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Unit Information Form (UIF)

(The UIF provides the definitive record of the designated Unit)

SECTION A

General Unit Information

Unit Name Developing Employability Skills - The Future You

Unit Code BSS059-3

Level 6

Credit Value 15
Location(s) of
On Campus
Delivery
Period(s) of delivery Semester 1
Pre-requisites or
None
Restrictions
This unit is designed to help you prepare for your next step; from
University to work. While many of you are already working there are
many who will be making this important change for the first time and
who may also be preparing for the first steps of their career rather
Aims and Relevance than 'just a job'. The unit aims to develop awareness of how you can
develop your skills and attributes in order to be a more effective
contributor within work situations (including those during your
studies).

The first part of this unit is focussed on developing your personal

brand (your hopes, aspirations, goals and perception of self) with the
purpose of developing a critical evaluation of how your personal
brand fits the requirements of the types of organisations and
functions that you are aiming for, making use of external feedback
Syllabus Content appraising the feasibility of your goals.
The second part then examines the practicality of your approach by
comparison of how you are perceived against the personal brand
you project aiming to develop your awareness of what it means to be
an effective participant in an organisation; how better to understand
the environment in which you will be working; how to recognise
which of you own personal areas need development and how to
present yourself to the outside world in an effective way

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Development of a Personal Brand

Use of Feedback to evaluate your capabilities and behaviours
Use of reflection in Personal Development
Understanding your personal profile
Preparing a Personal development action plan

Learning outcomes
On completion of this unit you should be able to:

1 Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding

• Demonstrate knowledge of a range of techniques for evaluating personal skills
and abilities in the context of your future employability.

2 Demonstrate the following skills and abilities

• Reflect upon and evaluate your “personal brand” and your resultant competence
to compete successfully in the work environment with a view for planning actions
for improvement and development.

PSRB outcomes

Summary learning hours

Scheduled Guided Independent Autonomous Placement Total

24 48 24 54 0
Hours 150

Percentage 16 32 16 36 0 100

Approach to learning
Learning in this unit will be though a combination of workshops guided and independent
learning. Successful completion of this unit demands attendance and engagement which
requires you to take responsibility for your learning.
The sessions will involve collaborative and interactive session making considerable use of
feedback from a variety of sources in order to develop more acute awareness of your
personal skills with a view to developing actions for self-development. You must also
undertake independent learning involving preparation for sessions and deeper reading in
order to gain a more detailed understanding.
The emphasis will be on action, feedback, reflection and planning for development.

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Learner development
This Unit particularly focuses on the development of your abilities in the following areas:

The unit develops personal awareness by observing and evaluating your

interaction with your peers in a variety of task situations. These are then
evaluated in two key ways; a reflection of how you perceive others and give
them appropriate feedback and a reflection on how you think your peers
Enquiry form opinions of you. The purpose is to develop a critical awareness of how
others perceive you which will inform your behaviour when entering into a
working environment.

The entire focus of this unit is to simulate working environments to enable

Contextual
you to reflect on how you will be perceived in a commercial environment
understanding
and be aware of mannerisms/ behaviours which are challenging

The unit engineers a wide variety of collaborative tasks and activities. This
will give you an opportunity to refresh and apply theories such as Belbin to
aid understanding of group dynamics. You will work with colleagues and
Collaboration organisations to understand your own personal brand and to help others to
recognise their behaviours and attitudes with a view to preparing actions for
development

You will be required to evaluate how groups and individuals behave when
occupied on a range of tasks in a range of organisational contexts and
reflect, drawing conclusions on how you are perceived. You will learn to
Enterprise assess your readiness for work and develop actions for your personal
development.

Assessment summary
No Assessment Learning Weight % Submission Length
Method Code1 outcome(s) week (of exam)
CW-RW 1,2 30 1500
1 4
2 CW-RW 1,2 70 2500
10

1 See the UIF Guide for permissible codes

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Assessment details

Assessment 1
The first assessment of 1,500 words will be a reflective report making use of specific criteria
for the production of a positive and effective personal brand and using this and external
feedback with which to produce and enhanced version of your personal brand statement.

