Dear All,
I hope this finds you well!
Thank you again for all your interest and valuable insights regarding the creation of the “Cooperative Management and Marketing” programme at the University of Essex. We are excited to move ahead with you on this initiative so as to strengthen and spread cooperative knowledge and community building among both students and co-ops.
Based on our discussions, I have put together the following general information that we can use as a foundation for constructively moving forward.
Overview
“Cooperative Management and Marketing – Capstone Module” is a new final year project (‘capstone’) module that focuses on managing and marketing cooperative and worker-owned businesses. Direct involvement with cooperatives is a key part of the module and the research project the student will develop will tie in closely with the real-life organisation(s). It has a distinct focus on cooperatives and takes a work-based learning approach. Students in the module will have an academic supervisor but will also work with and potentially across cooperative organisations. The final output is a short dissertation/extended research paper produced by the student based on their academic learning within the module and practical experience with the co-operative organisations.
Timeframe
The module runs throughout the Winter and Spring academic terms (from October – April). During this time students will attend scheduled lectures and meetings with their academic supervisor. They will also undertake a work-based placement with one or multiple co-operatives. This placement will nominally be for 120 hours but is flexible in terms of both its ultimate time and arrangements based on the agreed preferences of the student and the participating co-operative. In the summer term (beginning in May) the students will submit an independent research dissertation based on their placements but supervised by the academic team at the University of Essex.
Before the official start of the module in October, the responsible academics will select that students for this pilot module in July and then help partner them with participating co-operatives throughout August and September.
Options for Involvement
We proposed three main “options” for undertaking this work-based learning with co-operatives. They are as follows:
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Option 1 “Fully Embedded Placement” : In the first option the student would embed themselves with one co-operative and work with them on a specific research topic that is of specific and shared interest to both of them. This arrangement would be agreed between the co-opt and the student including the logistics of their time spent with the organisation.
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Option 2 “Shared Placement” : In the second option the student would work with 2-3 co-operatives to help them address a shared challenge that they are currently facing. The student and the co-operatives would collaboratively agree as to how to best structure the placement for this purpose.
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Option 3 Exploratory” : In the third option the students would choose a research topic and then explore it across explore a number of participating co-operatives. This could include attending their meetings, interviewing their members, embedding themselves for a day in their operations during a specific project, etc…
Administration
The administration of these placements will be overseen and primarily completed by the University of Essex. The University has extensive experience both with these types of initiatives and in ensuring that they are of minimal burden to participating organisations. The precise “paperwork” relevant for co-operatives is as follows:
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Tripartite Agreement signed by placement provider, academic supervisor, and the student. This sets out the role and responsibilities of each party. It is not legally binding in any way and is purely an agreement to remind participants of their roles.
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Copies of Employer Liability Insurance and Public Liability Insurance. We would need to see a copy of the ELI and PLI of each co-opt taking part in the module.
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Employer Heath and Safety forms – Student placement health and safety | University of Essex. These have also been amended for smaller organisations and we are also currently asking to see organisations Covid-19 Health and Safety plans.
Additionally, we will provide the following for students:
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Student Risk Assessment Form. This is something I would work through with each student to ensure they are aware of any risks involved and to provide them with guidance on what to expect from their placement provider. https://www.essex.ac.uk/-/media/documents/directories/health-and-safety/student-placement-ra-record.dotx
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Pre-training. There are two moodle courses for preparing them to undertake the placement with you. We will also run an hour session on Preparing for your placement year that covers everything from what to expect, health and safety, well-being and assertiveness tailored specifically for the programme.
We also offer and facilitate the opportunity for co-operatives working on sensitive projects to have students sign an NDA form (though this is considered relatively unusual).
Next Steps
Over the month of July we will officially select the students who are taking the module. We would also like to use this time to continue to identify co-operatives who would like to participate in the initiative. It would be good for us to identify which options interested co-opts would prefer and the topics they would be most interested in students to research.
I know a range of co-ops have contacted me vial email to express their interest in participating. I would like to set up another meeting for the last week of July for all those interested. If you could again email me so that I can add you to the Zoom meeting that would be great!
Many thanks.
Best wishes and in solidarity,
Peter