RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
the extremely high quality of the modules.
Recent research done by the Careers
Service has also shown the effectiveness
of these modules, with the likelihood of a
student reaching a positive destination as
defined by the Destination of Leavers of
Higher Education (DLHE) 2 being 21.9%
higher if they have participated in a
careers education module compared to a
student who had not participated in a
careers module (O’Riordan et al. 2016).
The University of Dundee runs four-year
modular degree programmes by which
degrees are obtained through the
accumulation of credits. A module is worth
a fixed amount of credit and is a self-
contained unit of teaching, learning and
assessment. Most modules run for just
one semester and students, depending on
their discipline, are able to pick modules
outside of their degree stream.
The Internship module run by the
Careers Service is open to second year
students from all disciplines across the
university (where their degree
programme allows) with the student
cohort coming from a wide range of
subjects such as psychology, social
sciences, maths and humanities.
Typically 50-60 students take part in the
module each year. We also run a
compulsory bespoke Internship module
Quality Framework for Higher Education (QAA,
n.d.).
2
The Destination of Leavers of Higher Education is
a survey UK universities are required to carry out
every year which captures information about the
destination of leavers from Higher Education,
including further study, graduate level or non –
graduate level employment, six months after
graduation (Office for Students, n.d.).
for the Business Management students
with typically 35-40 students a year.
The Career Service modules utilise the
DOTS model of careers education (Law &
Watt 1977) in classroom teaching. This
model outlines four key themes which
career education should achieve:
decision making, opportunity awareness,
transition learning and self-awareness.
We focus classroom learning on these
four key areas with sessions covering
topics such as factors that influence
career choice, skills audits, career
investigation reports, organisational
cultures and practical careers topics such
as CV writing and interview techniques.
We encourage the students to become
reflective practitioners, develop their own
self-awareness and then use this
knowledge to capture their learning gain
from their internship in an on-line
portfolio. Using WordPress 3 , a free on-
line blogging tool, the students not only
record their learning from the module and
placement but improve their digital
literacy and employability as a result.
The ePortfolio itself is split into four
sections, with section one being
submitted early on in the module. This
section focuses on preparing for
placement and encourages the students
to think about any worries or concerns
regarding starting the internship. It
identifies the student’s key strengths and
weaknesses and any skills gap they
have. Students produce a personalised
action plan on what they want to achieve
during their internship. Students refer
3
See http://www.wordpress.com
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