MPRE Master of Planning with Real Estate / Course details

The professional placement unit is interdisciplinary in that it brings together learners from planning, real estate, and environmental management. The unit enables students to gain practical work experience within their chosen specialism through their securing of unpaid work experience within a firm/s from within either the UK or a foreign country. The unit provides students with an understanding of the demands of applying for work, the practicalities and experience of undertaking professional work,  enables them to reflect on their present strengths and weaknesses with regards to skills needed for the work place and how to improve to same, facilitates networking opportunities, and encourages them to consider how a placement can assist them in gaining the core competencies required for their subsequent individual professional accreditation. Through lectures, workshops, tutorials, the successful completion of a placement, and assessed assignments, students develop a range of intellectual, practical, and transferable skills that are pertinent to their longer-term securing of graduate employment.

1. Enable students to explore the professional world of students’ specialism - environmental management, planning, real estate.
2. Enable students to undertake practical work in the field with an employer in their specialism.
3. Enable students to develop specialised knowledge within a specific area of environmental management or planning or real estate practice through the successful undertaking of a placement.
4. Enable students to gain specialised skills appropriate in their chosen specialism.
5. Enable students to gain personal transferable skills in the world of work. 

The intended learning outcomes of this module are directly focused on employability skills (the module involves securing employment via a professional work place placement).

Students develop practical experience of searching for jobs, applying for jobs tailoring their existent skills to advertised jobs, reflecting upon existent skill-gaps and addressing how to improve them so as to make themselves more employable. In addition, students gain experience of networking, self promotion, interview skills, and employability… by being employed on a placement.

All of these aspects in turn equip students with foundational skills for chartered membership of their chosen professional bodies.

The unit adopts a blended learning environment which utilises face-to-face teaching methods (lectures, workshops, guest networking opportunities, and tutorials), supported by pre-prepared/recorded materials and supplemented by material focussing on specific professional competencies as well as job vacancies which are, as appropriate, uploaded onto VLE or emailed directly to the unit’s cohort. 

1.Face-to-face lectures address core skills/ideas pertaining to finding and securing a placement, as well as how work experience addresses and enhances employability skills. Practical advice and small-group work in class also gives hands-on experience in identifying good/bad CV practice etc.

2. Individual (formative) oral feedback in class and via office hours (and via careers service)

Individual feedback will be offered to students on an ad-hoc basis to support the development of their assignments via in-class and office hour drop-in sessions.

Where students have successful completed the ‘online CV checker’ from the careers service they can also request personal meetings where additional oral feedback is given.

3. Individual (formative) written feedback via office hours and submission of draft CVs/letters of application

Where students request comments on individual aspects of their CVs/letters of application this will be given via written feedback. This s supplemented by their online use of various careers service tools in the initial drafting of CVs.

4. Online information/evidence repository

The unit’s VLE will hold a repository of professional competencies as well as job opportunities as they become advertised. The latter will also be emailed directly to the unit’s cohort. Where video data is uploaded by potential firms/practitioners seeking placement students such data will be available via VLE.

5.The successful undertaking of a professional placement.

Gain knowledge and experience of their relevant professional discipline within a professional setting through the completion of an unpaid work placement with a firm in their chosen specialism.

Undertake a programme of work set by a client provider organisation.

Critically analyse the placement organisation and provide a clear synthesis of strengths and weaknesses with recommendations.

Critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their existent skill set with regard to how these are relevant to the world of professional work.

Effectively communicate their own strengths and weaknesses based on lessons learned whilst undertaking the placement and how these build upon experiences gained in university. 

Employ teamwork and collaboration whilst undertaking placement. 

Work effectively with a range of other personnel in the workplace.

Write a detailed personal evaluation reflecting on the experience and present evidence of achievements.

Placement Reflection Report - 3000 words (100%) 

We will provide formative feedback through advice at the key stages throughout the course unit and during the placement.  Summative feedback will be provided where this contributes to your overall mark.

Indicative Reading List

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Studies of group process (pp. 33–57). New York: Wiley.

Kolb, D. A., Rubin, I. M., & McIntyre, J. M. (1984). Organizational psychology: readings on human behavior in organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.