U58065 Module Guide
U58065 Module Guide
Module Guide
Module introduction..........................................................................................................3
Relationship With Other Modules.....................................................................................4
Learning Outcomes..........................................................................................................5
Teaching and Learning Experience..................................................................................6
What is this module all about?..........................................................................................7
Recommended Reading List............................................................................................9
So what is reflection and why do it?...............................................................................10
Further Food for Thought ..............................................................................................12
Timetable - what you have to do and when....................................................................13
Your Placement Journal.................................................................................................17
Your Skills Audit.............................................................................................................18
The Matrix......................................................................................................................20
Personal Development Plans (PDPs x 4).......................................................................22
26th Week Interim Progress Report ..............................................................................26
End of Placement - Tutor Visit & Your Presentation.......................................................29
Upgrade – Study Advice Service....................................................................................31
Assessment Details........................................................................................................32
Employer / Tutor Assessment Form 2010 / 2011...........................................................33
PDP(s) Assessment Criteria Grid...................................................................................36
26th Week Interim Progress Report Assessment Criteria Grid.......................................37
Presentation Assessment Criteria Grid..........................................................................38
Employer’s Placement Assessment Criteria Grid...........................................................39
Regulations....................................................................................................................41
Cheating.........................................................................................................................42
A note on equal opportunities and diversity....................................................................43
Student evaluation of the module...................................................................................44
U58065 Placement - Student Evaluation Form 2010/11.................................................45
OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY THE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Module introduction
Module Description
A placement job in a business organisation for a minimum of 48 weeks to give a significant
length of time to experience the realities of work. An opportunity for students to build on the
knowledge, understanding, skills and competencies acquired during the earlier part of the
course, to develop those skills to a higher level and acquire others.
WAVES Office
Name: John Lambertstock & Lynn Burge
Room: WAVES Office, Wheatley Campus
Telephone: 01865 485950/5738
eMail: [email protected]
Details of this module’s relationship with other modules & fields can be found on PIP.
Context
i. Students opting for Placement have a real and distinctive advantage in the graduate
job market. As a distinctive and central feature of the Business and Management
degree, all the modules in the first two years are leading up to this work based learning
experience.
ii. Although many of the varied skills can be simulated in the academic environment, there
is no substitute for the real experience of the world of work.
iii. As a group, students bring back to the fourth year of the course the accumulated work
experience of more than a working lifetime of an individual and so can enhance the
final academic study with actual examples from a wide range of different organisations.
In terms of time devoted to the course, the Placement year accounts for about one third
of the total and therefore has a major impact on student development.
iv. The student is required to submit a job description / outline, a letter from the
employers offering the placement and a copy of the company’s Terms and Conditions
of Employment (employment contract) to the Placement Manager for approval before
starting the placement. It is advisable to get the Placement Manager’s approval
before accepting an employment offer.
Content
The emphasis of the Placement year is as a formative process and as such it is very much the
responsibility of the student to analyse their strengths and weaknesses to enable them to
determine their own Learning Objectives and to plan their own development.
Learning Outcomes
2 Disciplinary/Professional Skills
Because of wide variety of Placement jobs, it is not possible to be specific, but students are
likely to be able to develop a range of technical skills, e.g. applications of computer packages,
presentations etc.
3. Transferable Skills
The wide variety of Placement jobs and opportunities make it impossible to state categorically
which Transferable Skills will be practised. However, the vast majority of students should be
able to practice:
Unless the Employing Organisation sends students on Training Courses they are unlikely to be
taught.
As a learning opportunity the Placement year is perhaps the most valuable part of the course.
Employers can offer a learning environment which will enable students to have their own
unique experience of a working organisation. Although their Work Based Project is an entirely
separate module, there is an inevitable link as it provides one means for the student to use
some of their learning experiences at work to incorporate into the report.
Students will be supported by the WAVES Office and a University Tutor who will contact
students during the year to check on progress and help towards the achievement of objectives.
The Employer will be asked to appoint a Workplace Supervisor who is usually the immediate
superior but could be, for instance the Department Head or a Personnel Officer.
Halfway through the Placement Year students will submit an Interim Progress Report. During
the final month students will make a Presentation to the Tutor and the Workplace Supervisor
on their progress towards achieving the Learning Objectives. Students based outside the UK
will also submit an Interim Report. In addition they will be required to submit the visuals and a
supporting commentary for a Presentation; they may then be asked a series of questions about
the content, structure and method of presentation.
Students will be invited back to the University for a Re-Engagement Day when they will report
back on their experiences and progress.
