Self-Evaluation Report on Weald and Downland Living Museum Work Placement
1502622 BML330 May 2018
Contents Introduction 3 Objectives 3 Description 4 Feelings 4 Evaluation and Analysis
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Conclusions 6 Action Plan
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Appendices 8 Appendix One – Gibbs Reflective Model
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Appendix Two – Skills Audit at the Start and End of the Term
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Appendix Three – Work Experience Log
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Appendix Four – Embedding Employability Skills Wheel
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Appendix Five – Customer Research Project Example
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References 19
Introduction “A consistent theme running through employer feedback on graduate skills is the desire for graduates to possess a set of core or platform skills, including employability skills, which will allow them to contribute fully in the workplace” (Hughs et al, 2013). This reflective essay is underpinned by Gibbs reflective cycle (1988), as seen in appendix one, and reflects on the development of my graduate and discipline skills throughout BML330, the Work Placement and Tourism Management module, completed in second semester of my final year. For this module I have been on work placement at the Weald and Downland Living Museum one day a week for 16 weeks and have mainly been learning from/ assisting the marketing team, however, I have been placed in other areas of the museum such as with the events team.
The museum is based in Chichester and is open daily offering the public the chance to explore life from the last 950 years. Educational trips and courses such as weaving and brickwork are a main part of the museums offerings. The ‘gateway’ project finished in 2017 means that there is also a high quality cafe and new shop for visitors. Volunteers are key to the running of the museum as they often act as interpreters to guests.
Objectives At the start of my placement at the Weald and Downland Living Museum, myself and the Marketing Manager who take charge of me developed three objectives that I was to meet throughout my time at my work placement. These are:
1. To develop my understanding and confidence in the working environment. 2. To identify marketing strategies that could be implemented at the Weald and Downland living museum. 3. To apply models and concepts learnt in previous modules to my experience.
I believe I have met these objectives and will justify why in the rest of the document.
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Description The work placement was the first time I have worked ‘in house’ on marketing or tourism schemes with an organisation. I was mainly based in one of the offices at the museum and was provided with a computer and access to museum files. I mainly worked with the marketing and events teams but I also dealt with staff from various other departments. Most days my work would be computer based but I did have the opportunity to volunteer at events and take photos around the site for the museums image bank. A weekly log of my activities can be seen in appendix three.
Feelings I was slightly apprehensive at the start of this placement as I did not have the confidence that I have now developed to know that I am fully capable of a marketing/ tourism position. There was a level of responsibility involved in aspects of my placement that I did thrive on but would have been nervous of beforehand such as assisting at events and important data inputting. Overall I believe the experience has been invaluable for both my personal and work based skills and has reassured me that I want to work in the marketing and tourism industry.
Evaluation and Analysis Graduate Skills At the start of the semester I completed a graduate skills audit seen in appendix two, at the end of the semester the same audit has been completed and my development can be compared. My academic writing has improved through this module as I have had to present my research in a clear way with references to back up my ideas. An example of this can be seen in appendix five where a customer research project I completed can be seen - this is an example of my work throughout the placement. The customer research project strengthened my social science skills as I had to identify the best approach of gaining customer feedback. My revision techniques have been improved as I have had to become better at memorising facts when speaking to visitors or writing copy, which also improved my proofreading skills.
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Appendix four is the embedding employability skills wheel from the Higher Education Academy (2015). I believe this module has helped me improve on all spokes of the wheel - my behaviours have improved as my time and self management has had to be reliable to compete tasks set to me within a timely manner. During the placement I attended a training session on the history of the museum and attended the English National Park Experience Collection Initial Business Information session at the offices of the South Downs national park in Midhurst. These two experiences strengthened my note-taking and paraphrasing skills.
General graduate skills such as using excel and data management have dramatically improved through the work placement. For many weeks I was inputting data, generally information about stall holders and food vendors, these were long tasks and required me to be up to date with excel and any shortcuts needed. Working in the marketing team my use of email has had to be perfected especially when talking to potential customers - it was important to stay with the brand voice. I have understood the importance of photo licencing and how to obtain reusable photos in my time at the museum as social media updates and signage I created had to be legal and not break any licencing laws.
