New partners to explore barriers and benefits of work placements on widening participation

TASO has appointed the University of Surrey and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to map out the barriers faced by widening participation (WP) students in accessing and benefiting from courses that involve a work experience placement – also known as ‘sandwich courses’. This project will also assess the potential for interventions to overcome these barriers.

This appointment follows an open call earlier this year for providers to investigate the reasons why students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds do not participate in these courses at the same rate as their more advantaged peers.

The two appointed providers will work on different but related angles of this issue:

• The University of Surrey will look at increasing intention to complete a sandwich course.
• NTU will look at converting intention to complete a sandwich course into a work placement or year in industry.

The objectives of the project are:

• Collect primary and secondary data to explore equality gaps in uptake of sandwich courses and placements within sandwich courses.
• Collect primary data to map the perceived barriers, and suggested solutions, WP students face when accessing sandwich courses.
• Develop theories of change (ToC) that set out the mechanisms through which sandwich courses can be used to improve employment outcomes for WP students.
• Make recommendations as to which approaches are promising to increase uptake of sandwich courses among WP students.

This project is part of TASO’s research theme on equality gaps in employment and employability.

Earlier this year, TASO published an evidence review for that research theme and a briefing note (PDF) focused primarily on sandwich courses.

The evidence suggests that sandwich course participation can support better employment outcomes for WP students and contribute to the elimination of equality gaps. However, WP students are less likely to undertake these courses.

The project will end in Spring 2023, with final reports and theories of change expected to launch in the Spring/Summer 2023.