As a minimum requirement, students will be required to demonstrate the achievement of
certain key skills determined by the University, and will be required to set their own personal
Learning Objectives, negotiate a PDP with their Employer and produce an Action Plan to help
monitor progress. The onus is on the student to assume ownership of this process and to use
the opportunities which it offers to their best advantage in order to learn the most from the
particular working environment in which they are placed.
This module aims to assist you presenting your placement not only to your Placement
Tutor and host company but to future graduate employers. It is also possibly helping
you to gather a portfolio of material likely to be useful in your final year.
This module expects you to be a ‘reflective practitioner’ - that is, not just doing
something but thinking about what you are going to do, doing it, thinking about what you
have done in terms of the impact on others and what it taught you about yourself and your
effectiveness.
Important Advice: If the assignments are not done at the correct time you may not be
able to properly evidence reflection on your progress.
It also requires you to think about your reaction and response to what is going on around you
and the people you work with a view to continued positive development of your placement
and informing your future approach.
It is strongly recommended that you keep any evidence of feedback from others about
your work or performance. Even if this is negative you can use it as a start point for
subsequent reflection.
This is not a theoretical module. The techniques and tools suggested in this module are
going to be encountered by you, all through your career and are used by most well structured
and successful businesses of any size or sector. The way you review, articulate and
develop good practice is crucial to your effectiveness, job satisfaction and success.
We are asking you to own the process of your development. Pro-actively seek
opportunities that are going to allow you to develop by evidencing added value to the
company. By maintaining and reviewing your own skills audit (Skills Matrix), Personal
Development Plans, Placement Journal and through shared reflection on your PDP
between you, your colleagues and your workplace manager you can more coherently
express your ideas and are therefore more likely get to where you want to go.
You may recognise the Kolb (1984) four stage ‘experiential learning cycle’ in your progress:
The following webpage is highly recommended and is designed to guide reflective writing.
http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk:8080/rlo/reflective_writing/reflective_writing.html
The following reading is recommended to support the completion of your assignments and
offer you long-term life / career skills that have the potential to significantly increase your
future success. Both are in the library at Oxford Brookes.
Neugebauer, J and Evans-Brain, J. (2009). Making the Most of Your Placement
(Sage Study Skills Series) (184 pages - £16.99)
A useful guide to obtaining and completing a placement.
However you may find that you are in an environment where these formal structures do not
exist and yet you may still need to evidence your continued professional and personal
development, perhaps to gain a qualification or in order to win promotion. You may one day
be in a position yourself of managing and investing in a team in order to get the best results
and output from them. In all these cases, to be effective, you will need to have a clear idea
of how to reflect on your own practice as well as that of others and will usually have to
produce a wide variety of coherent, transparent evidence to support your conclusions.
In this module you will be using the tools of Personal Development Planning and reflective
writing to support your findings. You will, at the end of the placement, be bringing it all
together by giving a concluding presentation to your Placement Tutor and workplace
manager.
Reflection involves describing, analysing and evaluating your own thoughts, assumptions,
beliefs, theory base and actions. It includes:
In completing the assignments in this workbook you will be using all three and should do so,
in a conscious and timely manner, you will be helped by the structured approach of this
module. When you look at a completed piece of reflective writing be aware of which of the
reflective styles above you are adopting and perhaps if there is a bias towards one, think
about how to include the other two.
Alsop and Ryan (1996) offer this useful metaphor to help understand the reflective process:
Reflecting by looking at what we are doing now is like looking at ourselves in a pool of water
or a mirror; it shows us as we are at that point in time.
Reflecting by looking back is like looking at a photograph or video when we return from our
holiday. It tells us about where we went and what we did and whom we met.
• Gather evidence and information (this can be in any format, formal or informal).
• Tell the story of your experience through prospective, spective and retrospective
reflection.
• Identifying themes or issues, taking a step back from the detail and looking holistically
at what you have written down and gathered.
• Thinking about everyone who is involved, from all angles.
• Consideration of the factors influencing your behaviours and experiences – feelings,
beliefs and assumptions as well as the facts.
• Linking thoughts to previous experience and future behaviours, similar / different?
Why / why not?
Learning to use reflective tools to prompt action based on effective reflective thinking will
potentially be a valuable outcome of this module that you can take away and apply widely for
success in development and decision making scenarios after you graduate.
The following is offered in order to perhaps either ‘kick-start’ your thoughts or to recap on some
of the language that whilst used in reflective writing and recruitment is not perhaps part of your
everyday vocabulary.
