Career Research Report Briefing
• Purpose of the report
• Required information
• How to conduct your research
• How to structure and layout your report
• Submission Requirements
• Beware the Penalties
Enhancing EmployabilityModule code: 5BUS1085
Why is this assignment important
• This report will support you in considering your future career and give you important information in helping your make career planning decisions
• It will provide you with an awareness of the knowledge, skills and experience required by a recent graduate
• It will enable you to become aware of the opportunities available to graduates in the current jobs market
• You will be research information on the skills, knowledge and experience employers are looking for
Free Career & Skills Matching Tools
• Prospects Planner www.prospects.ac.uk in the Jobs & Work Experience area
• TargetJobs Careers Reportwww.targetjobs.co.uk in the Career Planner area
• Adult Directionswww.cascaid.co.uk/adultdirections Use licence code: goalhome12
The Task
Having identified your profession or sector of employment you will need to:
Research the current and future expectations of employers, the likely future trends in graduate employment in this profession or sector and what recruitment and selection methods being used
You should then be able to produce a summary of the key skills, knowledge and experience which employers require from graduates seeking roles within this profession or sector
What will you be researching?
You need to research and decide upon a profession you are interested in for example: Operations Management, Retail Management, Marketing, Sales, Human Resource Management
OR look at a particular industry sector that you are interested in working in when you graduate for example: the media, not for profit, tourism, finance, sports and leisure
You may be interested in other career options, for example teaching or entering the armed forces or the police
You may be already working within your chosen career area, so you will need to consider future roles, promotion opportunities or transferring to other departments within the company
Carrying out the research
Enhancing Employability - Information Resources
Preparation of your CV• You will need to review and
develop your CV – seek support from Careers, Employment & Enterprise Services to help you with this
• You should prepare your CV exactly as your situation is now – not what you hope it will look like when you graduate!
• Your CV is a crucial starting point to your graduate or placement job search
• You must attach your CV as an appendix to your report
Research a current opportunity• You will need to identify one current
role being advertised that you would be interested in applying for when you graduate
• You will also need to provide the advert or information on the current position that you identified as an appendix to your report
• This will form the basis for a large part of Assignment 3 – your Career Action Plan
• In Assignment 3 you will reviewing yourself against the requirements of the role that you identified in this assignment
Researching your report
Make use of both primary and secondary research
Structuring your report
Introduction and Contents• What your report will cover and how you make your decision on what
sector/profession to focus upon – written in the first person so use “I”• Number your pages and include a contents page
Section 1 – Research • Terms of Reference – what you are researching • Methodology – how you carried out your research, what sources of
information did you use
Section 2 - Main findings• General Employment Trends in the sector/profession• Opportunities for recent graduates – including a current advertised role• Skills, knowledge and experience required, selection methods used
Section 3 - Conclusion • Brief reflection on key findings, how you will make use of these within your Career Action Plan & Self Reflection report – Assignment 3
• This should be written in the first person “I”
References and Bibliography
• Reference sources used to research and construct your report• Make use of primary research from Employability Week and the Careers
Fair
Appendices • Your current CV and a copy of the advert or information on the advertised role
• Include a photo of your Employability Passport
Employability Week Passport• Don’t forget that you need to
include a jpeg of your passport in the body of your report
• Include this as one of your appendices – not as a separate document
• You need to ensure that you refer to your research, learning and reflection as a result of attendance at the sessions within your report as appropriate
• You need 5 separate stamps on your passport to be eligible to receive up to 10% of the module marks
Writing your reportA report ‘reports’
on somethin
g in a concise, formal
way using clearly defined sections
presented in a
standard format,
which tell the
reader what you did, why and how you did it and what you found
A report should
be written concisely, in a business like manner, and have
headings and sub-
headings
The main
body of the
report should
be written in the third person apart
from the introduction and
conclusion which should
be written in the first person
Note the
available marks for each section
and ensure
that you take
account of these in how
you construct your report
Remember
to include your appendices
and all your
references and
bibliograph
y
Laying out your report
Use Calibre/Times New Roman/Arial
12pt with 1.5 spacing
Use 14pt headings and 12pt sub-
headings
Have a title page and a
contents page
Use page numbering from the
Introduction page onwards
Include a final word count on the title page
Refer to the CASE Guide to Report Writing for more
information
Submission Requirements
Your report must be submitted to the correct
assignment tab
• Ensure that you submit on time – by 10:00 on Monday 17 November 2014
Ensure that you submit in the
required format
• Only submit an MSWord document (doc or docx), submit one document containing all sections
• Label your document as follows: EE1:Your name: Student number: EE1 (eg John Smith 1234567 EE1)
Stay with the required word
count• The word count for this assignment is 1200
words (+/- 10%)
Beware of the penalties
Failure to label document correctly or submitting the
wrong type of file• a penalty of 5% will be deducted from your mark
Failure to submit on time
•Penalties will be applied from 1% for 1 – 30 minutes late to your mark being capped at 40% if you are more than 300 minutes late
Failure to stay within defined word count
•Penalty of 1% deducted from overall mark for each 120 words over word count
Failure to accurately state word count
•a penalty of 5% will be deducted from your mark
Extension Requests You must apply
for an extension if required by 10:00
on Monday 10 November 2014
You must provide a
valid reason
and evidence
if required to
support your request
Do not assume
that your
extension has
been granted
unless you
receive an email
confirming this
is the case
Mike Rosier