Placement Documentation by Aidan Luddy

Galway Mayo Institute of Technology HOTEL SCHOOL Department of Hotel & Tourism Management. Placement documentation requirements.

June 2012 Submission dates; If placement commences in January then final document must be submitted to Hotel School office on the last day of August of the same year.

If placement commences in June then final document must be submitted to Hotel School office on first day of December of the same year.

Galway Mayo Institute of Technology HOTEL SCHOOL Work Placement Module NQAI Level 7

30 Credits

Duration: 30 weeks Introduction. Work placement and the gaining of knowledge, skills and competence through structured, supervised and assessed work exposure is a key element of this programme. In addition to developing life and employment skills, this module recognises that real and effective learning occurs during quality assured placements, and the learning outcomes and assessment methodologies are designed to enable the student to demonstrate this learning.

Placement Induction In order to fully equip students with the competencies they need to be useful and effective employees, an induction programme will be mandatory. This programme will focus on developing the following skill sets and industry qualifications. - Primary Food Hygiene Certificate (where appropriate) - Fire Safety Certificate - First Aid Certificate - Manual Handling Certificate - Personal Presentation at Work (already covered in multiple modules)

These awards are necessary for industry professionals and will demonstrable skill sets that are valued and needed at work. In some cases, such as with the handling of food or the lifting of stock items, a student would be excluded from employment participation if they did not possess these qualifications. The introductory session entitled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Personal Presentation at Workâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, is not assessed and exists to ensure that students are aware of the working norms that will be required of them. These norms include students developing an understanding of: assertiveness, dress codes, time management, terms of address, handling complaints and personal criticism.

Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to: 1. Illustrate the organisational structure of the business enterprise. 2. Report on the history of the enterprise or destination and summarise its strategic intent. 3. Analyse the physical location of the business enterprise and comment on its internal ergonomics. 4. Describe the range of products and services or outputs of the enterprise and state the pricing policy that is applied to these. 5. Participate as an employee in a business enterprise. 6. Describe the process of recruitment, selection and training/ development of staff that occurred during your placement. 7. Measure the labour turnover of the business enterprise and identify the causes of these movements. 8. Understand the stock taking process and operational control functions including the security of cash and the prevention of fraud. 9. Identify the formal and informal channels of communication 10. State the inputs (human, capital, operational and technological) into the enterprise 11. Understand the work processes and flows within the enterprise 12. Explain the markets served by the enterprise or destination and critically consider the needs of these markets. 13. List the technologies employed by the enterprise and identify how other technologies could be employed and understand the impact these could have. 14. Understand the fluctuations in demand experienced by the enterprise and suggest action that could be taken to smooth demand over time. 15. Explain how the enterprise does or can adjust its operating costs in relation to different patterns of demand 16. State the key service standards that the business enterprise has adopted and evaluate their implementation and their relevance to the markets served. 17. Maintain an employment diary which records the nature of tasks undertaken and that captures any incidents. Critically analyse the management of these incidents. 18. Critically consider incidents and be able to describe their cause and effective management. 19. Describe the different styles of leadership that you have observed being used within the business enterprise. 20. Evaluate the marketing activities of the enterprise over the duration of the placement period. 21. Reflect on self performance at work and respond appropriately to employment appraisals.

Methods of Assessment The assessment of this placement employs several methodologies to facilitate the capturing of different types of learning. 1. Business Report One business style report must be completed addressing each of the following learning outcomes. 1,2, 3,4,6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11,12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20. Each report should be under 5,000 words and maximum use should be made of illustrations and charts. The report must be submitted directly to the School Office. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that the report arrives at college for assessment.

2. Employment Diary This diary should clearly state the jobs and activities undertaken at work and in separate clearly identified sections it should address learning outcomes 17.

3. Reflections on Appraisals This formal reflective report addresses learning outcomes 5 and 21. Two performance appraisals of your work experience must take place, the first at approximately twelve weeks and the second prior to completion of placement. Both appraisals should be completed and signed with your immediate supervisor and be included in the appendices of the placement report. The report should be approximately 2,000 words in length and must: - Critically contrast your two appraisals - Identify your areas of strength and weakness supporting these comments with examples taken from your Employment Diary - Demonstrate how you worked to improve performance during the placement period - Identify your personal future developmental needs - Reflect on your relationship with senior managers and with your mentor during the placement - Suggest how you would prepare other students for the experiences in placement that you encountered

4. Oral Examination Upon return to college, the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class tutor and one other Academic member of Staff will conduct an oral examination with the student. The purpose of this is to discuss the learning that has occurred during the placement and to probe the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comments and reflections in the business reports and in the reflection on the two appraisals.

Assessment Weighting This 30 credit module is the equivalent of six, five credit modules or of a normal semesters work at GMIT. Employment Diary =

20% of module assessment.

