LAW-30104 - Module Specification
School of Law
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2020/21

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2020/21

In an increasingly competitive job market, employers are looking to recruit employees who have high-level knowledge, skills and workplace experience. This module supports students in taking a work placement year to enable students to experience firsthand how a professional environment functions. This allows students to reflect upon, apply and test their learning from Level 4 and 5 in creative and complex environments. This placement may also assist with qualifying work experience for the purposes of the proposed Solicitors Qualification Examination (SQE).
This will help students to produce a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of how academic knowledge may be applied and how to function in a professional environment.
This module provides the foundation for the work placement year together with a structure to ensure that the potential learning experiences from the year are maximised. During the module, students will undertake a long-term (minimum of 30 weeks, fulltime) work placement with a company or organisation, where they are required to contribute to organisationally defined goals and objectives. Students will be required to reflect upon their previous learning and to explore their own strengths and weakness in the workplace context with a focus upon the development of new skills and abilities for employability.
The assessment is by reflective portfolio in conjunction with the work placement, to pass the placement year.
Students will also gain a much greater understanding of professional practice within their chosen sector and be able to use their work placement experiences to develop their CVs, better understand the place of academic theory and knowledge in real world situations and ultimately improve their employability upon graduation.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the opportunity to carry out a long-term work placement based learning experience (minimum 30 weeks equivalent of full-time work) between Years 2 and 3 (Levels 5 and 6) of their degree programme.
The module will be underpinned by employability skills training (as part of their preparation during year 2), reflective assessment, employer and tutor evaluation and support from academic lead tutor.

Intended Learning Outcomes

evaluate their own employablity skills together with an analysis of sector skill demands to create their Intended Learning Outcomes in order to achieve proficiency in the areas they have identified as weak or in need of enhancement. These will be discussed with the placements officer and academic lead tutor: 1
develop through practice on work placement, the employment related skills identified as Intended Learning Outcomes: 1
reflect on and apply academic themes, concepts and theory as explored at Level 4 and Level 5 to complex real work situations on work placement: 1
reflect on and critically evaluate their learning from work placement and previous learning: 1
explain how their chosen professional or placement sector operates and what skills are needed to develop their career: 1

Study hours

The placement year is the equivalent of 120 credits and the student will be expected to be on placement for a MINIMUM of 30 weeks equivalent of full-time work (this is roughly equivalent to a standard university teaching period), therefore a minimum of 1050 hours should be spent on placement. The placements can continue for up to 12 months, providing the necessary
assessments are submitted and passed for progression into the final year (Level 6).
10 hours are given for scheduled learning and teaching activities - these are workshops which will cover: placement preparation including CVs, covering letters and how to find a placement; identifying skills gaps through skills audits; creating intended learning outcomes; and a pre-departure workshop to complete necessary paperwork.
140 hours are intended for guided independent study.

School Rules

Students must be of good academic standing and have a good university attendance and engagement record. The minimum is to pass all 120 credits at Level 4 and to achieve pass marks for all semester 1 modules at Level 5.

Description of Module Assessment