Global Career Management - Theory and Practice
| Module title | Global Career Management - Theory and Practice |
|---|---|
| Module code | BEMM170 |
| Academic year | 2023/4 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | Careers Camp week plus weeks 1-4, 7-9 | Weeks 4, 6 and 8 | 0 |
Module description
This is a unique module in the Business School, designed completely around you and your career. For many of you, thinking about, researching and making critical decisions about your career has been an activity that you have undertaken in addition to your academic studies. However, this innovative module will enable you to develop the research skills, plus critical and reflective thinking skills associated with rigorous academic endeavour and apply them to the management of your own personal project - your career.
Quite possibly, the reason why you have chosen to study for a master's degree is because you are looking for a qualification that will enhance your knowledge of and specialism in a field, in order to improve your career chances in life. In essence, you are possibly in a period of transition in your life concerning your career. This module augments the academic and applied knowledge you will gain throughout your academic studies on your master's programme and will enable you to apply that learning more successfully to your chosen career path, ensuring that in the long term you will gain maximum benefit from your learning experience at the University of Exeter Business School.
Through critical evaluation of career management frameworks and global career resources, you will apply your findings to the management of your current learning and your future career. This module is designed to run early on in the programme to sign-post you to the key learning outcomes you need to gather from your master degree experience. It will be delivered through a combination of lectures, workshops, individual research, group discussion, and one to one coaching sessions and will fit around your other taught masters modules in term one. However, the assessment tasks will be split between the two terms, with the first assessment to be handed in at the end of term one and the second part of your assessment to be handed in at the end of term two.
Additional Information:
Internationalisation – This module looks at career opportunities from around the Globe. The students will gain access to a variety of case studies of professionals and organisations whose approach to career management is truly Global.
External Engagement – The module is designed to facilitate students engaging externally with potential employers and providers of internships. In addition, various components of the programme are facilitated by external experts in team building, leadership and career coaching.
Employability – This entire module is designed to improve students employability skills and opportunities. By the end of the module students will be far better equipped to secure the employment of their choosing.
Ethics and Corporate Responsibility – The module will introduce issues around ethics and corporate responsibility with regards to job search and the types of employers you may wish to consider making applications to in the course of your future careers.
Research in Teaching – This module introduces the notion of reflective learning across the entire Master's programme. We will do this via the summative assessment methods, where we have embedded a skills competency framework analysis tool into the learning portfolio assignment. You will be encouraged to reflect on the key learning and employability skills you will have developed as a result of completing the Management MSc programme.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The aim of this module is to link the theory of career planning, personal development, decision making, critical thinking and reflective practice to how you go about designing and developing your own individual career plan in different global contexts. Through the module you will have access to trained career coaching professionals, external experts and valuable one to one coaching in order to help you learn about your own competencies, how you can most benefit from the learning outcomes of your other taught modules, along with analysing which jobs/career paths will best benefit you and the role you wish to play in society. By the end of the module you will have a better understanding of yourself and some concrete personal development and career management tools, which you can then apply to future job search and selection tasks.
You will work mainly independently, but at times with others, in order to develop a learning portfolio, career plan and associated documents, including a CV and LinkedIn profile, which will represent your value to potential employers. By evaluating your skills in specific global contexts, you will be able to develop the best career development strategy for your target organisation and country. This in turn should give you confidence in your own decision making and future work place skills, by providing you with a clearer idea of your strengths and weakness, better equipping you for full time employment. It will also help provide you with experiences that you can talk about at job interview stage.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand and articulate verbally and in writing, your personal competencies and attributes (skills, abilities, knowledge, career motivations), and the value these offer to a potential employer
- 2. Analyse the process of selecting career options and job search, with specific reference to the processes involved in successfully applying for postgraduate employment in different global contexts
- 3. Develop and enhance techniques for gathering evidence to support self-promotion during job applications and interviews
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Identify, analyse and critically evaluate relevant case studies and associated career and personal development literature
- 5. Demonstrate clear, critical and analytical reasoning to support the development of your learning portfolio, careers resource, career plan and associated documents
- 6. Use reflective practice to explore, identify, evaluate and critique your learning about yourself, your past work and voluntary experience and the impact they may have on your career development and progression
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 7. Work independently, organising and maintaining your own programme of study to meet employer/recruiter and academic deadlines
- 8. Apply research skills to practical work-related issues
- 9. Develop skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis
- 10. Understand and use reflective practice to explore and identify learning needs for own future development
Syllabus plan
Indicative content of the module will include:
The main taught component of the module starts with a three day intensive Careers Camp of learning experiences comprised of the following sessions:
