Online Staff Development Programme

COVID-19
The safety and well being of our members and staff continues to be our highest priority. We are adhering to the UK government and Public Health England advice concerning Covid-19, and at this point have decided to continue to deliver support and training to our members online.

ASETStaysOnline

The ASET Trustees and Staff team are dedicated to supporting members in your daily practice. In these difficult times we are planning a range of accessible new events to help you maintain CPD for you and your team. Alongside our sector leading programme of workshops we are introducing a new series of events to help you and your team navigate a pathway through these unprecedented times.

Staff Development Workshops
We are delighted to announce we will be continuing with our programme of Staff Development Workshops Online for the foreseeable future. Our Autumn programme is now finalised and open for bookings. We will continue to deliver these sessions via the Zoom platform. Sessions will run from  9.30am – 1.30pm each day. Course content has been adjusted to reflect changes in working practices – working from home/remotely.

Workshops can be booked now at the discounted price:  £125 ASET members and £275 non-members.

ASET Trustees on…
A companion offer for our staff development workshops, the ASET Trustees on… series offers 90-minute interactive insights into broader, complementary professional development themes, led by our experienced Trustees.  Designed to provide short, impactful updates to your professional toolkit, ASET Trustees on… themes are selected to enhance your confidence in practical skills that contribute to work success.

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

2020  Online Staff Development Programme

Book Online 2020

Session A – Project Management for Placements
Begin with the end in mind – seems such a simple phrase, but it is the key to effective project management. In this session we will explore the key elements needed to drive any project from idea to completion.  We will explore why projects fail and the tools for success.

Session B – Having Difficult Conversations/Influencing Stakeholders
Difficult conversations can stem from the need to give constructive feedback, respond to a misunderstanding or clarify/resolve a negative situation, or can stem from factors affecting participant’s emotions. Taking a structured approach takes the pressure off and steers you through these conversations more easily. This session explores common, easy-to-remember models and how to apply them, with time to prepare your own example of each to take away and practice.

Session C – Communications and Effective Listening
In our incredibly busy and increasingly online lives, we are bombarded by information. In this session we will explore how to drown out the confusion, how to be heard through effective communication techniques, and how to listen to the important things through all that noise.

Autumn 2020

An Introduction to Work Placement Management (IWPM)
Tuesday 29th September (9.30-1.30)       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 problems 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 wanting a refresher course. This session is designed to introduce all the fundamental aspects of working in the 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.
Enhancing Engagement in Student Sessions (EESS)
Wednesday 14th October (9.30-1.30)       Online
Do your 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 top tips, practices, and tools.  From high-tech to no-tech, working with small groups or large groups, in restricted or flexible spaces the day 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.
Risk Assessment and Due Diligence (RADD)
Thursday 29th October (9.30-1.30)       Online
Discussions across the HE sector have raised concerns about managing the risk assessment and due diligence processes associated with placement provision in Higher Education.
• Are you confident in your risk assessment processes before placement?
• Do you know what you should be doing in terms of due diligence?
• Do you realise the extent of the university’s legal liability for all of this?
The ASET Good Practice Guide for Health and Safety for Student Placements is part of a series of ASET Good Practice Guides including the ASET Good Practice Guide for Work Based and Placement Learning in Higher Education, which was designed to support practitioners in meeting the expectations of the QAA Quality Code. This workshop will explain the philosophy behind both sets of guidance, particularly focusing on establishing manageable, proportionate and appropriate risk assessment and due diligence processes for placement provision. It is aimed at university staff who work with student placements/work experience, whether new to the position or experienced, whether academic or administrative, wanting a refresher and update.
Promoting Placements (PP)
Wednesday 11th November (9.30-1.30)       Online
Who do you need to promote placements to? Current students? Prospective students (and their parents)? Local, SMEs as well as global multinationals? Academic colleagues? 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 leaders will also facilitate discussions around innovative approaches to promoting placements.
Employer Engagement (EE)
Tuesday 17th November (9.30-1.30)       Online
Employers, providers, placement hosts – call them what you like, we need them. 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 staff development 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.
Innovation in Placement Assessment (IPA)
Thursday 3rd December (9.30-1.30)       Online
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)
Tuesday 15th December (9.30-1.30)       Online
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 changing. 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?  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 including mental health and growth mind-set theories, ideas 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.
  

General Information

• • Workshops run from 9.30am-1.30pm

• • The delegate rates for workshops are £125 for each attendee from ASET member institutions, and £275 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 aset@asetonline.org .