Assessment 2
The second assessment will be a critical reflection on your personal brand & effectiveness of
2,500 words which evaluates the steps you have identified you need to take to develop
yourself in order to realise your objectives

Threshold expectations
In order to pass Assessment 1 you will need to:
• Produce a reflective report containing your evaluation and description of your
personal brand making use of relevant criteria and external feedback.
In order to pass Assessment 2 you will need to:
• Making use of relevant literature and feedback you will produce a reflection on
your personal brand, personal effectiveness and actions you plan to take to
achieve your goals

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SECTION B

Recommended Reading
CORE
Megginson, D. Whittiker, V. (2007). Continuing Professional Development. CIPD
GUIDED
Beevers, K. and Rea, A.(2016) Learning and Development Practice in the Workplace. CIPD
Covey S, (Revised 2020) The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated.
Simon & Schuster UK
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Cottrell, S., 2021 Skills for Success: Personal Development and Employability (Macmillan
Study Skills)
Friedman, A. (2012) Continued Professional Development. Routledge
Gallagher, K., 2016. Essential Study and Employment Skills for Business and Management
Students. Oxford University Press.
Power, H (2020) The Power of You: How to build a powerful personal brand to establish
yourself as an online leader. Rethink Press.
John, Daymond (2018) Rise and Grind, CurrencyBooks

Equality Impact Assessment

Question Y/N/NA Additional anticipatory

adjustments/actions if necessary

Learning materials will be made available

in advance of sessions for students to Y
adapt as appropriate?

The approach to teaching and learning is

sufficiently flexible to enable all students to Y
succeed?

The approach to group work takes account

of the needs of students with disabilities Y
and from diverse backgrounds?

The approach to practical work takes

account of the needs of students with Y
disabilities?

Students with a protected characteristic2

have an equal opportunity to achieve the Y
learning outcomes?

2Age, Gender reassignment, Marriage and civil partnership, Pregnancy and maternity, Race, Religion
and belief, Sex, Sexual orientation

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The assessment tasks provide all students

Y
with an equal opportunity to succeed?

Any other aspects of the unit that might

pose potential challenges from an equality
Y
or diversity perspective have been
considered?

SECTION C

Administrative Information
Faculty UBBS

Portfolio UG Business Studies

School/Department Strategy & Management

Unit Co-ordinator David Williams

Version Number 1/21

Approved by Periodic Review

Date of approval
June 2018
(dd/mm/yyyy)

Shared Units – Indicate below all courses which include this Unit in their diet
BSc Business Studies (General)
BSc Business Studies (Project management)
BSc Business Studies (International)
BSc Business Studies with Marketing
BSc Business Studies with Finance
BSc Human Resource Management (Accredited)

Name Date
Form completed by Eliot Lloyd Feb 2018
Signature of Chair of
Faculty TQSC

Unit Updates
FTQSC Minute
Date Nature of Update
Ref:

BSS7/2/18 Updated to new UIF version

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June 2020 HECoS code, PSRB outcomes, assessment summary, unit

coordinator, recommended reading, housekeeping, shared units,
syllabus content.

June 2021 Updated assessment submission weeks, recommended reading, unit

coordinator, addition in shared units, housekeeping - formatting

Administrative Information – Academic Registry completion

JACS / HECoS code (KIS) 100079

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UIF annex: Summary learning hours

Revision Assessment
Code Activity Hours Total
period Activity
UoB-based activities
SL Lecture
SR Directed reading and research
SA Assessment preparation
IR Unguided reading from defined reading lists
SAS Scheduled Assessments
Total
Guided learning
WBL Employer based learning activities

Total
Independent learning
Total

Key:
SR Scheduled Reading and Research
SA Scheduled Assessment Preparation (normally designed as IA – Independent Assessment)
WBL Worked based Learning
SAS Scheduled Assessment

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