Students’ Experience of Industrial Attachment: A Case of a Public University

Abstract

Industrial Attachment (IA) in most post-secondary and higher learning institutions is a structured, credit-bearing work experience in a professional work setting. This study sought to investigate university students’ experiences during IA with a focus on the things they liked most about IA firms, employees, their own colleagues and the overall IA exercise. We had witnessed over the years that a number of students took longer time than others to find placement for IA. When there is no or little involvement by the training institutions in finding placement, the exercise is normally stressful to the students. In 2013, we carried out a questionnaire survey after the students returned to the University from a two month IA. The questionnaire was organized into 11 question items some of which had sub-categories. A total of 107 questionnaires were conveniently administered to the respondents who were available during data collection. Overall, we found out that majority (81%) of the respondents liked the knowledge and skills and experiences acquired while on IA. This study confirms that, despite the stressful process that students undergo when finding placement for IA, there are many gains from the exercise – both to the institutions where student-trainees serve and to the individual student-trainee. We recommend that training institutions play an active role in placing students for IA so as to increase the gains and consequently, the quality outcomes.