Your Personal Development Plan
For Your Second Year of Studies in 2014/15
And
For Your Third Year of Studies in 2015/16
This PDP booklet is for the following programmes:
BSc Accounting
BSc/BA International Business, Finance and Economics (IBFE)
BSc International Management (IM)
BSc International Management with American Business Studies (IMABS)
BSc Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB)
BSc Management (Mgt)
BSc Management/ Management (Specialisms)
Student Name: ______
ID Number: ______
Academic Advisor: ______
Programme: ______
Contents
SECOND YEAR PART ONE
Page 3
Message from Sarah Featherstone, Head of Undergraduate Services
Pages 4-5
Introduction/Year 2 of Your Degree/ Careers Information and Links
Page 6
Your Academic Advisor & Personal Development Plan (PDP) Meetings during your Second Year at Manchester Business School
Page 7
Calendar of weeks when Academic Advisor & Personal Development Plan (PDP) Meetings will take place
SECOND YEAR PART TWO
Page 8
Checklist of Skills
Pages 9-10
Semester One - Preparation for Welcome Back Meeting with Academic Advisor in Week 1, 2 or 3, Reflections & Action Plan
Page 11
Semester One – Preparation for Student Experience Group Meeting with your Academic Advisor in Week 8, 9, 10 or 11
Pages 12-14
Semester Two – Preparation for Individual Meeting with your Academic Advisor in Week 7, 8, 9 or 10 to discuss your semester 1 results, Reflection on Semester 1 & Action Plan
Page 14
Semester Two –Optional Meeting with your Academic Advisor in Week 11 or Week 12
Page 14-15
Skills Record
FINAL YEAR
Page 16
Checklist of Skills
Page 17
Final Year Academic Advisor meetings
Pages 17-19
Final Year Semester One
Pages 19 - 21
Final Year Semester Two
Pages 21 - 22
Skills Record
I would like to offer a warm welcome back to Manchester and hope you have had a good summer vacation.
I also wanted to remind you about the importance of continuing to meet with your Academic Advisor either individually or as a group throughout your second year of studies.
You will have met regularly in your first year, and now you are in your second year it is still a formal requirement that you continue to meet with them. Your Academic Advisor will be contacting you during the year to arrange individual and group meetings so please ensure you respond to these meeting requests.
Your Academic Advisor is there to provide any academic guidance to you, for example on plagiarism, essay writing, preparation for exams, time management etc as well as to encourage you to continue with completing your Personal Development Plan and updating your first year CV during your second year of studies. Your completed PDP/CV should be of help for when you need to prepare a CV for applications for an internship, job or postgraduate study as well as at interviews when you need to discuss your development of transferable skills etc.
A Personal Development Plan booklet for the second year will be issued to you in your first individual meeting at the end of September/early October with your Academic Advisor. If you lose your PDP, booklet copies are available from the UG Services Enquiry Office, D20 and from the Online Undergraduate Handbook https://ughandbook.portals.mbs.ac.uk/Myprogramme/Howyourlearningissupported/PersonalDevelopmentPlan%28PDP%29.aspx
Your Academic Advisor can also refer you on to other sources of help and assistance should you require such.
At this stage in your studies and as you start to think what you may like to do once you have graduated, your Academic Advisor is also someone who can write you a reference for an internship, job or postgraduate study. There is a big difference in having a reference written by someone you have developed a relationship with over the course of your studies rather than someone that you met formally in the first year and then may not have continued to meet.
We also want to make sure that you get the most out of your student experience. Therefore, your feedback on this is of great importance to us as it helps to shape the delivery of programmes, courses and non curricula activities - for yourselves as well as for future cohorts of students. Such feedback is gathered by Academic Advisors and reported back to the undergraduate team so we can listen to your views, respond to these and act where appropriate.
Please ensure that you make the time to meet with your Academic Advisor this year.
Best wishes
Sarah
Sarah Featherstone | Head of Undergraduate Services
September 2014
SECOND YEAR PART ONE
Introduction
Year 2 of Your Degree
You should now be thinking about your career plans. Consider the following:
Ø Register for vacancy and event email updates from the Careers website.
