[Solved]1. Writing about getting onto the work placement

ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES FOR WORK PLACEMENT

MODULE MOD004060

INTRODUCTION

The Module assignment is divided into two tasks, as follows:

1. Writing about getting onto the work placement,

2. Looking back on the work placement and reflecting on what you did, working in teams and how you developed your skills.

Your personal development is also very important too. Write about how you as a person have developed as a result of the work placement experience.

ASSIGNMENT TASKS

So, here are the two assessment tasks:

Task 1       Securing the Work Placement with the chosen organisation.

Task 2Evaluating the Work Placement, by reflecting on your own effectiveness, working in teams with others, and your personal skills development.

The two tasks of the overall assignment are submitted via Turnitin for marking. The weightings are as follows:

The overall pass mark for the Module is 40%. Turnitin takes the marks for each Task and calculates the final mark out of 100%

Task One – Getting on to the Work Placement (LO1; 1000 words)

In this first task, write about the activities you undertook in order to secure and then begin your work placement

For example, think and write about:

• Preparing your CV for the placement managers to read and ask you questions about yourself at interview. What help did you receive to get it prepared?

• How you searched for a placement, and then applied, for example by letter, or text, or email and so on,

• What kind of placement that would suit you and your skills,

• Your interview, (if you had one),

• What kind of person was your employer looking for,

• What you have learned from this process,

• What you might do differently in any future job applications,

• Looking back, would you do anything in a different way?

Task Two – Reflecting back on your Work Placement experience (LO’s 2, 3 and 4; 2,000 words)

This “reflection” provides you with the opportunity to consider how it influenced you as a person, on your new learning, development of skills, and how you worked with others individually and as a team member.

To begin, let‟s read a useful definition of “reflection” in the context of work placement:

"A process of looking back on what has been done [in your work placement] and pondering on it and learning lessons from what did or did not work…. The act of deliberation, when the practitioner consciously stops and thinks what shall I do now?" (Conway 1994)

So, looking back at your own work placement, these topic areas you may want to include are as follows:

1.  Your Placement Organisation (LO2)

• How things were organised, structured and managed by the staff,

• Areas of work that was very interesting, demanding and challenging for you,

• The main challenges of the placement, and what those challenges were, and why,

2.  Working with others (LO3)

• What was your experience of working with other people?

• What you learnt about working on your own and with other staff,

• How you got on with managers and senior and junior staff,

You can talk about working with individual colleagues, working in teams, how various activities were planned and coordinated, and where tasks could be simplified, improved, or where there were opportunities to show your skills to others.

3.  Your own personal learning (LO4)

• Your best experiences of the placement, and why,

• How you developed as a person, what you learnt that was new and rewarding, and whether there were any surprising changes to your approaches to this kind of work.

• And finally, your general reflections on the work placement as a whole and the role/s you played during this placement, and........

• Reflection on your learning overall.

As this is an academic module, there is a learning opportunity for you to add in any theory that is relevant. It might involve subject such as leadership, working in teams, managing work or other people, job development and so on. Try to make sure that you show this be adding in textbook references, authors, theory, quotations from theory sources wherever you can to show your learning process.

Some Tips

If you kept a diary on placement, or made daily notes, use these notes to write about what you did on the work placement.

Write as if you were speaking to a friend – someone who is really keen to hear about where you went, what you did and what you got out of it as a person.

Talk about your working relationships with others in the placement, and what jobs were interesting, valuable for learning, or difficult and did not always go well for you.

Write in the “First person”, for example: “In my work placement module I worked for 12 weeks in a small charity in North London called The Godfrey Jones

Children’s Home”. I first heard about the work of the charity from a friend, and decided to write to them. I wasn’t sure that I would like it there, but I typed up a short CV and sent this with my letter.

AN EXAMPLE

During my work placement I was fortunate enough to work with young adults with learning difficulties. I also learned very quickly that it was very important not to make any assumptions about individuals, as first impressions can be very misleading.

When I was interviewed for the placement I thought that the job as Liaison Officer was going to be straightforward, but after the first week I knew that I had made a wrong assumption. There was a lot to learn about working with young people. My first thoughts were to ask lots of questions, but I found that listening was by far the most useful skill that I needed to work on........