1. An introductory workshop focused on ice-breaking and team building activities
2. Session on career management frameworks, including - Where am I now? Where do I want to be? How will I get there?
3. Session on Personality Profiling – understanding who you are and its impact on your career choices
4. Session on the learning and career support resources available to students
5. Session on the practicalities of finding a job and developing/nurturing a career – identifying and using appropriate information, using timelines, meeting deadlines, completing applications based on targeted research
6. Session on critical thinking, reflective practice, identifying strengths, decision making and how to create a learning portfolio with a skills competency analysis, which will record their learning across a variety of modules on their Masters programme
Follow-up lectures and seminars/workshops which will include activities to develop a critical approach to sources of information and practical methods of researching new career options and labour markets in different global contexts, with specific focus on:
- Research techniques for sourcing appropriate career opportunities, including networking
- Careers aspirations, skills and learning competency frameworks Personal branding, LinkedIn profile and CV design
- Applications and psychometric testing
- Interview techniques Assessment centres
- Plus - Bookable One to one coaching sessions are available with the Careers Coach and/or Programme Director of MSc Management to develop personal career clarity
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | 124 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning & teaching activities | 26 | 4 x 2hr whole cohort lectures 3 x 2hr workshops 12 hrs of contact across the 3 day careers camp. One-to-one sessions available from module lead and/or careers coach |
| Guided independent study | 124 | Research using industry sources and tools including LinkedIn, psychometric testing and sector specific platforms to inform analysis of their chosen career plan. Academic reading into the theory of career management models |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal career plan | Approx 2-3 pages draft career development plan | 1-14 | Feedback given in seminar session |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective learning portfolio | 50 | 2,500 words | 1-14 | Written |
| Career management portfolio | 50 | 2,500 words | 1-14 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective learning /portfolio | Reflective learning portfolio (50%) 2,500 words | 1-14 | Relevant re-assessment period |
| Career management portfolio | Career management portfolio (50%) 2,500 words | 1-14 | Relevant re-assessment period |
Re-assessment notes
A student will be referred in all failed components if the student fails the module with a mark of below 50% overall.
A student if deferred via a single component will be reassessed in that component only.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Moon, J. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. London, Routledge Falmer.
- Bridges W (2004) Transitions: making sense of life’s changes 2 nd edition, Da Capo Press Life Long
- Clark, T, Osterwalder, A & Pigneur, Y (2012) Business Model YOU: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken New Jersey
- Gladwell, M. (2009) Outliers: The Story of Success
- Ibarra H (2004) Working Identity – unconventional strategies for reinventing your career, Harvard Business Press Covey S R (2004) The 8th Habit from effectiveness to greatness, Simon and Schuster
- Lees, John (2015) How to Get a Job You Love. McGraw Hill Education. London
- Levitt S D and Dubner S J (2014) Think Like a Freak – how to think smarter about almost everything! Allen Lane Peters S (2012) The Chimp Paradox – the mind management programme for confidence, success and happiness, Random House Group
- McKeown M (2012) The Strategy Book, Pearson
- Papadopoulos L (2014) Whose life is it anyway? – living through your twenties on your own terms, Piatkus, Little Brown
- Pedlar M, Burgoyne J, Boydell T ( 2007) A Manager’s Guide to Self-development (fifth edition) McGraw Hill Pedlar M, Burgoyne J, Boydell T ( 2004) A Manager’s Guide to Leadership, Mc Graw Hall
- Ryle B ( 2008) Ground of your own choosing – winning strategies for finding and creating work, Shank Painter Publishing, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
- Schon, D. (1994) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Ashgate Publishing Limited; New edition
- Williams K, Woolliams M and Spiro J (2012) Reflective Writing Pocket Study Skills. Palgrave Macmillan
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- http://www.highfliers.co.uk/ High Fliers annual survey results of research into the graduate recruitment market
- https://mycareerzone.exeter.ac.uk
- Handshake
- Several resources from the University Careers Zone on interview techniques, designing CVs and completing applications
- http://www.prospects.ac.uk Information on career roles, sectors, employers and an online assessment to identify your career options
- http://www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive/main_sections.html - a resource for gaining a holistic view of your career & life aspirations
- ELE – College to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | Module is only available to students on the MSc International Management programme |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 10/08/2015 |
| Last revision date | 27/04/2023 |
