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The 1st year ‘Professional Development in Computing' module is core for this programme. This module covers the development of a number of key transferable skills as well as providing a foundation upon which students will base their future Personal Development Planning (PDP). The support for the PDP elements within this module is also the responsibility or the School’s Personal Tutors (normally the year leader for the programme). Students are scheduled to have PDP meetings with their Personal Tutor each trimester.
From trimester 2 of year 1 onwards PDP is embedded in the taught modules of the programme, rather than as a separate subject. Students develop their PDP through module assessments that are intended to contribute to the student’s engagement with personal development planning and the development of skills related to employability in their specialist area.
As students progress through the programme they are typically required to produce reflective and critical evaluation of the work that they have created within an individual or group context. Feedback on this work will be given by teaching staff and supplemented by guidance on the e-portfolio by personal tutors.
PDP and employability skills culminate in the Honours project which gives students the opportunity to display the high level skills they have developed through the programme and to produce an important component of their portfolio.
The programme has strong links with graduates & employers. Students have continuous opportunities to interact with employers & graduates through LinkedIn or at events such as Industrial Advisory Board meetings, company visits, talks by guest speakers and student/industry business networking events. Such opportunities are generally open to students in all years of the programme and are useful for developing knowledge of commercial perspectives, employment opportunities and technological developments.
Graduates of the programme will be Universal, Work-ready and Successful across the three dimensions, academic, personal and professional which encapsulate the breadth of the learning experience at University level. The programme aims to develop the student’s intellectual and imaginative capabilities, professional understanding and judgement, problem-solving and communications skills, and ability to work as an effective team member. The programme offers a thorough grounding in the mutual interdependence of web browsers (& other clients), web servers and database servers in a networked environment that includes frameworks and APIs.
The employability skills and attributes which students will gain experience in developing, applying and reflecting upon during the sandwich placement will be those identified by The Council For Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) (2006) as the key competencies which employers value as defined below:
Cognitive skills (attention to detail, analysis and judgment)
•Demonstrate the use of their knowledge, understanding and skills, in both identifying and analysing problems and issues and formulating, evaluating and applying evidence-based solutions and arguments.
•Undertake critical analysis, evaluation and/or synthesis of ideas, concepts information and issues
•Identify and analyse routine professional problems and issues
•Draw on a range of sources in making judgments
Generic competencies (planning & organisation, influencing, written communication, questioning, listening, teamworking, interpersonal sensitivity, organisational sensitivity and lifelong learning and development)
•Well developed skills for the gathering, evaluation, analysis and presentation of information, ideas, concepts and quantitative and/or qualitative data, drawing on a wide range of current sources. This will include the use of ICT as appropriate to the subject(s).
•Communication of the results of their own and other work accurately and reliably in a range of different contexts using the main specialist concepts, constructs and techniques of the subject(s);
•Identifying and addressing their own learning needs including being able to draw on a range of current research, development and professional materials;
•Interpreting, using and evaluating numerical and graphical data to achieve goals targets
•Making formal and informal presentations on standard/mainstream topics in the subject/discipline to a range of audiences
•Work under guidance with qualified practitioners
•Practice in ways which take account of own and others’ roles and responsibilities
•Take some responsibility for the work or others and for a range of resources
Personal capabilities (creativity, decisiveness, initiative, adaptability/flexibility, achievement orientation, tolerance for stress and leadership)
•Application of their subject and transferable skills to contexts where criteria for decisions and the scope of the task may be well defined but where personal responsibility, initiative and decision-making is also required.
•Exercising autonomy and initiative in some activities at a professional level
Technical ability (knowledge of key trends in modern technology and experience of using modern technology)
•Use of a range of IT applications to support and enhance work
Practical and professional elements (professional expertise, process operation and image)
•Show familiarity and competence in the use of routine materials, practices and skills and of a few that are more specialised, advanced and complex.
•Practise in a range of professional level contexts which include a degree of unpredictability;
•Deal with ethical and professional issues in accordance with current professional and/or ethical codes or practices, seeking guidance where appropriate
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