Career Research Report

Module code and title:

MG410 Career Viewpoint

Module leader:

Assignment No. and type:

CW1 – career research report

Assessment weighting:

50%

Submission time and date:

Target feedback time and date:

After 3 weeks

Assignment task

This assignment involves preparing a report to demonstrate an awareness of the knowledge, skills and experience required by a recent graduate to enter a chosen area of graduate employment. The report will be 1500 words and will be submitted in week 7.

This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes:

LO 2

Define and contextualise employability for graduates in relation to their own career;

LO 3

Gather and analyse relevant career and labour market information

Task requirements

OVERVIEW

Prepare a report demonstrating an awareness of the knowledge, skills and experience required by a recent graduate to enter a chosen area of graduate employment. The research required to prepare the report will support you in your future career planning and decisions.  This report will provide the basis of the information for your self-reflection and career action plan report – CW2

A) THE TASK – WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DO

• You are required to identity an area of graduate employment that you would consider for when you leave university.  This could be EITHER a profession (for example marketing/Finance/Accounting/HR) OR an industry you are interested in (for example retail, sports & leisure, public sector, not-for-profit, travel and tourism.)  Your research should be either in an area you aspire to work within or maybe an area that you want to understand more about.

• Your research in your chosen profession/industry should include likely future trends in graduate recruitment, and should equip you with the knowledge to write a summary of the key skills, knowledge and experience expected from graduate applicants.

• You are encouraged to use both primary and secondary research for this assignment. Primary research might include attending events run by the careers team, and/or events run by the professional bodies, or else through personal contacts.  It might also include information from the guest lecturers for the module.  You could consider talking to managers at work, if you have a part-time role, or else friends and family to enhance your understanding.  Include in the appendix a log detailing who you contacted for primary research.

• Having identified the profession/industry, you are then required to identify one current job being advertised that you would be interested in applying for in the future.  This will form the basis of the second assignment.  The advert should appear as an appendix, which you should refer to as necessary within your report.  It is important that this is a graduate level job, and not one for an individual with many years’ experience.

B) THE REPORT – WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO SUBMIT

You are required to submit a written report of 1500 words. It is suggested that you use the headings shown in this briefing or you may use your own headings; what is important is that you clearly cover all areas outlined below.

The report should include the following sections:

INTRODUCTION - Provide a brief paragraph outlining the aims of the report and what profession/industry your assignment will cover. As this is your reflection, this section can be in the 1^st person.

Analysis and Application- This section of the report should be as a factual reflection of the findings from the profession/industry you have chosen to research.   You need to consider both primary and secondary research for this section.  This section should be written in the 3^rd person and should include the key information regarding this profession/industry in terms of:

• General trends which will impact on your chosen profession/industry.  What changes are happening in your chosen profession/industry which might impact on the jobs you apply for and the skills and knowledge you will need.  Consider the impact of globalisation and technology for example.  This section will be based on your secondary research but might also include comments or views from anyone you interview for your primary research. 

• The skills / knowledge and experience required – Using information from secondary research, relevant professional bodies, and relevant job advertisements, provide a summary based on your research of the key skills / knowledge and experience expected from an applicant at this stage in their career.  Again, this might be supported by your primary research. You should aim for at least 5 personal skills and 2 areas of knowledge and expertise.

Evaluation - For this section you need to identify an appropriate vacancy from your chosen profession/industry.  You should include the advertisement in full (not a website link ) in the appendices.  Within the report, explain why this job role is of interest to you.  How does it relates to your potential choice of industry/profession?  Why do you prefer this job opportunity to others you considered?  Is this a new/emerging job role within your profession/industry and therefore likely to be future proofed?  This can be written in the 1^st person.

You must reference all information used in the report, both primary and secondary, using the Harvard Referencing Guide.  

See attached grid for assessment criteria.

Referencing and research requirements

Please reference your work according to the Harvard style as defined in Cite Them Right Online (http://www.citethemrightonline.com). This information is also available in book form: Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2016) Cite them right: the essential reference guide. 10^th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Copies are available via the university library.

How your work will be assessed

Your work will be assessed on the extent to which it demonstrates your achievement of the stated learning outcomes for this assignment (see above) and against other key criteria, as defined in the University’s institutional grading descriptors. If it is appropriate to the format of your assignment and your subject area, a proportion of your marks will also depend upon your use of academic referencing conventions.

This assignment will be marked according to the grading descriptors for Level 4

Submission details

This assignment should be submitted electronically. Please use the relevant Turnitin submission point in the Submit your work area in your Blackboard module shell.

• Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format. Turnitin will only accept the following file types: Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, OpenOffice (ODT), Hangul (HWP), Google Docs, or plain text. Your file must also contain at least 20 words of text, consist of fewer than 400 pages and be less than 40MB in size.

• You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version.

• Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment

• You are reminded of the University’s regulations on academic misconduct, which can be viewed on the University website: https://bucks.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/9546/Academic-Misconduct-Policy.pdf. In submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations

Submission date and time

This assignment should be submitted before 14:00 UK time on Friday 23^rd October 2020.

Work that is submitted up to 10 working days beyond the submission date will be accepted as a late submission. Late submissions will be marked and the actual mark recorded, but will be capped at the pass mark (typically 40%), provided that the work is of a passing standard. Work submitted after this period will not be marked and will be treated as a non-submission.

Feedback and marks for this assignment will be available by 14:00 on Tuesday 13^th November 2020.