EMPLOYABILITY - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module provides information, guidance and support for developing the student’s employability.

In addition, this module helps students build on their previous skills and generate documents that are required to demonstrate their skill sets to external parties, recruiters and recruiting agencies. Furthermore, skills acquired in this module will enable students to actively participate in placement and employment searches.

Module provider

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Module Leader

ANTONIJEVIC Milan (Chst Chm Eng)

Number of Credits: 0

ECTS Credits: 0

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

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

Module Availability

Crosses academic years

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

This module provides students with:

• A guide to the employability support available at Surrey.


• Support in building CVs and writing cover letters.


• Identifying and developing key skills through the programme of study


• Understanding of the importance of professional networks and membership of the relevant professional society (The Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences).


• An understanding of the significance of a professional development plan and career goals

Options and information for different paths to improving employability during and after the studies.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

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

 

Engagement with employability, including identifying one's skills and experience, organising that information into a form legible to employers, and presenting it in an appropriate way to apply for positions.

Practice job interview skills through student-driven workshops.

Engagement with the variety of employability events at Surrey by attending at least one such event.

Reflection on their goals and the skills needed to achieve them, through a career reflection exercise.

 

This is zero credit module and therefore the following assessments are zero weighted:

• Coursework, A Curriculum Vitae (CV) (addresses learning outcomes: 1, 2 and 3)


• Coursework, A cover letter (addresses learning outcomes: 1, 2 and 3)


• Attendance only, Interview Skills session (addresses learning outcome: 4)


• Coursework, LinkedIn Profile (addresses learning outcome: 5)


• Attendance only, Employment Event (addresses learning outcome: 6)


• Coursework, Employability Reflection (addresses learning outcomes: 1, 2 and 7)

 

Formative assessment:

All of the above assessments are formative.

 

Feedback:

Students will receive feedback on their CVs, cover letters, LinkedIn profile, and written employability reflection and can pursue further advice from the school Director of Employability and the Employability and Careers Service. In addition, verbal feedforward will be provided in tutorials which will inform the final assessment.

Module aims

• ¿ Introduce students to the concept of employability.
• ¿ Actively guide students towards the support and information available at Surrey. This is with an emphasis on the support provided by the Employability and Careers Service by encouraging attendance of at least one employability event.
• ¿ Prompt students to continue accumulating experiences and skills or qualifications to improve employability.
• ¿ Ask students to write a CV and sample cover letter to familiarise themselves with the process in advance of applying for positions.
• ¿ Encourage students to develop their professional network by creating a LinkedIn profile and engaging with events organized by the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and other professional societies.
• ¿ Familiarise students with the job interview process and help them practice their interview skills.
• ¿ Encourage students to reflect on their goals and how to develop their employability towards achieving those goals.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

 

• Enable students to develop desired transferable and employability skills through lectures, tutorials, videos, active learning/discussion sessions, and online resources.


• Equip students with interview skills through lectures and mock interviews.


• Highlight the importance of professional networks and life-long learning process in the development, maintenance, and upgrade of relevant employability skills.

This is achieved in lecture sessions with a focus on Q&A that will provide students with information regarding employment, including career paths, what sorts of opportunities are available and when, how to search for and apply for positions, how to write a CV and cover letter, how to develop a LinkedIn profile, how to build a professional network and how to develop employability skills beyond academic work.

Lecture sessions and tutorials will help students prepare for interviews, including general advice for self-presentation, likely questions and how to approach them, and practical experience in answering questions.

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: CHEM044

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

 

Employability: This module allows students to both understand and actively participate in a range of elements related to the identification, development and presentation of relevant skills. Coupled with the development of critical thinking, reasoning, decision-making, collaboration, leadership, and other transferable skills, the module allows students to acquire and practice attributes that will be attractive to employers in this field. The focus of the assessment strategy will help to prepare students for the realities of the world of work because it allows them to be familiar with how to apply for jobs, prepare for interviews, emphasise their positive qualities, identify areas of improvement and acquire desired knowledge and skills.

 

Digital Skills: The module involves engaging with LinkedIn by creating profiles and using the resource to expand a professional network. The current nature of many job applications is that they are completed online, often by transferring CV/cover letter information to an online form. This will be explained, and examples are given. In addition, the use of standard MS software to create CVs and applications means that each student will develop their digital skills targeted at career enhancement.

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 2025/6 academic year.