By looking at these and thinking about their meaning you perhaps discover a way of giving
your writing for this module more depth and context.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters in 2006 stated in a response to a survey of their
members that the following skills, ranked in order, are either important in a graduate’s profile or
difficult to find in graduates leaving University.
Important Skills Difficult to find skills
If you look at many job descriptions and specifications you will see many of these skills either
listed as required or implied in the description of the responsibilities that the position offers.
When putting your placement into the context of your future career aspirations it is probably the
quality of your ability to articulate that you have these skills and attributes from a reflective
perspective that will get you the job.
More important than that, it is the continued attention to the set of skills that match the profile of
the job and your ability to re-evaluate, re-assess and re-align yourself to changing
circumstances that will enable you to progress and transfer success, experience and learning
from one context or opportunity to another.
One interpretation of this might be that, as we know, many undergraduates and graduates
have these skills, however they are not used to the language or the most effective way of
articulating the evidence in a meaningful way to employers or to whoever is wanting to make
an assessment of the individual student. It is the tools and methods that can be ‘learnt’ and
through them the engagement with a reflective way of thinking that can allow for a greater
success at articulating skills relevant to a particular context. At a deeper level a reflective
approach can also prompt positive conscious behavioural change in the individual often at the
micro level but sometimes with amazing results.
Hopefully this module has enabled you to be ahead of the rest in this respect.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You may need to make reference to your placement assignments
in final year modules before you can collect the coursework from the Undergraduate
Office in Semester 2. You are advised to keep your own copies for use in Semester 1
next year.
ο Read the whole Module Guide and Placement Survival Guide - do not attempt to do
anything except understand what is involved, if you need clarification contact us
before you go on placement.
ο MAKE SURE YOUR PLACEMENT IS APPROVED – you should have a signed copy of
the Placement Approval Form. If you have not you are strongly advised to check your
status with the WAVES Office BEFORE THE START OF YOUR PLACEMENT. You will
not pass the module unless your placement has been signed off as approved.
ο Ensure that you are fully enrolled and registered for U58065 across both semesters
on your PIP for your placement year. Don’t forget to update your term time
address.
ο Hand your line manager the Manager’s Guide you were given at the Introductory
Session to this module.
ο Send up to date contact information for yourself and your manager to the WAVES
Office.
ο Return the Health & Safety Induction form found in the Placement Survival Guide to
the WAVES Office.
ο Write your first (of four) quarterly PDPs; it is expected that you do this in discussion
with your manager, who will need to sign the PDP. You are expected to review, reflect
and rewrite your PDP four times during your placement year. These are assessed by
your tutor.
ο Submit your Interim Progress Report (IPR) and your 1st & 2nd fully reviewed
Personal Development Plans (PDP) to your Placement Tutor. The Module Leader will
have informed you of your academic placement (assessment) tutor‘s name and contact
information prior to this date by email to your Brookes email account (so make sure you
maintain contact through your Brookes email account).
ο You will receive feedback via email and telephone if necessary.
ο It would also be a good idea to arrange the date for your Assessment Visit (see below)
with your manager and Placement Tutor so that it is fixed in diaries early.
It is expected that you will email your Placement Tutor shortly after the first month on
placement, to arrange for us to contact both you and your manager by telephone to discuss
how the placement is progressing and to offer our support.
This contact will be by telephone to the number on your Placement Approval or Update
Form. It is your responsibility to ensure that we have the correct numbers to call (use
the form on page 6).
If you want to discuss issues in confidence please arrange a time / number for us to
call you or send an email.
Exceptionally, we will make a visit to your placement location if requested by either you or
your manager and if we think it would be of assistance.
Visits
If we are to visit we will ideally want to see both you and your manager. We will
expect you to coordinate this and agree the date with your manager. The usual format
of visits is that we see the student first for 30 – 40 minutes and then meet with the
manager too for 20 – 30 minutes.
If we make visits please be aware that geographical considerations, journey times and other
Semester One commitments play a part in our availability. (We do not visit outside the UK).
Any contact from us is about supporting you and your manager in order for both parties to
get the best out of your placement. We will talk about your progress – it is about honest and
open exchange of views and feelings in order to explore options for the most constructive
experience possible for both you and your employer.
You are STRONGLY advised to ensure that get an acknowledgment that tutors have
received your work. Keep this confirmation and ALWAYS follow up by posting a hard copy.