Teamwork and working in an office has been one of the biggest graduate developments for me as I have had to learn to network and also build a report with visitors whilst working at event days. When working the food festival, I had to assist chef demonstrators and speakers at the event, it was important to build a good relationship with them to gain their trust and be able to fully help them.
Discipline skills The embedding employability skills wheel in appendix four highlights the importance of specialist and transferrable skills. There are many marketing and tourism based skills I have developed at my placement that will be useful for my future career. One of the main ones is customer relationship management. Not only did I produce a report on the best way to get feedback at the museum (appendix five) but I also had
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to deal with customers face to face at events and handle any queries they may have had.
My content management skills have also had a large improvement as I was able to post live updates and program posts for the future such as on Facebook. Taking photos with a professional camera to go in the museums photo bank to be used on future marketing campaigns was exciting as this is a skill that is very important when working in marketing and I had the opportunity to take some good quality photos of the site.
Other discipline skills can be identified through QAA’s (2016) document benchmarking tourism degree skills and the 2015 document benchmarking business and management degree skills. Discipline skills from these lists that were developed at the work placement include critiquing the intercultural dimensions of tourism and demonstrating an understanding of technology and media and how these influence and change tourism operations. These particular skills where developed whilst I was researching ways too attract international tourists to the museum - particularly those flying into London.
The placement also strengthened my awareness of sustainability and social responsibility at a tourism destination as I was able to shadow the marketing team as they planned and discussed projects. Most importantly I was able to integrate theory learnt at university into the working environment.
Conclusions I did not have a negative experience at the work placement and found all experiences to be beneficial to my development. There are however, things that I could have done to further improve my development. I could have taken some time to explore safety and crisis management at the museum as this is an important tourism graduate skill listed by QAA (2016).
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I did not have a negative experience at the work placement and found all experiences to be beneficial to my development. There are however, things that I could have done to further improve my development. I could have taken some time to explore safety and crisis management at the museum as this is an important tourism graduate skill listed by QAA (2016). Other skills I could have taken the opportunity to improve on include explaining the patterns and characteristics of tourism demand and the influences on such demand. I did get to observe visitor patterns but there are not any recorded demographics of visitors to the museum and this is something I would have liked to have monitored.
Action Plan Going forward I would like to apply these developed skills to a full time job working on marketing in the tourism sector. This placement has provided me with skills but also the confidence to go on with my career. I have also been offered the opportunity to work further event days at the museum but I would also like to develop skills in other areas of tourism and marketing jobs such as in agencies and DMO’s. I will also review my skills bi-annually to ensure I am at the same standard and identify which skills I need to improve on.
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Appendices
Appendix One – Gibbs Reflective Model
Description. What Happened?
Action Plan.
Feelings.
If it arose
What were
again, what
you thinking
would you do?
and feeling?
Evaluation.
Conclusions.
What was
What else
good and bad
could you
about the
have done?
experience? Analysis. Can you make sense of the experience?
Adapted from: (Gibbs, 1988)
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Appendix Two – Skills Audit at the Start and End of the Term
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Appendix Three – Work Experience Log
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Appendix Four – Embedding Employability Skills Wheel
(Higher Eduction Academy, 2015)
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Appendix Five – Customer Research Project Example
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References Gibbs, G. (1988), Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic.
Higher Education Academy. (2015). ‘Framework for embedding employability in higher education’ Higher Education Academy [Online] Available at: https://www.heacademy. ac.uk/knowledge-hub/framework-embedding-employability-higher-education.
Hughs, T., Sheen, J., Birkin, G. (2013). ‘Industry graduate skills needs. Summary report for the National Centre for Universities and Business’, CFE [Online] Available at: http://www.ncub.co.uk/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&category_ slug=reports&alias=91-industry-graduate-skills-need&Itemid=2728.
QAA. (2015). ‘Subject Benchmark Statement. UK Quality Code for Higher Education. Part A: Setting and maintaining academic standards. Business and Management’, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education [Online] Available at: http://www.qaa. ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-business-management-15.pdf.
QAA. (2016). ‘Subject Benchmark Statement. Events, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism: Draft for consultation’, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education [Online] Available at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-EventsHospitality-Leisure-Sport-and-Tourism-consultation-16.pdf.
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