How to Write a Reflection and Action Plan for Your Placement

Start your report with a very brief introduction to tell your reader what the report includes.This should outline the TWO sections, and talk about the module and the aim of your reflection and action plan. You should also inform the reader of what is included in the appendices. You are not required to provide references for this piece of work.  

INTRODUCTION - Questions / prompts to help you complete your introduction:

1) What type of placement are you hoping to secure?  Useful for your reader to understand the type of roles or organisation you are hoping to work in.

2) For students who have already been offered a placement, you may want to focus more on how ready to you feel for your placement and /or graduate level roles, and refocus your SWOT on being in the workplace i.e. professional skills, what opportunities the role gives, what might affect how successful you are…..

3) Tell the reader that you have completed an action plan in section 2 based on the self assessments you have completed and the feedback you have received so far.

4) Did you take part in the Practice Assessment Centre, if so, mention this

5) Have you had support from the Careers Team or one of the module team, if so mention this

6) Considering the Covid-19 situation, what changes are you making to your placement planning?  – include this so that you reader knows where you are with your thinking

7) What appendices have you included?  Tell your reader i.e. SWOT + any other feedback or assessments you have chosen to include.

The following report looks at both actions I have taken so far to prepare myself for a placement, and further actions I need to take.  I am hoping to work in the **** sector in the future, and a placement would give me ********

The report covers the following:…………..

In Section 1 I will talk about ………(mention SWOT analysis, and that you will write about the different areas i.e. your strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats)

In Section 2 I will show an action plan that focuses on…….

The module has helped me in terms of …………………….. In Section 1 I will reflect on my SWOT analysis and comment on areas of strength and also areas where I need to take further actions………….. In section 2 I have shown specific actions that will get me to where I need to be. I prepared this by ………. The action plan will help me by …………….

SWOT Analysis

Section 1 – Reflection – a reflection based on your SWOT analysis in relation to: 1) Securing a placement or future graduate level role and 2) How prepared you feel about being a professional in the workplace. This should highlight what you have to offer on a placement, and areas where you need to take action to be successful.  Maximum of 500 words (+/- 10%)

SWOT ANALYSIS - See example SWOT analysis in the assignment area for ideas of how to show your information in your personal SWOT that you will attach as Appendix 1.

 REFLECTION - Questions and prompts for Section 1 – keep referring to your SWOT to answer these

1) What do you know about yourself in terms of being ready to apply for / be offered a placement?

2) What are your strengths to offer an employer? Use your SWOT to talk about your key selling points that are relevant to the type of work you want to do i.e. what do you know / what knowledge do you have i.e. from study or previous work experience / training, what relevant experience, what transferable skills?  

3) Employer Evidence sheet (included with assessment briefing) – you may find completing this helpful as a way of seeing what skills you already have evidence of from study and work, and to capture ideas of how you might get more evidence – you can then include these in your action plan  

4) What aspects of being selected do you feel confident about? i.e. you now have a better CV, you have been for an interview and got good feedback even though you weren’t offered the role? Tell the reader what you have done and why this makes you feel more confident

5) Weaknesses - what areas you do feel less confident about? i.e. having minimal work experience, not tried any online tests yet, your CV still needs further work and feedback before you send it to an employer

6) What opportunities are there that will help you?  What more could you be doing? If you haven’t been in contact with the module team for this module yet, how might they help you? What online events or training might help you fill any gaps on your CV?

7) Threats - What might affect your chances of success? – not being prepared for interviews? Only applying to a small number of specialist roles? Not knowing where to find the placements?

Questions and prompts for Section 1

8) Covid-19 -  How has the Covid-19 situation affected your thoughts and plans? How might you be more flexible because of this to give yourself the greatest chance of being successful? What other options / areas are you considering?

I have completed a personal SWOT analysis on myself, based on where I am currently. This has helped me see that……………..

I am most proud of …….and believe this will be a great help when……..

In terms of my current knowledge, skills and experience, my strengths are……………

Areas that I need to develop further are ……………

One of my key weaknesses is that I …………, I therefore need to ……………

As part of the module, I took part in a Practice Assessment Centre, the feedback showed that……….

In addition, I got feedback on my CV from……..and I have improved it by……………..

On Careerhub there is a resource “Graduates First” where UH students can practice online tests, I took the verbal and numerical tests and my results showed that……………. I therefore need to ………………….

Section 2 - Career and Personal Development Plan – a detailed plan using the “Career and Personal Development Plan” template provided with this assignment briefing on the module site. This must follow SMART guidelines, and show actions to prepare you for securing a placement and for being professional in the workplace. This should show a minimum of 5 goals and related actions. Where you have already made progress with an action you should show this on the final column. There is no maximum word count, however please be concise with your writing).   

Questions and prompts for Section 2 – keep referring to your reflection and SWOT to identify the key areas you need to include in your Career and Personal Development plan

 1) What areas do you most need to work on to improve your chances of success?

2) What aspects of the selection process do you need more support with i.e. practice interview, feedback on CV before I use It again,  trying different types of online tests,  being more confident presenting in front of people

3) Where have you identified a need for more experience? How might I get this? In particular during the Covid-19 situation – how might I do this? Are there any online courses / modules I can complete?

4) Identify a minimum of 5 areas that you can take action on in the weeks and months ahead

5) Use the SMART approach to setting a goal for each of these.  Make sure you are being specific and can see what you are aiming for:

Specific - Improve my interview skills by practicing and getting feedback from a specialist

Measurable -   set a target of doing 3 practice interviews on InterviewStream before having a practice interview with the Careers team

Achieveable – make sure you know how to access Interview Stream on careerhub, and how to book an appointment in the timescales you have set

Realistic – do you have the time to do this in the next *** weeks?

Timebound – set a target date to achieve this by i.e. by end of May

6) Use the Career and Development Plan template provided to show your goals and the actions you are going to take to achieve them.

7) Make sure you complete all sections and give specific details i.e. dates, peoples names, organisations, training modules you will complete etc

8) Where you have already completed actions to help you achieve this goal, show your progress in the last column