Placement is an important part of many courses. Important skills are learnt and more importantly practiced. It is also an opportunity to develop and consolidate interpersonal skills in the workplace context.

This page is designed to highlight the experiences of other students on placement and provide some useful tips on how to make the most of the (your) experience.

The first day

• Ring your placement before you start to confirm the time/date you will be expected to be there and the name of your supervisor or person you will need to ask for on arrival.
• Ensure you arrive on time.
• Take a notebook, as well as any other material you may need. Use your notebook to write down any relevant information/ names you need to remember. – you will get a lot of new information on the first few days.

Achieving the most from your placement

• Get off to a good start - greeting colleagues in the workplace is important.
• Look for friends/allies who can support you; be they other students or staff.
• Be clear about what the expectations are from the university regarding your placement, how you are going to be assessed and what you need to do to demonstrate that you have met the requirements.
• Remember you are a student and are there to learn. You are not expected to know everything! Allow yourself time to learn and don’t expect yourself to know everything on the first day and do everything perfectly.
• Have realistic expectations - learning is a career long process of development. You are not expected to be perfect. You are expected to understand requirements, acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, work hard and develop a plan to build skills in areas that need it. Placement is the beginning of a process that is carried through to the paid workplace as part of life long learning.
• Placements are also a good opportunity to learn about workplace dynamics. Sometimes the culture of the place will have a big impact on your experience and it can be good as a student to observe how an organisation runs.
• Be critically observant - WATCH and LISTEN but don’t necessarily comment! - not everything that happens on placement goes to plan or expectations.
• Ask questions of yourself:

• What did I do well?
• What could be improved?
• What needs to happen to make the required changes?
• Who can help me?

• Being seen to be confident is important. That doesn’t mean knowing everything and not making mistakes. It does mean taking responsibility and acknowledging the mistakes and getting on with finding solutions.
• Be helpful – look for the little extras you can do instead of waiting to be directed to action.
• Remember that the people you are working with on placement could end up being your colleagues in the future, or provide a reference. Showing enthusiasm and interest may help with job prospects after your graduation.
• Talk to trusted allies to debrief when issues arise that surprise you. The allies may be someone on the placement like another student, member of staff, uni supervisor or someone removed from the workplace like a counsellor at uni.
• The uni counsellors can be very helpful and give confidential support and advice. The help can include: clarifying ideas, getting independent feedback, problem solving, affirmation, or working through issues with supervision.

Getting constructive feedback

Learning to deal constructively with feedback is a really important aspect of any workplace and especially on placement.                                   

The most important relationship you have will be with your supervisor.

In an ideal world the supervisor’s job is to model good practice, support your learning and provide constructive feedback. They are looking for skills and knowledge development over the course of your placement. Your job is to action the feedback and to achieve the most positive appraisal you can.

What can you do?

• Listen actively. Ask for clear specific feedback or use questions to clarify if you are unclear.
• Ask for regular feedback and avoid surprises. Supervisors may arrange for weekly meetings to discuss your progress and give feedback.  Ask you supervisor about this at the beginning of your placement.
• See yourself as a partner with your supervisor; they do want you to do well!
• Work hard to avoid becoming defensive/ personalising feedback.  Sometimes feedback can feel and sound personal. That is when it is good to ask questions or clarify with the supervisor what they have said.  Resist any tendency to want to dismiss criticism or retaliate with comments like “it’s not my fault…” or “ you never told me…”
• Acknowledge feedback, especially any valid points.
• Think about what you can do yourself and talk through the ideas with the supervisor. It isn’t about getting it 100% right, so much as taking responsibility and thinking about what you can do to improve.
  

Tips from supervisors

• 'To get good feedback – do self-assessment/evaluation and then ask specific questions:

• Did this work…?
• What alternatives could I use…?
• Can you suggest how I …?'

• 'Don’t take it personally. It’s not personal it’s professional.'

• 'I know it’s hard as a student to speak up if things aren’t working with your supervisor. But it’s just as much your responsibility to speak up because in the end you are the one being assessed.' 

Tips from students

'You really have to give yourself some thinking time and come back and talk to you supervisor when you are clearer about how you feel and where you stand.'

'Think about:

• What have I improved on?
• What am I doing well?
• What is it that I am concerned about?
• What don’t I understand?
• What am I having difficulty with?
• What am I going to do?'

'View the place as a potential place of employment and take everything on board.'

Strategies

Keep a balance on placement remembering to:

• maintain good health
  
• get regular sleep
  
• eat well and drink plenty of water
• get some exercise
• maintain your social life: Have some fun! Hang out with people enjoying what they are doing. Life does not have to stop because you are on placement. If you allow some time to unwind and do things that you enjoy you will find that you will become more productive.