MENTORING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module provides the final stage in the employability and professional development thread of the SHTM UG programmes. This module focuses on developing a mentoring relationship between students and industry professionals representing a range of career opportunities and positions within tourism and hospitality. The formal mentor relationship will give the students exposure to industry and a dedicated mentor. The mentor will assign the student an industry based project to complete with the objective to provide the opportunity for the students to experience first-hand how business operates. The mentor will guide the student through the process and aid with their skill development.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

KNOX Dan (SII DUFE)

Number of Credits: 30

ECTS Credits: 15

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

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

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None 

Module content

Academic and Transferable Skill Development:

• Analysis of business and sensitive commercial data

• Verbal and non-verbal communication skills (including: presentation skills, business report writing, online communication techniques and taking feedback)

• Self-reflection and awareness through analysis of own skill development and current levels Applied Professional Development for Hospitality and Tourism:

• Employability: general and sector-specific skill set requirements

• Developing professional identity and impact by managing the mentor relationship

• Working with industry professionals and learning from experience (from self and professionals)

• Business ethics and corporate social responsibility

• Business awareness and acumen

• How to manage your industry identity and communicate with impact

• Leadership skills and proactive relationship management

• Networking in both internal and external organisational contexts

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy for this module consists of an industry based project agreed with the mentor (take a problem from the mentor and work on the project using the business contacts and business information resources using the mentors business as a case study).

 

All students will be required to demonstrate enhanced proficiency with Microsoft programmes as a component of this module and be able to make sound business recommendations to the mentor. Unmarked formative feedback will be provided to students through a range of approaches, including question and answer sessions in class, discussions using Surrey Learn and several 1-2-1 sessions with the tutors.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• an Individual Industry report

Module aims

• The aim of the module is to engage students with an industry professional who will advise and guide them through an industry-based project as well as exposing the student to business and help their skill development. This module will provide the final module in the thread of employability and professional development that is embedded throughout all SHTM UG programmes. In particular, students will critique their professional development throughout the course of their programme (from level 4 to 6), and will encourage students to further develop their professional identity by critiquing key issues around leadership and developing external professional networks. By working directly with an industry mentor, students will gain hands-on experience in researching a current industry problem and making commercial and sound business recommendations to their mentor as well as reflecting and developing their employability skill levels.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The key teaching and learning strategy is designed to encourage students to enhance and reflect upon the key skills and values required to launch their professional identity and successful career in the hospitality and tourism industries through ongoing mentor guidance and academic support.

 

The module will draw upon a range of teaching and learning techniques to encourage students to actively engage and reflect upon their position as students and as future professionals in the hospitality and tourism industries.

 

This will reflect the aims and learning outcomes above and will comprise of a range of classroom-based techniques including: lectures, class discussion, presentations, industry analysis, role play scenarios, industry mentor visits from alumni and industry partners, that are designed explicitly to develop students’ critical ability and comprehension of the issues addressed. Students and mentors will also be expected to meet at least twice face to face. Classes and sessions will be delivered both in teaching rooms and at the mentor’s host business. Additional readings, activities, online resources, and lecture slides will be available on SurreyLearn.

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures 

• Classroom support sessions

• One to one mentor/mentee sessions (guided learning)

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: MAN3162

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing students 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: 

Digital Capabilities: Learning to navigate SurreyLearn, is an essential part of the module. Teaching and learning materials are provided in a number of formats (e.g. captured content, documents, mock calculation, Excel workbooks etc), and students are encouraged to use various methods for communication. Students also works with Excel spreadsheet if the project requires other exercise which helps them familiarizing themselves with functions and formats of the software. Other data analysis maybe required for their individual projects.

Employability: This module provides students with a working knowledge of key conceptual foundations for equipping students to use their knowledge of the topic to make strategic, technical and operational business decisions in the service industry with the aim to solve key issues in the industry. This knowledge and decision-making skills will naturally be developed over time with more experience in their career This module continues to build on the ability to critically analyse data with the aim to develop problem solving skills

Global and cultural understanding: In this module, students are naturally part of the most globalized industry in the world. As such, students develop global and cultural understanding in various terms eg purchase behaviour, employee behaviour, cultural management etc  

Resourcefulness and Resilience: This module equips students by using practical examples and exercises to critical analyse and data that is key to understanding the subject that they are researching. This allows students to build resourcefulness and resilience in developing a problem-solving mindset through financial accounting problems and risks in the context of service businesses. 

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.