Self-Leadership & Employability

ASSESSMENT FORMAT: Individual Portfolio

ASSESSMENT WEIGHTING: 50%

WORD COUNT: 2,000 words maximum

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:

Learning Outcome1 and Learning Outcome 3

LO1 Seek and apply new techniques and processes to own your performance and identify how this might be evaluated in the context of employability and leadership.

LO3 Take responsibility for own learning and development using reflection and feedback to analyse own capabilities and to appraise alternatives and develop plans and implement actions.

1.    ASSESSMENT SUMMARY:

The first Portfolio addresses key Self-Leadership and Employability elements, which will support students in applying to graduate roles throughout the semester. The work is submitted in week 9 which allows time for students to have built their Westminster Employability Award to a Gold Standard, building on last year’s WEA assessment, researched their degree building on work completed at level 5 and refined their CV to develop a document, begun at level 4, ready for applications as a Living CV. Students will have had time to complete a virtual internship task. Similarly the SMART goals have been set and refined at levels 4 and 5 and will now relate to the current situation. The link to theory for leadership interview answers will practically prime students’ preparation for live interviews.

2.    DETAILED ASSESSMENT GUIDE AND STRUCTURE:

 Portfolio 1:

2k words:

Section 1 Researching your Graduate Role

Using a range of data sources to investigate key organisations and potential roles as approved by your seminar leader as a graduate role [Appendix i]

Section 2 Living CV

A clear link between skills, projects and work experience explained with links to a specific application [Appendix ii and iii]

Section 3 Interview STARR (Situation, Task, Action, Result & Reflection) answers linked to specific theory from weeks 1-7 to the question: “Tell me about a time when you used your leadership skills?” [Appendix iv]

Section 4 Clear SMART goals linked to your professional role applications. All goals to have dates/ times/ percentages / numbers to ensure that they can be measured at all 3 levels: short, interim and long-term. All goals to be relevant to your professional graduate role applications.

SMART Goal	Short-Term 3-5 Days	Interim 3-5 weeks	Long Term 1 -3 months	Intended Benefits
1
2
3
4

*Appendices do not count in the word count

Appendix i) Research List of Sources

Appendix ii) Living CV with specific examples for employers

Appendix iii) Gold Westminster Employability Award

Appendix iv) Forage Certificate (choose one from those listed) https://www.theforage.com/landing/Westminster/oW67eFFYCeWMXPqWF/6LEAD001W

Appendix v) A4 plan from week 7 with your annotated feedback from peers.

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Timeline for delivery

Submission before 1pm UK time on Tuesday 23^rd November 2021 (week 9)

Week 1         Living CV examples for employers & begin building your Westminster Employability Award (WEA) to Gold Level

Week 2         Researching your Graduate Role via big data sites, Reuters news releases and the testimonials on the organisation’s site.

First application draft + Gold WEA activity

Week 3         Forage Task chosen from the dedicated module listing

https://www.theforage.com/landing/Westminster/oW67eFFYCeWMXPqWF/6LEAD001W

+ Gold WEA activity

Week 4         STARR technique answer & link to Leadership theory + Gold WEA activity

Week 5         SMART goals informed by your mentoring guidance and personal research so far

Weeks 6-8    Refine graduate application, complete WEA to Gold level, edit portfolio to standard

Week 9 Submit before 1pm on Tuesday 23^rd November 2021

4.    MARKING CRITERIA:

Assessed Element	Potential Mark
A4 plan with feedback in appendix	5
Researching a specific Graduate Role Research list linked to Grad Role	15
Living CV	10
Gold WEA Digital Badge	20
Forage Certificate	10
Interview STARR answer with explicit link to leadership theory	20
SMART goals relevant to applications	10
References relevant (2016-2022) & in Westminster Harvard Referencing	10
å	100

5.    TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH SUBMISSION:

You may have to submit earlier than those submitting online.

Please do not email your module leaders or your seminar leaders your coursework unless you have been asked to do so. The Registry does not accept such a submission in most cases.

You can also email the module leaders and ask for advice. [Insert module leaders’ names and email addresses here.]

6.    PENALTIES FOR LATE SUBMISSION:

Any assessment submitted late online will be penalised unless you submit a claim for Mitigating Circumstances (MC) and the claim is accepted by the Registry. Check this page for more information:

If you do not submit an MC claim or if your MC claim is rejected then the penalty for assessments submitted individually online within the 24 hours late period is a reduction of 10% of the overall marks available for the assessment, except for work which is marked in the range 40 – 49%, in which case the mark will be capped at the pass mark (40%).

Assessments submitted individually online more than 24 hours late will be given a mark of 0%, unless the Mitigating Circumstances claim has been accepted officially by the Registry.

7.    AVOIDING PLAGIARISM:

Your assignment must demonstrate your own work and ideas. You may use graphs and clipart as appropriate.  All written work must be the work of the individual student. Similarities between the work of students will be reported as collusion. 

Any quotations and references that you include in your assignment will be identified by the Plagiarism detection programme as being similar to other sources. Therefore it is vital that you reference correctly.

Please check information about Harvard Referencing style here:

Harvard Referencing Style booklet can be downloaded here:

Any evidence of plagiarism will be reported to the Academic Standards team. A similarity content of 0% will be investigated by the Academic Misconduct Panel as it is regarded as being an indicator of an attempt to circumvent the plagiarism software. Since your document should have several different references the plagiarism detection programme should identify them.