ABSTRACT
In common with a large number of vocationally focussed degree courses, undergraduate students of building are normally required to undergo a period of practical industry experience as a component of their course. For course accreditation by the Australian Institute of Building, a minimum period of 1200 hours of ‘relevant’ industrial experience is required. It is common practice in Australian university building courses to rely on the students to organise their own ‘relevant’ industry experience. The student’s supervisor at university often relying on the combined written statements of the student and their employer as to the suitability of the experience gained by the student. The result of this lack of control or specificity, is that the education and training many students receive while undertaking the mandatory practical experience component of their course, is likely to be highly variable in quality and/or relevance. It appears inappropriate, to say the least, that this compulsory and time significant, component of a course should leave the education and training aspects to chance.
This paper examines the relevance of field placement and discusses ways of incorporating co-operative education links with industry and formal classroom learning in a way which is integrated to make the experiences deep sources of productive learning.
