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.
Assignment Brief Academic Year 2021-2022
Internal approval: Sarah Hill 10/12/21
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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 on above mentioned date.
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
Module code
and title:
MG410 Career Viewpoint Module leader: Kristyna Frankova
Assignment
No. and type:
CW1 – Career Research Report Assessment
weighting:
50%
Submission
time and date:
Thursday 7
th April 2022 before
2pm
Target feedback
time and date:
3 weeks after submission
deadline
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& 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 parttime 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 1st 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 3rd 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
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new/emerging job role within your profession/industry and therefore likely to be future proofed? This can
be written in the 1st 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.
