During this unit you will further prepare yourself for professional practice by exploring professional practice models and your readiness to apply them. As a result of this exploration you will develop a portfolio including:

• Part A - Professional Profile (Resume + LinkedIn) (5%)
• Part B - Professional Development Reflection and Plan (15%)
  
• Part C - Critique of the Body of Knowledge for OHS Professionals (10%)

Each of these tasks is designed to prepare you for your ongoing employment and development after you complete your Bachelor of OHS.

You must follow the detailed instructions for each task provided on the Moodle site. Support and practice opportunities will be available in lectures and tutorials during the term for each of the Part A, Part B and Part C activities.

Part A - Professional Profile (Resume + LinkedIn) (5%)

Prepare or update your professional resume and your LinkedIn site. These are key marketing tools when you are looking for employment, so this task is also part of your preparation for employment.

Resume and LinkedIn information and instruction will be included in Lectures and Tutorials. Resume drafts &/or LinkedIn Profiles can be submitted to the Unit Coordinator for review up to and including Week 5.

Referees are requested on your resume.

You will submit a Word or PDF version of your resume and a link to your LinkedIn Profile.

Part B - Professional Development Reflection and Plan (15%)

Learning as an OHS professional does not stop at the end of your Bachelor of OHS. The field of safety science is dynamic and changing to meet the risks and needs of the world around us as well as incorporating newly developed knowledge and approaches. As part of your professional practice it is important to continually reflect on your professional development. Such reflections should include:

• identifying skills gaps and working out ways to fill them
• understanding and recognising emerging trends in the discipline to maintain your currency of knowledge
• identifying how you can improve as a professional
• considering how different professionals approach certain issues and whether that approach could be improved in the light of new safety science knowledge and evidence.

Reflecting on and guiding your own development in this way is an essential aspect of your ongoing professional development and will form the basis of your ongoing professional practice.

To complete Part B of this portfolio, you will need to follow detailed instructions on Moodle to:

1. Critically reflect on your preparedness as an OHS professional. You will engage with the OHS Body of Knowledge (BoK) as well as international capability criteria (5%).
2. Develop a further career development plan. This will involve reviewing the current needs of safety professionals as advertised in the market, identifying your development needs and building them into your own 5 year development plan (5%).
3. Identify an aspect of OHS practice of interest to you and consider how you might participate in the development of evidence-based practice in an ethical context, using the Australian Institute of Health and Safety's Code of Ethics (5%).

You will submit the following 3 items:

1. Evaluation of your preparedness for OHS professional practice (Word or PDF document)
2. Further career development plan (This can be a table, timeline or mindmap in any of Word, Excel or PDF formats)
3. Ways to contribute to future paradigms for professional and ethical OHS practice (Word or PDF document).

Part C - Critique of the Body of Knowledge for OHS Professionals (10%)

During your ongoing practice as an OHS professional, you need to be able to research and critically evaluate key information sources on any safety topic. This task helps you to develop those critical review skills.

Identify and read one chapter from the Technical Concepts section of the OHS Body of Knowledge (BoK) (any one of Chapters 7 to 36) on which you will focus your critical review.

Read the following chapters from the OHS Body of Knowledge (BoK):

• Ch 37.1 “Introduction to 'Practice' as a Concept”
• Ch 39.2 “The OHS Professional as a Critical Consumer of Research”

Using Appendix 1 from Chapter 39.1, critically review your selected technical chapter as a research paper. Identify ways in which evidence has been used to inform OHS practice.The populated checklist should be submitted as an Appendix to the review.

From this review and with reference to additional literature, identify and discuss ways in which your selected technical chapter may be further developed to future enhance the future development of the OHS Body of Knowledge (BoK). This may be in the form of additional questions which need to be explored.

Document the review as a formal piece of writing in a flowing style.  You will submit your response as a formally written review, in either Word or PDF format.  Harvard Referencing is required.  A minimum of 1000 words is required, there is no maximum.

