IT Skills for Work-placements

The aim of this LARA sub-project was to identify the required and/or acquired IT skills of Applied Modern Languages students in UK HEIs and to suggest ways in which these skills, if needed, might be delivered.

Information for the project was gathered by:

1. Letter to Heads of IT Services in HEIs
2. Letter to Heads of Modern Languages
3. Student questionnaire
4. Employer questionnaire

The student and employer questionnaires were broadly the same with the exception of (a) a section on the student questionnaire relating to their preparation for placement and a wish list (Questions 11-18) and (b) a section on the employer questionnaire dealing with the importance or otherwise of students having IT skills before venturing on placement (Questions 11-15).

The results of the questionnaire surveys can be seen as follows:

• an analysis of the employer data
• data on responses to the student questionnaire
• a commentary on the student data

I would like to record my thanks to the Heads of IT Services who responded to my questionnaire. Suggestions about sites where training materials can be found can be viewed by following the link.

Similarly, I would like to record my thanks to colleagues in Modern Language Departments who replied to my questionnaire. Although there were not many returns, I was surprised to find that relatively few departments send their students on work placement, so that many of the questions to which I was seeking answers were not perceived as relevant. My own Faculty is very different and, it would appear, atypical in that virtually all students, irrespective of their programme, undertake a work placement. To read some of the comments relating to the preparation of students for their placement, follow the link.

As part of the project, students on placement were asked to try to identify suitable IT learning materials in the foreign language. A selection of these materials in French has been acquired by the Faculty and can be consulted on request. I have produced a brief report describing the materials.

Other materials have been entered into a searchable database. Currently I only have materials for French and Spanish. There is provision for new materials to be added and I would invite colleagues with any useful and relevant learning resources to add them to the database.

To see a summary of my conclusions, please follow the link

Raymond Gallery
University of the West of England