HA4004 - Work-Based Learning in Law - Professional Development 1

You will learn through tutor facilitated workshops, skills practice, tutor guidance and feedback and independent directed and self-directed learning. Importantly, you will also learn at work, through reflecting on your experiences and applying your knowledge from your individual WBL plan to your practice in the workplace. The workshops will introduce you to theories and concepts and allow you to discuss with the tutors and your peers how these relate to your own work based experiences and practice. You are encouraged to customise your individual WBL plan so that it is directly relevant to what you need to learn. The workplace provides a rich learning environment if you know how to plan, reflect and renew your own knowledge and skills through formal and informal modes of learning practice. Importantly you will be required to review your learning with your workplace mentor and your individual academic coach, and provide evidence of the transfer of your learning into updating the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes that underpin the development of your professional practice. Therefore, it is the evidence of what you have learned from the planned experience, rather than the experience itself which will demonstrate your competence in this module.

Your learning is supported by a module plan, offering guidance on reading to prepare for workshops and help with the completion of the individual WBL plan and module assessment. Within this plan, there are also suggested learning activities, which guide you in your independent learning. These activities allow you to reflect and evaluate your knowledge and skills in this area.

You will be building a portfolio of evidence that illustrates your development and competence throughout the first year of the programme, which is aligned to the Statement of Solicitor Competence. This portfolio will enable you to demonstrate how you have applied your learning from across all first stage modules into your workplace practice, and will normally include evidence from this module’s WBL plan and assessment.

As part of this or another first stage module, you will be introduced to a range of academic skills, which will support your learning whilst in Higher Education and provide the foundations on which you will build these skills over the next six years.

The module plan will provide a number of prompts and guidance to support you academically. Support will also include opportunities to gain feedback from workshop tutors, peers and your individual academic coach.

Your module is also supported by an e-learning portal, which houses all the module-learning materials, workshop resources, interactive activities, assessment details and various other support facilities, which are provided by the University.

In addition, in order to assist you in developing knowledge, you will have access to the University’s library facilities, including extensive electronic resources, eBooks and electronic academic journal articles.

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:
• Your knowledge of personal work based learning planning, approaches to developing an individual learning contract (ML01)

• Your enhanced sector and or organisational specific knowledge and practice (ML02)

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Your ability to engage in continuing professional development (CPD) planning as a means of proactively enhancing your work based knowledge and practice (ML03)

• Your understanding of qualities and transferable skills necessary for enhancing your sector and or organisational knowledge and practice (ML04)

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Your ability to identify and understand the cultural and ethical contexts in which you develop your professional practice (ML05)

You will be provided with formative feedback on your proposed individual WBL CPD plan from your individual academic coach.

Your summative assessment will take the form of the following:

1) WBL Contract (50%)
Individual WBL CPD plan outlining the objectives, methods or activities, resources and support, timeline, learning transfer, learning outcomes and/or criteria for measuring achievement,
(2000 words maximum)

(Evidencing ML01, ML03)

2) WBL Digital Personal
Learning Report
(50%)

An individual video learning log summarising your key personal learning and evidence of your enhanced knowledge and skills emerging from implementation of your WBL plan. (15 minutes equivalent to 1500 words maximum)

(Evidencing module learning outcomes ML02, ML04, ML05)

None

None

This is the first in a series of two core modules that run throughout the first two levels of the programme and introduces you to the work based learning (WBL) contract approach to designing and implementing an individual WBL plan. The focus of your WBL plan should be on developing your competence and or knowledge in the context of the specific skills and or knowledge required to operate effectively within your particular sector or organisation. This could include a range of components including for example: work based training, online modules, work projects, credited CPD programmes and training from your own organisation. The WBL contract will be individually negotiated between yourself and your workplace mentor and individual academic coach and will strengthen your capacity as an independent and self-directed, work-based learner.