In 2020, we conducted a qualitative study exploring a Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in Software Engineering at the University of Glasgow, focusing on student experiences, institutional motivations, and employer perspectives. A key component of this work involved life story interviews with nine students, capturing their learning trajectories and sense-making of their experiences early in the program. Now that these students have completed their degrees, we conducted a follow-up study to examine their perspectives and pathways. Using a longitudinal narrative approach, we re-interviewed prior participants from the first GA cohort. Our study seeks to understand how these individuals reflect on their GA experiences, how their stories have changed over time, and how they situate their program participation within their broader professional and personal development. By analyzing these narratives, we explore the long-term impacts of apprenticeship-based education and contribute to the literature on work-based learning in computing education. This work also provides additional insight into the ways stories of educational experiences evolve over time.

Computing educators strive to align curricula with workforce needs yet rarely articulate how professional competencies, behaviors, and responsibilities develop across different educational pathways. As the community moves beyond the 2027 curriculum revision cycle, bridge pathways spanning vocational, undergraduate, graduate, and non-computing entry routes are rapidly expanding. At the same time, widespread AI use requires curricula to more explicitly address professional judgment, accountability, and ethical reasoning, in addition to technical skills. This working group brings participants together to map, compare, and synthesize real curriculum and pathway artifacts using shared academic and workforce frameworks. Participants will build a competency-oriented pathway framework, identify recurring bridge pathway designs and gaps, and produce practical, post-2027 guidance that supports coherent, scalable, and internationally transferable computing curricula.

This study examines the development of reflective practice among students in an undergraduate work-based Software Engineering program. Using two established models of reflection - Boud et al.'s Model of Reflective Process and Bain et al.'s 5R Framework for Reflection - we analyse a series of reflective reports submitted by students over four years. Our longitudinal analysis reveals clear trends in how students' reflective abilities evolve over the course of the program. We find that more sophisticated forms of reflection, such as integration of knowledge, appropriation of skills, and reconstruction of practice, increase markedly in prevalence in later years. The complementary nature of workplace experience and university study is highlighted in students' reflections, demonstrating a key benefit of the work-based learning approach. Our findings provide insight into how reflective practice develops in Software Engineering education and suggest potential value in incorporating more structured reflection into traditional degree programs.

The software engineering graduate apprenticeship program at the School of Computing, University of Glasgow, has a significant emphasis on work-based learning (WBL), with approximately 80% of the students' time over four years spent in the workplace. This work-based aspect of the program plays a more prominent role in the final two years, by which time apprentices are undertaking increasingly larger roles in the workplace. In this report, we present how we addressed the challenge of structuring and assessing WBL in these senior years such that there is a balance between professional competency attainment and ranked academic achievement, while providing a fair and flexible structure. Based on a model of WBL presented by Raelin in 1997, we outline our rationale for dividing the assessments into workplace projects, workplace journal, and a portfolio of artefacts. The projects are categorised into different types both for flexibility and to encourage academia-industry collaboration, the workplace journal encourages higher forms of reflection, while the portfolio assessment encourages and assesses the attainment of professional competencies. We present our experience of implementing this structure, an analysis of student feedback, and the adjustments made in response. With an increasing focus on work-ready skills and competency-based education in software engineering education, we expect the theory-informed structure we developed, and our experience of running and adapting it, to serve as an exemplar for developing a WBL program at research-led institutions.

Work-based learning (WBL) programs in Software Engineering provide students with opportunities to apply academic knowledge in the workplace. However, how students navigate the transition between knowledge and skills acquired at university and their application in the workplace remains largely unexplored. We implemented a WBL Software Engineering program in which students spend most of their time in the workplace rather than at university. Reflective student essays were used to examine how our implementation supports the integration and transfer of learning between academic and professional contexts. University modules - such as those on software design patterns and programming - offered directly applicable skills, while foundational knowledge and problem-solving frameworks supported further development. Workplace experiences reinforced understanding, provided context, and enabled practical application. However, skills such as project management, leadership, and context switching were primarily developed in the workplace, revealing gaps between academic team projects and industry needs. Difficulties in transferring some advanced technical skills also point to a disconnect between academic instruction and industry application. Our findings suggest a cyclical relationship between university and workplace learning, with each enhancing the other. We propose key considerations for WBL program design, including curriculum alignment, structured skill development, and integrated delivery. Finally, we underscore the value of reflective essays in observing and supporting skill integration.

The academic preparation of computing graduates ready for successful long-term careers remains challenging due to a variety of factors, with most universities still unable to incorporate competencies into their education. Competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions expected from these graduates during task performance. This panel presents three different perspectives on how work experiences may be incorporated into the program curriculum to develop the needed competencies.

