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Welcome to the course ‘Working Out! Placement & Career Skills’ (BT3006). The course was introduced in the academic year 2004-5 to provide increased support and guidance in securing an industrial placement and to provide students with essential career information. The course is a prerequisite for all students wishing to undertake an industrial placement year and is strongly recommended as part of the career development of all students in the School of Medical Sciences.
The course covers the skills necessary to complete placement applications by exploring CV preparation, writing covering letters, completing application forms, identification of your skill sets and good interview technique. The course will prepare you for the workplace by developing general employment skills and by helping you identify your own transferable skills. You are not guaranteed a placement by completing the course but material covered during the course will assist you to prepare high quality placement applications and outline how to perform well at an interview in order to maximise your chances of success. The aim of this course is to enable you to get the most out of a placement, if you are successful in securing one, and also to aid your career planning. The pre-placement workshops delivered as part of this course will also provide an excellent introduction to completing graduate job applications.
There are three key elements in the successful process of experiencing an interesting, worthwhile placement year: The industrial placement co-ordinator, the careers service and you, the student.
The industrial placement co-ordinator holds primary responsibility in respect of guidance and support of the students and will liaise with potential employers to maximise the chances of obtaining suitable placements. Students on placement will also have the full support of the placement co-ordinator during their year in industry.
The careers service plays a major role in the process by providing vital assistance and information on recruitment and selection and should be consulted regularly throughout your search for a placement.
The efforts and guidance of these two crucial elements is worthless unless you grasp the opportunities and apply yourself fully to the process of finding a placement. It is hoped that by working together as a cohesive partnership we can maximise your chances of successfully gaining a worthwhile year in industry but ultimately it will be your efforts and eager participation in the process will be the major factor in determining your success.
Dr Allison Carrington (Industrial Placement Co-ordinator)
a.carrington@abdn.ac.uk
The overall aims of the course are to extol the benefits of work experience and enhance your job-search skills.
Following completion of the course students will be able to:
• Make effective written applications for employment.
• Identify their own portfolio of personal skills, competencies, values and interests and demonstrate how these relate to their placement and career choice.
• Understand the key elements of good interview technique.
Plagiarism is a serious offence everywhere in the academic community. The University's definition of plagiarism is as follows:
'Plagiarism is the use, without adequate acknowledgement, of the intellectual work of another person in work submitted for assessment. A student cannot be found to have committed plagiarism where it can be shown that the student has taken all reasonable care to avoid representing the work of others as his/her own.'
To avoid plagiarism always reference material that you sourced from any textbook, paper or other printed source, including the Internet. NEVER copy anyone else’s work, or allow anyone to copy yours.
NB. As a general rule – if you are handing in a piece of work that has only your name on it, no part of that work should have been compiled or completed by anyone other than yourself. If it was a piece of ‘group work’ every person who contributed to the work should be named thereon.
This course is assessed on coursework only – THERE IS NO EXAM. Your coursework will be marked as follows:
• Assessment One: Completing an application form 60%
• Assessment Two: Writing a covering letter 40%
It is important that you attend all teaching sessions; otherwise you will miss essential information regarding assessment criteria and deadlines. To achieve an overall pass for the course you MUST obtain a CAS score of 9 or above for the entire course.
Dr Allison Carrington
Mr Peter Fantom, University Careers Service
The University is keen to help you successfully complete your studies. If at any time you feel you need assistance, there is a range of support services available to help you. These include support to help with unexpected and/or exceptional financial difficulty, support for disabled students and academic learning support through the Student Learning Service. Further details about all these services are available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/studenthelpguide/.
We value students’ opinions in regard to enhancing the quality of teaching and its delivery; therefore in conjunction with the Students Association we support the operation of a Class representative system.
The students within each course, year, or programme elect representatives by the end of the fourth week of teaching within each half-session. In this course we operate a system of course representatives. Any students registered within a course that wishes to represent a given group of students can stand for election as a class representative. You will be informed when the elections for class representative will take place.
What will it involve?
It will involve speaking to your fellow students about the course you represent. This can include any comments that they may have. You will attend a Staff Student Liaison Committee and you should represent the views and concerns of the students within this meeting. As a representative you will also be able to contribute to the agenda. You then feedback to the students after this meeting with any actions that are being taken.
Training
Training for class representatives will be run by the Students Association. Training will take place in the fourth or fifth week of teaching each semester. For more information about the Class representative system visit www.ausa.org.uk or email the VP Education & Employability vped@abdn.ac.uk
Attendance at pre-placement lectures and workshops is monitored for BT3006 and is compulsory for those students seeking placements. Unless you have extenuating circumstances it is foolish to miss any scheduled teaching session as the work involved in catching up is more than is involved in attending in the first place!
A class certificate is defined as “a certificate confirming that a candidate has attended and duly performed the work prescribed for a course”. The period of validity for a class certificate is limited to the academic year in which it is awarded and the academic year immediately following. Hence, candidates have a maximum of four opportunities to take the end-of-course assessment without re-attendance i.e. the normal (January or May) diet and the August resit diet in the year in which the course is taken and the year immediately following.
Students who have been reported as ‘at risk’ through the system for monitoring students’ progress due to their failure to satisfy the minimum criteria (as outlined above) may be refused a class certificate. If you are refused a class certificate, you will receive a letter from the Registry (e-mail in term-time) notifying you of this decision. Students who are refused a class certificate are withdrawn from the course and cannot take the prescribed degree assessment in the current session, nor are eligible to be re-assessed next session, unless and until they qualify for the award of a class certificate by taking the course again in the next session.
If you wish to appeal against the decision to refuse a class certificate should do so in writing to the Head of School within fourteen days of the date of the letter/e-mail notifying you of the decision. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you have the right to lodge an appeal with the relevant Director of Undergraduate Programmes within fourteen days of the date you are informed of the Head of School’s decision.
