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Law Professional Readiness and Skills (Stage 1)

  • Module code: LL4444
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 4
  • Credits: Pass fail module 0
  • Pre-requisites: None
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module consists of professional and personal skills training, designed to prepare students for their internship and to improve their employability after graduation. Students will experience a wide range of opportunities to enhance their skills, ensure they make the most of their potential, gain the best possible internship, and give them an edge in the job market after graduation.

Where appropriate, the skills work will be integrated with core curriculum activity. Students will work with the module leader, employability professionals, faculty staff, including their personal tutor, to identify their skills requirements. In addition to the standard skills required by employers, there will be skills development linked to specific subject areas in law.

It is a core part of the 'Professional Experience' part of the LLB with Professional Experience.

Aims

  • To provide students with a rounded set of skills that prepare them for their placement and for their subsequent working lives
  • To teach students to identify their particular skills requirements
  • To motivate students to use the tools provided to develop their skills and to make the most of face to face teaching and other activities
  • To provide employers with the data they require on student skill levels to allow them to choose students that are suitable for placement in their organisations
  • To enhance students' ability and self-confidence to operate in an employment context
  • To support career development and enhance career prospects
  • To improve the student's ability to apply for and gain employment
  • To enable students to determine their future skills requirements.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

  • Function as useful and productive members of their internship organisations' workforce
  • Develop career aspirations and enhance personal development
  • Understand how to assess and continue to develop their personal and professional skills
  • Provide a good account of their current skills level and any gaps
  • Identify and provide an account of how their skills have developed
  • understand and develop further work-related skills and behaviours and identify the requirements for additional skills.

Curriculum content

  • Completion of an initial situation analysis/assessment of their skills
  • Analysis of preferred career paths and identification of additional skills required.
  • Training in the relevant skills - these will be developmental and increase in complexity over time.  They will include substantial inter-personal aspects including networking and interview techniques, negotiating/mediating skills and managing conflict, which are vital to success in organisations (see below for further detail). 

The skills will include personal presentation and personal management (eg. time management, communicating, writing and editing, presenting, telephone and email skills, creating a digital persona, problems solving assertiveness), placement/internships (assessing and selecting placement opportunities and preparing for placement eg. interview preparation), team working, general management (eg. project management, leadership, motivation, innovation, enterprise, appraisal, coaching, mentoring, planning) and research (eg. sourcing and using research, making sense of secondary data) and job-seeking (eg. CV preparation, interview skills).

Teaching and learning strategy

This module involves a combination of workshop-style training sessions, specific employability events, guided independent preparation and tutor-led input, testing and reinforcement of skills by core curricular activity.

Students will be supported by the module leader, employability professionals, the Faculty staff and be monitored by tutors.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching Time-tabled employability sessions as well as specific practical employability events including employability professionals up to 10 sessions during academic terms 20
Guided independent study 280
Total (number of credits x 10) 0

Assessment strategy

Students will be assessed through a written and an oral assessment that form an essential part of the Skills Portfolio, which includes statements of initial skills assessments, activities undertaken to improve skills, assessment of outcomes in terms of improved skills and evidence of skills deployment.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
Function as useful and productive members of their internship organisation's workforce Portfolio
Develop career aspirations and enhance personal development Portfolio
Understand how to assess and continue to develop their personal and professional skills Portfolio
Provide a good account of their current skills level and any gaps Portfolio
Identify and provide an account of how their skills have developed Portfolio
Understand and develop further work-related skills and behaviours and identify the requirements for additional skills Portfolio

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
Coursework Skills Portfolio 100
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS a requirement that all the elements of assessment are passed in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.

Bibliography core texts

Most of the material used will be in the form of a skills manual, continuing training briefs and independent/class exercises, plus on-line links where appropriate.

Kingston University (2016) The Professional Readiness portfolio.

The facilities and resources of the University Careers Service and materials in the Learning Resources Centre are available to placement students.

Links and resources for professional bodies will also be included.

Anderson, L. E. and Bolt, S. B. (2008) Professionalism. Real skills for workplace success. Upper Sadder River, NJ: Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Cottrell, S. (2010) Skills for Success. Personal development and employability. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Fagan A. (2011) Brilliant job hunting. Your complete guide to getting the job you want. 3rd edn. Harrow: Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Trought, F. (2011) Brilliant employability skills. How to stand out from the crowd in the graduate job market. Harrow: Pearson - FT Prentice Hall.

Fagan A. (2011) Brilliant job hunting. Your complete guide to getting the job you want. 3rd edn. Harrow: Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Trought, F. (2011) Brilliant employability skills. How to stand out from the crowd in the graduate job market. Harrow: Pearson - FT Prentice Hall.

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