BIOL40120 Work Placement (Global Change)

Academic Year 2023/2024

This module offers students the opportunity to spend a minimum of 6 (min) to 10 (max) weeks in a real-life employment. Students will work in a setting that reflects their interests as a professional working at the science-policy interface. Placements may vary considerably but in general terms students find work placement in industrial, government, non-government or a research environment as well as international bodies where they will obtain a breadth of practical experience to complement their degree programme.
Employers welcome ‘transferable skills’ acquired during a work placement such as communication, numeracy, use of ITC, group work and time management to name but a few. The students will experience workplace culture making them more effective employees following graduation. The work experience is defined as a learning experience incorporating mentoring, professional supervision in which work is viewed from critical and evaluative perspectives much in contrast to the notion of routine or regular work.
You will be working in a setting that reflects your own interests. A list of contacts in a broad range of organisations is available for the students as well as contacts with past alumni Global Changers who are working in many international institutions. You can ask the programme co-ordinator to review a particular internship (e.g. a company/institution of your choice that you might be interested in working for). The work placement can be carried out in any country of your choice and ERASMUS grants are available to support you. Through this work placement, you will acquire transferable skills which will make you a sought after and effective employee.
A Programme Internship Manager is dedicated to helping the students securing a work placement and helping them with their applications, CVs, cover letters as well as giving them mock interviews and advice on work ethics.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

In terms of broad learning outcome, at the end of this module, the students will:
-have increased their ability to relate academic theory to the work environment
-have developed identified work related skills
-have developed self-reflective learning skills
-be able to critically evaluate their learning from the internship
-have enhanced their career knowledge
-have planned, carried out, evaluated and reported on a specific task or project.

In particular students should have acquired skills to be able to demonstrate an understanding of professional practice in some of the following areas: scientific analyst, policy adviser, researcher, environmental management industries.

Indicative Module Content:

Internship

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Placement/Work Experience

500

Total

500

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
As well as learning direct 'transferable skills' and 'workplace culture' from being 'employed', students also acquire a range of skills through the on-going assignments including active/task-based learning (CV and letter of motivation writing); reflective learning (diary); debates and presentation (seminar after work placement) and critical writing (portfolio). 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Requirements:

None

Learning Exclusions:

None

Learning Recommendations:

None


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Portfolio: E-portfolio with multiple components pre-, during- and post-internship Throughout the Trimester n/a Other No

100


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

In order to make the most of this internship a multi-step assignment package has to be compiled starting with pre-placement preparatory writing of CVs, letters of motivation and mock interviews which will be corrected and help provided if necessary. This is followed by a self-reflective diary /blog and mini-reports (including the creation of a poster) during the internship which are read and commented on by the module coordinator on a regular basis. Finally, the student will have to complete an oral presentation at a seminar as well as an original portfolio. Specific feedback is provided after each of these components to help the students progress in these various formative assignments.

Name Role
Professor Christoph Mueller Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 

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