Reflections on Appraisals =

20% of module assessment.

Business Report =

50% of module assessment.

Oral Examination =

10% of module assessment.

(The Oral Examination will only take place for specific classes and not all students will be required to take an oral Examination. If no Oral Examination Interview takes place the marks allocated to it will be allocated to the business report.)

REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES -for theCOMPILATION OF STUDENT WORK PLACEMENT PROJECTS Undertaken in connection with Industrial Placement 1. BUSINESS REPORT 2. EMPLOYMENT DIARY 3. REFLECTIONS ON APPRAISALS

Prepared by Department of Hotel & Tourism Management APRIL 2012

THE BUSINESS REPORT This shall be 5000 words in length and structured so as to have the following:Introduction ¾ Report on the history of the enterprise or destination and summarise its strategic intent. ¾ Information on the organisational structure of the business Name of establishment Type of establishment and size Name and title of supervisor Structure and organisation chart. ¾ Describe the range of products and/or services provided. State the prices of these products/services. ¾ Analyse the physical location of the business enterprise and comment on its internal ergonomics.

Human Resource Management ¾ Number of staff – full-time and part-time in total and in your department. Key duties and responsibilities of personnel in your department Induction and training that took place ¾ Describe the process of recruitment, selection and training/ development of staff that occurred during your placement. ¾ Measure the labour turnover of the business enterprise and identify the causes of these movements.

Finance ¾ Understand the stock taking process and operational control functions including the security of cash and the prevention of fraud. ¾ Explain how the enterprise does or can adjust its operating costs in relation to different patterns of demand

Operations ¾ IT system used and identify its strengths and weaknesses. ¾ List the technologies employed by the enterprise and identify how other technologies could be employed and understand the impact these could have. ¾ Health and Safety procedures followed. ¾ Layout of department and an analysis of the flow of work. ¾ Take one product or service through the process of production, include all of the resources required to achieve the end product i.e. human, physical and financial. ¾ State the key service standards that the business enterprise has adopted and evaluate their implementation and their relevance to the markets served. ¾ Critically consider incidents and be able to describe their cause and effective management. ¾ Identify the formal and informal channels of communication ¾ Describe the different styles of leadership that you have observed being used within the business enterprise.

Marketing ¾ Explain the markets served by the enterprise or destination and critically consider the needs of these markets. ¾ Understand the fluctuations in demand experienced by the enterprise and suggest action that could be taken to smooth demand over time. ¾ Evaluate the marketing activities of the enterprise over the duration of the placement period. ¾ Discuss Key competitors

Conclusions & Recommendations At this point provide conclusions and make recommendations for improvements within the business.

Bibliography If theory has been referenced in the report a bibliography must be included using the Harvard format (Appendix 2)

Appendices Appendices may consist of supporting material, documents, commentaries, tables, or other evidence which, if included in the main text, would interrupt its flow. If there is more than one appendix, number each one with an Arabic numeral, thus 1,2,3, etc

TEMPLATE FOR EMPLOYMENT DIARY REFLECTIONS ON WORKPLACE EXPERIENCE To be completed monthly. Date: Place:

What tasks did you undertake?

What did you learn from your experiences?

Describe a positive incident that took place.

Did you experience any difficulties?

WORK EXPERIENCE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL APPRAISAL No. 1 (To be completed by the employer) GENERAL INFORMATION EMPLOYEE NAME JOB TITLE DEPARTMENT WORK COMMENCEMENT DATE DATE OF REVIEW REVIEWERS NAME REVIEWERS JOB TITLE ORGANISATIONS NAME ORGANISATIONS ADDRESS

Please rate the areas below as follows: 5 Outstanding 4 Exceeds expectations 3 Meets expectations 2 Improvement needed 1 Unacceptable

QUALITY OF WORK: Work is performed accurately and neatly, consistently, and thoroughly: Rating:

Comments

QUANTITY OF WORK: Amount of work performed on a daily basis is appropriate for job function: Rating:

JOB KNOWLEDGE: Understanding the job requirements and specific content knowledge where appropriate Rating:

Comments

GENERAL ISSUE Timekeeping/ punctuality Attendance Appearance/grooming Conduct Enthusiasm/Interest shown Ability to follow instructions Communication skills Health and Safety Awareness Reaction to correction Attitude to Guests Attitude to co-workers Attitude to managers Team work approach Welcoming /hospitable at work Level of professionalism Overall

RATING COMMENT

Overall comments on studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance and key areas for improvement: ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Student signature: __________________________

Date:

__________________________

Supervisor signature: ________________________

Date:

__________________________

WORK EXPERIENCE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL APPRAISAL No. 2 (To be completed by the employer) GENERAL INFORMATION EMPLOYEE NAME JOB TITLE DEPARTMENT WORK COMMENCEMENT DATE DATE OF REVIEW REVIEWERS NAME REVIEWERS JOB TITLE ORGANISATIONS NAME ORGANISATIONS ADDRESS

