The Business School
Faculty of Management
BA (Hons) Accounting and Business
BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance
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BA (Hons) Accounting and Taxation
BA (Hons) Economics
BA (Hons) Finance and Business
BA (Hons) Finance and Economics
BSc (Hons) Marketing
Professional Development Portfolio
2017-2018
CONTENTS Page
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE PLACEMENT 4
PLACEMENT YEAR REQUIREMENTS 4
FINAL YEAR OPTION CHOICES 4
PLACEMENT SUPPORT & REVEIW 5
PREPARATION FOR REVIEW MEETINGS 5
PLACEMENT COURSEWORK 6
CONTENTS OF THE PLACEMENT DEVELOPMENT PORTFOLIO 7
MAHARA E-PORTFOLIO 9
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: PERSONAL SKILLS AUDIT 10
APPENDIX B: SMART OBJECTIVES 11
APPENDIX C: MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES 12
APPENDIX D: MY WORK WISH LIST 15
APPENDIX E: APPRAISAL 16
BIBLIOGRAPHY 20
Intended Learning Outcomes from the Placement
To enable you to:
1. Develop a portfolio of transferrable skills and competencies:
a. Be able to identify those skills
b. Maximise development by setting SMART objectives
c. Articulate your competencies with good work based examples and be able to ‘market’ yourself to future employers
2. Develop better defined career aspirations:
a. Awareness of key strengths and self-efficacy
b. Develop a ‘wish list’ regarding the world of work and future roles
c. Have researched the graduate job market and built a network of contacts
3. Have the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts studied to working practice:
a. Be able to look at the wider picture within which you operate and critically appraise the environment and your role within it
b. Bring awareness of working practice back into your final year of study
Placement Year Requirements
Satisfactory completion of the placement year depends on the following:
1. A minimum of thirty weeks work experience (excluding holidays and sickness)
2. Achieving an appropriate level of performance in your work, as evidenced in the employer feedback
3. Demonstrating your performance and learning over the year to your Placement Development Adviser, by completion of the tasks in the Professional Development Portfolio
4. Submission of an e-portfolio reflecting upon and showcasing your learning
Final Year Option Choices
You will be asked to select your final year options and project type sometime in February or March 2018. All information regarding option and project choices will be made available on MyBU.
There may also be discussion forums or a live feed event for you to participate in.
Further announcements about your choices will be made via MyBU and sent out to your university email address closer to the time. Your PDA will also be able to advise you of further information.
Placement Support and Review
Your Placement Development Adviser (referred to in this document as your PDA) has a number of roles:
· To provide a link between you, your employer, and the University
· To discuss and appraise your performance with both yourself and your employer
· To encourage the practice of continuing professional development
· To check on your learning through your progress with the Professional Development Portfolio (PDP) and to encourage the reflective learning process
· To satisfy themselves that you are doing work appropriate for a placement
In normal circumstances you will receive a minimum of one ‘face to face’ company visit during the placement year and one ‘remote’ review. Expect these reviews to last approximately an hour and a half to two hours. You may of course contact your PDAs at any time if you need additional support.
Throughout your placement, regular updates and announcements will be made via MyBU and it is important that you check this and your BU email on a regular basis.
You will have the opportunity to discuss any aspect of the placement you wish with your PDA; indeed it is in your interests to give him/her as complete a picture as possible of your work and the placement experience. Please make sure that you work continuously on your Professional Development Portfolio in preparation for the review meetings and that the work is at hand at the time of the face to face or remote visit.
Preparation for Review Meetings
Your PDA will expect you to make all necessary arrangements for the meetings by ensuring that you are available, and that your supervisor is also informed and is able to set aside some time to speak with your PDA. Similar formal arrangements should also be made for the ‘remote meeting’.
Once the date of a meeting is arranged, (remote or face to face) please make every effort to keep it, as last minute cancellations are very inconvenient, involve a lot of re-arrangements, and may result in another student missing out on a visit altogether.
At your first review your PDA will discuss your goals and the areas you have identified for development during the course of the placement. To prepare for this meeting please consider your personal objectives, and be prepared also to give a concise summary of your job role and how it fits into the department/company. (See sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the PDP coursework - work on these should be ongoing).
At your second meeting you will discuss the transferable skills and competencies gained during the year and the impact on your career aspirations and further study. You will be expected to demonstrate your ability to reflect on the experience and highlight the significant learning lessons. (See sections 5 and 6 of the PDP and the appendices).
Review meetings are both a reflection and a planning activity. You will be encouraged to stand back from your role and identify and critically appraise the wider learning you have gained from your placement experience. You will be encouraged to reflect on your personal learning, identifying strengths and weaknesses and setting objectives for your development and future career development.
Placement Coursework
During your placement you are expected to work on the tasks outlined in the Professional Development Portfolio (PDP) handbook and a summary of this work must be submitted to your PDA via the portfolio tool (Mahara).
The purpose of the Professional Development Portfolio is to enable you to:
· Track, analyse and reflect on your experiences during the placement
· Help you to critically evaluate and articulate your competence based development
· Enable you, your organisation and your PDA to assess your performance on placement
· Create and develop a Professional Development Portfolio reflecting on and demonstrating your learning while on placement
In other words, it seeks to encourage reflection on learning supported by evidence.
