Your assessment requires you to submit an Individual Portfolio consisting of the five (5) elements outlined below. Each element should be clearly identified within your portfolio as a separate section.
1. Placement Details
2. Placement Objectives
3. Weekly Journals
4. Employer Evaluation
Your portfolio is also required to be professionally presented and include an Introduction, Table of Contents and Summary.

1. Placement Details

Include the tables shown below to provide information about your placement organisation and supervisor details. In addition to this information, you should provide a description of your role, and a diagram indicating how your role fits into the organisation structure.

Organisation Details
Organisation
Address
Telephone
Start Date
Completion Date

Supervisor Details
Name
Position
Email
Telephone

2. Placement Objectives
You are required to specify at least four (4) Placement Objectives and prepare a brief plan for achieving each objective.
In the table below, complete the month timeline and shade the relevant cells to define your planned completion of each objective.

For each objective, describe what you are hoping to achieve, and provide a brief outline of the steps you plan to undertake in order to successfully complete the objective.

The requirement to set workplace objectives allows you to maximise your learning while on placement. While your supervisor will be proactive in assisting you to learn from your experience, you also need to take ownership of your learning and discuss with them what you are hoping to achieve on your placement. The placement objectives allow you and your supervisor to have a common understanding of each other’s expectations for the work placement period.

Some objectives will come directly from your supervisor’s requirements regarding the work they need you to perform, but you should also have some objectives that relate to what you want to achieve from the placement: these latter objectives will come from your desire to learn. You should assess the potential knowledge and skills that can be obtained from the work placement and consider setting these as objectives.
Some of your considerations when formulating your objectives should include:

• Your current placement is an opportunity to work in a unique type of industry that you may not experience in future. What skills can you obtain here that you may not get a chance to obtain later in your career?
• What types of skills and knowledge are you passionate about exploring? You may well look back on the placement as an opportunity to obtain certain knowledge and skills, but you didn’t pursue them.
• What skills are needed in this industry or role? What skills and knowledge does your supervisor have? Can you seek to obtain these skills as an objective while you are on placement.
• Discussing of objectives and plans with your supervisor will assist you in “managing upwards” and will ensure you are both working towards a common goal for your placement.

Objective Descriptions
To describe each objective, think about how the objective may be related to one or more of the following aspects:

Specific to your role with an observable outcome and measurement. For example: ”By 30 March I will be able to successfully apply project planning and estimation practices to develop customer proposals. This objective will be successfully completed if I can independently develop proposals for two customer opportunities.”

• Broad in nature. For example: “By the end of my placement, I will have an understanding of the construction industry whereby I am able to enter into knowledgeable discussions with industry personnel”. Using this as an objective also encourages you to discuss with your supervisor the possibility of your being exposed to various aspects of this industry.
• Transferable skills. These will be relevant to your role, will enable you to improve your knowledge and increase your value when you apply for other positions. Examples include: being able to use a specific design tool; managing an assigned project; applying safety systems and processes, etc.
• Professional skills. Finally, placement objectives may involve improvements your current professional skillset, such as written and verbal communications with customers, technical report writing, leadership in small teams, time management skills etc.

3. Weekly Journals
You are required to include twenty-four (24) weeks of weekly journals, using the supplied template.

The weekly journal is a record of what work you have undertaken and is a vehicle for reflective thought. It provides you with a reason to discuss your week with your supervisor and can be used as the tool to help you manage your attainment of your placement objectives. There are three sections in the journal:

3.1 Activities and Experiences

The first section develops the routine of regularly recording what you have done for the week. As an engineer, you will be expected to have this discipline. This section should be a fairly direct summary of activities for the week. In a reflective concept of “what, so what, what now”, this is the “what” element. You are required to map your activities against relevant elements of the Engineers Australia Stage 2 Competency Standards.

3.2 Reflections
The second section develops the practice of reflecting on your work to help you to become a reflective engineer who reviews their work and looks for improvement. This is the “so what” and “what now” element of reflection. Examples might include:

• how being involved in the activity might influence the your career goals
• how things could be done better - opportunities for improvement or savings
• any successes you have had, and satisfaction with your efforts.

3.3 Learning Experience Rating
The third section requires you to rate your learning experience for the week so you can discuss this with your supervisor.

Note that the supervisor’s signature is required. The signature is not just for verification of your journal. The requirement of a signature provides you with an opportunity to discuss your week with your supervisor. It gives you the opportunity to manage your placement, where you can take the opportunity to discuss your progress towards your placement objectives. Ensure your journals signed on a regular basis and take this opportunity to communicate with your supervisor.

4. Employer Evaluation
An evaluation form is to be completed by your supervisor in order to assess your overall performance over the course of your work placement. The Employer Evaluation is typically undertaken by your supervisor in consultation you, and is required to be signed off.

You should ensure that you schedule a time with your supervisor prior to completion of your work placement in order to complete the evaluation. The supervisor’s evaluation will be valuable for you to self-evaluate and reflect on your industry work experience in the following section.

5. Self-Evaluation and Reflection
You are required to provide a self-evaluation and reflection on your work placement experience. Your self-evaluation should consider the following aspects of your work experience:

Placement Objectives

• Were your initial work placement objectives relevant and achievable? Were you able to put in place a feasible plan to achieve those objectives, and did anything change during your work placement that required a revision of your objectives or your plan.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Reviewing your weekly journals and progress report, what new aspects of engineering were you exposed to, and did you learn new skills and knowledge. Note this may encompass not only technical skills and knowledge, but professional and social aspects of your work experience.

Challenges

• Outline two instances during your placement where you felt that you were challenged by the work assigned to you, or perhaps a situation that was unfamiliar to you, or put you out of your comfort zone. How did you respond, and what did you learn – would you do something differently the next time around to improve your performance.

Growth

• Summarise your reflection by assessing how the experience has impacted your technical, professional and social development. Did your employer’s evaluation provide you with feedback that caused a positive or negative reaction? Did the work placement provide you with feedback on how you may like to pursue your specialization or your career? How did you feel your experience allowed you to develop as a student engineer, in terms of progress toward Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies.
  
  

Portfolio is professionally presented with an Introduction, Table of Contents and Summary. The required five sections are included in the portfolio.
Twenty-four (24) weekly journals are included. Each weekly journal contains:
- A professional recording of tasks and activities completed for the week.
- Reflection on the work activities, including challenges, improvements and influences.
- Completed learning experience rating
- Supervisor sign-off.
Employer evaluation form is completed and signed off.
Self-Evaluation and Reflection section is complete and includes reference to:
- Assessment on achievement of Placement Objectives
- Skills and Knowledge assessment, addressing technical, professional and social aspects
- Two (2) work placement challenges are documented, described and self-assessed.
- Summary of personal growth encompassing technical, professional and social development.