Preparing Students for Workplace Learning

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR WORKPLACE LEARNING

This supporting document highlights the importance of preparing students, suggests topics to include, provides pointers to ensure quality and emphasises the links between workplace learning and current initiatives in vocational learning. Work readiness, strategies for supporting disengaged students and guidelines for ensuring student awareness of OHS are also included.

While there is extensive guidance in this supporting document, most staff are likely to have good preparation activities and programs in place. Over time, draw on the fully revised guidance below to review and enhance or upgrade preparatory activities where needed. This is likely to be a work in progress.

References

Procedures and Standards: Need for pre-placement activities 1.2, 1.3.6

Resources

Employment Related Skills Logbook

Vocational Learning in the relevant KLA booklets, 2005

Pointers

·  Preparing students for the workplace is an essential component of all quality workplace learning programs.

·  Preparatory activities support the safe participation of students in activities not directly supervised by their school or TAFE NSW institute or by the contracted private or community registered training organisation (P/C RTO).

·  Preparation should ensure that students have a focus and purpose to maximise their learning in the workplace.

·  Experiential learning engages students and helps reinforce the relevance of what they are learning through school or at TAFE NSW. There should be whole school commitment to the critical importance of preparing students to undertake successful experiential workplace learning, for example, through appropriate resourcing and ease of access to students.

·  Preparatory activities must include emphasis on student safety and well-being. Young people are often vulnerable in the workplace as new and young workers due to their lack of experience and training, and relative maturity levels. Recent studies of adolescent brain development highlight the likelihood of young people being caught up in the moment, predisposed to risk taking behaviour and not being able to anticipate the consequences of their actions.

·  Students with special needs must be appropriately supported before they enter the workplace. See also the Supporting Document, Supporting Students with Disabilities.

·  Aiming for student work readiness sets a benchmark for achieving an appropriate level of student preparation and confidence prior to their starting placement.

·  In the case of HSC VET work placements, a student’s lack of work readiness, usually in spite of substantial efforts by staff, cannot be used to bar a student from attempting a placement. Guidance about work readiness and advice about how to support disengaged students is provided below.

·  Many Regions and individual schools and TAFE NSW institutes have well documented activities and programs to prepare students, often involving input from Local Community Partnerships and the local community. You may wish to access some excellent examples that were locally developed prior to the Workplace Learning Policy 2005, at https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/directorates/vet_schools/1_vl/worplace/wkpl.htm

·  The Department has produced a Student Guide to Workplace Learning that many staff have found useful in preparing students particularly for work experience. Copies have been provided to schools in 2003 and 2004 and a new edition may be available in 2006. The current version is available on the School to Work internet site at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/vetinschools/schooltowork/learning/index_learn.htm

The vision for our students

·  Preparing students will be enhanced by being mindful of the vision we have for students to:

~ be enterprising and capable citizens, well prepared for creating their own future pathways

~ take on personal leadership and responsibility for planning and self-managing their career transitions to construct a fulfilling and productive life

~ develop the skills and confidence to become independent, self-aware, resourceful and critically alert to the choices and opportunities available as they move through and beyond school.

·  This vision is from the Department’s School to Work: Creating Future Pathways program 2005-07. The program includes focus on increasing the capacity of students to be active self-managers of their plans, directions and decisions. It also focuses on making explicit the vocational and enterprise learning embedded in all areas of the curriculum.

·  All four key directions of School to Work: Creating Future Pathways are clearly relevant to student workplace learning:

Planning Transition Pathways - supporting students to develop confidence in self- managing their career and transition planning

Exploring Career Futures - providing students with access to people, opportunities and a variety of media which assists them to process information about work, education and training options.

Strengthening Student Outcomes through Vocational Learning - supporting all teachers in all KLA areas to identify and provide a range of opportunities for students to make explicit links to vocational and enterprise learning in all curriculum areas. This linking and learning can be verified and strengthened through workplace learning.

Building Networks and Connections - strengthening career, community and workplace learning opportunities for students through strategic connections, partnerships and networks.

What activities should be included in preparing students?

·  Staff are encouraged to draw on their expertise and knowledge of their students to develop activities that help students get the most out of their opportunities to learn in the workplace.

·  A good start is to read the following item on Work Readiness and consider how the key areas may be included in preparatory activities.

·  A one size fits all approach is not advocated for all students. HSC VET and Work Education courses contain competencies and modules such as Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) that ensure these important aspects of preparing students for placement are embedded in course delivery. These areas can be complemented by including other relevant topics. However, a different approach is required for students planning work experience not directly related to Work Education or Work Studies courses and this will be further affected by whether placements are in a block or arranged throughout the year.

·  Preparatory activities can include work readiness sessions off site or for part of a day; a suite of lessons or supervised preparatory work sheets and discussion, depending on the needs of the students, curriculum delivery, timetabling and resourcing.

Key areas suggested for including in preparatory activities:

·  Introducing workplace learning: purpose, focus and implications for students

·  Student Placement Record, Safety and Emergency Procedures-Student Contact Card and the supply of mandatory guides to employers and to parents/carers

·  Work readiness

·  Understanding host employer expectations

·  Safe learning while in the workplace: Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)

·  Student welfare and well-being

·  Safely managed travel arrangements – see separate supporting document, Student Travel Arrangements

·  Student responsibilities

·  Student conduct in the workplace

·  Additional pre-requisites

·  Dealing with problem situations

·  Planning for post placement follow up. See also supporting document, Post Placement Follow Up Activities.

Note: Guidance on each of the topics above is provided in this supporting document.

Other areas to consider including:

·  Personal presentation and first impressions

·  Communicating appropriately in the workplace

·  Working with others in the workplace

·  Quality of work undertaken by the student

·  Pre-placement interviews with the host employer

·  Generic workplace skills: answering the phone, taking messages, customer service and employment related skills.

