Assessing the Benefit of In-House Work Experience for University Students

摘要

The Department of Management Studies, (DOMS) has had a Computer Laboratory for a decade. DOMS IT environment has become increasingly complex. From having less than 20 standalone PCs and workstations in 1991, the Lab evolved to have responsibility for a departmental network of roughly 100 computers by 1999. This netwrok is a subnet on the Campus WAN. Further, the Lab staff of 1996, undertook to network the entire Faculty of Social Sciences. Grossly understaffed, with only a Computer Lab Manager and one full-tiem Comptuer Lab Technician to serve a minimum of 3,000 students, 50 academic and administrative staff members; student computer lab technicians (LTs) have been relied on over the years, to research, install, configure, design, build, repair and maintain computers and networkinfrastucture. The increasing dependence of staff ad students on computer technology has increased the demands made on LTs. LTs have befefitedby effectively serving as apprentices for a range of IT positions. This brief paper reflects on LTs experience discussing: 1) Whether LTs felt they had an advantage inthe job market because of this work experience. 2) A bid to award LTs academic recognition for their work. 3) LT recruitment to ensure that those most likely to thrive in the environemtn are selected. 4) The relationship between academic performance and performance as a LT.