THE ROLE OF WORK PLACEMENT, ITS PREPARATION AND ASSESSMENT IN ENHANCING STUDENT LEARNING AND GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY: A CASE EXAMPLE OF AN UNDERGRADUATE LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN DEGREE

It is recognised that if Ireland is to recover and develop within an innovation-driven economy, it is essential to create and enhance human capital through developments in Ireland's higher education system. However, consideration needs to be given to the short shelf-life of knowledge, and how in a changing world, Europe's graduates need the kind of education that enables them to engage articulately as committed, active, thinking, global citizens as well as economic actors in the ethical, sustainable development of our societies. It is within this context and in planning for the future graduates of 2015 and of 2030, that the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has developed the DIT Student Graduate Attribute Policy. This policy requires all programmes to provide students with a range of opportunities to develop, practice and be assessed on an agreed range of key employability skills or graduate attributes. Work-placements, a form of cooperative education, involves students embarking on a structured in-company internship as an integrated component of their third level course. Designing and assessing the learning of students undertaking internships can be complex as students are exposed to different, often unique workplace settings, that are subject to the context of the particular in-company work-placement experience. This paper presents an analysis of the learning which occurred during the implementation of DIT's policy on a four year undergraduate honours degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. It focuses on the enhancement of work placement module(s), in terms of student preparation, development and assessment of employability skills and attributes. The paper outlines how, through action based research, a new professional development module and work based assessment model were developed. Finally, it will analyse how this programme provides students with a range of opportunities to develop, practice and be assessed on a range of key employability skills.