Some external email addresses are sometimes seen as ‘junk’ by Brookes spam filters. If you
put a content-specific title to your email it may stop this happening.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALSO KEPT COPIES AND BACKUPS OF YOUR WORK.
To use a journal to its best effect it would be wise to read the section in this workbook on
reflection and reflective writing. It would be a good idea to carry a note book around with
you at work to capture your spective reflections.
Can you accurately remember in detail what you did 10 months ago and the observations
you made at the time about how this influenced you and those around you? Probably not!
This is why we ask you to keep a journal so you can use entries you make in the
assignments and the final presentation to your tutor and line manager at your
placement.
Material and personal accounts/reflections collected and written down by you will prove
invaluable when it comes to completing the assessed assignments. This journal is
confidential and for your eyes only; it is not part of the assessment of the module, but
you could use extracts in your reports. It could be a folder, a booklet, lever arch file or
even a weblog. It is definitely not a diary that has to be filled every day regardless of
value.
Key incidents. These can come from good or bad moments or specific events. Initially you
may find you are recording everything as the start of a placement is a steep learning curve
and you have not developed the context for filtering material. This is OK as you can always
edit later, much better than not keeping a journal and forgetting something.
Your immediate (spective) response to a situation. Keep your journal or a notebook with
you to record things as they happen, your immediate thoughts and feelings and details.
Your later (retrospective) response to the same situation. Look at the situation and what
you wrote much later and record how you now feel about what happened, what you did, what
others did, what might have been done differently, etc. Compare what you write with your
immediate response above. What does that tell you about the event, you and others?
What did you do and observe to progress yourself and your understanding of
business and how it operates?
What did you contribute to your employer? You could use it to build a portfolio of your
work and achievements.
Things to add value to your degree? What will you bring back into your final year studies?
If used appropriately and in context, case material from your placement year may well be
noted very positively by final year academics when marking assignments.
Things that add to your future employability. In addition think about graduate recruitment
and all those difficult application and interview questions that you will be able to handle more
easily as a result of recording your year in this way. Any graduate recruiter will be asking
and expecting you to fluently recall and accurately describe your placement.
We ask you to begin with a process of self-analysis and then choose areas for development
during your placement year. From a vast range of possibilities we have developed a list of
Transferable Skills & Functional Objectives listed in the matrix which follows this section.
The idea is to build an honest picture of where you are and therefore which issues need
development and as a priority should therefore be included in your initial PDP. This will
enable you to reflect, structure your progress completing your PDPs, reports and
presentations to a better standard.
In the Personal Development Reports we will be asking you to profile your skills development
against those demanded by the roles and responsibilities of your placement.
Recommended: Complete your first Skills Audit when you start work to indicate to you
what skills objectives you could set for your 1st Quarter PDP. Repeat this analysis as
part of the preparation for each quarterly PDP.
This may help you to maintain logic in the objectives you are setting and give you
themes to explore and describe in your Reports and Presentation. You will be able to
monitor your progress and development, remember to gather the evidence in your
Journal.
Tip: If you are being honest and because later in your placement you realise you overstated
your skills at the start, you may even find ticks going backwards. This is not a problem as it
proves your greater appreciation for the context in which you are using your skills and this is
certainly worth commenting on in your Reports.
Aims
To identify and focus on specific skills sets that have been evidenced to be the ones
graduate employers favour in recruitment and selection.
Method
• Read through the list of skills carefully and place a ‘‘ on the horizontal scale at the
point which best indicates where your current level of achievement lies. Be honest! You
are not being tested by us, and the matrix is not an assessed element in the module.
(Although you might want to include it as an appendix in your PPRs). It is your chance to
truthfully identify to yourself your strengths and weaknesses for development.
The lower the score the higher the priority you should give this aspect in your
Personal Development Plans (PDPs).
Talk to your manager about what objectives you can set in your PDPs that will address your
findings and will also be on their agenda in terms of your contribution to the company. You
can then reflect on and discuss working towards them when you write your Personal
Progress Reports (PPRs).
There may be gaps in your skills assessment that your placement will not address. This is
ok, but will be something you need to comment on in your 2nd report when you will write a
skills profile for the job, yourself as you are at the end of the placement and an action plan for
your final year at University.
The Matrix
By scoring yourself at the start of each quarter period you will be able to determine which set
of skills may need to be your first priority for each of your Personal Development Plans.
Reflective thinking: What benchmarks have I used / am I using? What has led to changes?
