"The Self-Employment Placement - what is it all about and why should we encourage more students to engage?"
1. "The Self-Employment Placement - what is it all about
and why should we encourage more students to
engage?"
Emma Austin, Senior Lecturer Film and Media, Employability & Enterprise Co-
ordinator CCI &
Lynda Povey, Enterprise Adviser, nest
3. Self-Employment Placement
A Self-Employment Placement allows you the
opportunity to develop your enterprise/
entrepreneurship skills whilst starting-up and running a
business, social enterprise or simply acting as a
freelancer during your placement year.
4. Assessment (variety of)
• Submission of diary, work undertaken & outcomes
• Reflective portfolio
• Evidence for Professional Accrediting bodies e.g. IET ICTTech
or ENGtech competencies
• 2 Presentations
5. Credit Bearing?
• CCI – 40 ‘ghost credits’ sandwich mode: recognised on certificate
• PBS – Not credit bearing; sandwich mode: recognised on certificate
• Technology – 20 ‘ghost credits’ ; pass or fail.
• FHSS – 120 ‘ghost credits’; sandwich mode: recognised on degree
certificate
• Science – Not credit bearing; sandwich mode: recognised on degree
certificate
No effect on final degree outcome, but recognised and recorded on HEAR
transcript.
6. Why?
The University is committed to providing high quality
career-enhancing activities to all students by 2020. Nest
aims to build a robust and adaptable ecosystem that
promotes and supports each student’s journey through
to enterprise effectiveness – from new venture creation
to securing graduate-level, enterprise-rich employment.
7. University Education Strategy
Hallmarks of a Portsmouth Graduate:
• Be able to generate ideas & develop creative solutions of
benefit to the economy & society
• Have an enterprising spirit, bringing innovation &
productivity to the groups & communities to which they
belong
• Be proactive in recognising & addressing personal
development needs and be able to make informed career
decisions
11. Total number of SEPs Year on Year
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 Enquiries this yr
Total SEPs
Total SEPs
12. Self-Employment Placement Process (for students)
Student(s) registers interest in SEP with relevant Faculty Placement
Office and receives relevant Faculty SEP process. The nest student
enterprise process and the faculty process have been designed to work
alongside each other.
Student(s) attends a nest Enterprise Clinic at Purple Door (Wed 14:00 -
16:00 or Fri 09:30 - 11:30) to discuss business idea. Student registers
interest on MyPurpleDoor
Nest team work with student(s) to develop business proposal.
(Student(s) to use template provided by nest Team). Student to request
academic reference from Personal Tutor or Course Leader*
13. When satisfied that idea is viable, the nest Team informs relevant
Placement Office and forwards on completed business proposal to
Placement Office
Student(s) presents proposal (details of the presentation are included in
this pack) on allocated date, followed by Q&A
Student(s) will be informed of decision and, if successful, details of their
Academic Supervisor will be sent as soon as possible following the
presentation
14. Student(s) to visit Placement Office to ensure they are aware of all
assessment requirements and deadlines
Students enrol on Route to Startup Programme and attend SEP launch
meeting (September).
nest Team arrange initial meeting with Academic Supervisor, student(s)
and Enterprise Adviser. Following this meeting the responsibility to
arrange all subsequent meetings and updates during the year lies with
the student(s)
Student(s) will deliver a mid-year presentation and an end of year
presentation to a panel of relevant parties (further information about
these are included in this pack).
15. If Successful;
• Route to Startup Programme
• Assigned academic supervisor
• SEP workshop
• Initial Evaluation
• 6 weekly review meetings
• 2 further formal presentations
16.
17.
18. Our Challenges
• Credibility “ they might just hang
out at the beach’
• Professional Body Accreditation
• University wide terminology – SEP v
‘spy’
• Consistency of message and
resources/ templates
• Academic and student awareness
• Academic supervisor ‘buy-in’
Wrong reasons to take up
the SEP:
Would like to suspend
studies
See it as the ‘easy option’
Would like to join friends
SEP
Can’t find a ‘traditional
placement’
19. Challenges for the students;
• Motivation
• Self-doubt
• Finances
• Location
• Friendship groups
• Communication
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28. Outcomes
• Development of business & enterprise skills
• Development of self-awareness and self-reflection
• Personal development – confidence/ self belief
• Future proofing / generating business & career options
• Tolerance of uncertainty risk and failure
• Final year dissertation and studies
29. Successful SEP?
• Revenue generation awareness
• Reflection of skills developed
• Future career planning
• Networks
• Managing risk and failure
• Confidence/self-belief
• Complete assessment in line with requirements
• HEAR
31. Objective
To measure the value of the Self-Employed Placement in terms of
student careers and degree classification.