Competencies may be defined as the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions that an individual is required to demonstrate in order to be considered professionally competent. Competency-based education has long been a feature of professional degree programs, but the discipline of Computing Science has only recently begun to embrace competencies as a means of structuring or evaluating students' learning. Meanwhile, the practice of work-based learning - also well-established in other professional disciplines - has become more prevalent in Computing Science education, with increasing emphasis placed on work-based modes of learning, such as internships and apprenticeships. In this paper, we examine how students enrolled on a degree-level apprenticeship in Software Engineering have developed their professional competencies in the workplace. The paper is based on an analysis of 38 student assignments, wherein apprentices were asked to identify the competencies they have demonstrated, with reference to a portfolio of work. The UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment, which outlines the competencies required for certification as an Incorporated Engineer, provided the necessary framework. Competencies relating to communication and inter-personal skills were among those most often cited by apprentices, with competencies relating to knowledge and understanding and design and development systems also featuring prominently. Competencies relating to responsibility, management, or leadership were less prevalent, with professional commitment proving to be the least commonly cited category of competencies. We provide examples of how apprentices claim to have demonstrated each competency, and discuss the implications of these findings for competency-based learning in Computing Science education.

Equality of access to higher education is a priority for governments the world over. For example, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal relating to Quality Education includes a target to “ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university” by 2030 (United Nations, 2022). For those from areas of relative socioeconomic deprivation, the cost of studying for a degree qualification represents a barrier to participation. As such, apprenticeships and similar forms of work-based learning are cited as a means of overcoming this barrier, offering students an opportunity to earn a wage while pursuing their degree. The work described here explores how - and to what extent - a work-based degree in Software Engineering has facilitated wider participation in higher education, through a series of in-depth interviews with apprentices from relatively deprived backgrounds. Analysis suggests that economic considerations are chief among the concerns of apprentices from areas of deprivation; however, the relevant factors are evidently intersectional in nature, and often intertwined with a wider range of personal circumstances, including the effects of previous choices about education and work. As such, we believe this work has implications for how we understand the potential for work-based degrees in Software Engineering and Computing Science to widen access to higher education, and for universities to contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainability Goal of affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education.

Work-based degree programmes are seen as a means of addressing the reported lack of employability skills in Computing Science (CS) graduates. In the UK, work-based CS degree programmes – or apprenticeships – were established to close this skills gap. In Scotland, a national ‘meta-skills’ framework has been developed, comprising twelve employability skills (for example, ‘Adapting’, ‘Communicating’) grouped under three headings (Self management, Social intelligence, and Innovation). This paper explores how a cohort of Software Engineering apprentices (N = 30) developed these meta-skills during their time in the workplace, across the first year of their programme. Apprentices were asked to report on the meta-skills they felt they had developed most in the workplace, with reference to the published framework. The most prevalent skill said to have been developed in the workplace was ‘Communicating’, followed by ‘Focusing’ and ‘Adapting’, both of which fall under the heading of ‘Self management’. The data presented here illustrate how students developed their meta-skills while working as apprentice Software Engineers. Meanwhile, a significant emergent theme that appears to underpin the development of many of these meta-skills is confidence. This work provides evidence of how a Software Engineering apprenticeship may develop specific employability skills. It supports assumptions about the benefits of work-based learning in computing education, and suggests that apprenticeships may help address the employability skills deficit in CS graduates.

This Practice Work-in-Progress paper presents a work-based undergraduate degree program in Software Engineering, designed in consultation with industry. Work-based learning is often seen as a means of ensuring university graduates are equipped with the skills and knowledge required to succeed in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the program has prepared students for working in industry. To this end, the students were surveyed after they had completed their first semester, and returned to their workplace for two months. Qualitative analysis of survey data revealed the aspects of their first year courses that apprentices valued most in the workplace. These aspects included exposure to multiple programming languages and existing codebases, as well as knowledge of Software Engineering tools and practices. Underpinning many of the students’ responses, however, was the increased confidence that their university instruction afforded them in the workplace.

This work contributes to a better understanding of computing teachers' perceptions of themselves as role models. Role models are described as important to address under-representation, yet there is little in-depth research on how role modeling works and what university teachers in computing can model to broaden participation in the discipline. We will analyze teachers' reflections on how they may, or want to, be perceived by their students, particularly in terms of professional competencies, emotions and attitudes towards well-being. We will use and further develop an already existing framework on role modeling in computing, and we will relate our findings to existing research on computing and science identities. Modeling aspects outside the computing norm can help provide students with a wider notion of what it means to be a computer scientist. Besides developing the theoretical understanding of computing teachers as role models , our work can support various ways of developing computing teachers' competences and departments' teaching culture. The results are one way to contribute to student diversity and equitable access, and more broadly increase the relevance of computing education for sustainability.

