Staff Development Programme

For Spring 2023 we will continue to offer our online programme of professional development events with half day (09:30-1:30) Workshops and 90 minute (10:00-11:30) ASET Insights.

In addition we will be introducing a new Workshop – Your Career Planning and Progression (YCPP) in July (see details below) which will be held in-person at Manchester Metropolitan University.
To find out more about ASET Insights sessions for Spring 2023 visit our new Insights page here. 

The Spring Workshop programme is now open for bookings:

Book Workshop Online 2023

Online Workshops at a glance..
ASET Members £125 ASET non-members £275

Face-to-Face Workshops
ASET Members £195 ASET non-members £395

 An Introduction to Work Placement Management (IWPM)
Thursday 26th January  09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
This introductory session on the broad topic of work placement management will provide guidance for the support of work placements by practitioners. Participants will be furnished with a basis from which they can develop their own plans and manage the day-to-day challenges likely to be faced in their jobs. This is aimed at work placement managers, officers, administrators and academic placement tutors, particularly those with little experience, who are new to their role, about to be appointed, or those simply wanting a refresher course. This session is designed to introduce all the fundamental aspects of working in the placements field. The workshop is intended to be flexible and responsive to participants’ needs and interests and therefore emphasis may vary between topics. As well as creating opportunities for discussion and dialogue, workshop facilitators will also support mechanisms for online networking amongst delegates.

Promoting Placements (PP)
Wednesday 8th February 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Who do you need to promote placements to? Current, perhaps difficult to reach students? Prospective students (and their parents)? Local employers as well as global multinationals? Academic colleagues and other stakeholders? For placement practitioners, our approach to promoting placements and the range of professional services we offer needs to be adapted to our audiences, of which there are many. Better promotion can lead to a raised profile for placements within and beyond your institution, enhanced student engagement and/or more placement opportunities being made available to your students by employers. As our need to optimise digital and technical approaches increases, the workshop facilitation team will also encourage participative discussions around innovative approaches to promoting placements to the various stakeholder groups.

Managing Health, Safety and Welfare for Student Placements (HSWP)
Tuesday 28th February 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Formerly entitled Risk Assessment and Due Diligence, this workshop builds upon and develops these themes. Having an involvement in or being responsible for the process of risk assessing placements can feel daunting. The majority of placement practitioners are unlikely to be experts in the field of health and safety law or student welfare.

• Are you confident in your risk assessment processes before placement?
• Do you know what you should be doing in terms of due diligence in approving placements?
• Do you know what insurances are required or advised for placements in the UK? Overseas?
• Do you realise the extent of the university’s legal liability for all of this?
• What paperwork and proformas can support your processes and help ensure legal compliance?

This workshop focusses on establishing manageable, proportionate and appropriate risk assessment and due diligence processes for placement provision. Here, we draw upon the ASET Good Practice Guide for the Management of Health, Safety and Welfare of Student Placements, as well as the QAA Quality Code. It is aimed at university staff who work with student placements/work-based learning, whether new to the position or experienced and wanting a refresher/update, academic or administrative. Our experienced workshop facilitators will share both knowledge, as well as creating opportunities to encourage delegate participation.

Student Wellbeing and Placements (SWP)
Tuesday 7th March 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
The wellbeing of the workforce should be an essential thread running through organisations’ HR strategies.  With the wellbeing of our students rising in importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations, including our own Higher Education Providers, have given focus/renewed focus to student wellbeing.

The challenging set of circumstances created have included working remotely, needing to switch to a virtual placement, a changing job market, feelings of isolation and overall uncertainty about what the future of work might look like.   In this workshop, our experienced facilitators will explore wellbeing in the context of work based learning and placements.  The challenges your students may be faced with, as well as approaches to how to tackle these issues practically, will be delved into and delegates can expect to learn #ASETTopTips and take away practical ideas to aid their student support mechanisms.  Participative in style, delegates will be invited to join discussions in the workshop and to share their experiences and insights.

Supporting International Students with Placements (SISP)
Thursday 23rd March 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
International student participation in placements is high on the agenda at many UK Higher Education Institutions. For some international students, studying in the UK is a highly desirable means to support their future employability prospects. International students’ participation in placement remains low in some areas, with students citing obstacles – both perceived and real – to successfully securing a placement. International students’ support requirements can differ from UK domiciled students and can be greater. This workshop, facilitated by experienced placement/careers professionals, will examine strategies to help prepare international students in securing placements, as well as ways to support them whilst on placement. It will also look at the advice and guidance that can be provided for employers to persuade them of the value of offering placements to international students, as well as aspects of the legal framework e.g., Visas. The workshop will be interactive, and you will be encouraged to share your experiences and examples of good practice from your institution.