All components of the Portfolio are compulsory. Omission of an element of the Portfolio will result in a Fail grade for this assessment.

Detailed assessment matrices will be provided on Moodle during the term. The assessment criteria for each Part are summarised below.

Part A - Professional Profile (Resume + LinkedIn) (5%)

The total marks allocated for this Part A is 100. This represents 5% of the overall grade for the unit.

• Resume
• Contact details - 5 marks
• Professional Development - 15 marks
• Work history - 20 marks
• Referees - 5 marks
• Format and Structure - 10 marks
• LinkedIn Profile
• Summary, Work History & Professional Development - 20 marks
• Formatting - 5 marks
• Network - 10 marks
• Written expression for resume and LinkedIn profile - 10 marks

Part B - Professional Development Reflection and Plan (15%)

The total marks allocated for this Part B is 100. This represents 15% of the overall grade for the unit.

• Preparedness Evaluation
  

• Self-evaluation, including examples and identification of gaps, against Ch 37.2 Appendix 1 of the OHS Body of Knowledge (BoK) - 10 marks
• Self-evaluation, including examples and identification of gaps, against Australian Occupational Health and Safety Education Accreditation Board OHS Professional Capability criteria - 10 marks
• Self-evaluation, including examples and identification of gaps, against international society capability criteria (American Society of Safety Engineers or International Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations) - 10 marks
  

• Development Plan

• Sets clear, measurable goals for short (one-year), interim (three-year) and long term (five-ten-year) periods - 10 marks
• Identifies detailed development needs based on preparedness evaluation and analysis of appropriate job adverts for the one-year and three-year goals - 10 marks
• Describes SMART development activities appropriate development needs and plans them over time - 10 marks

• Contributing to Future Paradigms

• Clearly identifies an emerging issue in a particular aspect of OHS of specific interest, justified by literature - 10 marks
• Describes specific opportunities to participate in development of this aspect - 10 marks
• Critically evaluates the elements of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety Code of Ethics and thoroughly demonstrates your ability to personally apply the Code in the context of the identified emerging issue - 10 marks

• Written expression and structure appropriate to tasks - 5 marks
• Sources and referencing in accordance with current CQUni Harvard Style  - 5 marks

Part C - Critique of the Body of Knowledge for OHS Professionals (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part C is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

• Specifically identifies the chapter and clearly summarises its intent - 10 marks
• Demonstrates critical thinking and applied understanding of the elements of credibility - 5 marks
• Demonstrates critical thinking and applied understanding of the elements of relevance - 5 marks
• Demonstrates understanding of the research question and aims - 5 marks
• Demonstrates understanding of the research and review methods used within the chapter - 5 marks
• Applies critical thinking to explain the outcomes of the chapter - 15 marks
• Applies critical thinking to explain ways in which this chapter enhances professional practice as an individual and for the profession - 15 marks
  
• Applies critical thinking to identify and justify areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement - 15 marks
  
• Uses additional literature to justify a position going forward - 15 marks
  
• Uses written expression and structure appropriate to a formal review - 5 marks
  
• Sources and referencing  in accordance with current CQUni Harvard Style - 5 marks
  

During this unit, you will undertake the 120 hour project which you negotiated as part of OCHS13020 Future Paradigms in OHS A. During this project, you are to be supervised/mentored by an approved and tertiary qualified OHS professional. As a result of this project, you will assemble a project portfolio which will include the following:

• Part A - Professional Reflective Journal (10%)
• Part B - Self Evaluation Exercise (10%)
• Part C - Mentor Assessment (10%)
• Part D - Closeout Report (10%)

The submission area in Moodle will permit submission of multiple documents. All 4 items must be submitted to successfully complete this assessment.

Failure to complete 120 hours of placement will result in failure of the Portfolio 2 assessment.

Part A - Professional reflective journal of your placement (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part A is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

Within the initial student paperwork issued by the Unit Coordinator, you will receive a Professional Reflective Log. You are required to complete this for each day of your project placement.