Browse the latest job vacancies by visiting careerslink
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/careerslink/
Ø Consider applying to the Manchester Gold careers mentoring programme.
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/experience/mentoring/
Ø If you are not sure on how to start your career search then visit the Careers
Service new interactive tool, Careers Kickstart
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/dynamic/careerkickstart/hosted.php
Ø Visit the Careers Service website and look at the information and guidance available. Or visit the Careers Service in University Place. Pick up the ‘A little book to get you started….’, CV Guide, Covering Letter Guide
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/services
Ø Gain feedback on your draft CV, application forms and covering letters at a 15 minute face to face appointment. Nine out of ten students fail to get a job or internship because their application form is not good enough.
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/services/applicationsadvice/
Ø Apply (from October onwards) for a summer internship.
Ø Attend the employer presentations during the autumn and research
graduate opportunities/internships when you are notified about them either by email, or via the UG Services Bulletin which is issued every fortnight during term time. Take the time to read this information as you may find your future employer/internship this way!
Ø Remember that some graduate schemes open in the June before your final
year starts!!
REMEMBER: a degree is not enough! Apply for work experience (for example part time jobs, internships, etc) voluntary work and/or be active in university societies.
USE the Careers Service – it is one of the best!
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/services/
Other Useful Web Resources
Ø Career information, options with your subject, postgraduate study and
vacancies – Prospects: www.prospects.ac.uk.
Ø Work placements and internships – Target Jobs: www.targetjobs.co.uk
and Step: www.step.org.uk.
Ø Paid and voluntary internships across the UK – Graduate Talent Pool:
http://graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk.
Ø National graduate job search engines – Milkround: www.milkround.com
and Target Jobs: www.targetjobs.co.uk
Some Destinations of Manchester Business School Graduates
PricewaterhouseCoopers – Audit Trainee
Deutsche Bank – Bank Analyst
Hewlett Packard - Technology Consultant
Balfour Beatty – Workplace Management Trainee
Microsoft – Account Manager
Barclays – Graduate Manager
Tesco – Trainee Graduate Manager
Royal Bank of Scotland – Collateral Analyst
Fujitsu Service – Delivery Manager
BAE Systems – Graduate Procurement Engineer
Your Academic Advisor & Personal Development Plan (PDP) Meetings during your Second Year at Manchester Business School
A summary of the meetings you will have with your Academic Advisor to discuss and plan your personal development is given below.
A table of the week commencing dates of when the meetings below will take place can be found on Page 6.
Semester 1Week / Description / Completed
1, 2 or 3 / Welcome Back individual meeting to discuss: course unit selection, any additional support needs, completing your 2nd Year Personal Development Plan and continuing to update your first year CV or start to prepare a CV.
8, 9,10,or 11 / Student Experience meeting: Your Academic Advisor will hold an advisor group meeting to discuss student experience in semester 1. In addition general assessment related issues such as exams, time management and plagiarism will also be discussed.
Semester 2
Week / Description / Completed
5, 6, 7, or 8, / Individual Student meeting to discuss your semester 1 results, and issues regarding progression to the next year of study. In addition information regarding obtaining references from your Academic Advisor.
9 or 10 / Your Academic Advisor will open a channel of communication regarding their availability to discuss final year course units, and the value of continuing to complete your PDP /CV in your final year. Students have the option of arranging an individual meeting with their Academic Advisor to discuss final year course units if required.