Word processing
Spreadsheets
Databases
Graphics / Presentation software
Internet / Intranet
Put total score for this skills set in last column
Organising Information
Setting & Meeting Deadlines
Co-ordinating Tasks & Prioritising Workload
Managing Time Effectively
Working Unsupervised
Put total score for this skills set in last column
Making A Presentation
Speaking To A Large Group
Speaking At Meetings
Chairing Meetings
Attention to Accuracy
Put total score for this skills set in last column
Ask your manager to sign each Plan to indicate they have read it through with you at
the start of each quarter and then again with their comments at the end of the quarter
to indicate to your tutor that a review has taken place.
Divide your placement period into 4 quarters. At the start of each quarter period :
1. Do a Skills Audit using the Skills Matrix to suggest areas for attention,
each Quarter can be done in a different colour.
2. Detail at least 5 task objectives from the workplace that relate to identified shortcomings
in the Skills Matrix for inclusion in your PDP, talk to your manager about what they see
as the priority and try to link them with your matrix. Objectives should be a mix of yours
and your manager’s aspirations for you.
4. Write up a review at the end of the quarter; ask for a review from your manager.
5. Use that review to help set objectives for the next period.
Your manager at work will probably direct you towards setting objectives that fulfil their
expectations and will therefore potentially be the best evidence of your contribution in the
workplace to use in your Reports. It will probably be up to you to link these with your Skills
Matrix, but if they do not match development needs then set your own objectives that do.
Your manager will probably be the best person to assist you to review your objectives at the
end of each quarterly period. Reference to PDPs and review comments can then be used in
your Personal Progress Reports.
Once set out to your satisfaction DO NOT amend your PDP. If an objective does not
work out in the way you or your manager intended DON’T change it – keep it in your
PDP and reflect in the report or presentation on what happened instead.
Most learning will be gained from change, as a potential future manager you will have
a lot to gain from noting in your journal yours and others’ responses to issues, how
you develop your coping strategies as well as examples of management practice you
observe.
Personal Development Plans are the Action Plans agreed between you and your manager
at work for the implementation and achievement of your objectives whilst you are on
placement. They are active documents, drawn up in advance of a review period. You
may also want to refer to the Module Learning Outcomes and Placement Assessment Form
found later in this booklet to suggest goals and targets to work towards.
PDPs put you at the centre of the learning and development process. You can use them
to plan your placement learning and skills development with a view to your future career.
PDPs can also allow you to make connections between skills acquisition to meet your
objectives and future application of those skills in other areas whilst on placement. They can
also give you structure and coherence when presenting your placement year to tutors or
future employers.
Tips
• Use the C.S.M.A.R.T. objective format. Most corporate staff appraisal systems also use
this model, if your manager sees your PDP as Staff Appraisal then you have got it right.
• Do not set long term (whole placement) objectives, they are normally vague and
therefore difficult to evidence. If you cannot avoid setting long term objectives break them
down into several quarterly milestones, review and evidence achieving each step!
• Challenging - the objective should push personal boundaries and build on previous
experience. However, the biggest danger here is that you are too ambitious. There is
nothing quite as demoralising or pointless as an impossible objective! If possible, set
objectives that highlight transferable skills. Your next CV could usefully reflect these skills
and from your PDPs you would have the examples to use.
• Specific - use simple language, the objective should be singular and clear in purpose. Do
not be tempted to get too complicated.
• Measurable - set a method of measuring your achievement, at the end of the quarter is it
really going to provide a measure of your success? A numerical measure is good but not
essential, you may have to think quite carefully about this.
• Achievable – Challenge yourself but do not set out to fail – avoid being over optimistic as
consistently failing to meet expectation can be very demoralising.
• Relevant - Do not set objectives that are too basic or irrelevant either to you, your
supervisor, or your company.
• Time defined - you need to set a target date for achieving your objectives. The timespan
within any quarter for meeting your objective can be as short or as long as you want. Some
objectives will run for the whole quarter, some might refer to a specific event and be
measured over 24 hours. Try to have a mix of deadlines.
The next couple of pages are examples of the sort of documents you could produce to
evidence your preparation and completion of Personal Development Plans.
Maybe have one How do you think When and what are State the relevance Remember no long-
objective per page you will know if you the specific events of the objective set term dates. Try to
so you can expand have succeeded? that are going to to you, to the keep them within
on them or add help you reach your company and where each quarterly period
comments and The ideal is to come goal? it fits your
notes at a later date. up with a numerical / (i.e. meetings, development / Skills
statistical measure. promotions, training Matrix.
