PROFESSIONAL PLACEMENT YEAR - 2021/2

Module Overview

At the end of the Professional Placement Year module, students will have developed advanced personal, professional, and academic skills relevant to their programme of study.

They will have demonstrated the ability to secure appropriate employment in an area relevant to their programme of study.

They will have gained practical work experience in a specific job role and delivered a substantial contribution to the placement organization.

In the process, they will have advanced their own professional profile and career prospects.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

SOTUNDE Deji (SBS)

Number of Credits: 60

ECTS Credits: 30

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

To have secured a work placement approved by the University of Surrey

Module content

Indicative content includes:

In Semester 1 of Year 1 students participate in a series of workshops that are focused on developing their employability skills. They also engage independently with employers to secure a professional work placement.

In Year 2 student undertake a supervised professional placement experience focused on two interrelated sets of learning outcomes: professional development and integration of learning from the programme through application in a specific work context.

Both aspects of the learning experience are supervised by an academic supervisor as well as a workplace supervisor in the placement organisation. Under their guidance, students undertake work responsibilities and tasks appropriate to the placement job role and relevant to their programme of study.

With the support of both supervisors, students strive to make a substantial contribution to the placement organsation and to develop their professional profile and career prospects.

They present the results of their work and reflect on their personal and professional development in a Professional Placement Year Report.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Individual Employability Portfolio based on the workshops and activities in Semester 1. This portfolio demonstrates the student’s readiness to be an active and successful participant in the graduate employment market. This is a PASS/FAIL element of assessment.


• Individual Professional Placement Year Portfolio based on the entirety of the student’s work placement experience. This portfolio showcases the student’s achievement in the work placement job role and their personal and professional development throughout the professional placement year. This is a marked assessment worth 100% of the module mark.

 

  Formative assessment

Students submit elements of the Employability Portfolio as they progress through the taught workshops in Semester 1.

 

  Feedback

Students receive oral formative feedback in the taught workshops in Semester 1 and written formative feedback on the submitted elements of the Employability Portfolio.

During the Professional Placement Year, students receive oral formative feedback from their Placement Tutor.

Students receive written summative feedback on the complete Employability Portfolio and on the Professional Placement Year Portfolio

Module aims

• Develop the knowledge from across the curriculum and translate it into advanced employability skills relevant to appropriate, graduate-level job roles in areas relevant to their programme of study
• Identify personal and professional strengths, as well as areas requiring further improvement and development
• Explore new skills appropriate to an area of employment that is relevant and interesting

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

In Semester 1 students participate in taught sessions dedicated to the development of personal and professional skills.

The learning and teaching methods during the course of the professional placement are predicated on experiential learning through the placement experience itself.

The mentoring, coaching and assessment role of both the workplace supervisor and the academic supervisor are focused on ensuring that students achieve the learning outcomes for the module, which relate to personal, professional, and academic development of the student.

The academic supervisor provides guidance for the student and facilitates critical self- reflection by offering regular mentoring sessions. If students work on placements at remote locations, this support is provided via phone, email or teleconference.

The formative feedback on the student’s performance provided by their workplace supervisor is another key aspect of the experiential learning process for the placement student.

Overall, the learning and teach methods include:

• Skills workshops: are organised throughout Semester 1 to develop students' professional skills;


• Self-directed learning: students engage with learning materials and undertaking desk-research required for classroom participation and assessment.


• Active learning includes engaging in classroom and practical exercises, video and case analyses, and participation in career events and fairs;


• Immersion in practice: students learn in an experiential manner by applying the knowledge and skills from the programme to their work in the course of their professional placement;


• Individual Supervisory Sessions support students in their project work through systematic review of progress, discussion and formative feedback from an academic tutor. These may be run face-to-face or online (synchronously).

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM486

Other information

None.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.