HR9409 - Preparing for Professional Practice

Your learning journey in this module will consist of a combination of tutor-led, learner-led and team-led session activities.
Tutor-led research-informed seminar sessions will help you develop an understanding and increased awareness of your skills and employability and provide practical support to help you record and document these attributes to support future career progression.
Sessions are student-led, an experiential approach facilitated by the programme team to support the development of your career plan focusing on your future graduate identity.
A team-led, facilitated approach provides the authentic experience of working as part of a team on an appropriate graduate-level project within your field. You will be jointly responsible for identifying your team’s learning needs to provide appropriate recommendations for a real business organisation. The module framework/structure to help you work through the issues, and your facilitator will support you with advice and constructive criticism.

Support will be provided to you by a member of academic staff who will facilitate your learning and support you through the led sessions whilst disseminating appropriate activities you should be engaging in during your independent study time. They are also available upon request to help you outside of formal session time by responding to questions or concerns you might have either via email or individually pre-arranged appointments or drop-in sessions.
Sessions include tutor-led, tutor-guided and learner-led activities in groups of around 20 working in smaller teams. This approach provides closer, more personal academic support. All workshops and seminar sessions will consist of learners who are also studying on your programme.
Academic support is available through the provision of a range of University learning support services. In addition, a wide range of online support materials is also available through the virtual learning environment. These materials include recordings, webcasts, pre-recorded sessions on specialist software and critical academic skills, also an electronic reading list including RSS feeds that showcase the application of various practices presented in the module.

To support you in your academic progress, you will receive both formative and summative feedback/feed-forward on your work through the course of each academic year. Regular formative feedback on class activities provides you with the necessary guidance to scaffold your knowledge and understanding of critical issues to succeed in the final summative assessment. Summative feedback/feed-forward will be provided on your work after it has been assessed and graded. You should use all feedback you receive to identify areas of strength and areas for future study and improvement.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:

• To apply your knowledge and understanding of contemporary business to solve a problem related to professional practice using higher-order capabilities [MLO1]

• To appraise knowledge of business and management to complex real-world problems in professional practice in order to identify contextually-justifiable, sustainable and responsible solutions [MLO2]


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

• To become a self-directed learner with the ability to develop skills in framing your own enquiry questions, impacting on individual engagement and confidence. These will include critical evaluation, synthesis, ethical judgment and communication as well as technical skills in information searching and the use of technology. [MLO3]


• To work collaboratively on a team project. [MLO4]

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

• To self-reflect and critique your personal skills and attitudes as a means of informing personal development planning and improve your employability and discern your graduate identity. [MLO5]

Formative assessment:
Throughout the module you should actively participate in scheduled and self-directed activities and should engage in discussions, team work and feedback exercises to challenge your own thinking and that of your peers.

Face-to-face sessions will provide you with the opportunity to self-assess your knowledge and understanding through applying the different aspects/topics examined. You will work through small groups activities which will enable you to secure on-going feedback from your peers.


Summative Assessment:
1. Employability Development Portfolio developed through engagement with weekly activities in seminars and reflective statements. (40%) [MLO 3, 5]

2. Team Report/Presentation – Work submitted by the team detailing research conducted and findings and recommendations (40%) [MLO 1, 2, 4]

3. 360° Self, Tutor and Peer Assessment from team project (20%) [MLO 4]

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‘Preparing for Professional Practice’ supports you in applying the knowledge and understanding you’ve developed through the module ‘People, Management and Organisations’ to your professional development. Taking an experiential team-focused, project/problem-based approach, the module equips you to identify and develop the key skills, behaviours and understanding that underpin sustainably and responsibly managed organisations and their people within your chosen field. These might include generic areas such as leadership, project management, resilience, empathy and professional judgment, and discipline-specific topics.
You will use this understanding to evaluate, practise, develop and re-evaluate your capabilities in these identified areas. Thus, enabling you to build your brand to support your successful future employability and enterprise activity. In addition, the activities provide you with authentic insights into the importance and challenges of team-working within organisations as you work to address their real-world challenges.