Cip frequently asked_questions_and_student_commentsx[1]
- 1. Criminology in the Professions Frequently asked questions and student comments: The job I want to do in future is not covered by the practitioner lectures on the module. Answer: Clearly it would be impossible to cover every career that every single student is interested in on this module. However the university careers service is constantly inviting practitioners onto campus, so it is important that you join the careers/opportunities community on Blackboard which will alert you to these. Having said this, all organisations who recruit graduates look for some of the same types of competences and skills from their employees, so you can learn a lot from any of the practitioners invited in to speak to you, even if you are not interested in working in their area. Why can’t we do work placements instead of the seminars? Answer: Work placements have a number of problems. It is particularly difficult to organise large numbers of placements that give equality of opportunity to everyone and are of equal value, which is significant when you are being assessed on the work for your degree. Instead we prefer to give all students as similar an experience as possible by keeping the module teaching and learning within the university curriculum. There are considerable opportunities however to undertake work experience, voluntary placements and join the employer mentoring scheme, external to the curriculum, so look out for emails and announcements on Blackboard for these and make sure you join the careers/opportunities community so that you get regular updates. What has this module to do with criminology? Answer: All academic university degrees are expected to equip graduates with transferable skills within the context of the subject matter of the course. This module provides a link between the academic study of criminology and appropriate graduate skills. You are therefore required to explore
- 2. Criminology in the Professions professional opportunities, recruitment and selection methods of organisations related to criminological study and come to an understanding about how theoretical, political and practical reflection is useful in your personal professional development. Ultimately ‘Crime’ is defined and policed by professionals. Understanding the way that professionals within the CJS and beyond, work, how they are affected by organisational cultures as well as national and local politics is fundamental in you understandingboth criminology as a discipline, and the crime industry as a potential workplace. The reflection required in this module should not only help you plan for the future, but should also help you understand more about how practitioners and organisations affect the criminological project. The career plan appears far too basic and pointless Answer: If you are thinking this way, you perhaps are not doing the work correctly. The career plan is a proper ‘informed’ piece of academic work and means that you must use external sources to inform your discussions. Tutors expect to see a reasonable bibliography that specifically relates to your work; otherwise you will be in danger of failing this assignment. It is acceptable that many of the sources are likely to be from the internet, but you do need to make sure that you believe them to be valid. We also expect to see reference to theoretical underpinnings with the best plans reflecting on things like career anchors, DOT’S analysis, managerialism, organisational culture, as well as the political context of any profession. These things are all very relevant, because all careers, courses, training and other potential plans are directly affected by the socio- economic and political context of the country. Knowing this means that you can be realistic about how to achieve what you want, and what you are going to have to do to realise your ambitions.
- 3. Criminology in the Professions Career planning should not be marked as not all students are interested in practitioner roles If you haven’t got a clue what to do, don’t want to go into a ‘criminological job’, want to travel, volunteer or even start your own business, it is just as important to plan your future. So called ‘gap years’ are best when they have been planned effectively and there are lots of organisations offering help with this type of experience, but you need to be careful about which are genuine and offer you good (safe) placements, advice and support etc. Not knowing what to do is very common, in fact around a quarter of last years students, didn’t know what they wanted to do. It helps however if you know where you can get information or help from, or what sort of things are actually out there. Even coming to some conclusions about what you don’t want to do is a valuable lesson learnt! Post graduate study is a good option for some people, but you will need to identify both what courses you might be interested in and how you might finance this. Some courses expect you to have particular competences or grades, and most will have deadlines for applications. Even if you just want to go and do ‘any job’ to get some money together whilst you think about the future, planning this can make the difference between obtaining work or not given the current political circumstances. You will often find that the ‘any job’ type of job has management potential for those who want it, but it’s about knowing what is available on any particular organisation. Whilst a small number of students don’t think that doing a career plan should be part of the course or marked, our research suggests that once they get into it, the vast majority of students value the chance to have time within the curriculum to reflect on their future. 10% for participation attendance and the presentations is not enough. Answer: Whilst 10% seems a small proportion of the marks, because you can score 100% for this section it can make a significant difference to your marks. A large number of students last year gained a full class on their written work specifically due to scoring 100% on their participation mark.
- 4. Criminology in the Professions This resulted in adding an extra 10 marks to the grade that they gained for the written work; therefore the attendance mark is very valuable. I do not see the point in leading seminars as I have no interest in teaching, and staff are paid to teach us. Answer: When you attend university, it is expected that you will not only gain subject knowledge, but that you will also gain experiences and skills that are transferable to life beyond university. The skills involved in leading seminars have application beyond teaching to other graduate types of jobs that involve anything from presentation skills to running a successful meeting. The teaching methods at university are very different to those in school. If staff taught you everything that you needed to know, you would not develop the ability to learn for yourself which is a fundamental graduate skill. Criminology is an academic degree which means that we do not teach you the skills to do a specific job. The whole degree course is about providing you with opportunities to develop and enhance your knowledge about the discipline but also to encourage you to develop transferable skills that are valued by employers. The emphasis is on you personally developing the intellectual tools which you can transfer to other situations, rather than staff teaching these to you. Employers expect graduates to have a number of transferable skills including good presentation skills, be self starters, have the ability to research and critically solve problems as well as the ability to put together analytical and informed arguments. This and other modules on your course use the disciplinary knowledge within criminology to help you develop skills, which will be valuable to your future whatever you decide to do. So… your career plan should reflect what you really want to do after university looking at… 'Where am I now' could include a reflection on your current skills base, including analysing the skills and competences that you are gaining from your degree, other education experiences of note as well as work experience,
- 5. Criminology in the Professions volunteering, and other skills/interests etc. Useful sources could be module and degree descriptors from the university sites, internet sites or other discourses for any organisation that you have worked or volunteered for; the University of Lincoln careers site; sports and recreation sites etc. The 'where do I want to be' could look at jobs, post grad education, volunteering, travelling, starting a business, training, or even, where 'you' might get inspiration or information about what might be available if you haven’t a clue. Use could be made of reflective techniques such as ‘career anchors’ or a DOTS analysis which might help you come to some conclusions about what you are interested in doing. You should make a career planning interview with our careers professionals and get them to help you do this, and you might want to look at both long and short term plans. The main issue here is to look at what there is out there, think about what might appeal to you and what these opportunities require in terms of competences. Useful sources would include websites from specific organisations, professions and educational institutes; academic sources on specific organisations, or services eg Police, Prisons, education, public sector; academic sources on theoretical, socio- economic and political issues such as organisational cultures, managerialism, performance indicators; conservativism, neo-liberalism, government policy etc; career planning tools such as ‘career anchors’ etc. The 'How do I get there' is about matching the skills that you have identified to the plans that you are developing. In this section you will be expected to both identify what competences and experiences you have that the organisations you are interested in require, and if you don't have the required skills and competences, how are going to develop these. Useful sources again would be a mix of those stated in the first two sections.