HI5009 - Your Graduate Future

Contact hours encompass specialist lectures and talks, workshops, hands-on experiences, field visits, training, experiential learning and reflective practice. In semester one, you will attend lectures introducing key themes, and will participate in smaller workshops and field trips based around exercises designed to develop essential employability-oriented skills: teamwork, self-presentation, research into employment, enterprise opportunities, self-awareness and others. Relevant guest speakers will deliver some lecture sessions. Workshops will involve group work, presentations, problem-solving exercises and discussions designed to develop and explore your awareness, your skills, and your interests. Preparation for assessed tasks will also feature. In the second semester, you will engage in your work placement, volunteering, a reenaction of a historical trial, a business planning exercise or your semester abroad. The semester 1 assessments will enable you to display your specific skills, to establish and nurture internal and external contacts, and to express your interests in a public outcome of your choice, in the case of Standard Pathway students, or in a public outcome related to a legal case for Law Pathway students. The semester 2 assessments will encourage you to reflect on your experiences, on how those have affected you, and what you have learned from them.

Your peers, your academic tutors, your enterprise and career service advisors and the programme leader will support your academic development. Academic support is provided through workshops and tutorials that address specific issues and nurture your academic and professional progression. The module tutor will be accessible within publicised office hours, via email and by mutually agreed arrangement. Your peers will provide you will a collaborative learning environment, and your programme leader will guide you through the requirements and expectations of your course. You will also engage with the literature, the lectures and the resources available on the eLearning Portal. Formative feedback will be part of seminar activities and assessment tasks.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. an awareness of the employment opportunities which may be open to you as a history graduate
2. An understanding of the demands and discipline of employment, and practical knowledge of ways in which academic skills can be applied in a vocational context.
3. The ability to select, plan and complete an independent project, based on either work experience or planning a business enterprise, and the ability to construct and complete an appropriate report on it.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
4. Skills of analysis, interpretation and communication skills in presenting ideas and knowledge to others, and the ability to critically assess your own abilities, and reflect on your experience and plan for the future

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. An awareness of the ethical and cultural requirements of working and business environments, and a curiosity about the careers options of history graduates.

The module has three pieces of assessment:

1. Group project (25%, Semester 1)

Students in the Standard Pathway: Together with a group of your peers, you will work on a History-related group project that will produce an outward-looking outcome or set of outcomes, as agreed with your peers, your tutors and any external partners you may identify. This group of 3 – 8 students will produce a tangible public output. Examples of such may include, but are by no means limited to: posters, videos, podcasts, exhibitions, public talks and activities, digital repositories...
Students in the Law Pathway will work alongside students from the Law School to investigate a historical legal case using original archival material from The National Archives and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, and their group project will see them produce public facing history outputs for these external clients, including exhibitions, website blogs, and contributions to their official social media channels.
[MLOs 2, 3, 4 and 5]

2. Individual report on group project (1,500 words, 30%, semester 1)

In this report, you will reflect on the scholarly basis of your collective project (c. 750 words) and on your personal assessment of the process itself (c. 750 words). This applies to both pathways.
[MLOS 2, 3, 4 and 5]

3. Individual report on work placement, business plan, historical trial reconstruction or semester abroad (45% - 2,000 words; Semester 2)


You will write a reflective report of 2,000 words outlining what you have learned from your experience (placement, business plan, semester abroad), identifying how it has impacted upon you, your CV, your skillset, your interests, your self-awareness, your future plans, your portfolio of relevant contacts.
Students in the Law pathway will reflect on their experience of working with Law students to design and stage a reconstruction of a historical trial.
[MLOs 1–5]

Oral feedback on formative activities will be provided to you in tutorial sessions (during office hours) and in seminars. You will receive written feedback from the module tutors upon completion of your formative and summative tasks.

None

None

Please find details of this module in the other sections provided.