Professional Orientation

Admission requirements

This course is only available for students in the BA Urban Studies programme.

Description

The BA Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary programme with expertise from a wide araay of academic fields. This interdisciplinarity offers numerous options when it comes to life after your graduate. The second year of the programme is the ideal time for students to orienting themselves to the job market and differentiate themselves from other candidates. For all these options to work to your advantage, it is important that you personally take conscious steps in this area. The outline of the second year means you will be making important choices that can influence the rest of your programme and career (such as specialisation courses, electives, and the possibility of a minor).

The Professional Orientation course will help you in making these choices. We do not do this by giving study information (you already receive this via other channels) but instead by helping you to develop skills to actively shape your career. You will learn to formulate personal goals and to translate them into concrete activities. You will also learn to reflect on these activities and, if necessary, adjust your goals. Orienting on your career does not end after this course – it is a lifelong process. In this course, you will learn how to continue giving shape to this process, even after the end of the course.

The course consists of lectures and assignemts focusing on a number of career-related
questions:

• Career perspectives and orientation on the professional field: How does a career develop?

• What does the professional field involve? What does an Urban Studies graduate actually do?

• What opportunities are there for me in the professional field? Where am I at the moment?

• How can I investigate my opportunities?

• What are my career and lifestyle preferences?

• What will be expected of me in the professional field?

• How can I best utilise my academic background in practice? What will my role in my future professional field be?

Course objectives

General learning outcomes

See tab Additional information for the overview of the programme's general learning outcomes. In the assessment methods below is outlined which general learning outcome will be tested through which method.

Course objectives, pertaining to this course

• 1) Students will learn about the importance of timely career orientation

• 2) Students will learn how to orient themselves on their future career, taking into account their own interests, values and skills

• 3) Students will acquire scientific knowledge and insights regarding career development

• 4) Students will learn about the importance of problem-solving skills

• 5) Students will acquire insights on their future career wishes, allowing them to make better choices during their remaining studies

Timetable

The timetable is available on the Urban Studies website

Mode of instruction

• Lecture

• Work group (compulsory attendance)
  This means that students have to attend every session of the course. If a student is unable to attend a workgroup, they should inform the lecturer in advance, providing a valid reason for absence. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If they are absent from a workgroup without a valid reason, they can be excluded from the final exam in the course.

Course Load

Total course load for this course is 5 EC (1 EC equals 28 hours), which equals 140 hours, broken down by:

• Attending lectures and work groups: 24

• Attending career event: 4

• Completing assignment(s) and preparing for classes: 112

Assessment method

Assessment

• Participation during work groups
  -measured course specific objectives: 1-5

• Presentations during working groups
  -measured programme's general learning outcomes: 18
  -measured course specific objectives: 1, 2, 5

• Completing polls/questionnaires

• Written assignments
  -measured programme's general learning outcomes: 18, 27
  -measured course specific objectives: 2-5

Weighing

End grade

To successfully complete the course, please take note of the following:

• The end grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written assignments must always be sufficient.

• Please note that if the grade for the written assignments is lower than 5.50, you will not pass the course, regardless of the grade for the other assessment components.

Resit

If the end grade is insufficient (lower than a 6.0), or the grade for the written assignments is lower than 5.5, there is a possibility of submitting an improved version of the insufficient assignments replacing the previous written assignments grade. The deadline for resubmission is 10 days after receiving the grade for the written assignments. No resit for the participation grade and/or completing polls and/or presentation is possible.

Faculty regulations concerning participation in resits are listed in article 4.1 of the Faculty Course and Examination Regulations.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for:

• Filling in questionnaires/polls online

• Submitting written assignments

Reading list

The course syllabus (which will be distributed through Blackboard provides an overview of required readings (articles to be downloaded by the students themselves).

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Dr. K. Lubina

Remarks

None.