We are excited to announce that the latest version of our work experience support tool Student Studio is due to go live later this April.
This design and development of this latest version has been made possible with the generous support of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Ove Arup Foundation and the Useful Simple Trust. The new site includes a fresh interface, better management options for work experience co-ordinators and supervisors and enhanced student content. With the launch we are also for the first time growing the family of Student Studio projects into a broader range of engineering sectors.
What is Student Studio?
We created Student Studio in response to a common challenge that businesses face. While companies and their employees understand the importance of offering work experience, the reality is that offering really inspirational work experience placement is not easy:
It often places a big burden on the staff charged with supervising students who have to invent tasks for the students to work on.
These staff often don’t have the time or resources to create a programme of activities for the placement. Supervising staff cannot always be available to look after their students.
Companies are not necessarily aware of the employability skills that schools expect students to develop during their placements.
Student Studio is a tool that is designed to make it easier for engineering and construction companies to offer really inspiration work experience for young people.
Student Studio gives companies hosting work experience access to a range of mini projects that students can work through during their placement. Projects like, design a footbridge, plan the construction of a dam or design a deployable structure – these projects are designed to give students a flavour for what it is like to be an engineer by giving them realistic tasks to carry out in a workplace setting.
The projects are in the form of online workbooks, accessible through the Student Studio website. Each day students log in to their workbook to find out what their activities are for that day. And when supervisors log in to Student Studio, they get their own instructions on how to support the student as they work through the project. As students work through their activities, they log their work in their online workbook, and supervisors must approve and comment on their work before the student can move on to the next stage. At the end of the project, students can download their work and their reflective diary as a record of their work placement. They’ll also receive a certificate.
Student Studio doesn’t replace the interaction between supervisor and student, it enhances it, providing a set of activities that provide a structure for work experience. Rather than starting from a blank slate each time, Student Studio helps supervisors set tasks that are structured, are age-appropriate and that will help students develop employability skills.
Above all, Student Studio takes the stress out of hosting work experience, which we hope will mean that more companies will offer more work experience placements, and that more young people will become inspired to work in engineering and construction.
Previous users of the site include:
Balfour Beatty
Construction Youth Trust
Expedition
Flint and Neill
Gifford
Pick Everard
Ramboll
UCL
New engineering projects
While Student Studio has its origins in the civil engineering and construction sectors, we have been working with the Royal Academy of Engineering to develop Student Studio projects to support work experience in companies across all fields of engineering. These projects will be piloted in May and June 2015 with a small number of host companies in mechanical, chemical and computer engineering and will be available for use from July 2015. If you are interested in helping us to pilot these projects then drop us an email at info@thinkup.org
Features of the new site
The development of the latest version of the site has been made possible with funds from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Ove Arup Foundation and the Useful Simple Trust and features a raft of enhancements that we’ve identified over three years of testing with students and engineering companies. The new site features a completely rebuilt and user-friendly interface. enhanced instructions for students and supervisors, a new work experience co-ordinator that makes it easier for co-ordinators to manage what projects students are working on and to easily purchase more Student Studio workbooks when more students arrive. It also features the ability for students to download a certificate of completion and a PDF of their online learning log.
If you are interested in pre-registering for a free trial of the new site, then please drop us an email at info@thinkup.org