PROFESSIONAL TRAINING YEAR MODULE (WORK-STUDY 50/50) - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module supports students’ development of personal and professional attitudes and abilities appropriate to a Professional Training placement.  It supports and facilitates self-reflection and transfer of learning from their Professional Training placement experiences to their final year of study and their future employment.  The PTY module is concerned with Personal and Professional Development towards holistic academic and non-academic learning, and is a process that involves self-reflection, documented via the creation of a personal record, planning and monitoring progress towards the achievement of personal objectives.  Development and learning may occur before and during the placement, and this is reflected in the assessment model as a progressive process. However, the graded assessment takes place primarily towards the end of the placement.  Additionally, the module aims to enable students to evidence and evaluate their placement experiences and transfer that learning to other situations through written skills.

Module provider

Politics & International Relations

Module Leader

GILLESPIE Ciaran (Politics IR)

Number of Credits: 120

ECTS Credits: 60

Framework: Professional Training Year

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

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The module focuses on achieving the learning outcomes by offering via the placement experience the opportunity for students to nurture the employability skills that graduate employers look for and to develop the professional identity, competencies and attributes that support the future employability outcomes for students. This development takes place across a wide range of professional environments with great variety in the work and study undertaken.  Nevertheless, all of these offer the same opportunity to achieve the learning outcomes.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Not applicable 

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the learning outcomes regarding the successful acquisition of a Professional Training placement, and the acquisition of the employability skills and competencies that support students’ graduate employability outcomes.

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

 

• Placement Report (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6)

Completed at the end of the placement this report reviews the student’s placement, the range of tasks they performed, analyses their professional practices and work environment and provides a critical reflection on their personal and professional development. The 4,000 word Placement Report contains two elements; (a) a subject specific or technical section (word count ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 words depending on School/Department requirements); and (b) a section about the student’s reflection on their personal and professional development from the Professional Training placement (word count range is 500-1,000 words).

 

• Study Exchange (LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5, LO6)

Students must secure the agreed number of credits at the partner institution in order to successfully meet the requirements of the Professional Training year. This recognises the balance of the 50/50 nature of the placement year and accommodates study exchange alongside the work placement.

 

Formative assessment and feedback

 

Students will receive ongoing feedback as they develop their own Professional Development Review (PDR) which they undertake several times across the duration of the work placement experience. This feeds directly into the development of the Reflective section of the Placement Report.

 

The requirements of the partner institution are applied to any aspect of formative assessment and feedback for the study exchange element of the placement.

 

 

Module aims

• Establish strongest possible portfolio of experience (employability)
• Build personal professional development, (resilience and resourcefulness)
• Further develop knowledge from taught academic subject matter in new contexts (global and cultural intelligence)
• Learn applied solutions to major challenges (sustainability)
• Enhance existing professional capabilities, particularly in communication and research (digital skills)

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

 

• The learning and teaching methods are predicated on experiential learning through the placement experience itself. The study elements of the placement will comply with the requirements of the institutional partner.


• The mentoring, coaching and assessment role of both the Workplace Supervisor and the University’s Professional Training Tutor (PT Tutor) are focused on ensuring that students achieve the learning outcomes for the module; these relate to (1) personal and professional development, (2) evaluation of placement learning and (3) transfer of placement learning.


• The learning and teaching is supported by placement meetings with the students on work placement by a PT Tutor to support students’ critical self-reflection and learning and regular mentoring support via phone, email, teleconference or video conference. In addition Return Days, Industry Days and regular support and review of the Professional Development Review and student development plans (as part of the PDR) provide additional experiential learning.


• The assessment of students’ performance by their respective placement provider is another key aspect of the experiential learning process for the placement student.

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: POLP026

Other information

The placement module focuses strongly on students’ employability through an extended exposure to the professional workplace.  This experience of the international working environment promotes their development as resilient, resourceful and culturally aware global citizens. The placement offers the opportunity to develop the digital capabilities, cultural sensitivity and understanding of sustainability within the workplace that are key to students’ future employability. 

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 2025/6 academic year.