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Identity and belonging for graduate apprenticeships in computing: the experience of first cohort degree apprentices in Scotland

Taylor-Smith, Ella; Smith, Sally; Smith, Colin

Authors

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Prof Sally Smith S.Smith@napier.ac.uk
Head of Graduate Apprenticeships and Skills Development and Professor



Abstract

In September 2017, our university’s first graduate apprentices began degrees in Software Development, Cybersecurity, and Information Technology Management for Business. This study explores how apprentices experience their association with the university and identities as students, but also employees. In Scotland, Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) are undergraduate degrees in which the students are in full-time employment, while completing degree modules over four years, as for a traditional full-time degree. The curriculum follows a skills framework designed by employers so that graduates have the professional and technical attributes required by the industry. The degrees parallel Degree Apprenticeships in England, though there are national differences in implementation.
Themes of identity and belonging are central to current investigations of the experience of STEM students, especially computing students, as fewer students choose STEM courses, and many transfer out of their subjects or do not complete their degrees. The research hypothesis is that the apprentices’ employment will provide a strong IT professional identity supports their progress at university.
Semi-structured interviews with apprentices in the first computing cohorts explored their situated perspectives. Responses were identified which concerned the apprentices’ identity as students or employees, including themes around belonging. Thematic analysis of these responses revealed that apprentices defined themselves in opposition to traditional student identities and did draw strength from their identity as employees. They experienced belonging specifically within their GA cohort—the first of its kind in the university. A better understanding of identity and belonging can be used by universities to address the challenges of retention.

Citation

Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., & Smith, C. (2019). Identity and belonging for graduate apprenticeships in computing: the experience of first cohort degree apprentices in Scotland. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’19) (2-8). https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319753

Conference Name Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE)
Conference Location Aberdeen
Start Date Jul 15, 2019
End Date Jul 17, 2019
Acceptance Date Apr 11, 2019
Publication Date Jul 2, 2019
Deposit Date Apr 12, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Publisher Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages 2-8
Book Title Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’19)
ISBN 978-1-4503-6895-7
DOI https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319753
Keywords Graduate apprenticeship, degree apprenticeship, work-based learning, identity, belonging
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1722883

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Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full cit
ation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permiss
ion and/or a fee. Request permissions from Permissions@acm.org.
ITiCSE '19, July 15–
1
7, 2019, Aberdeen, Scotland UK
© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.
ACM ISBN
978
-
1
-
4503
-
6301
-
3/19/07...$15.00
https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319753







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