2014/15 Academic Year Teaching Weeks
15 September 2014 / Start of Semester 1 Welcome Week
22 September 2014 / Week 1
29 September 2014 / Week 2
6 October 2014 / Week 3
13 October 2014 / Week 4
20 October 2014 / Week 5
27 October 2014 / Week 6 - Reading Week
3 November 2014 / Week 7
10 November 2014 / Week 8
17 November 2014 / Week 9
24 November 2014 / Week 10
1 December 2014 / Week 11
8 December 2014 / Week 12
15 December 2014 / Christmas Vacation
22 December 2014 / Christmas Vacation
29 December 2014 / Christmas Vacation
5 January 2015 / Christmas Vacation
12 January 2015 / Exams
19 January 2015 / Exams - End of Semester 1
26 January 2015 / Start of Semester 2 - Week 1
2 February 2015 / Week 2
9 February 2015 / Week 3
16 February 2015 / Week 4
23 February 2015 / Week 5
2 March 2015 / Week 6
9 March 2015 / Week 7
16 March 2015 / Week 8
23 March 2015 / Easter Vacation
30 March 2015 / Easter Vacation
6 April 2015 / Easter Vacation
13 April 2015 / Week 9
20 April 2015 / Week 10
27 April 2015 / Week 11
4 May 2015 / Week 12-NB. Bank Holiday Monday
11 May 2015 / Exams
18 May 2015 / Exams
25 May 2015 / Exams-NB. Bank Holiday Monday
1 June 2015 / Exams - End of Semester 2
SECOND YEAR PART TWO
The checklist below should help you in your reflections on how your skills are developing. Use the list together with the aims and intended learning outcomes for each course. Tick the boxes to indicate that you feel you have now acquired these skills and used them in a context other than the one in which you learned them. If you find a good example of how you used them, record it in more detail in the skills record at the end of this document so you have it ready to use in a job description or on your CV.
Learning Environment / Skills and Abilities / Acquired / UsedLectures and following them up / Subject specific learning
Listening skills
Note-taking skills
Reading skills
Critical thinking
Communication / Team work
Time management
Oral presentation skills (individual & team)
Essay writing skills
Information handling skills
Question posing
Negotiation and decision making skills
Reflection and evaluation (others & self)
Coursework / Critical analysis
Problem solving
Essay writing
IT skills/data search and refining
Evaluation
Avoiding plagiarism
Synthesis
Time management
Group work / Team work
Negotiation
Communication skills
Time management
Leadership
Work sharing
Information retrieval and handling skills
IT skills / Word processing
Spreadsheets
PowerPoint
Internet searching
Using electronic journals and databases
File management
Bibliographic skills
Academic Advisor Meetings / Self awareness and critique
Responsibility for own learning
Semester One - Welcome Back Meeting with Academic Advisor in
Weeks 1, 2 or 3
Reminders
Recently you have probably:
Ø Spent the summer break working, travelling, reading or doing nothing much at all.
Ø Arrived back in Manchester after the summer break.
Ø Considered, again, the meaning of your first year exam results.
Ø Moved into a new place to live.
Ø Started to cope with the interesting habits of house mates.
Ø Started a new set of second year courses.
Ø Developed your communication skills.
At this stage in the year:
Ø Make an appointment with the Careers Service or visit the Careers Service in University Place – see information on pages 4.
Ø Think about how you could use your communication skills (see the skills record at the end of this booklet) to update your CV or produce a CV or job application quickly. If you do not have a good set of records already, try to fill it in. Reflect on how to spend your time usefully and get more skills experience to put there. Remember you submitted a PDP at the end of your first year which should have included a CV, so think about continuing to update this through your second year. But make sure you have read the feedback on your first year PDP/CV as you may have been advised to make some changes to your CV.
Ø Think about the exams coming up after Christmas – from your second year your results begin to count towards your final degree. How can you learn from your results last year? What do you need to do to progress to the next level of your programme of study? For more information go to the Online Undergraduate Handbook available at the link below.
https://ughandbook.portals.mbs.ac.uk/Myassessment/RegulationsforUGawards.aspx
Ø If you are an IBFE student spending the second semester studying abroad, what do you need to do in preparation?
Ø If you are on the International Management or International Management with American Business Studies programmes or a programme with a third year on an industrial placement/internship year you will be starting to make preparations.
Reflections on the first few weeks in your Second Year
You can download the PDP from the Online Undergraduate Handbook at
https://ughandbook.portals.mbs.ac.uk/Myprogramme/Howyourlearningissupported/PersonalDevelopmentPlan%28PDP%29.aspx
Reflect below (type in the box) on how you have developed during the summer and the semester. What did you do over the summer and what have you learnt from it? How do you feel about the courses you have chosen? Have you become a student mentor or taken on other responsibilities such as the role of a student representative or voluntary work? Is there any information you can add to your CV?
Are there any areas of your life and study that are not working out as well as you would like? Why? Are there any areas in which you feel your skills are not as