Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SSI3020: Employment Experience (UK and Abroad)

This module descriptor refers to the 2024/5 academic year.

Module Aims

1. To increase your employability skills in an increasingly competitive market through:

seeking and successfully gaining a work placement
being in a workplace for a significant period and reflecting on that experience

2. To develop your intercultural awareness and competence through reflection on the experience of employment.

3. To enhance your capacity for self-assessment through structured reflection on your experience.

4. Where relevant, to enhance your awareness of the process of foreign-language learning and to develop strategies for more effective language learning.

5. Enhance key transferable skills through the managing of your learning in an independent context, e.g. working with others; problem solving; communication, building resilience; leadership skills.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. produce job applications that represent your strengths and target specific employers in an appropriate manner; 2. demonstrate knowledge and application of the attitudes and qualities that are required to function well in a work environment; 3. demonstrate an ability to communicate (in writing and in speech) in a manner appropriate to the particular workplace context; 4. where study is outside of the UK, demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the host country and a sensitivity to its culture so as to function as an integrated member of its society.
Discipline-Specific Skills	5. demonstrate skills in the research, selection and evaluation of specific jobs and the structural context of those jobs; 6. demonstrate a critical understanding of the social, cultural and political considerations that influence employment settings, using appropriate discipline-specific theoretical perspectives to analyse those settings.
Personal and Key Skills	7. develop or enhance practical work-based skills and experience; 8. negotiate the different types of working relationships with staff within the workplace and others relevant to the placement; 9. demonstrate the ability to identify and reflect on personal challenges and to learn from their resolution; 10. demonstrate the ability to use a range of technologies and applications relevant to most work places.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Work placement(s) UK or abroad for the full Academic year (minimum of 24 weeks) in one or more placement approved by the University of Exeter.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
0	0	1200

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Work placement	1200	Work placement undertaken with an organisation(s) approved by the University of Exeter. The hours are approximate and may vary on an individual basis but are to include all assessment and study time.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

ELE – vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=13032

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Placement Proposal Essay	1000 words	2-10	Written and Ora

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
65	0	35

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Reflective Essay	50	2,000 words	2-10	Written
Recorded Interview-style Question Responses	35	15 mins	2-10	Written
Updated Curriculum Vitae	15	Approx. 750 words	1; 2; 10	Written
	0
	0
	0

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Reflective Essay	Reflective Essay, 2000 words (50%)	2-10	referral/deferral period
Recorded Interview-style Question Responses	Recorded Interview-style Question Responses, 15 minutes (35%)	2-10	referral/deferral period
Updated Curriculum Vitae	Updated Curriculum Vitae (15%)	1; 2; 10	referral/deferral period