Content:

This module follows on from SOC 4222 Professional Placement and enables students to prepare appropriate professional experience and networking opportunities for SOC 6044 Professional Portfolio. Across these modules students are expected to develop insights into potential career avenues and to identify productive ways of interrelating academic learning with relevant professional practice.
Career evaluation and planning is expected to continue across all 3 modules and a career-action plan, identifying key skills and work-experience needs, should be continued across the placement reports, helping to define the nature and purpose of SOC 6044 Professional Portfolio.
The module includes a programme preparing students for the placement: Introduction to Professional Development Planning and Placements at Level 5; Interview with Placement Tutor; Placement with suitable organisation(s), normally six weeks in total. Completion of Portfolio and Report (including Career Research project).
In semester 1 the workshop sessions guide and support the students through the process of choosing and applying for appropriate placements. In semester 2 there will be a series of sessions preparing the students for the placement. These will normally include discussion of and lectures on wider theoretical and practical reading on work, and presentations from staff in EPO and Careers. Topics include job satisfaction, relevant fields of employment, definitions of employment, professionalism, higher-order graduate skills, team work, careers planning, employability skills, briefings on EPO procedures, skills and preparation for attachment/assessment.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Assessment:

001 Portfolio 1500 words equivalent 30%
002 Placement 0%
003 Report 70%