PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module is designed to work alongside the Specialist Studies module to empower students within their ¿journey¿ of professional development within their chosen field in the global entertainment industry. It will include a short period of work experience/observation in a professional setting or engagement with professional practitioner(s).

Module provider

Guildford School of Acting

Module Leader

EVANS Gareth (GSA)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

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

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes the following:

• Employability in the creative industries


• Industry networks and professional research


• Self-presentation and interview skills


• CVs and professional development planning


• Healthy technician


• Professional digital skills


• Work experience/observation in a professional setting/engagement with professional practitioner(s).

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate digital skills and communication methods to an industry standard, emerging research skills and business knowledge and to reflect on personal professional development in the context of the global creative industries.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Coursework: Professional Development Portfolio incorporating professional development plan, CV, and reflection on work experience/observation OR practitioner case study. (addressing learning outcomes 1, 2,3,4)

Formative assessment

Individual professional development tutorial

Submission of CV and professional development plan

Mock interview

Feedback

Verbal tutor feedback in tutorials

Recorded verbal tutor feedback for CV and professional development plan

Written feedback on mock interview

Module aims

• Introduce students to principles and practices of professional development
• Provide foundational tools and resources in healthy personal management to support sustainable self-management
• Support students to improve transferable skills in communication, self-presentation and promotion and digital competence
• Enable students to reflect on personal development in the context of the global creative sector.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to encourage students to increase in self-awareness and confidence as emerging practitioners in a global creative marketplace, equipped with both sector business knowledge and a range of transferable skills. This is achieved through a blend of tutor-lead sessions, focused tutorials, guest interviewers and engagement with professional practitioners and/or companies. This is central to the programme's learning and teaching strategy which aims to create confident, multi-skilled employable professionals, able to approach diverse creative contexts with resourcefulness and resilience.

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: PRO2035

Other information

Guildford School of Acting trains students, within their chosen fields, to have an understanding and appreciation of Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow acting students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: Digital Skills Students will be introduced to use digital media content creation techniques including photo, video/audio capture and editing. They will also be expected to research widely, begin to engage in professional social media and create a CV using digital platforms. Employability This module is focused on employability with students encouraged and expected to reach out to employers and peers alike to begin to establish professional networks and increase business awareness. On completion of this module, every student will have reflected in depth on their future employability journey, improved their application and interview skills and be confident in creative an effective CV. Global and Cultural Capabilities This module introduces the potential of working globally and the value and opportunities of working internationally. Students will be encouraged to think broadly and ambitiously about their future careers and consider how to work effectively in diverse companies and projects. Resourcefulness and Resilience. Central to this module is the encouragement of the Level 5 student to develop as an autonomous, self-motivated professional practitioner. As such it encourages and challenges students to embed the resourcefulness and resilience they will need on entering the creative industries after graduation, in areas such as professional networking, seeking employment/self-employment opportunities, interview skills and business awareness. The ¿healthy technician¿ programme explicitly addresses resilience and wellbeing in a holistic way. Sustainability Within this module, students will be encouraged to foreground understanding in sustainability as key to their future professional practice, by highlighting sustainable practices in portfolios of work and on social media. The ¿healthy technician¿ programme explicitly addresses sustainable self-management for long term careers.

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.