Getting the most out of your placement journal, the reflective record that turns work-experience tasks into evidence of your growing skills.
Why keep a placement journal?
Your placement journal is more than a diary of events. Thinking about your experiences helps you recognise the valuable skills you can offer to impress future employers and universities. What's in it for you:
- Know your skills — identify and describe the new skills and abilities you are gaining, from technical know-how to teamwork and communication.
- Get better at learning — reflection is a crucial life skill that helps you learn and adapt in any situation.
- Be more confident — track your progress and see how you have overcome challenges, for a real confidence boost in the workplace.
- Move towards goals — evidence your progression towards your Placement Learning Objective targets.
Steps to a great reflection
A little reflection transforms a simple list of tasks into a powerful story of growth and learning.
A basic entry: “Today I answered phones and did some filing. I also went to a team meeting.”
A reflective entry:
- What happened? Today I answered phones, filed some documents, and sat in on a project meeting.
- How I felt: I was nervous at first, but more confident after a few calls. The meeting was really interesting.
- What I learnt: Clear communication is a vital skill, and how different roles collaborate on a single project.
- What I would change: Next time I could get more involved and contribute to the meeting, as I had ideas.
- What's next? I'm going to work on my professional communication and find out about other roles in the team.
Stuck for ideas? Prompts to get you started
- What was the most important thing that happened today?
- What have you done to evidence progression towards your Placement Learning Objective targets?
- Has this changed your mind about your career?
To add your Placement Learning Journal, head to www.navigate.uk.com/traininghub.
Source poster attached below.