If you really cannot Break a long-term
courses, etc.) objective down into
identify a numerical
value here make What resources do achievable & specific
sure what you do you need for Use the code 1 – 9 milestones that you
choose does success? to identify the aim to have
measure your sections (there may completed by the end
success. Who do you need to be more than one) in of each quarter.
contact? the Skills Matrix that
i.e. “At the end of the objective will
the review period I How are you going highlight and allow
will know I have to make it happen? you to evidence your
achieved this development.
objective
because…”
Repeat the above for each objective and then set out one page for review at the end of the completed
PDP that looks something like this:
You are advised to attach notes or guidance so that your tutor can more easily put the
comments in their context (i.e. a glossary of acronyms, abbreviations, organisational maps.)
It is the feedback, re-doing the Matrix and reflective thought that can guide the
formulation of your next set of objectives.
Mind Maps
Mind Maps can be a useful way of clearly thinking through objectives before writing them into your
PDP and can visually present your ideas and planning in your Reports.
PDP.
Mind Maps can be a useful way of clearly thinking through objectives before writing them into your
• Develop Excel skills to a
Job specific goal: required standard, as it is the
• Prioritise workload main programme I use.
on a daily basis and
set own deadlines.
My Personal
Development
Derived from matrix and
own work experience
Please respect any commercial confidentiality that your company require you to maintain in
your reports and submissions. Most managers are happy for information to be included if
you have asked first. You may be able to include sensitive material by changing dates,
names, details if it does not alter the sense of what you are saying.
Looking at the Learning Outcomes in the module description at the back of this workbook may also
help you order your reflective assignment. You might like to attach and talk about your Skills
Matrix. The report should reflect on personal attributes (‘self’ development) as well as practical
skills development. Below is a guide to content:
Your Introduction:
• A brief description of the company, its organisational structure, products and services.
• Describe your understanding of the commercial reality of the business sector your employer
operates within.
• Describe your role within the organisation and the link with both of the above. Your PDP
objectives as well as company mission statements / policy documents might help.
Reflective Content:
Attach and talk about your first two PDPs, how and why did you set the objectives? What
happened? Why? Give a description of and include the evidence you have collected in order to
measure your objectives. What skills sets in the matrix are you focused on and why?
(It is recommended that you re-read the earlier section on reflection). Think about the detail each
question demands to make it more than just a superficial answer. If you have followed our advice
you should hopefully find the detail in your journal. The questions are examples of the sort of
reflective approach we want you to take in these reports. Ensure you have a balance of spective,
retrospective and prospective comments. You may like to pose questions of your own but make
sure they challenge you to think and reflect on your actions, those of others around you and the
effectiveness and learning you gained.
Below are further questions to prompt additional content for this report. The point of this
report is for you to include anything that has been of value to you and your employer during
the first 6 months.
These are not in any particular order of importance or necessarily all be relevant to you as this report
will come from your experience. They are here to suggest themes for your report. They indicate the
style of reflective questions you should be asking yourself to successfully complete this report. You
can make up your own if they are more relevant and don’t forget to include examples as without
examples there is no evidence!
• How did you feel in your first week? How do you feel now? What is the difference and why? Is
it through something you have done, through the support from others or a bit of both? Give
examples.
• What is the sense or strategy behind the tasks that you are doing?
• How do you plan your activities and manage your time effectively? What undermines this and
how do you cope?
• What achievements have you had, what strategies have you used to achieve your goals?
• What challenges have you faced, how did you cope, what happened, why, what would you do in
similar circumstances next time?
• How do you respond to other people’s comments and positive or negative feedback? Describe
with examples how your reaction can influence your progression at work.
• Why do other people respond to you in the way they do? What might you want to change and
how might you go about influencing their response style or content?
• What efforts have you made to pro-actively develop your roles and responsibilities, has it worked,
if not why not and what can you do?
• Have you made recommendations that have been adopted, what was the reasoning behind your
recommendation?
• When presented with a problem how did you find the solution, what alternative strategies could
you have used, why did you pick the one you did?
• What skills have been developed the most, how did the development take place, was the
learning intended as training or not?
• Are you in control of your own development? Do you want to be? Why might it be left up to you?
Why might this be a good thing / why might it not be positive?
• Have you had to work unsupervised? How did you handle this, what factors were important to
you and why?
• How do you contribute in formal and informal settings? Is your approach different? Why?
• How do you maintain your professionalism whilst also fitting in with others and being part of a
team?
• Can you manage those around you? How could you / do you do this?
• Describe your decision making process, have you had to make decisions based on incomplete
information? How did you feel? What would you do next time?
