Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

This module is only available to students who have taken either NCL2007 (Career Development module for Stage 2 students) or NCL3000 (Careers Service Placement Year module). Students who have not taken either module should take NCL3007 (Career Development module for final year students) instead as this is more suited to them.

Any student who requires further support to identify the most appropriate module for them should contact a member of the module team by emailing csmodules@ncl.ac.uk to discuss this.

In addition, students taking NCL3008 are expected to have completed the following pre-requisites specific to the placement route they wish to follow through the module, before commencing the module:

* For Volunteering and Learning from Work placement routes students must have a confirmed placement with agreement from their named placement supervisor that they will be able to complete a minimum of 50 hours work there during the academic year (between October and May), with the hours spread across at least an eight week period.

* For the Student Tutoring placement route students must have completed an application for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure through the Careers Service, and registered their placement preferences.

* Learning from Work students must also submit a completed Health and Safety checklist signed by their placement supervisor before commencing the module.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

To develop students’ self-awareness and the ability to self-manage, proactively interact and ethically apply knowledge and skills in a work-related context.

The Career Development module offers students the opportunity to undertake work-related learning in a variety of environments, both on and off the University campus. Through engagement with the module, students will learn about themselves, enhancing their employability (see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/modules/cdm/) and personal enterprise skills as well as contributing towards meeting the aims of the placement host organisation.

Outline Of Syllabus

Module teaching is structured as five three-week long Learning Units with each unit focused on a single topic (relating to an employability skill or attribute) and comprising of a lecture (week 1) followed by a discussion and activity-focused seminar (week 2) and concluding with an in-person assessment within a seminar format (week 3). Please see 'Assessment' for further details. Topics are focused on key skills and attributes graduates will require in future roles, and build upon learning from other Careers Service modules.

Learning Unit topics are:

Semester 1

Learning Unit 1: Emotional Intelligence: Identifying and Managing emotion in self and others
Learning Unit 2: Recognising opportunities in the workplace
Learning Unit 3: Adding vale: Leading Up

Semester 2

Learning Unit 4: Influence, negotiation and persuasion: winning the commitment of others
Learning Unit 5: Organisational Planning: strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning in the workplace.

Learning from each unit will be applied and refined across 50 hours of activity at the student's agreed module placement.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the module, students will know how to:

1. Identify and evaluate the wide range of factors influencing a professional experience to establish and apply the best courses of action for adding value in the workplace [Situational awareness].
2. Take the perspective of and empathise with others to foster positive relationships that enable self and others to succeed in the workplace [Social awareness].

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

1.       Apply techniques for structured reflection to evaluate personal development; present this within a range of formats including through a 'professional conversation' with staff and other students. [Reflection]
2.       Demonstrate the development of core workplace skills including opportunity recognition, problem solving, negotiation, leadership, and strategic and operational planning through in-class activities and assessments, and at module placement. [Professional development]
3.       Articulate examples of development of core skills which are related to entry to and progression within a chosen graduate career. Present these in a way that reflects current graduate recruitment, selection and workplace practices. [Articulation]

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

NCL3008 teaching has been designed to extend student learning from pre-requisite modules (NCL2007 and NCL3000) into more challenging professional contexts. Specifically, the module will introduce students to the concepts of emotional intelligence, intrapreneurship and opportunity recognition, adding value, influence, negotiation and persuasion and organisational planning to build upon the NCL2007/NCL3000 core module graduate skills of communication, personal enterprise, team work and planning and organisation.

Teaching in three-week long learning units will provide the opportunity for students to acquire, apply and test module learning on the topics set out above. Each Learning Unit consists of a lecture (to introduce the module topic including key knowledge and theory), a seminar (to apply and test out learning from the lecture) and an in-person assessment (requiring further application of knowledge through group discussion, analysis of case studies, presentation etc.) By running module learning units parallel to student activities at their placement students will have the opportunity to further test and refine their learning in a "live" situation. Teaching in small groups is intended to encourage students to share experiences and facilitate social learning within these groups.

One-to-one tutorials will allow students to review their progress with their module tutor in a similar format to the final summative assessment (professional conversation).

Self-directed learning resources and pre- and post- teaching tasks (via Canvas) will introduce students to theories and knowledge relating to Learning Unit topics.

The aims of the module are drawn from the Newcastle University Graduate Skills Framework and informed by current graduate employer intelligence. The skills outcomes aim to equip students with the ability to articulate how they have developed and learned from practical work experience to make them more employable. Students will achieve the learning outcomes for the module through full engagement with the activities above and a commitment to their own development.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Each of the five three-week long Learning Units is concluded with an in person assessment (week 3) where students will be assessed on the materials introduced and discussed in weeks 1 and 2 of the unit. The assessment will be introduced in the previous week's teaching session with material available on Canvas for students to prepare for this effectively as part of their independent study time. Time spent preparing for an in person assessment will be roughly equivalent to time spent preparing for a 'standard' module seminar - i.e. around two hours per week.

The nature of the five in person assessments precludes extended deadlines. Students that miss an in person assessment for any reason should seek a PEC exemption for that assessment from their academic school. Exempt assessments will be excluded from module mark calculations.

In April/May, students will participate in a professional conversation where they will articulate their development within the topics introduced in module teaching and consider how they have applied this learning at their module placement. As part of this assessment students will take the role of both interviewer and interviewee to gain experience of both perspectives.

General Notes

The Careers Service offers optional undergraduate work-related learning modules designed to enhance students’ employability and add value to their degree. Subject to availability, students will be offered three different contexts in which to undertake a minimum of 50 hours of work-related learning for the Career Development module:
•       Learning from Work
•       Tutoring and Mentoring
•       Volunteering

If accepted onto the module, students will need to complete appropriate pre-requisites for their particular choice of context e.g. Disclosure and Barring Service application for Student Tutoring. See Careers Service web http://www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/modules/cdm/ for further details.

For further information about all modules, contact 0191 208 7748 or csmodules@ncl.ac.uk