From Placements to Employability (FPTE)
Wednesday 19th April 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Perhaps you have expertise in supporting placement students but are now being asked to become involved in curriculum design and development more broadly associated with employability?

• Or you have experience in your subject-based curriculum but are new to placements and employability?
• Do you know what you might do differently if you were assessing a first-year undergraduate placement compared to a Masters level placement?

Single interventions, like the sandwich placement, are no longer sufficient in terms of determining employment success on graduation – we must consider the whole student experience. We will contrast employability in the curriculum with employability through the curriculum i.e., how broader teaching, learning and assessment strategies throughout a programme can impact on employability. The intended outcome of the session is to enable you to use your experience and expertise from placement activities to work with your colleagues in your own institutions to appropriately embed placement and other employability related activities in the curriculum. Workshop facilitators will help encourage the sharing of good practice amongst delegates and will help to equip you with ideas and top tips to utilise in your roles.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Placements (EDIP)
Wednesday 26th April 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
This workshop will look at equality, diversity and inclusion for placements. No need for any prior EDI experience, this session will introduce you to the reference points, sources, key duties and themes that are relevant to offering student placements. There will be an introduction to the equality legislation and our responsibilities, also to raising awareness about specialist sources of EDI information for the sector. We will talk about why we need to focus on particular protected characteristics, minoritized communities and those often excluded. This will include taking a look at how employability or placement performance is judged, and why in some cases, we might need to think again.

We’ll move onto a positive approach to inclusion, including the need to have an intersectional mindset, and how to get your practice right from the start. We’ll create a safe space for discussion, addressing direct issues and making plenty of space for contributions from delegates on the day.

Employer Engagement (EE)
Tuesday 9th May 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Employers, providers, placement hosts – call them what you like, we need them more than ever before, in this challenging economic environment. They’re vital to our placement offerings and yet can pose a number of challenges for Higher Education providers and placement professionals.

• How can we reach out, successfully, to those organisations we aspire for our students to work at?
• What can we do to engage employers with our work based learning programmes and aims?
• What is feasible when building and strengthening relationships?
• What do employers expect from us (and can we deliver?)

This workshop will focus on sharing ideas and tips for bringing about more supportive relationships with placement employers. In a participatory style, our trainers will facilitate discussions on good practice and thriving initiatives.

Widening Participation and Placements (WPP)
Thursday 25th May 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Discussions surrounding widening participation and the social mobility of our students are perennially on the agenda, nationally, in the HE sector. For those of us on the ground, what can we do, practically, to increase the take up of placements by students from a range of disadvantaged (or less well-served) backgrounds? How can we reach out to and better engage students with employability in a difficult economic climate and to support the development of their social capital? Furthermore, what suggestions can we share to engage employers in order to further these broad aims? In an interactive session of participation and dialogue, our course leaders will facilitate discussions on ways to support the employability of disadvantaged student groups and ways to potentially overcome challenges and barriers to participation in placements. Delegates will have the opportunity to network online, and to build their own toolkit of practical ideas and top tips to take away from the workshop.

Micro-credentials and Skills for the Future  (M-CSF)  
Wednesday 7th June 09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
There is increased emphasis by central and devolved governments on delivering holistic lifelong learning ecosystems and skills for the future economy. This policy landscape is prompting HEPs to explore the flexible provision of formal education to impact on a broader range of learners. Micro-credentials are emerging as one innovative solution to diversifying Higher Education provision. This session will explore how the Higher Education sector is starting to define micro-credentials in the UK and to present examples of how to develop micro-credentials that adhere to the principles outlined in the QAA (2022) Characteristic Statement on Micro-credentials.

Placements for Postgraduates (PGrad)
Wednesday 21st June  09:30 – 13:30   ONLINE
Placements are traditionally rooted at undergraduate level.  However, placements and internships are now more widely available and increasingly embedded in the employability agendas and strategies of HE providers. This interactive workshop will look at ways to engage those audiences – postgraduates (and to a small extent PhD students too) – as well as prospective employers. Challenges around this agenda will be explored too, and good practices and success stories shared, including practical tools to be taken away.  Our facilitators will create opportunities for discussion, for networking and for the sharing of good practice from all delegates’ institutions.

Your Career Planning and Progression (YCPP)
Thursday 6th July, 10:30-15:30 at Manchester Metropolitan University  Face to Face event  NEW
ASET Members £195 ASET non-members £395
There are so many options and varied roles within the field of Work based Learning and Placements, but placement professionals can find there is not always a clear career path or obvious routes for progression. Within this participative workshop we will explore career theories and strategies for career planning and management. We will hear individual career journeys, examine areas for further professional development, and consider career enhancement opportunities available to placement professionals.