- Graduate positions
- Careers in entrepreneurship and self-employment
33. Limitations
- Inactive LinkedIn profiles
- No way to reach students from earlier years
- No guarantee students will answer the survey
34. Findings
(Graduates)
70% of graduates said a SEP affected them positively
100% of graduates said the SEP helped them to get to where they are
today
58% of our SEP graduates are now in course related jobs
17% have started another business
35. Findings
(4th year students)
- 90% answered that there has been
a positive impact
-22% of our current final years are
saying that they have plans to start
another business after graduation
(compared to 17% from years before)
36. Lessons Learned and Future Plans
• Insurances
• Licences
• Expectations v. reality
• Communications
• All 5 faculties & cross faculty SEPs
• Mini SEPs
Editor's Notes
Welcome.
Introduction
Housekeeping
We are not experts – we are always looking for ways we can improve so any suggestions/ questions please ask as we go along. Would like today to be very interactive.
Def which we use for staff and students-
We are ahead of the game with this opportunity. Recently we hosted an inter-university SEP day where we shared our experiences and process with 18 other universities who are looking to offer this in their own institutions.
Crucial: About skills development not how much money you make. Skills such as communication, project management, decision making,
You will need to know how you are going to support yourself during the year.
Some make money from the word go – some not at all.
When they first enquire we do go through a personal survival budget with them – can they survive if the business does not make money from day one? Some businesses will bring in an income straight a way and some won’t event across 12 months – really variable on type of company
Prof accreditation is handled by the faculty
In context here at UoP
They already have a business idea they wish to pursue
They are considering starting their own business or becoming self-employed when they graduate and they want to see if it is for them
Independence and freedom to try out their new ideas
QAA - is everybody aware of QAA HE guidance for HE?
We use this as our ‘bible’
Ad hoc sessions – awareness
A lot of our programmes and curriculum work helps to develop mindset and capabilities and then seps bring it to effectiveness
We are really keen to emphasise to our students that a sep can be setting up as a sole trader / Ltd co/ partnership/ freelancing/ consultancy – basically as long as it comes under self-employment – The one they struggle with the most tends to be freelancing and understanding what constitutes freelaancing
Also this stresses the point that it is perfeclty ok for them to have a parttime job as well
Before 2012 was inexistence in a less formal manner….
Trend in right direction and quality does improve year on year
Enquiries down this year so about to embark on a promotional push
We have a pack for you each to take and we will send this out as well
Engaged academics (with subject expertise) are vital to feed in to student experience.
Free hotdesking space – graduated payment system
Don’t’ have to be based here but that is the ideal
Access to a desk, more than that the nest community – share ideas, help each other out, feed off the buzz of working with other like minded students
Start your own business/freelance during your placement year
Be your own boss
Test your ideas and see if they work
CLICK ON IMAGE TO PLAY VIDEO
Woflden – digital media studies but set up graphic design studio – moved into branding and now exploring social media and marketing – also employs 2 1st yr interns
SEP student – 2017
16 subcontracted staff
2 franchises
Simple business model – really driven it forward
Now struggling to keep up with growth of business and planning for his final year at Uni
Andrew martin
Grad from computer games tech in 2014 –set up Little Kraken games studio during sep – applied to go on New Entrepreneurs Foundation 2015 then set up inkpact
Charlotte from Inkpact – A marketing company marketing and communication campaigns through personalised handwritten notes and letters.
Provide work from home roles.
“By 2020... we want to create work from home roles for over 100,000 people in the UK and be at the forefront for promoting writing and literacy across the world, so as our business scales so too can the social impact we have on peoples lives right on our doorstep.”
Previous seps have gone on to employ other students on placement e.g distiinction games / new media solutions
One of reasons why we introduced our mandatory sep workshop to cover and highlight some of the fundamentals of business