PTC5042 - Professional Development and Placement

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate the ability to apply, in the workplace, knowledge and skills gained from the academic study of Politics programmes.
Reflect on and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses across a range of key employability skills.
Develop further employability skills, including digital skills; apply employability skills, including a level of enterprise and initiative, in the workplace and perform to a satisfactory standard.
Produce written evaluations of professional and academic employability experience as part of a team.

Content:

This module follows on from PTC 4042 Professional Placement. 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.

The module will also include development of further employability skills, including digital skills.

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 the Employer and Partnership Office (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, and skills and preparation for attachment/assessment.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Learning and teaching takes place through tutor-led discussion amongst placement tutees, and through a one day conference and workshop sessions, covering (as may be applicable to specific placement plans): oral presentations, poster presentations, email reporting, briefings, discussions, practical activities (role play, drafting, writing), and matters relating to the requirements of the preparatory portfolio and report. Individual tutorials with Placement Tutor/Development Tutor are provided before the placement starts. Student briefing and information documentation will be provided by the Module Coordinator and Employer Partnership Manager in the induction meeting.

Workshops
Hours: 30
Intended Group Size: 50

Guided independent study
Hours: 170

Further details relating to assessment
Assessment 1 - Portfolio: this comprises a CV, a report on a personalised careers research project and a digital skills assessment.
Assessment 2 - Report: this should also include a scholarly evaluation of the placement in the context of wider secondary reading. Students will present their careers research project in class, send in a reflective diary to their placement tutor, and participate in a poster day - all as formative assessment for informal peer and tutor feedback.

Other relevant matters
Workshops will consist of student discussion of preparatory reading, framed and guided by tutor presentations and presentations from EPO and Careers.

Students may undertake a placement abroad, provided it is approved by the EPO (the University offers a bursary scheme to contribute towards the costs of study abroad and has also introduced a Scholarship scheme to help enable study abroad).

Assessment:

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Josh Poklad
Level - 5
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered -

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