Curriculum Information

This work placement is a 30-week (1000 hours) minimum period of work experience relevant to the student’s academic programme. It commences following the completion of the second academic year and will extend into the following academic session, extending the study duration of the course by 1 year.

Although it will be the student’s responsibility to find their own placement, the University, through its Careers Service, will offer significant help and support. Students will be supported by the placement officer and the Careers Service before, during and after their placement in line with the requirements of the QAA Code of Practice on Work-Based Learning and USW procedures for placement and work-based learning. In particular:

The placement will be formally agreed between the university, employers, and students to ensure all understand the respective roles, responsibilities, and expectations.

The university and the employers will be clear on their responsibilities and provide guidance and training to the students in relation to the workplace environment. These will include, for example, health and safety and safeguarding and GDPR.

The placement will be a structured opportunity, with agreements between employer, the university, and the student about how the student is supervised within the workplace, ensuring regular contact should be maintained appropriate to the student, the workplace context and specific work-based learning opportunity.

Where employers are involved in assessment, their role is clearly defined, appropriate training is given, and, for summative assessment, standard mechanisms of moderation, standardisation and external examination are fully used.

The course design should include learning outcomes that are directly relevant to work objectives and the proposed placement should enable the student to meet the intended learning outcomes. Where possible subject, professional knowledge, skills and behaviours should be integrated into the learning outcomes.

The university and employers acknowledge individuals have unique needs within the education organisation and in the workplace, and collaborate to ensure opportunities are inclusive, safe, and supported. The university and employer should work in partnership to establish the unique learner needs for the learning environments and ensure an inclusive approach to the provision of work-based learning opportunities. This will include through reasonable adjustments to procedures, activities, and physical environments.

The placement opportunity will be monitored, evaluated, and reviewed in partnership with employers. This partnership should include obtaining feedback from employers and students and involving them in the evaluation process.

To achieve this a placement partner will be appointed to be in regular contact with both students and companies/organisations. The placement partner alongside the Careers Service will check the suitability of the placement and support the student in making sure that all necessary checks and agreements are in place prior to the commencement of the placement. In addition, the placement partner will ensure that the proposed placement will allow the intended learning outcomes to be achieved and will visit the student at the placement location at least once a term.

The work experience will be assessed against an agreed framework of objectives that are set prior to the commencement of the placement. These are agreed with both the student, placement partner, and company/organisation placement supervisor.

The student will complete a reflective log of their placement experiences which has been designed to measure reflection on the development of skills and competencies in relation to the module learning outcomes.