Preparing for a Professional Career

Module code and title: Preparing for a Professional Career
Assignment No. and type: Coursework 1500 words

Assignment task
This assignment requires you to assess ethical business issues and challenges within the global business environment linking to corporate social responsibility and professionalism, and to reflect on your learning from the module and produce a CPD plan.

This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes:
LO 1 Locate and evaluate resources relating to business codes of doing business in a moral and ethical way;
LO 2 Explore an aspect of professional practice in more depth;
LO 3 Reflect on your understanding of the core elements of operating in a professional way;
LO 4 Construct a CPD plan.

Task requirements

OVERVIEW

Part A – Report, 1,000 words
A detailed report that examines a contemporary ethical issue within the global business environment and assess the likely impact of implementing a code of conduct and support from Governing Bodies.

Part B – CPD Plan, 500 Words
Attached as an appendix to the report, a reflective continuous development plan that identifies learning from the module and how it will be implemented to aid in your studies and future career.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TASK – WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DO?

Part A – Report, 1000-word document

Choose one contemporary ethical challenge facing the global business environment today from the module, and prepare a report that;

1. Introduces and defines the issue/challenge chosen (for example CSR, Corporate Governance, Sustainability, Environment, Corruption, Human Rights, Working Conditions; give a definition and examples of how the issue/challenge affects companies and how companies affect the issue both positively and negatively e.g. what are companies doing to help eradicate the issue?, how are companies adding to the problem?)
2. Explains the codes of conduct that can assist in resolving / addressing the issue
(using relevant Codes of Conduct from your research, explain what the Code suggests to do to improve the situation for both a company, communities and individuals).
3. Discusses the support and guidance available from the relevant Professional Bodies (identify which Professional Body Organisation(s) is best suited to aiding companies deal with the issue you have chosen, and explain why they are the most suitable organisation, you will also need to explain the support and advice that they offer organisations).
4. Concludes with an assessment of the likely impact both the support and codes of conduct could have on the issue (identify the most likely positive and negative impacts that the Code of Conduct and Professional Body support can have on the issue from the perspective of the community and the company).

Part B – CPD Plan 500 Words (Appendices)
Upon completion of the report, complete the attached template for a CPD plan, ensuring that you give details of what you have learnt from the module, how your learning will impact further studies and future career, and create SMART objectives to action the learning that has taken place with regards to business ethics.

You must reference all information used in the report, using the Harvard Referencing Guide.

See attached grid for grade descriptors.

Referencing and research requirements
Please reference your work according to the Harvard style; you can access guidance on this here: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/academic/referencing/Harvard

How your work will be assessed
Your work will be assessed on the extent to which it demonstrates your achievement of the stated learning outcomes for this assignment (see above) and against other key criteria, as defined in the University’s institutional grading descriptors. If it is appropriate to the format of your assignment and your subject area, a proportion of your marks will also depend upon your use of academic referencing conventions.

This assignment will be marked according to the grading descriptors for Level 3

Submission details

This assignment should be submitted electronically via Moodle (module tutors will discuss this process with you during class time).

• Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format (Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, or PDF are the most widely used; Google Docs is also accepted). Your file must also contain at least 20 words of text, consist of fewer than 400 pages and be less than 40MB in size.

CPD PLAN
What do I want to learn?
What will I do to achieve this?
What resources or support will I need?
What is my success criteria?

(Identify topics of learning from module) (Detail what you have learnt about the topic) (identify how learning will assist in future studies and career) (SMART target identifying how learning will be implemented)

Instruction to students:
• Prior to final submission delete the blue highlighted instructions row from the table.
• Use as many additional pages as needed.
• CPD Plan is worth 25% of overall mark

Preparing for a Professional Career