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Student Competitions
ASET runs an annual competition - The Essay Competition, encouraging students who have recently returned to their academic institution to reflect on their placement.
The competition is launched each September and the winners are notified by the end of February.
One of the primary aims of ASET is to promote the benefits of integrating work and learning. We therefore run this competition to generate publicity material for placement staff, for them to highlight to future students the value of such opportunities. We also hope such undertakings will help students develop their reflective learning skills.
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Essay Competition
For all returning placement students, the essay competition offers a chance to write retrospectively about their placement experiences and help inform others about the benefits of undertaking a work placement. The winning 900-word essay will be awarded a £700 prize.
The competition is launched each September, with a deadline of early December and the winner announced in February.
For details of this year's competition, please see Essay Competition.
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Essay Winner
The 2009 Essay Competition has been won by Lucy Armstrong from the University of Bath. Lucy is studying Psychology and undertook her placement in Macquarie University Anxiety Research Unit, Macqaurie University, Sydney Australia. Congratulations to Lucy who will receive the £700 prize. The judges, and the ASET Executive Committee, would like to thank all the entrants who made their job very difficult (yet equally pleasurable).
In addition the judges wish to give special commendation to Christopher Pagett from Liverpool John Moores University who will receive a runner up prize of £150. Christopher worked at Cheshire Police Headquarters in the Forensic Footwear Unit.
Lucy's Winning Entry
Does finding your dream career involve flying over 10,000 miles?
When asked to think of Australia, we immediately picture a golden beach, tanned surfers and the words “no worries mate”. Through Foster’s adverts alone we Brits have been conditioned to believe that Aussies are the most chilled out human beings, even when faced with a shark attack. So imagine my surprise, one day when flicking through the pages of placement options for Psychology, to not only find that anxiety exists in Australia, but also, that a perfect opportunity, working within an anxiety disorder clinic in Sydney’s Macquarie University, was available.
As an individual studying a course that doesn’t lead directly into a career (i.e. becoming a psychologist as such, involves more than just three years of learning), I have always explained to others, that I was driven by the content of the course, not the job options. After completing ‘A’ level Psychology, I realised that while I had thoroughly enjoyed the subject, it felt as though I had only brushed the surface. For the first time in school I wasn’t just doing a subject I had to do, I was doing something that inspired me, and made me want to turn the pages of the books I was reading. Choosing the University of Bath to study Psychology was based partly on the university’s reputation for academic excellence, and the prospect of an eight-month work placement ‘down under’ - a place I had dreamed of going ever since I discovered I was one quarter Aussie (however that was calculated).
Despite my initial lack of career focus, my work placement helped me appreciate the many links between learning in psychology, and work in different domains. To recognise the value of psychology, one needs to appreciate the way it is applied in the real world to company dynamics, health and well-being, and the foundations of law and justice. These avenues (organisational, clinical and forensic) are the major career directions that, with determination, psychology graduates are able to pursue. Only since my placement have these areas of application become clear to me, helping me to rationalise the many different topics that we as undergraduates are required to study. Upon returning to university learning, I have felt that even minor theories and models (e.g. drive theory, perception, profiling) within the subject relate and apply to those in the working world, particularly to clinical work in practice.
During my placement I was helping to run the Macquarie University Anxiety Research Clinic, converse with patients and staff, and observe several group therapy programmes. Working alongside individuals who let me into snippets of their years of work experience, allowed me to see how different psychological approaches and aspects of research can coalesce, to inform one’s knowledge of a patient and their symptoms. For example, in one conversation with a client over the phone, I was told he had an acute fear of leaving the house. Past university learning told me this was partly on account of his low self-esteem and depressive tendencies (a possible consequence of losing his job, threats of eviction and lack of family support). My experience with anxious patients informed me that his core beliefs were stable and unchanging. It was these learning experiences that together formed my response to praise him for his bravery in calling the clinic at such a vulnerable time. It had taken him three weeks to make the phone call, and although he didn’t proceed with therapy, subsequent phone calls after my conversation with him were a sign of a small success, and taught me that I had acted in the right way as a learner and as a professional.
Talking with Clinical Psychologists and Research Assistants, helped form my understanding of how a clinic operates. In breaking down the procedures of work within the clinic, and the various steps involved in treating individuals with mental disorders, I was also able to consolidate my academic learning in terms of the etiology of mental disorders, various environmental impacts, the clinical theory behind disorders and treatment approaches. My work experience has helped me gather case examples of anxious patients to aid my understanding
of current modules during my final year of university, such as ‘Stress, Immunity and Health’ and even in understanding criminal tendencies in ‘Forensic Psychology’, and it will be of vast help when I study ‘Clinical Psychology’ next term.
I cannot think of a better placement opportunity for supporting my own personal development. I was able to learn about the way in which people think, in everyday as well as in clinical settings. I also learnt to really work autonomously, with the benefits to the workplace in mind, and not just to myself. I learnt about the importance of listening, sharing information and respecting others within a work environment as well as in a therapy setting. I also discovered clinical work is what I eventually want to do; helping patients to understand their own issues and how to overcome them. This placement experience would not have been possible without the help of the university to organise it, and gaining such a relevant experience involving such a high degree of responsibility before even graduating has put me ahead of other graduates in the competitive career path that is Clinical Psychology. I also feel that everything I learnt was magnified by the challenges I faced in being so far away from my home culture, and having to be so completely independent of my normal support systems. These extra challenges really enriched the experience as a whole for me, and as a result I am passionate about my return to university learning, and in following the career of my choice.
Christopher's Entry
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