This paper investigates three types of user interface: VR, Gesture-based, and Tangible. We examine how user experience differs across these different technologies, and explore the factors that underpin the differences. We conduct an empirical study, in which we create three different interactive exhibits that apply these technologies to deliver the same scientific content. The study uses a mixed-method approach to measure two factors. First, user experience is measured accorded to six dimensions of user experience: attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, simulation, and novelty. Second, attention holding power is measured by playing time. The study uses semi-structured interviews to explore the user experience and learning outcomes afforded by each interface. Thirty-one subjects took part the study. The results show that there are significantly different user experiences when using different types of interface. There are differences across five user experience dimensions; only novelty is relatively unchanged. Differences are found primarily between the VR and Gesture, and Tangible and Gesture conditions. No significant difference in holding power between the three types of interface was observed. The statistical analysis of results and interview data from participants suggest six aspects to focus on when choosing an alternative interface for a new interactive exhibit: novelty, user-friendliness, precision of the input device, task and device design, multi-modality of feedback, and quality of text in VR.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread changes to how the higher education sector operates. In this paper, the experience of delivering an eight-week undergraduate Software Engineering programme during the pandemic is discussed. The programme in question exhibits a number of unique features, including the intensive nature of the teaching, and the timing of its delivery, which coincided almost exactly with the introduction of lockdown measures. Reflections are offered on the rapid transition to online delivery of three different modules, including consideration of students' wellbeing. The implications for Software Engineering education, and online education more broadly, are considered.

This paper explores the potential for new work-based apprenticeship degrees to encourage more women into computing degrees and the IT sector. In the UK, women are currently under-represented on computing courses. Meanwhile the IT industry requires more computing graduates, in general, and specifically more highly skilled women to create appropriate products and systems. The UK has recently introduced apprenticeship computing degrees, where the apprentice is a work-based employee. In some models, apprentices spend 20% of their time on Higher Education studies and also gain credits through work-based learning; in others, apprentices spend blocks of time in Higher Education and the workplace. These degrees offer a new and innovative route to studying computing at university. Largely funded by employers, apprentices are salaried, and their fees are paid, paving the way for more people to study for a degree. The work context enables apprentices to keep their jobs (if relevant) or to move into IT roles and start a computing degree without necessarily having computing qualifications; the degrees have no upper age limit. Extending the work-based approach of US cooperative education and student work placement models, apprenticeship degrees have been introduced to increase skills levels through a close partnership between universities and employers. This is particularly important in IT, where the sector is expanding, and employers are looking for both good technical and personal skills. With this model, employers are collaboratively involved in the design of the degrees and apprentices graduate with extensive work experience.We posed the following research question: Are there differences in the paths into computing apprenticeship degrees between women and men? A survey was conducted with apprentices beginning a degree in Fall 2019: Cyber Security, Data Science, IT Management for Business, or Software Engineering/Development. Participants were asked about their routes into the apprenticeship and the IT sector. Apprentices at five universities in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland completed the survey, on paper or online (n=85; 23 female, 59 male).The results revealed a less severe gender imbalance than with comparative on-campus degrees (28% female), but this varied greatly across the subjects, from Data Science, where 55% of respondents identified as female and IT Management for Business (40% female), to Software Development (27% female) and Cyber Security (only 11% female). Apprentices were more likely to have started the degree at least a few years after leaving school and this was especially true for women. More female respondents had also been with their current employer for over five years. However, women were slightly more likely to have joined their employers in order to start the apprenticeship.This initial work identifies opportunities to recruit women onto computing degree apprenticeships, for example by targeting women who have started careers. It also highlights that there are challenges in recruiting women into certain subject areas, especially Cyber Security, but also Software Development. Exploring our respondents' motivations for choosing their subjects illuminates the gender balance challenge and indicates how degree apprenticeships can encourage more women into the IT sector.

No abstract available.

Goal-directed problem-solving labs can lead a student to believe that the most important achievement in a first programming course is to get programs working. This is counter to research indicating that code comprehension is an important developmental step for novice programmers. We observed this in our own CS-0 introductory programming course, and furthermore, that students weren't making the connection between code comprehension in labs and a final examination that required solutions to pencil-and-paper comprehension and writing exercises, where sound understanding of programming concepts is essential. Realising these deficiencies late in our course, we put on three 3-hour optional revision evenings just days before the exam. Based on a mastery learning philosophy, students were expected to work through a bank of around 200 pencil-and-paper exercises. By comparison with a machine-based hackathon, we called this a Thinkathon. Students completed a pre and post questionnaire about their experience of the Thinkathon. While we find that Thinkathon attendance positively influences final grades, we believe our reflection on the overall experience is of greater value. We report that: respected methods for developing code comprehension may not be enough on their own; novices must exercise their developing skills away from machines; and there are social learning outcomes in programming courses, currently implicit, that we should make explicit.

Work-based learning (WBL) is a delivery model that attempts to address the isolation of theory and practice by integrating them into a single programme. The concern is that through lack of experience and understanding, both universities and industry may devise 'Frankenstein' curricula, harming individuals rather than helping them. This poster introduces a small project to support curricula development by proposing universities act as both the learning provider and workplace for apprentice Research Software Engineers (RSEs).