Researching career options, sectors, and roles relevant to the discipline

Employer expectations, professional standards, and workplace cultures

Methods for researching labour markets and career pathways

Identification and critical analysis of personal strengths, skills, values, and areas for development

Use of self-audit tools, skills frameworks, and reflective models to support career planning

Prospective reflection and goal-setting in preparation for placement

Professional conduct, employability skills, and workplace communication

Critical reflection on placement experiences and learning

Retrospective and prospective reflection to inform future career planning and action

Use of precedent form documents and structured templates in professional and academic contexts

Communicating career development and placement learning in appropriate academic and professional formats

Both the Placement Planning Report and the Career Development Placement Portfolio will follow precedent form documents designed to guide you through the module learning outcomes and to develop your ability to work with precedent documents, which is itself an essential practical and professional skill.

The Placement Planning Report is designed to encourage you to research relevant career options and employer expectations, and to reflect prospectively on the extent to which your current attributes align with these requirements. As part of this process, you will be required to identify and analyse your own strengths and areas for development, and to consider how professional compatibility may be improved.

The Career Development Placement Portfolio builds upon the Placement Planning Report through both retrospective and prospective reflection, enabling you to evaluate the quality of the research and reflection previously undertaken and to use this evaluation to inform future career research, planning, and action.

The module will combine lectures and small-group activities to support learning. Large-group lectures introduce core concepts and knowledge in a holistic way, providing a framework for the placement and career development topics.

Workshops focus on active, collaborative learning, where students engage in individual, paired, and group tasks. These sessions develop understanding of reflection, self-analysis, and career research methods, combining theoretical study with practical reflection exercises relevant to the assessments.

Additional support strategies, such as drop-in sessions and writing retreats, may be offered to help students prepare for assessments and consolidate their learning.

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of relevant career options and employer expectations within the chosen industry.

Knowledge and understanding
Research skills

2. Critically analyse personal strengths and areas for development in relation to researched career opportunities, to inform placement planning and professional engagement.

Reflection

3. Critically reflect on placement experiences to evaluate personal strengths and areas for development and analyse how these inform future career options.

Reflection
Personal development and entrepreneurship

4. Communicate the experience of the placement in a structured format identifying outcomes.

Communication

Library
Office simulation

Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski, Legal Skills (10th edn, OUP 2025) ch 21

Finch E, Employability Skills for Law Students (Oxford University Press 2014)*

Helyer R and others, The Work-Based Learning Student Handbook. (3rd ed., Macmillan Education UK 2020)*

* While these sources are over 5 years old, they provide foundational and widely accepted frameworks for employability and work-based learning that remain directly applicable to legal education and the skills and reflective practices they address remain valid.

This level 6 placement module helps you plan, complete, and reflect on a professional placement. You will explore career paths, discover what employers expect, and think critically about your strengths and areas for growth. By reflecting on your experience, you will be ready to plan your next steps and shape your future career.

You will be expected to locate your placement(s), suitable to meet the outcome of the module.