Book Online 2023

Other Workshops in the ASET Portfolio include:

Developing Overseas Placements (DOP)
Graduate employers want students with multicultural awareness, flexibility, adaptability and who are robust enough to deal with business on a global scale. International placements enable students to develop these highly transferable employability skills yet Higher Education providers can find the development and management of these placements daunting. Topics such as insurance, health and safety and visas have the potential to detract from the positive benefits which such placements can offer the parties in these partnerships. Issues relating to visiting students whilst overseas on placements and managing students’ expectations are prevalent too. This highly interactive one-day workshop, led by experienced placement practitioners, will guide you through these areas and many more, with examples being shared and discussed. The day will also include sound networking opportunities with other delegates and course leaders, as well as the chance to share experiences and good practice in this field.

Innovation in Placement Assessment (IPA)
There’s more than one way to….assess a placement. From moving visuals, PDPs and journals, to written artefacts and peer assisted assessment, posters and presentations, our trainers will facilitate discussion and exploration around contemporary, relevant and authentic methods of assessment for placements and work based learning programmes. In this participative workshop, delegates will be invited to engage in discussion and dialogue on the topic including issues such as: what are you assessing? Who is involved in the assessment? Is it fit for purpose? How can/do you encourage your students to engage in reflective practice?The workshop trainers will encourage the sharing of ideas amongst delegates and will support networking within and beyond the session too.

Resilience and Placements (RAP)
In this practical and participatory session, the salient topic of resilience will be explored by our facilitators in the context of placements and work-based learning – and a world where the future of work is both changing and challenging. How does resilience (or a lack of it) manifest itself?  What can placement practitioners do to support the building of student resilience whilst they navigate the choppy waters of recruitment and selection?  What techniques can be put to use to strengthen resilience whilst students embark upon the start of their professional working lives on placement, in these difficult times?  How can we reflect upon our own capacity for resilience and how can we utilise this to inform our work in HE?  Drawing upon a range of perspectives which include growth mind-set theories, mental health and wellbeing support, ideas and tips will be shared and discussed to enable delegates to create a tool kit of suggestions and approaches to take back to their day-to-day roles.

Enhancing Engagement in Student Sessions (EESS)
Do your online and face to face student preparation sessions need a fresh injection of ideas or energy?

• Are you keen to increase student engagement within your placement workshops?
• Would you benefit from hearing about innovative ideas to liven up your delivery and generate more interaction in sessions?

ASET’s experienced workshop facilitators will help you enhance and increase student engagement in your workshops, seminars and preparation sessions, sharing a range of #ASETTopTips, practices, and tools. From high-tech to no-tech, synchronous or asynchronous, online or face to face delivery, working with small groups or large groups, in restricted or flexible spaces, the session will equip you with ideas for all these scenarios. The workshop will be, naturally, participative in style and we will encourage you to share your ideas with others too. You can expect to take away a rich array of ideas to use in your day-to-day practices at work.

Placement Learning through Freelancing and Entrepreneurship (PLFE)
This Workshop is a development of the Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, Enterprise Placements (FEEP) including new developments in assessing student achievement

• Do you have students who are expressing an interest in setting up and running their own businesses for their placement?
  
• Maybe they are already freelancing/operating a business alongside their studies and want to expand upon this for their placement?

This may be an initiative you have considered or were cautious about and are now keen to explore a solution more thoroughly as student expectation and the labour market for students and graduates changes. This interactive workshop will highlight some of the key points to be taken into account when approving and assessing these types of placements. We will showcase the Higher Education Provider support that could be provided to foster success for placement student entrepreneurs. Our facilitators will encourage discussion and dialogue and networking, as well as the exchange of ideas and good practice.

Virtual Placements (VP)
Virtual placements have been given an unexpected boost due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This mode of placement (project-based, working virtually, sometimes via a 3rd party provider) has been in existence for some time, but has not been widely “tried and tested” across the HE sector. What are the key considerations to factor into our thinking when looking at virtual placements as a viable option for our students? What works? What doesn’t? What are the benefits to this style of placement? Could they become a long-term feature for your work-based and placement learning programmes? And what have we learnt from remote working which can be beneficial when thinking about virtual placements? Practical ideas will be conveyed and discussed for the setting up of virtual placements, top tips shared, as well as thoughts on how you might handle the fostering of buy-in from various stakeholder groups. Our experienced workshop facilitators will encourage the sharing of insights from your institutions, as well as good practice examples of support for placement students who opt for (or who are required to take) a virtual placement. Delegates can expect a participative workshop with plentiful opportunities to connect with others taking part, and ideas to take away.

