Handbook

Placement proposal:

• Students will organise their own work experience placement with guidance and support from the subject team. Credit for prior recent experience may be recognised and may lead to subject credit at the discretion of the Subject Coordinator, based on evidence from the student and the employer.
• Students will need to complete and submit a proposal form to the Subject Coordinator for approval prior to commencing their work experience. Forms will be assessed for demonstration of adequate communication with the potential employer, suitability of planned laboratory activities and adequate consideration of OHS and logistical requirements of the placement.
• The work experience must be comprised of 160 hours of laboratory work (excluding work place introduction and progress meetings) which can be undertaken as a block or spread out over a longer period. The proposal needs to make clear how the student plans to accumulate those 160 hours and this will need to be approved by the Subject Coordinator and the employer. The work experience may be carried out at two different organisations, attending a minimum of 2 weeks in each organisation, provided that the work done in each is sufficiently different.

Work experience:

• The work undertaken must be of a standard at least equivalent to that which would be undertaken in undergraduate second and third year laboratories. Students will be encouraged to build on skills developed in CHM213 and CHM321 and completion of these two subjects prior to placement is required to ensure that the student has sufficient skills and knowledge of laboratory safety to complete the placement at a satisfactory level.
• The work experience must either involve some aspect of a research project, or include experience with a wide range of advanced laboratory techniques. Where a placement is judged to contain insufficient research experience or diversity of work, the student may be required to complete two shorter placements rather than one long one.
• The work experience must provide opportunity for the student to critically assess new skills that they have developed and laboratory practices they have been exposed to.
• The work undertaken may include handling of confidential data, in which case the student will need to request approval from the employer during the proposal stage for the Subject Coordinator to have sufficient information to be able to assess the student's work experience.
• The students will be required to keep a log of their daily activities and report on their overall placement experience.