Sampling the Operational Research OR world: The Strathclyde ‘apprenticeship’ scheme

A few years ago, Strathclyde University’s postgraduate course in Operational Research OR was redesigned. A significant innovation was to introduce a short working placement part-way through the course-the ‘apprenticeship’ period-which students spend as tempory members of real-life Operational Research OR (or directly-related) groups. This paper reports on two aspects of this apprenticeship scheme: how it has worked as an educational exercise, and what the students’ experiences have told us about the general state of Operational Research OR in the U.K.