• Have you an example of reacting to things beyond your control? What happened? Why? How did
this make you feel? How did you cope?
Although it is not assessed it is recommended for your academic progress to attempt to link any
theoretical concepts with your practice or experience of the company and its operation and note
what observations you have undertaken and those that you will need to carry out.
Hand in details
There is no word count. However you are expected to keep it concise and readable. Order
your report logically and provide a contents page.
Referencing.
Deadline.
Submit your Report and 2 PDPs to your Placement Tutor by week 26 of your placement (that is at
the halfway point of your placement. Your tutor will have this date in their diary). If you are on
placement outside the UK please email your submission to your tutor to meet this deadline and
check they have received it.
DO NOT FORGET:
You will receive feedback via email and telephone if necessary.
You also have to attend the ‘Re-engagement Event in January 2010. Details will be sent to
your Brookes email address nearer the time.
You are responsible for arranging this to occur during the last month of your placement. This
meeting is essential for a pass mark to be awarded for the module.
Your Placement Tutor will need to visit you and your manager towards the end of the placement to
discuss your assessment. It is your responsibility to arrange this meeting at a mutually convenient
time for all concerned. Please bear in mind that the tutors often work to semester dates and will
often plan other activities and take holidays over the summer period.
• Identify the skills you have gained and those you think need further development in order to
strengthen your CV and successfully complete your degree. Describe anything you are going
do to ensure further reflective development during your final year?
The following is not expected to be part of your presentation it is offered in order to suggest
the additional value your placement could have to you.
Before you leave your placement think about accumulating case study material and useful contacts
amongst your colleagues at work for your final year modules. It is this that can sometimes be a
useful boost to the final year grades of a placement student.
The work you have done for this module will be directly relevant to graduate job seeking,
application, CVs, interview and early career development. The assignments, written well and in the
spirit of honest reflection would be a very valuable reference for you for your graduate job search
and interview preparation. You will be asked questions about your placement year and be
expected to describe the transferable skills and attributes you acquired during your year in an
articulate and business-relevant manner.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT THE ASSESSMENT FORM ON PAGE 31 / 32 HAS BEEN COMPLETED
AND IS READY TO HAND TO YOUR TUTOR WHEN THEY VISIT YOU.
It would be a good idea to inform your manager in advance that this ‘virtual visit’ will be taking place
so that they can engage with the process. It is recommended that you submit the visuals and a
supporting commentary for a presentation to your Placements Tutor well in advance of the
virtual visit.
Tuesday
Thursday
Assessment Details
Assessment
Coursework ....................................................................................................................100%
This module is Level 5 Acceptable. It will be graded as pass/fail for the purpose of Degree Credits.
Assessment will be based on the following:
i Students are required to satisfactorily complete a minimum of 48 weeks of employment. The
Employer and the Tutor will grade the student on the achievement of the Student Learning
Objectives and Completion of the PDP.
Learning outcomes assessed: 1 (a), 2 (a), 3
Understanding company
business and purpose
Adjustment to work
responsibilities and
requirements.
Interpersonal &
Teamworking Skills
Communication Skills
(Oral & Written)
Achievement towards
objectives set out in the
student’s PDPs.
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Based on the students exceptional contribution outlined above, I recommend this student for
a Placement Commendation Award...........................................................Yes No
Please can we contact you to profile this placement for use in our Undergraduate Prospectus
and for other marketing purposes?............................................................Yes No
Signed: Date:
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If you have registered an approved placement, submitted all the required work to a suitable standard
for this module and your Placement Tutor has a positive report from your employer you will have
passed the module.
CRITERIA
Recommendation made by either the employer or the Placement Tutor
• Employer – majority of ticks in the ‘Exceptional’ column with positive comments.
• Tutor – based on content and comparison of module coursework and presentation
evidencing exceptional personal progress during the placement.
In both cases to be successful students needed to have submitted ALL the assessed pieces
of work for this module to a good standard.
