Employer Engagement in the physics curriculum: enhancing students’ career readiness

Dr Samantha Pugh and Siddeequah Azmi, University of Leeds, UK / Dr Andrew Hirst, University of York, UK 

Email: andrew.hirst@york.ac.uk 

Click to download Employer Engagement in the physics curriculum: enhancing students’ career readiness (.pptx)

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Abstract

The White Rose Industrial Physics Academy (WRIPA) is a 10-year collaboration between business and the university physics departments of Hull, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and York. WRIPA’s mission is to provide physics students with the opportunity to gain skills, knowledge and work experience that will better prepare them for graduate-level work. More recently, WRIPA has been awarded funding from the Office for Students’ Challenge Competition to improve links between physics departments and regional employers.

The technical versatility and breadth of skills of physicists are pivotal for driving growth in technology-based industries. However, there are significant challenges in connecting physics students to highly skilled work, including: (a) physics students tend not to look broadly outside of academia when looking for a career and (b) physics students self-select out of institutional recruitment fairs that they consider ‘prestigious’ or ‘self-marketing’.

To address the challenges highlighted above WRIPA places a strong emphasis on employer engagement to organise curricular work-based learning opportunities and activities. Our presentation will focus on exemplars of this approach, including embedded mirco-placements into a new ‘Physics into Work module’; delivery of content by employers into core physics modules and the importance of alumni to develop student/employer connections and diverse role models.