The Learning Ex ... ts at Somerset College.pdf

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and Further Education in maximising opportunities to develop entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries. It recommends that HE institutions can play a valuable role in creating positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship amongst students in the creative industries by adopting an alternative approach such as that proposed by Gibb (2005) to entrepreneurial learning. It suggests that this is likely to be most effective where this is embedded in the programme. The report argues that to promote growth and development of the Creative Industry sector investment in graduate entrepreneurship is needed. Somerset College It was in this context that Somerset College introduced a common module to be included in all Foundation Degrees in September 2004. The impetus behind introducing the Enterprise Culture and Workplace Experience module, according to Paul Robottom, the Head of Division for Enterprise and Employer Relations, arose from a survey undertaken by the Head of Division of Art & Design with Advertising students. (See Appendix C.) Feedback from students suggested that they did not feel prepared for self-employment when they finished their degree course. They said that they wished they had had the opportunity to learn more about the commercial world whilst still at college. This sentiment resonates with the finding that many creative graduates “often leave HE largely unprepared for the realities of forging a career in the creative industries.” (DCMS 2006 :16). The Dean for Higher Education at Somerset College, recognising the links with government strategy, responded to the findings of the survey by introducing a module incorporating enterprise as mandatory for all Foundation Degrees in the college. The module is entitled Enterprise Culture and Workplace Experience and programme teams are encouraged to adapt the delivery of the module to suit the particular vocational identity of each programme. The module aims to raise awareness of the relevance of enterprise and sets the following learning outcomes: Students will learn through enterprise to: • Identify their strengths and weaknesses in relation to their chosen career aspirations. • Match key enterprise competencies against their skill profile to create a personal development action plan • Reflect and synthesise their performance in the workplace against their personal action plan. Students will learn about and prepare for enterprise by: • Adopting skills and techniques to maximise their potential in future careers • Understanding the realities of enterprise and the workplace and be able to describe and explain business structures and roles in the context of their chosen specialism. (The Module descriptor can be found in Appendix B.) 7
Methodology This section describes in detail how the research was undertaken and may be of interest for the purposes of replication. The various research tools designed to carry out the research are included in the appendix and the first person is used to show research decisions made by the researcher. 1. Approach A qualitative approach was chosen for exploring student perceptions of their experience of Enterprise Education. Cohen and Manion (1994) confirm that this is an appropriate research method when aiming to understand the individual’s subjective response to experience. 2. Research participants Permission was obtained from the Head of Division of Art & Design and from the programme leaders of two Foundation Degree groups; Graphic Design and Fine Art. The choice of groups was made by the Head of Division. The programme leaders advised that students in the second year of the programme would be most appropriate participants, since the Enterprise Culture and Workplace Experience Module was chiefly taught in year two. All students in both groups were invited to a meeting to request their participation. Invitations were posted to all students at their home address. (See Appendix 1) Half of the students invited attended the meeting. The purpose of the research project, the timespan and commitment of students who volunteered to participate were explained. A recruitment form (See Appendix 2) was prepared and students were asked to complete and return the form by a given date. It was tempting to ask for the students to complete and return the recruitment forms at the meeting, to avoid having to wait to find out how many students were willing to take part. However, I wanted the students to have time to consider whether they could fulfil the commitment to a project lasting six months so I gave a deadline of a week ahead for the forms to be returned. This decision ran the risk of students forgetting to return the forms as well as incurring postage costs. In the event I had to enlist the help of one of the programme leaders to remind the students to return the forms. It was theoretical sampling, in the sense used by Miles and Huberman (1994), that the choice of student groups was driven by the research question rather than by an attempt to be representative. It was also driven by the need to gain a commitment over a six month period. Students volunteered to participate and were therefore self-selected. The final sample consisted of 7 students from Graphic Design and 4 from Fine Arts; representing about 25% of the students in each group. All the students who took part in the project completed a memorandum of agreement (See Appendix 3) and were given a copy of the ethical principles which would govern the research (See Appendix 4). Their details were collected to facilitate payment and to enable me to contact them between meetings (See Appendix 5). 8
Page 1 and 2: The University of Plymouth Colleges
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Page 5 and 6: students were more ambivalent in th
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Page 11 and 12: To facilitate full participation of
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Page 15 and 16: so that now we don’t have enough
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Page 21 and 22: K: It helps me understand the whole
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Page 31 and 32: Dumas, J (1999) Usability Testing M
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Page 35 and 36: Appendix C Interview with Paul Robo
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A: I think it might have been J: I
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V: It’s not, there’s the little
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Q. So you are using your graphics s
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J: Another thing tutors are picking
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J: Yes. Q: Any other feedback on th
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V: Also in a similar way, our desig
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Graphic Design Focus Group March 30
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J: I think, I don’t know, I think
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J: It’s the cost as well. They’
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different project pretty much, and
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R: How many was it About 6 L: 4 or
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even though we’ve finished about
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M: I don’t think there’s one th
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ecause of that reason. T: Yes, defi
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Transcript Fine Arts February 6 th
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J. I don’t know what to day, I ki
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J. But because we see them separate
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A. I did the 500 words thing. We ha
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K. I think it’s good as well beca
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K. We’d been given a list of date
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HELP CETL HEinFE The Learning Exper
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Q: In terms of where you are going
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J: Yes we do separate work for T. W
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J: Yes M: I wasn’t in any group a
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K: This is the hardest time in the
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also this is what you an get for a
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director guy, but you just wouldn
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HELP CETL HEinFE Research & Resourc
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J: For me, enterprise now means con
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A: Rather than having Professional
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HELP CETL HE in FE The Learning Exp
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4. Given 2 hours to gather together
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MK: 1. Useful to see how a real des
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LC: 1. Looking forward to seeing cl
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What happened Reflection Had a time
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Action to improve learning in futur
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Action to improve learning in futur
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Reflective Log Analysis Fine Art Fi
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6. Discussed whether to progress to
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Action (continued) sure everyone pu
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What action I plan to take to impro
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Summary Feeling positive about the
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HELP CETL HE in FE The Enterprise C
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• Perhaps complete two smaller br
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Graphic Design June 2007 Strongly A
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Course: FdA Fine Art June 2007 HELP
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Likert Analysis Fine Art February 2
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Research Main Weaknesses Time - not
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7. Match key enterprise competencie
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Target Audience This report present
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