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MAN-30068 - Module Specification
Keele Business School
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

For academic year: 2024/25 Last Updated: 24 November 2024

MAN-30068 - Placement Year
Coordinator: Aikaterini Koskina Room: DW1.08 Tel: +44 1782 7 33428
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 6
Credits: 0
Study Hours: 1200
School Office: 01782 733094

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

In an increasingly competitive job market, employers are looking to recruit employees who have high-level knowledge, skills and workplace experience. This module supports students in taking a placement year to enable students to experience first-hand how a professional environment functions. This allows students to reflect upon, apply and test their learning from Level 4 and 5 in creative and complex environments. This will help students to produce a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of both academic knowledge and how to function in a professional environment.
This module provides the foundation for the placement year together with a structure to ensure that the potential learning experiences from the year are maximised. During the module, students will undertake a long-term (minimum of 30 weeks, full-time) placement with a company or organisation, where they are required to contribute to organisationally defined goals and objectives. Students will be required to reflect upon their previous learning and to explore their own strengths and weakness in the workplace context with a focus upon the development of new skills and abilities for employability. There are 2 pieces of assessment, both need to be completed successfully, in conjunction with the work placement, to pass the placement year.

Students will also gain a much greater understanding of professional practice within their chosen sector and be able to use their placement experiences to develop their CVs, better understand the place of academic theory and knowledge in real-world situations and ultimately improve their employability upon graduation.

Aims
The aim of this module is to provide students with the opportunity to carry out a long-term placement based learning experience (minimum 30 weeks equivalent of full-time work) between Years 2 and 3 (Levels 5 and 6) of their degree programme.
The module will be underpinned by employability skills training (as part of their preparation during year 2), reflective assessment, employer and tutor evaluation and support from academic tutors.

Intended Learning Outcomes

evaluate their own employability skills (via a SWOT Analysis) together with an analysis of sector skill demands to create Intended Placement Outcomes in order to develop the skill areas which they have identified as being weak or needing further enhancement: 1
develop, through practice on placement, the employment-related skills identified through their SWOT analysis and Intended Learning Outcomes: 1
reflect on and apply academic themes, concepts and theory as explored at Level 4 and Level 5 to complex real situations on work placement: 2
reflect on and critically evaluate their learning from the work placement and previous learning: 2
explain how their chosen professional or placement sector operates and what skills are needed to develop their career: 2

Study hours

The placement year is the equivalent of 120 credits and the student will be expected to be on placement for a MINIMUM of 30 weeks equivalent of full-time work (this is roughly equivalent to a standard university teaching period), therefore a minimum of 1050 hours should be spent on placement. The placements can continue for up to 12 months, providing the necessary assessments are submitted and passed for progression into the final year (FHEQ Level 6).
10 hours are given for scheduled learning and teaching activities - these are workshops which will cover: internship preparation including CVs, covering letters and how to find a placement; identifying skills gaps through skills audits and SWOT analysis; creating intended learning outcomes; and a Pre-departure workshop to complete necessary paperwork. 140 hours are intended for guided independent study.


School Rules

Students must be in good academic standing, have a good University attendance and engagement record and must have passed all Level 4 modules with an overall average of equal to or greater than 60% to be eligible for the Placement Year module. Alternatively, students may be accepted with lower grades on the discretion of the Placement team following interview between the placement officer and the student.
Students are encouraged to have taken at least one of the following:
MAN-10026 MNE Business Perspectives
MAN-20090 Professional Development
HRM-20019 Developing Professional Knowledge and Practice in HRM

Description of Module Assessment

1: Portfolio weighted 30%
Initial Placement Portfolio
The Initial Placement Portfolio will be submitted at the beginning of the placement. It will comprise of a personal SWOT analysis and Action Plan. Students will use their initial placement experience to reflect on their employability skills and consider their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in terms of their assessment of sector skill demands. The SWOT analysis will be used to create an Action Plan of Intended Placement Outcomes and planned activities aimed at strengthening the student's employability skills during the remainder of their placement and in the context of Continuing Professional Development. The action plan will be negotiated and agreed by the student, module director, placement lead and employer.

2: Portfolio weighted 70%
Final Placement Portfolio
The Final Placement Portfolio (2,500 words) comprises three elements. 1. A reflective evaluation of your placement experience at the end of the placement. 2. A reflective overview that shows what you think you have learned and how well you can analyse the learning process you have been through. 3. As part of your reflection, you need to produce a short video of between 1 and 3 mins demonstrating what you have gained from the placement year, and how it will impact your future career. 4. Sections 1, 2 and 3 should be supported by a reflective diary on your placement experience, documenting key activities and reflecting on skills gained from those activities and how they contributed to the work-based learning experience, development of employability skills and reflection on prior learning. The reflective diary should be included in the appendices.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 24 November 2024