Some hints for ensuring top quality workplace learning preparatory activities

·  Enthusiasm and commitment to preparing students well

·  Setting aside time to plan, adapt resources and review existing activities

·  Involving motivating presenters including host employers and ex-students to present their stories

·  Using quality resources

·  Making the workplace preparation directly relevant to needs of students, for example, rural or remote students

·  Varying the preparatory activities, for example, engaging speakers, small group discussion, multi-media resources, lively discussion starters

·  Having a buzz factor – what will make the activities or the program of activities outstanding and memorable? (How can food be part of the activities? Think of your own PD experiences!)

·  Using adult learning environments, for example, conference facilities

·  Following up with up a debriefing and evaluating the activities

·  Deciding how you will know you have been effective in preparing students.

END OF SECTION ON

INTRODUCTION TO PREPARING STUDENTS FOR WORKPLACE LEARNING

Introducing Workplace Learning: purpose, focus and implications for students

·  Students need to appreciate that opportunities to learn with a host employer and their staff are important and valued.

·  Workplace learning opportunities support students to achieve curriculum outcomes, including those related to the Work, Employment and Enterprise cross curriculum content. Workplace learning also supports vocational learning in the Key Learning Areas (KLAs), career development, school to work transition planning, development of employment related skills and enterprise learning. It supports opportunities for community learning and personal growth.

·  Schools and TAFE NSW institutes are encouraged to consider new ways of using resources in the community and the workplace to expand the range of teaching environments and expertise to improve student achievements in other curriculum areas. See Workplace Learning Policy, 2005 1.1 and Procedures and Standards 1.1.4.

·  Students should understand and be able to articulate (for example, to their parents/carers and host employer/supervisor/co-workers) the general purpose of their learning in the workplace as well as be encouraged to develop and articulate the focus for that learning. Undertaking pre-placement research using the two Workplace Learning Research pages in Employment Related Skills Logbook helps students to clarify purpose and focus.

·  Examples of purpose and focus include a student undertaking work experience for the general purpose of starting their career planning with the focus being to discover the career and employment opportunities in the industry in the local community or to develop one or more employment related skills. Alternatively, for example, an HSC VET student will be undertaking mandatory placement for the purpose of practising skills in a relevant industry environment but with particular personal focus on an identified competency or set of competencies, and maybe one or more employment related skills or personal attributes.

·  Ensure that students are aware that experiential workplace learning has some implications for them and some new responsibilities. Ample time should be given for questions and discussion. A staged approach may be effective. Matters that may be new for students include:

 working longer hours

 the prospect of an interview with the personnel manager or host employer

 organising safely managed travel arrangements to unfamiliar destinations

 completing necessary proformas to meet deadlines for approval

 greater expectations about punctuality and clocking on and off

 employer-employee type relationships

 occupational health and safety requirements and responsibilities

 working well with others, including those little known to students

 communication skills in a workplace setting

 possibly coming face to face with a serious incident in the workplace, although this should be managed by the host employer or staff

 possibly coming face to face with inappropriate or illegal situations, e.g. harassment, sexual or physical assault, discrimination, initiation activities, access to drugs and alcohol, unethical practices.

END OF SECTION ON

INTRODUCING WORKPLACE LEARNING: PURPOSE, FOCUS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDENTS

Student Placement Record, Safety and Emergency Procedures-Student Contact Card and the supply of mandatory guides to employers and to parents/carers

Key points students need to know

·  Every placement must be documented on a Student Placement Record that must be signed by the student, host employer, parent/carer if student is under 18 years (and preferably signed if they are18) and finally approved by the school or TAFE NSW institute or private or community registered training organisation (P/C RTO), also known as a private provider

·  Completed copies of the Record must be provided to the host employer before the placement starts and also to the parent/carer and to the student – it contains important information relevant to the placement

·  A copy of An Employer’s Guide to Workplace Learning must be provided to the host employer before the employer is completing their section of the Student Placement Record. Some employers want a copy of An Employer’s Guide for every placement and other employers want a single copy to cover all government students.

·  A copy of Parents and Carers Guide to Workplace Learning must be provided to the parents/carers before they complete their section of the Record because it contains important information the parents/carers need to know in advance

·  Every student must be provided with a Safety and Emergency Procedures-Student Contact Card by their school/TAFE NSW institute or P/C RTO. This will make sure the student knows who to contact during what period of the placement if they face an emergency. The Card is only used by the student - and only in an emergency. Students will need to be supervised in completing the necessary contact details, for example, their nominated contact/s from the school/TAFE NSW college/campus or P/C RTO. Details on the completed Student Placement Record will assist.

·  The types of issues that may occur in the workplace that need to be told to the student’s supervisor in the workplace or mentor/ host employer (as soon as possible)

·  The types of issues or concerns that the student should tell immediately to their nominated contact from the school/ TAFE NSW college/campus or P/C RTO or where relevant, after normal business hours, tell to their parents/carers. The contact details on the Safety and Emergency Procedures-Student Contact Card will support the student in these circumstances.

·  The hours that constitute normal business hours, as distinct from normal school hours. These may need to be indicated on the Student Placement Record, for example, in Section 1 and in the section for Parent/Carer permission.

·  The need to inform the organiser of the placement as soon as possible of any medical condition, allergy, disability, medication or other factor that may affect the student’s safety in the workplace and in turn affect the way the host employer keeps the student safe during the placement. For example, the activities or supervision that the host employer/workplace supervisor arranges. Wherever possible, this information needs to be provided to the employer before they complete their section of the Student Placement Record.

Other points, where relevant