based massive open online course (MOOC) in nanotechnology and nanosensors that was offered in two languages: English and Arabic. A mixed methods research was conducted to examine the role of project-based learning in the process of knowledge construction and motivation to learn a MOOC. The study compared between three groups of science and engineering students: English MOOCers, Arabic MOOCers, and university students. Findings indicated positive attitudes about learning in a project-based MOOC, especially with relation to gaining work experience. Findings also indicated that in a project-based setting, MOOC participants were mostly driven by a desire to establish connections with peers, whereas university students were mostly motivated by their interest in the subject matter. Arabic MOOCers, who were less successful in solving ill-defined problems, narrowed the gap, and at the end of the course received similar grades in the final project.

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