DB366 Developing Professional Practice in Business: Deferral/MCUP Assignment Brief (Client Project).
The new assignment is an individual assessment worth 60% of the module mark.
As a reminder, these are the module aims:
Provide a practical experience through conducting a small-scale business/consultancy project based in an agreed setting (typically 30 hours).
Develop confidence in the ability to make professional decisions based on evidence and to apply theory appropriately.
Encourage students to reflect on the experience and on how it has contributed to their personal development, shaped their thinking about future careers and enhanced their employment prospects using on-line tools.
The following pages explain how the new assignment is assessed. Make sure you read this through carefully before starting your research.
The client project:
You have been engaged as a management consultant to provide guidance regarding the development of a new undergraduate module focused on supporting second year (Level 5) undergraduates with applications for work placements.
Competition for graduate employment opportunities continues to grow. The benefits of undertaking a work placement (between the second and final year of study) are becoming increasingly apparent. Not only are work placements beneficial to the students, but they are also beneficial to employers.
The client (a fictitious) module development team, within the School of Business and Law, has asked that you draw upon a wide range of current academic sources and respected industry, government, and media sources to design a new placement module. It is important for you to draw upon well-grounded research to get a range of perspectives.
You have been requested to consider the following as you undertake this client project:
Investigate why placements are beneficial to both the student and the employer
Consider what type of support students would benefit from as they prepare to apply for placements
Consider what type of training and development students would benefit from, to be successful in the recruitment processes e.g., psychometric tests practice, presentations, interview skills, assessment centres, CVs and application forms etc.
The client wants the project to be useful to them so the project should result in the production of a module specification (see template provided) that can be used for implementation, to offer a 20 credit, elective option to Level 5 undergraduates, in the School of Business and Law.
The client is commissioning several similar projects so has asked that all project reports follow a common format to aid comparison. The guidelines are as follows:
Arial 12-point font
1.5 line spacing, double spacing between paragraphs
Headings and sub-headings in bold
Harvard style referencing following the BBS Referencing Handbook
The following structure:
Title page
Contents page
Introduction – a brief overview and introduction to the project
See above but also include any additional aspects you consider appropriate
Methodology, research methods, aim and objectives
Methodology is the research design and methods relate to the way you collect your data. You are expected to undertake secondary research (using literature sources – see above). Any primary research will be desk based and could include document analysis, archival research and/or netnography research.
Discussion of a range of sources
Review and summarise an appropriate range of published literature/data
Presentation of findings
Propose and present a feasible solution that fully meets the client’s expectations
Conclusions and recommendations
References
Appendix – provision of a completed Module Specification (fill in the template provided, where highlighted)
Here, you will be able to draw upon your familiarity with Module Specifications that you worked to, throughout your degree studies.
This project report is an individual report of 2500 words (+10%) demonstrating how you developed a research-based solution to achieve the client’s specific objective – a module specification for a Level 5 work placement related module
