The Francis Crick Institute: Part 2 - Hosting students for the first time and planning the next group
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Contents
Introduction
This is Part 2 of an industry placement case study about the Francis Crick Institute, a UK flagship for discovery research in biomedicine. It shows their experience of hosting their first two T Level students on placements. It also shows them planning for the next, larger group with the school which provides the students.
Who it’s for
It will be useful for anyone who:
- Is interested in education and early careers
- Is thinking about offering industry placements in their organisation
- Wants to know what’s involved in planning and hosting a placement
- Wants to understand the role of line managers and mentors
- Is interested in how to form a good partnership with the school or college provider
Although it features a big scientific institute, the resource is relevant to organisations of all sizes and types, in all sectors of the economy.
What’s in the resource
The case study consists of several short videos that vividly describe the industry placement experience from the perspectives of:
- Students
- Line managers and mentors
- Placement coordinator
- The school providing the T Level students
Students, line managers and mentors
The two students featured in the case study did their placements in different labs. These videos show:
- What the students think about their experience in the labs
- How their line managers and mentor support them
- What the future holds for the students
Fermentation
Sem – student
“I get to help out the labs in their research – they could be using it for drug discovery or other applications”
Video length: 1 minute 48 seconds
Namita – Sem’s line manager
“Having students there who show a kind of curiosity, just asking a load of questions, really, as well as being a helping pair of hands – it’s great”
“I really love the mentor aspect, helping Sem try and map out where his future career might lead him”
Video length: 2 minutes 52 seconds
Sem and Namita
“You would always ask if I was fine with what I was doing, and you would look over me even if I was doing things on my own” (Sem)
“The questions you asked were very well thought out, things that we probably didn’t even think about” (Namita)
Video length: 1 minute 28 seconds
Ali – Sem’s mentor
“The work Sem did was a mix of experiment plus some documentation, but it was more towards hands-on experience”
Video length: 1 minute 54 seconds
Sem and Ali
“You’ve always shown – even from the very first day – curiosity, willingness to learn, and you always had the right attitude. You can certainly be a very good researcher” (Ali)
Video length: 1 minute 28 seconds
Histopathology – Maciej and Rick
Maciej – student
“Every day I was coming in doing some embedding, doing some microtomy, and over time I was just getting better and better at it”
“When I was feeling like I needed support, I needed help, I felt I could just go to anyone and ask ‘What am I doing?’ and if they didn’t know they’d go to someone else”
Video length: 2 minutes 20 seconds
Rick – Sem’s co-mentor
“For us it’s an opportunity to step back, look at our processes, look at the way we train, look at how we communicate our skills, techniques and information”
“We benefit from having that fresh pair of eyes, someone who’s questioning, who’s curious – you can see they’re keen to work, they’re becoming what you’d expect someone in a workplace to be”
Video length: 3 minutes 07 seconds
Placement coordinator and provider
The first three videos show part of a conversation between the Crick’s placement coordinator, Ellie Horner, and Carol Gamble, head of science at the school which provides the T Level students.
They talk about:
- How Sem’s and Maciej’s placements went
- How to match placement opportunities to students’ interests
- Planning the next group of students and continuing the partnership between them
Sem’s and Maciej’s placements
“I don’t think we could have had two better advocates for the T Level programme at the Crick – they’ve been phenomenal” (Ellie)
“Thinking about going forward, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to Sem and Maciej in their next steps – it feeds into that idea of a clear line of sight into work” (Carol)
Video length: 2 minutes 21 seconds
Matching placements to students
“The matching process is going to be quite different this year… we’re now thinking through their interests, which is a big part of trying to match them” (Ellie)
“We’ve a good understanding of what’s going on and what the opportunities are – I don’t think we’ll have problems placing them when they see all the choices available to them” (Carol)
Video length: 2 minutes 24 seconds
Planning ahead
“If we can get to ten, it’s a good size group and we know you can accommodate them – our goal is to have them all with you because I think we have a formula that works”
“Having that foundational relationship has meant that we can feel secure in the partnership – it feels very exciting that we might have ten [students] in at once” (Ellie)
Video length: 1 minute 01 seconds
In this video, Carol reflects on:
- How the partnership between the school and the Crick developed
- The benefits to students of doing their placement in one of the Crick’s labs
“If you have a good relationship, a good dynamic, and you trust each other, and you work together – I think that’s a huge contribution”
“[As a student] you’re being given responsibility, you’re expected to work at the standard the other scientists are working at – and on top of that it’s the connections you make and the opportunities going forward”
Video length: 2 minutes 08 seconds