COMPLETING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS SECTION OF YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE FILE This section of your assignment meets the first two learning outcomes of the whole project, so it is vital that you answer the questions as indicated using the guidelines below: What roles are you interested in pursuing for work experience?
Identify the jobs you would like to observe and/or undertake during work experience – be specific here (not just ‘a job in radio’ but DJ, presenter, researcher, desk op etc, or news cameraman, sports editor, documentary maker and so on). Identify and prioritise your learning objectives for WE - the skills you wish to develop and insights/knowledge you’re hoping to obtain from undertaking a placement in these area’s.
You will discuss with myself your WORK EXPERIENCE OBJECTIVES in advance of undertaking your placement. Having done that you will also need to PRIORITISE THEM i.e. list them in order of importance to you. These are very important as you will be referring back to these when you are writing your Work Experience Report to see how well you have met them, how realistic they were etc. The example below is a list of how you should approach writing up your objectives – these might be my objectives prioritised in order of importance if I'm working on LCR (or indeed any radio Work exp) for my placement: 1) Increase my experience of being on-air in a live situation 2) Develop my research and presentation skills by producing packages for the station 3) Learn more about how a programme schedule for transmission is created 4) Produce live news for the station 5) Develop my promotional and sponsorship skills. 6) Increase my post production skills by using new software 7) Gain an experience of helping and teaching first year students to produce programmes for LCR Give a brief profile of the organisations/individuals who could provide you with experience in this/these? (If T.V. or film, list past productions. If radio list popular/acclaimed programming.)
It is important that you show you have an understanding of the companies/stations or individuals profile in the marketplace – think
of this as an individual CV or Homepage for the company you’re profiling. To do this, draw on and summarise their online profile/CV and also include lists of programmes made or companies worked for. Also explain why you think this company can meet your objectives. Outline the steps you took to contact each of the potential providers. Include photocopies/printouts of pages/websites utilised underlining/ highlighting the relevant information. Detail what happened for each contact made. Include copies of all emails, letters etc sent as well as accounts of phone conversations and meetings with potential providers throughout the course of your research.
Write in detail – giving dates of contact and method of contact (email, phone conversation, face to face meeting etc) – how you went about securing your WE placement. Explain how each meeting or contact went, reflecting on how each was progressing or not your search for work experience and how you could improve your search. Support this research with evidence of your contacts –downloaded webpages for companies you're researching, emails sent and received and any other research you undertake here. Include details of meetings with your tutor, questions and issues discussed, conclusions/action points reached.
In order to provide evidence of how well or otherwise you’re engaging with the process of finding work experience, please write a summary of each meeting you have with myself. As indicated, please chart how these meetings went, questions and issues discussed and what action points were set for each meeting. Reflect on how this meeting was progressing your search for work experience. Letter from WE provider confirming dates, duties and conditions of placement.
And finally, you must make sure you include a completed summary of duties letter (you will have been given a copy of this already) prior to you starting your work experience. Ensure you give your WE provider enough time to fill out the form – don’t just land it on them on the day before – it is your responsibility to get this from them in time to submit by the 11th February deadline.