Graduate employers look for high calibre personnel with the necessary skills and knowledge to operate in a competitive marketplace. Increasingly, employers expect students to have some work experience by the time they graduate. The MA in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration) internship is a valuable opportunity for students to develop the range of demonstrable, professional and transferable skills consistently sought in the workplace. The objective of this module is to assist students in the development of key career management skills in preparation for their internship by identifying their talents and transforming these into active strengths to develop their human capital and facilitate greater employability and subsequent career development. The module will enable students to reflect upon their learning styles and develop important transferable skills and competencies appropriate for personal development, employability, and contribution to society and community. Niche workshops will provide customized, programme specific skills required at a Masters level. The key aims of the module are to increase and enhance the ability of the student to operate in an independent and self-directed manner leading to greater appreciation of the needs, drivers and opportunities in the employment market.

Material is presented by topic: - Understanding the work environment - Employer expectations and student experiences - Assessing skills, motivation, personality style - Preparing for the internship selection process - Practical experience in applications and interviews - Setting learning objectives for the internship.

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: - Identify and understand the key skills required in a professional environment - Review the requirements of the selection and recruitment process; - Identify personality preferences/profiles through self-assessment. - Critically evaluate and map personal skillset and interests to those required for specific roles and careers. - Differentiate between various recruitment and assessment techniques including the role of psychometric testing. - Demonstrate suitability for roles through outlining skills and experience via effective applications, CVs and Cover Letters. - Critically evaluate and assess their performance at each stage of the recruitment process.

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: - Relate skills, experience and values to career choice - Participate in team-working activities - Demonstrate communication skills on application forms - Express why and how they will bring value to an employer. - Compare their personal skillset with that required by each targeted employers. - Convince potential employers of their suitability for a particular role.

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The module has been customised for the specific class group and uses a combination of online resources and interactive classroom sessions, as well as input from employers, students and recent graduates. Students will research employers and employment opportunities available to them for the student internship and identify key types of roles/specific job descriptions for each employer. Students will then critically assess their skills against those required by their potential employer. These classroom sessions will be highly interactive and incorporate experiential exercises. This is in line with providing students with a distinctive learning experience that are cognisant of the needs of the employment market and the need to focus on transferable skills and career orientations.