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The current and official versions of the course specifications are available on the web at .
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PWE3000 Professional Work Experience

Semester 3, 2020 External
Short Description: Prof Work Experience
Units : 1
Faculty or Section : Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
School or Department : Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
Student contribution band : Band 3
ASCED code : 129999 - Mixed Field Programmes not els
Grading basis : Graded

Staffing

Examiner:

Requisites

Pre-requisite: Students must have successfully completed a minimum of 16 units in their program of study.
ADCJ students are exempt from the 16-unit pre-requisite, but must have successfully completed EMP2030 to undertake this course.

Other requisites

  1. PWE3000 is not available to international students regardless of location or mode of study as it is an elective course. Australian regulations do not allow an elective work-based training course that is not a mandatory program requirement to be offered to international students.
  2. This course cannot be completed overseas. The industry placement must be undertaken in Australia
  3. All students are responsible for securing their industry placement of between 80-120 hours. It is important students allow sufficient time in order to secure a placement prior to the commencement of Semester. The placement should involve practice in the area of their major study.
  4. If a placement is unable to be secured by the end of Week One, it is recommended that students reconsider their enrolment in this course.
  5. If the student intends to base their project on their current place of work, they must also have received the written permission of their employer as the placement activities must not be related to their current day-to-day work activities.
  6. In association with the Host Organisation, all students must complete both Preplace and InPlace (incorporating the Work Experience Proposal Form) which are located on the ¾«¶«´«Ã½appDesk (Steps 1 and 3) prior to the end of Week One. For assistance, a hard copy of the Work Experience Proposal Form is available on the study desk and can also be accessed at . The Work Experience Proposal Form will detail the student’s proposed industry placement. Upon completing the PrePlace and Inplace procedures, and upon ‘in principle’ approval given by the Course Examiner, a Student Placement Contract is sent to the Student for the Host Organisation. The signed Student Placement Contract must be returned prior to the last day to drop a course without a fee. This will all be conducted through the InPlace program. Students who do not submit the Student Placement Contract by this time, will be dropped from PWE3000.
  7. Finalisation of a placement in the course is dependent on approval of the student's proposal and the return of the completed Student Placement Contract by the Course Examiner.
  8. Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at
  9. The Professional Work Experience Manual located on the ¾«¶«´«Ã½appDesk provides additional information in relation to the course. The Professional Work Experience Manual can also be accessed at .
  10. There is no recognition for prior learning for this course. Students who enrol in this course cannot request an exemption based on the grounds of prior or current professional experience.

Rationale

Professional work experience allows a transfer of the student’s theoretical, practical knowledge, skills, and capabilities to the professional work place. The course enables students to apply their academic knowledge and skills in a practical context, and to reflect and report on the experience while contributing to a specific practical activity or initiative.

Synopsis

The purpose of this course is to give students the opportunity to experience the applied aspects of working in the area of their major study. This course aims to provide the student with experience in applying discipline knowledge and skills in the context of professional practice in order to strengthen discipline-specific learning and specialisation. The course allows students to gain a critical understanding of the role of reflection on learning and self-evaluation in professional environments.

Objectives

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

  1. apply the concepts and theories of their particular academic major area of study to a professional workplace environment;
  2. engage in critical reflective thinking to appraise personal professional skills in order to create an individual portfolio of skills to represent their emergent professional identity and capabilities;
  3. identify skill development goals and placement learning objectives; develop strategies to help meet these; reflect on and assess achievements of these goals and objectives;
  4. apply critical reflection skills that enhance learning from and response to challenges faced and successes achieved in the workplace;
  5. utilise relevant professional/practice-based approaches to gain knowledge and effectively communicate in the workplace;
  6. analyse and critically reflect on how personal discipline-based practice relates to the collective and professional context of the workplace.

Topics

Description Weighting(%)
1. Topics covered in this course will be dependent on a student’s discipline area and the associated context and environment in which the work placement is undertaken. Learning experiences and outcomes will therefore be derived largely from the nature of the work placement within the context of a student’s discipline area. Generally, this course focuses on four parts:
  1. Student’s critical reflection on their experience in undertaking work place activities
  2. Student’s performance in the placement
  3. Context of the work experience
  4. Professional practice of the organisation and its relationship of the work experience to society

The reflections on a student’s own work practices and those of their Host Organisation is an important part of this course as well the feedback students receive from their Host Supervisor
100.00

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

ALL textbooks and materials available to be purchased can be sourced from (unless otherwise stated). (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/textbooks/?year=2020&sem=03&subject1=PWE3000)

Please for alternative purchase options from USQ Bookshop. (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/info/contact/)

There are no texts or materials required for this course.

Reference materials

Reference materials are materials that, if accessed by students, may improve their knowledge and understanding of the material in the course and enrich their learning experience.
There are no specific reference materials for this course. Reference materials will be sourced by the student based on their project.

Student workload expectations

Activity Hours
Assessments 40.00
Expected Engagement 80.00
Self-Directed Learning 45.00

Assessment details

Description Marks out of Wtg (%) Due Date Notes
ASSIGNMENT 1 20 20 04 Dec 2020 (see note 1)
ASSIGNMENT 2 20 20 12 Jan 2021 (see note 2)
ASSIGNMENT 3 50 50 03 Feb 2021 (see note 3)
ASSIGNMENT 4 10 10 05 Feb 2021 (see note 4)

Notes
  1. Work Experience Proposal Form
  2. Progress Reflective Diary
  3. Two documents are required for assessment 3 (1) Placement Report and (2) Final Reflection
  4. Host Supervisor Feedback

Important assessment information

  1. Attendance requirements:
    It is the students' responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as their industry experience placement) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.

  2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
    To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks. (Depending upon the requirements in Statement 4 below, students may not have to satisfactorily complete each assessment item to receive a passing grade in this course.)

  3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
    Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)

  4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
    To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course.

  5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
    The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative assessment items in the course. The weightings referred to here are not the percentage weightings used to indicate the relative loading on topics described on the first page of this course specification.

  6. Examination information:
    There is no examination for this course.

  7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
    There is no examination in this course, there will be no deferred or supplementary examinations.

  8. ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
    Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .

Other requirements

  1. Computer, e-mail and Internet access: Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at .

Date printed 12 February 2021