Linking students & industry

Olga explains that her role is centred around providing careers support for physics students and engaging with business; “these are two complementary roles: students come to talk to me about their career interests and motivation about getting an internship, industrial placement, or a job, we discuss their skills and strengths and I point them to companies that I know that employ physics graduates This also gives me more understanding of what physics students need to have professionally to be suited for a diversity of employment opportunities and, subsequently, we feed this back into what and how we teach at the school. These activities enable a closer relationship between students, the industry and the school”.  

In establishing the placements programme, the School of Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham has drawn on the experience, best practice and processes used at the School of Engineering where industry placements are very much the norm. Olga comments that “the School of Engineering is a “behemoth” of placements at our university while the School of Physics and Astronomy adopted the programme fairly late due to the cultural differences of the disciplines taught: physics being a fundamental science where academic foundation has been a priority, whereas engineering is an applied discipline with a strong focus on industrial applications and therefore, connection to industry.  However, over the past few years there has been real change and the importance of industry experience is fully recognised and appreciated at the School.” 

Olga reflects: “There’s such value in the year-long industrial experience for our students. From exposing oneself to an environment with a different set of responsibilities and challenges, interacting closely with experts in the team, adjusting to the pace of a business organisation, to discovering one’s professional strengths and seeing broader opportunities for the future.”

Olga uses a digital platform – Mahara – to keep in touch with students on placements and read about their progress. This online portfolio software allows students to keep their reflective log (part of the year in industry assessment), where they record what they learned, the ups and down of the placement and most importantly, keep in touch with each other as a placements cohort, where they see where each one is based, in what role and can chat and share experiences.

Like all universities, the University of Nottingham has a central careers service providing general career support and advice to all students. Olga explains that when the year in industry programme was introduced within the School of Physics and Astronomy, a dedicated role was set up to boost industrial placements for physics students and provide closer support and mentoring, more tailored to physics students where connections to industry may not be so obvious. As well as arranging placements through connections with industry, Olga also runs a diverse range of events. For example, “Physics Futures” events where students meet physics alumni in a round-table networking event, a ‘Placement Kickstart’ event which prepares students for a placement hunt at the beginning of an academic year, and a dedicated careers physics week where final year students are advised about career choice, and are coached on all aspects of the application process. Students can also make use of the WRIPA organised physics-focused recruitment and placements fair that takes place each October. Olga’s dedicated role within the School of Physics and Astronomy means she can bring industrial connections as well as those that are shared within WRIPA, to the School beyond student placements. Developing industry partnerships has many benefits from potential scientific collaborations and grant applications to more physics specific placements, and summer internships, and short-term research projects.

The benefit of alumni

The Physics Future event that Olga organises, brings Nottingham physics alumni to the school to talk to current physics students. Alumni talk about the vast diversity of jobs and career paths that someone with a physics degree can take. It is an exciting event where alumni from different industrial fields and at different career levels, with different strengths and competencies come to share stories about how their decisions, circumstances as well as how chance played out to shape their career. Olga reflects on the event from March 2023: “we run it as a fairly informal round table discussion. We had two alumni per table and we asked them to take turns and give a two minute pitch about their career and how they got there. There were no power point presentations, no ‘one way’ talks, only relatable stories and discussions that unpack decisions and steps that have led to where these people are now professionally. Alongside a reflection on how a physics degree enabled that. There was networking afterwards, and many conversations. Student engagement is always great and alumni enjoy to give back to the school and share their experience with students One alumnus, representing an academic teaching path and who is now a lecturer said “I cannot remember when I talked to students that much!”“

Connections with alumni is one opportunity for students to engage with business. Other opportunities exist such as the LinkedIn Nottingham Physics Alumni group facilitated by Olga. Olga explains; “such events and platforms allow students to connect with people outside their usual social bubble in a supported manner.” Olga feels this is achieved so successfully by avoiding unnecessary formalisation and allows students to explore career paths they didn’t know existed, learning to connect and engage with new people, and generally build networking and social skills. This is supported further by information provided on the Industrial Experience section on the School webpage as well as the WRIPA Website. 

“Students have a great opportunity to hear human stories behind the careers from people who were in their shoes just a few years ago. For example, getting confirmation that it is actually typical not to know what to do straight upon graduation and have no clear career destination in mind. To crystallise the idea,  it is invaluable to have a wider network beyond the university to get ideas, and information from people who are not your immediate contacts”. Reaching outside of their ‘normal’ information bubble and linking to new information bubbles encourages students to look for knowledge actively and discover a lot on the way. The benefit might not be immediate, but the exploration is about making steps  to find out where they want to be and paving the directions of travel. 

Another benefit of the dedicated Student and Business Relationship Manager roles is that by working so closely with the students who, become our alumni in industry, WRIPA Academy continues to grow and strengthen the links with industry. Olga notes that: “Individual relationships that develop with students while they study  with time develop into a vibrant network of alumni who are willing to give back to the school. I have lots of helpful, inspiring and motivated alumni to call upon if we want  to organise a new event, test an idea of industrial involvement or arrange an industrial project in the school. People are generally very responsive and willing to help. Alumni stay in touch for years, and, pass the connection to me and the uni of someone in their team in case they leave their organisation.” Olga is keen to explore new ideas where the alumni might contribute to shaping professional skills of the students. This maybe, for example Dragons Den’ style panels, and including alumni in the ”Communication skills” module to provide an industry perspective.

Being part of the academy

Being part of WRIPA means that each Student and Business Relationship Manager is connected to the other partner universities for support, idea sharing, best practice development and a wider network of connections. Olga explains that the partners are “not in competition with each other, and therefore this opens up access to more opportunities for our students. Of course different unis do things differently but we can discuss ideas on a WRIPA wide level”.