Please rate the areas below as follows: 5 Outstanding 4 Exceeds expectations 3 Meets expectations 2 Improvement needed 1 Unacceptable

QUALITY OF WORK: Work is performed accurately and neatly, consistently, and thoroughly: Rating:

Comments

QUANTITY OF WORK: Amount of work performed on a daily basis is appropriate for job function: Rating:

JOB KNOWLEDGE: Understanding the job requirements and specific content knowledge where appropriate Rating:

Comments

RATING COMMENT

Student signature: __________________________

Date:

__________________________

Supervisor signature: ________________________

Date:

__________________________

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS ¾ The project shall be the student's own work and all necessary research shall be carried out by the student. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in the School evoking the student code of conduct, please familiarise yourself with this code PRIOR to placement beginning. ¾ Where two or more students are working in the same establishment, projects must be prepared separately. ¾ "Carbon copy" projects will be rejected. ¾ The completed project must be typed or word processed on white A4 paper, Font style Times New Roman and font size 12 and 1.5 spaced. ¾ Submission by the student of the completed project and industrial evaluation document on or before the due date, is a requirement for admission to the next stage of the student’s course of studies. ¾ Project deadlines must be strictly adhered to. All projects must be submitted to the Hotel School office. Projects submitted after the due date will not be accepted and, therefore, no mark will be available for the Summer Examination Board Meeting.

SPECIAL NOTES FOR THE GUIDANCE OF STUDENTS ¾ Write the project in "the 3rd person" throughout. ¾ Demonstrate the application of knowledge gained in early years of the course at college.

LAYOUT ORDER OF CONTENTS The usual contents of the project are set out below and in the order in which they normally appear in the completed document. Binding Two soft bound copies of the project must be provided. The front must be of clear plastic with the document held together at the spine by means of a spiral or straight plastic binding. Appendix No. 1 indicates the information required to be typed on the cover page and visible through the plastic cover.

Title Page The title page must be set out in accordance with that contained in Appendix 1. Table of Contents The table of contents should be as full as possible and include not only the titles of chapters but also all the cross headings. It should be possible, from an examination of the table of contents, to see not only what matters are dealt with and where but also to discover the structure of the project. Every entry in the table must have the correct page number alongside it. The page numbers cannot be typed until all the other typing is completed Lists of Tables, Charts and Diagrams Where the project contains tables, charts, diagrams, graphs, or similar illustrative material, a separate list for each type of illustration, appropriately headed, must be included (e.g. list of tables, list of graphs). Such items must be listed in the order in which they appear in the text, and not, for example, by alphabetical order of their caption. Each item in the list must include - The number of the illustration - The caption title - The number of the page on which it appears

APPENDIX No. 1.

GALWAY-MAYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF HOTEL AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT

Report Submitted in Part Fulfillment of the Requirements for the award for Name of degree and Based Upon Industrial Experience Gained at Name of Hotel and Country Student's Name Year

APPENDIX NO. 2. FORMS OF REFERENCE Source

Harvard System

Book title, single author

Alli, I (2004) Food Quality Assurance: Principles and Practices, CRC, London. Surname, Initials (Year) Name of book in italics, Publisher, Place of Publication

Book title, several authors

Brody, A, Lord, B (2000) Developing New Food Products for a changing Marketplace, CRC Press, Florida. As above listing all the authors

Book title, edition

Hanneman, L.J. (1994) Bakery: Flour Confectionery, 3rd ed. Heinemann Ltd, London As above listing the edition after the name of the book

Conference Proceedings

McCauley, F (2001) Celebrating Difference: Gender Equality and Lifelong Learning, Proceedings of the AONTAS Millenium Conference held at the Limerick Inn Hotel, Limerick, 20 October 2000, AONTAS, Limerick.

Surname, initial (Year) Name of paper in italics, Proceedings of full name of conferencein italics held at ??? date, Organisers of conference, place of conference

Article in a journal

Trigwell, K and Shale, S (2004) Student Learning and the Scholarship of University Teaching, Studies in Higher Education, 29(4), 523-536.

Author, initial, (Year) Name of article,Name of journal in itialics, (journal vol and number) page number E-journal

Stierer, B and Antoniou, M (2004) Are there distinctive Methodologies for Pedagogic Research in Higher Education? Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 275-286. Full-text [online] Available: Swetswise, [Accessed September 1 2011]

Document from the internet

Food Safety Authority of Ireland (2001) Guidance Note No. 3‐ Guidelines for the Interpretation of Results of Microbiological Analysis of Some Ready to Eat Foods Samples at point of Sale. FSAI, Dublin.http://www.fsai.ie/publications/guidance_notes/gn3.pdf [Accessed 12 March 2008]