1 Presentation of Shows a polished and Carefully and logically Shows organisation and Shows some attempt to Disorganised/
assignment imaginative approach to coherence organise in a logical
organised incoherent
the topic manner
7 Attention to Has addressed the Has addressed the purpose Has addressed the main Some of the work is Fails to address the
purpose purpose of the assignment of the assignment coherently purpose of the focused on the aims task set
comprehensively and and with some attempt to assignment and themes of the
imaginatively demonstrate imagination assignment
9 Clarity of objectives Has defined objectives in Has defined objectives and Has outlined objectives Has provided NO INFO PROVIDED
and focus of work detail and addressed them addressed them through the and addressed them at generalised objectives
comprehensively and work the end of the work and focused the work
imaginatively. on the topic area
14 Context in which Takes account of complex Takes some account of Recognises defined Context acknowledged Context not recognised
subject is used context and selects context and selects some context and uses but not really taken into as relevant
appropriate technique appropriate techniques standard techniques for account
that context
Please note that the descriptions are typical in the middle of the grade range
Please note that the descriptions are typical in the middle of the grade range
1 Presentation of Shows a polished and Carefully and logically Shows organisation and Shows some attempt to Disorganised/
assignment imaginative approach to organised coherence organise in a logical
incoherent
the topic manner
3 Communication Can engage effectively in Can communicate effectively Can communicate Some communication is Communication is
and presentation debate in a professional in a format appropriate to the effectively in a format effective and in a unstructured and
(appropriate to manner and produce discipline and report appropriate to the format appropriate to unfocused and/or in a
discipline) detailed and coherent practical procedures in a discipline and report the discipline. Can format inappropriate to
project reports clear and concise manner procedures in a clear report practical the discipline
with all relevant information and concise manner with procedures in a
in a variety of formats all relevant information structured way
Please note that the descriptions are typical in the middle of the grade range
Please note that the descriptions are typical in the middle of the grade range
9 Achievement towards Has defined objectives in Has outlined objectives Has provided NO INFO PROVIDED
Objectives set in the detail and addressed them and addressed them at the generalised objectives
PDPs comprehensively and end of the work and focused the work on
imaginatively. the topic area
Regulations
Cheating
All assessments are intended to determine the skills, abilities, understanding and knowledge
of each of the individual students undertaking the assessment. Cheating is defined as
obtaining OR ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN an unfair academic advantage, attempting to cheat
or assisting someone else to cheat may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with
the University's Disciplinary Procedure. The University takes this issue very seriously and
students have been expelled or had their degrees withheld for cheating in assessments. If
you are having difficulty with your work it is important to seek help from your tutor rather than
be tempted to use unfair means to gain marks. Do not risk losing your degree and all the
work you have done.
The University's regulations define a number of different forms of cheating, although any
form of cheating is strictly forbidden. These are:
Submitting other people's work as your own - either with or without their knowledge.
This includes copying in examinations; using notes or unauthorised materials in
examinations;
impersonation - taking an assessment on behalf of or pretending to be another student,
or allowing another person to take an assessment on your behalf or pretend to be you;
Plagiarism - taking or using another person's thoughts, writings or inventions as your
own. To avoid plagiarism you must make sure that quotations from whatever source
must be clearly identified and attributed at the point where they occur in the text of your
work by using one of the standard conventions for referencing. The Library has a leaflet
about how to reference your work correctly and your tutor can also help you. It is not
enough just to list sources in a bibliography at the end of your essay or dissertation if
you do not acknowledge the actual quotations in the text. Neither is it acceptable to
change some of the words or the order of sentences if, by failing to acknowledge the
source properly, you give the impression that it is your own work;
Collusion - except where written instructions specify that work for assessment may be
produced jointly and submitted as the work of more than one student, you must not
collude with others to produce a piece of work jointly, copy or share another student's
work or lend your work to another student in the reasonable knowledge that some or all
of it will be copied;
Duplication - submitting work for assessment that is the same as, or broadly similar to,
work submitted earlier for academic credit, without acknowledgement of the previous
submission;
Falsification - the invention of data, its alteration, its copying from any other source, or
otherwise obtaining it by unfair means, or inventing quotations and/or references.
Matthew Andrews, Academic Registrar
September 2008
For this reason to ensure that your experience is part of this on-going process please could
you fill out and submit the Module Evaluation Form.
We wish to continue to offer the high quality of placement support and module content that
currently gets positive attention from employers and students alike.
If you prefer to submit this form anonymously you need not fill in this section:
Student name (please print clearly)...........................................................................................
Company name (please print clearly)........................................................................................
To respond please tick from 1 (Good / High / Yes) to 4 (Poor / Low / No).
Please qualify your answers by making comments in the appropriate box.
Question 1/+ 2 3 4/- Comments
(Continue on other side if required)
1. Was the workbook easy to
follow?
It is helpful to us to have some feedback on the company you did your placement with
in order to be better informed when talking to other students. In the same way if you
have any comments about any aspect of your year we would be pleased to hear it.
This could be your chance to tell us something substantial or just be a couple of
handy hints for the next student:
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