The Professional Development Portfolio:
· Is a tool for managing self-development
· Is a record of your achievement
· Is proof of your competence
· Contains pertinent pieces of evidence
Manager’s Feedback
You are expected to complete the manager’s feedback form twice during your placement. This can be found in Appendix E. The second of these must be forwarded to your PDA by 29 June 2018 as it will be required for the placement exam board.
Aim of the Appraisal:
The purpose of this document is to assist you and your manager to assess your strengths and identify areas for further development, through a formal appraisal of your work performance.
If your company has an assessment process similar to this, you may use theirs as an alternative.
Contents of the Professional Development Portfolio
You should be continuously working on the following sections and collecting and storing the relevant documents. You are expected to be able to share and discuss this work during your PDA reviews.
Section 1: Background to your placement: setting the context and looking at the ‘bigger picture’ you operate within
Job Description
1. Give a brief outline of your job role and core duties
2. Draw up a list of competencies/skills and attributes required to fulfil this role
3. Identify where your role fits into the team/company - look at the wider picture and the environment you operate in. (Including an organisational chart will help with this task). If you work for a large company, then narrow this down to the relevant area that you operate within.
Analysis of the Organisation
Research and write a brief report on the company background, i.e. who is this company and where do they fit into the external environment?
You should:
1. Outline the aims / strategy of the organisation. This may include a mission statement
2. Analyse the company structure and culture
3. Analyse the external environment within which the organisation operates e.g. who are the customers and main competitors. You can even include a SWOT and PESTLE analysis.
This work should be drafted during the first 3 months on placement. (You can develop it further as the placement progresses).
At your first review with your PDA you will be expected to give an overview of your role, including an analysis of the skills required and demonstrate an awareness of the bigger picture within which you operate. This exercise will also assist you in planning your development and identifying your objectives during the placement.
Section 2: The Reflective Journal: Recording and critically evaluating your development and progress
Once you have settled into your placement role, you should keep a monthly journal of your work covering the areas of work/ tasks /projects you have worked on. This should not be a descriptive diary but should contain evidence of reflective learning.
Ensure that each month you answer the following questions:
1. What skills/competencies am I developing in the course of this work?
2. What did I do well?
3. What did I not do so well?
4. What would I do differently the next time?
5. What do I need to do to further my development?
The journal can take the form of a blog, a word document or be hand written.
Section 3: Management competencies, skills audit and SMART objectives
These documents should be completed every three months in order for you to be able to monitor and track your personal & professional development.
Personal Skills Audit (Appendix A):
This is a personal audit where you can identity your skills and strengths and take stock of your development, noting weaknesses and or developmental areas.
SMART Objectives (Appendix B):
This will enable you to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timescale) objectives for the following three month period and monitor results.
Management Competencies (Appendix C):
This is a list of the competencies required to manage workplace tasks. Please use this template to detail the tasks that you have undertaken that illustrate the relevant competence. In the results box note the resulting piece of work or document. (If you are a BABS student doing the Reflective Practitioner project in the final year, it is advisable to keep documentary evidence).
Work ‘Wish List’ (Appendix D):
Use your placement year to analyse how you feel about work and the working environment. Also look at other roles around you that seem interesting, or that you can shadow, and use your network of contacts to find out about the career steps other employees have taken. You should be able to build a ‘wish list’ regarding what you are looking for in a graduate role and maybe even what you would like to avoid in future.
Section 4: Record of Training and Achievements
You should keep a record and / or evidence of formal and informal training. You should include any certificates or evidence of special achievements / awards. Remember to record any special contributions you make to the company both in your professional capacity and any extra activities in which you are involved, such as charity work or sporting activities.
It is advisable to keep a professional copy of your portfolio as proof of appropriate work experience in case exemption is given when studying for future professional qualifications.
If you intend to qualify as a professional accountant after graduation then keep a detailed log of all work undertaken; this should be signed off by a qualified accountant to certify that the work has been satisfactorily completed. The work experience may be acceptable to the professional accounting bodies as part of the required three years practical work experience.
Section 5: An updated copy of your CV
Towards the end of the placement you are expected to update your CV to reflect the experience and skills gained during the placement year. If you draft this document prior to leaving the company you can ask relevant staff to give you feedback.
Section 6: Evaluation and a Company Presentation
Towards the end of your placement your PDA will encourage you to make a short presentation to your team/company. The presentation should:
1. Cover your achievements during the placement year
2. Give examples of how and when you have used your key skills
3. Outline the main learning lessons
4. Highlight the contribution that you feel you have made to the company
5. Acknowledge and give thanks to relevant staff for the support and experience offered
The Mahara E-portfolio: Compulsory Coursework
The e-portfolio is a summary / synthesis of your work on the tasks in the Professional Development Portfolio and reflects appraisals with your supervisor and discussions during PDA reviews. It provides the opportunity to showcase your placement year (a living CV) and reflect upon your learning within the context of your continuing professional development.
The requirement for successfully completing the placement year is that by 29 June 2018 you have produced an e-portfolio summary page which you submit to your PDA.
The layout of the e-portfolio is very individual and there is no set word count. You can upload all / any of your work from the Professional Development Portfolio.
As a minimum you must upload the following items:
1. An introduction to your placement role and where this fits within the organisation
2. A list of the main competencies you have developed
3. Your 3 key strengths, giving examples of how they have been used
4. Details of an area/skill you would like to develop further
5. Your main achievement
6. A reflection on the employer feedback/appraisal you have received
7. Additional activities (outside the placement role) undertaken during the placement year