Case Study 1: Planning and teaching for effective learning
Background
The Diploma in Professional Studies programme is a year in Industry for BA students between their 2nd and 3rd year. As an optional year, whilst recruitment for the year is strong in Year 2, the programme suffers from issues around attendance, and take up onto the actual programme in Year 3. This is primarily to do with finance, as students lose up to 2/3 of their maintenance loan on DPS. Additionally, many students do not use the period between February – June in Year 2 to work on the basic requirements to ensure their success on the programme. These requirements these include:
- CV
- Portfolio/Showreel/ArtStation/Itch profile/Instagram whichever is relevant to their programme
- Create a LinkedIn profile and joined the LinkedIn DPS jobs board
- Spreadsheet of contacts to encourage networking during DPS and beyond
Evaluation
This year, I have been signposting students to concurrent internships from October onwards to recruit students onto the DPS programme. This has meant that they have their applications ready and experience of applying for internships well ahead of the DPS year. It has also meant that two people have already found placements for next year. This is hugely motivating to other students.
Lewis and Des Santis refer to this practice as being able to ‘bridge the divide between theory and practise’ (2021, p.173). Kolb comments about the importance of the ‘relevance and authenticity of the concrete performances required of students, the depth and quality of student reflection, and the frequency of students’ opportunities to exercise agency by making consequential decisions during their experience (Kolb in Lewis and Des Santis, 2021).
Other studies show that internships provide real world context, better prepare students for the challenges and enhance their ‘work-readiness’ (p.6, Silva et al., 2016). Utilising this official schemes also ensures that students are scaffolded throughout the year, with mentors, weekly events for interns alongside other interns and other benefits. It also provides a convincing CV credit, and potentially scenes for their showreel.
These internships also ensure that students are paid for the entire year. This would be incredibly beneficial for those students who might otherwise not be able to afford DPS. There are some concerns that those best prepared for these internships are from an upper middle class background, and more work needs to be done to make sure that we are approaching this in an equitable way and promoting social mobility (2021, Wright and Mulvey).
Moving Forwards
I intend to invite representatives from industry from October onwards to showcase their internships to students including from Sony, Warner Bros and Disney. This will mean that I can invite students to apply early and look at their applications for internships etc. Our new focus on on-to-one preparation and a tailored approach for all students will hopefully result in a better take up of the programme (p.123, Hickcox, 2002). I can also invite students that have currently undertaken year long internships to speak at these events. I want to move the Screen School DPS to a position where annually we are able to say that a certain percentage of our students have been able to go onto major studios.
References
Hickcox, L. K. (2002). Personalizing Teaching through Experiential Learning. College Teaching, 50(4), 123–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550209595892
Lewis, K. D., & DeSantis, J. (2020). Amplify Experiential Learning with Cloud Video. College Teaching, 69(3), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2020.1845598
Silva, P., Lopes, B., Costa, M., Melo, A. I., Dias, G. P., Brito, E., & Seabra, D. (2016). The million-dollar question: can internships boost employment? Studies in Higher Education, 43(1), 2–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1144181
Wright, E., & Mulvey, B. (2021). Internships and the graduate labour market: how upper-middle-class students ‘get ahead.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(3), 339–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1886051
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