Engaging with SMEs, TSOs and Alternative Placement Providers (STAPP)
Not all students aspire to a placement with a global brand, household name or large organisation. For students studying some degrees, placements with an SME (small to medium sized organisation), in the 3rd sector, social enterprises and the like are attractive or, simply put, much more likely. However, such organisations may not have established placement programmes in place or opportunities readily available. They might not have considered hiring a student before, and so there can be real challenges when reaching out to and engaging with this type of employer (and engaging students with such opportunities too). This participative staff development workshop aims to explore and consider techniques for engaging with these organisations, ideas to attract students, how to support these placement providers, and what to do before, during and after placements. There will be plentiful opportunities to interact with other delegates during the workshop, and to hear about as well as share good practice examples from participants’ institutions.

Games! the fun way to engage and upskill students (Games)
The use of games (e.g. simulations and escape rooms, and serious play models such as improvisation and role play) in employers’ recruitment and selection methods can add an appealing and fun feel to aspects of the hiring process. These techniques can also feel new, unexpected and potentially daunting for some students when faced with them for the very first time.There is also great potential for games and serious play models to be utilised by placement, work-based learning and employability practitioners in preparation and support work with students too. In this highly interactive workshop (be prepared to participate in games and serious play activities), our workshop facilitators will discuss the role that games can play for hiring employers as well as practitioners, outlining some of the different types of games/serious play used and available. #ASETTopTips will be shared with participants, with creative ideas to take away in toolkits. This workshop is aimed at those with some or significant experience in placements and work-based learning, and who wish to develop their understanding of games and serious play.

Supporting Students with Disabilities on Placement (SSDP)
The aim of this interactive workshop is to provide advice and guidance on supporting students with disabilities to those working in work based learning and placement roles, as well as encouraging dialogue and discussion amongst delegates. The following topics will be covered: An overview of the Equality Act; how does it help students with disabilities with placements, and how can you help employers interpret and understand what the Act means? Our workshop facilitators will also discuss good pratice in assisting students with disclosure in the recruitment process – should they disclose or not? If so, how and when should they disclose? The topics of “reasonable adjustments” and unconscious bias will be covered too, in an interactive and lively session.

Book Online 2023

ASET Insights are 90-minute interactive sessions looking at broader, complementary professional development themes, led by our experienced Trustees.  Designed to provide short, impactful updates to your professional toolkit, ASET Insight themes are selected to enhance your confidence in practical skills that contribute to work success.

These 90-minute sessions are available for booking now.  £50 ASET members and £100 non-members.

General Information

• Workshops run from 9.30am-1.30pm, ASET Insights from 10 – 11.30am
• The delegate rates for online workshops are £125 for each attendee from an ASET member institution, and £275 for those from non-member institutions. All rates are inclusive of VAT. Fees include all materials
• Delegate rates for face to face workshops are  £195 for each attendee from an ASET member institutions, and £395 for those from non-member institutions. All rates are inclusive of VAT. Fees include all materials.
• The delegate rates for ASET Insights are £50 for each attendee from an ASET member institution, and £100 for those from non-member institutions. All rates are inclusive of VAT. Fees include all materials
• Once your booking has been received, you will receive email confirmation of your reservation and will be required to complete and return a pre-course assessment form
• Payment is due before the event. There are no refunds for cancellation, although substitutions will be accepted. Please see Terms and Conditions stated on booking form
• If you have a disability that means that you would get more from our events if we make some adjustments, please let us know how we can help

Bespoke Workshops 

• Have you recently restructured, centralised or decentralised your Placements Team?
• Do you have a specific training need you would like to address?
• Are you just too far away from ASET training venues ?

A bespoke training session can address all these issues and more. We are delighted to be able to offer Online Bespoke training for this academic year. Please contact the ASET Office to discuss your requirements either from the list of workshops below, or tailored to your needs. Sessions will be bookable according to availability on weekdays from 9.30 am – 1.30pm.

Some of the core topics we can offer include:

• An Introduction to Work Placement Management
• ASET and QAA Codes of Practice for Work-Based and Placement Learning
• Marketing for Placements
• Equal Opportunities for Work Placements
• Health and Safety for Work Placements
• IT Systems to Manage Placements
• Working with International Students
• International Placements
• Assessment and Accreditation of Placement Learning
• Disability, the DDA and Work Placements
• Foundation Degrees and Work-Based Learning
• Innovation in Placement Assessment
• Wikis, Blogs and Podcasts (New Placement Technologies)
• Reflective and Experiential Learning

Please feel free to suggest any other relevant areas for staff development training you would like.

Costs
ASET member institutions
Fees for online bespoke sessions are fixed at a daily rate of £100 per delegate (with a minimum fee of £1000 per day).

Non-member institutions
Fees for online bespoke sessions are set at a daily rate of £200 per delegate (with a minimum fee of £2000 per day).

If you would like to talk about ideas for a bespoke workshop to suit a specific requirement at your institution, contact Debbie at the ASET Office [email protected] .        

Book Online 2023