Abstract

This paper reports on a pilot study of Czech academics on the perception of industry placements as a form of professional development. An industry placement requires an academic to work in a host firm for a pre-determined period of time to undertake an agreed-to job role and perform specific tasks. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, this study gathered information about the perceived value of an industry placement as: i) a means to build capacity in teaching and learning practices for key stakeholders, identified as: universities, industry partners, academics and students; and ii) an opportunity to develop communities of practice, according to the theories of Lave and Wenger (1991), that include the principles of learning through legitimate peripheral participation. Implicit in the communities of practice theory is the formation of networks and voluntary contribution to knowledge by the members of such communities, who make varied contributions through different levels of participation. Additionally, this study ‘tested’ a previously developed conceptual model for industry placements in terms of its relevance and application to the research findings. The paper concludes that there seems to be a high level of interest from Czech academics in pursuing an industry placement, however, the implementation of such schemes is likely to face significant hurdles, as higher education institutions will need adequate specific purpose funding to enable them to successfully implement industry placement programs, and perhaps the Australian government’s “Researchers in Business” program may provide a suitable framework.