For each day, there should be a Part 1 Professional Activity Log and a Part 2 Daily Professional Reflection Journal.

Part 1 is a simple record of the dates, times and activities of your placement and should be signed by your supervisor. For each Part 1, there should be a corresponding Part 2, in which you reflect on the effectiveness of each day’s activities. For each day, spend 5-10 minutes considering and noting down what worked well, what could be improved, what could have been done differently and what you learned. Your responses to yourself should be thoughtful, self-evaluating and constructive.

Submit the entire set as a professional reflective journal. There is no word limit and no referencing is required.

The documents should be submitted as PDF and/or Word files. Scans of handwritten files are accepted. If a number of files are submitted, please provide a covering list, so that the Unit Coordinator can ensure they have all been received.

Part B - Self-Evaluation Exercise (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part B is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

Write a self-evaluation of your project placement, discussing the processes of the placement and your performance within the placement in the context of the problem you had to solve at the workplace.

Review your daily reflective journals and respond to these questions:

• Summarise the types of activities you were involved in. How did these add to your learning during the project?
• Summarise your findings and journal themes. Overall what worked well, what could be improved, what could you have done differently and what did you learn?
• Discuss the physical and organisational working environment. Was it a good place to work? Explain your answer with examples.

Evaluate yourself against the mentor evaluation criteria using the mentor evaluation form and submit your completed form with Part B.

Review your mentor/supervisor(s)’ evaluation of your performance.

• Is your evaluation of your own performance different to your mentor/supervisor(s) evaluation? Consider and explain any differences between yours and your mentor/supervisor(s) evaluation.
• Discuss any comments your mentor/supervisor(s) may have made on the form.

At the end of your self-evaluation, consider as a whole:

• What did you learn from the placement (eg, technical OHS knowledge, skills, leadership, influencing, other)?
• Did the project fulfill your expectations? Explain your answer with examples.
• If you were to do the project again, what would you do differently and why?
• What areas of development have you identified as a result of your project placement and how do you intend to address them?
• What aspects of OHS professional practice would you like to explore further as a result of what you learned in your project?

As this is a self-evaluation, a formal report format is not required, but longer documents are easier to manage if they have cover pages and tables of contents. There is no set word limit for this document, but as a guide students have been successful with submissions of 4-5 pages. Reference to external documents is not mandatory, however, if you do use additional literature to support your points, current CQUni Harvard style in-text and final list referencing is expected. The final document should be submitted in either Word or PDF format.

Part C - Mentor-assessment (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part B is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

Within the initial mentor/supervisor and student paperwork issued by the Unit Coordinator, you and your mentor/supervisor(s) will each receive a copy of the Mentor Evaluation Form.  Your supervisor/mentor(s) should complete this at the end of your project placement, discuss it with you, sign it and provide you with a copy.  It is your responsibility to ensure you receive this at the end of your project placement.

Submit the signed evaluation form from your mentor/supervisor(s) as part of your portfolio. A scanned PDF of the evaluation, signed by your mentor/supervisor, is appropriate. 

Note, if you have a combination of mentor/supervisor(s) then you should have multiple evaluations and all of these should be submitted.

Part D - Project Closeout Report (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part D is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

At the end of every project or job you do, it is good professional practice to complete a closeout report and provide it to your client or employer. Such reports should always be timely, ie within 2 weeks of the end of the project.

At the end of your project placement, write a detailed project closeout report addressed to your project sponsor, with a copy to your Unit Coordinator. This will be a factual, objective report of the activities you carried out, the outcomes of the activities and a list of any deliverables provided.

Within the report, address the following key points:

• Describe the purpose and scope of your project
• What was the selected project methodology? Was it followed? If there were changes to the project approach, explain the reasons for these changes.
• What were the outcomes or findings of the project? Did the outcomes of the project meet the intended purpose?
• What additional activities were you involved in or tasks did you complete while at your placement?
• What recommendations do you have regarding the outcomes of your project? What next steps should your sponsor take to make use of your project outcomes?
• Provide a list of the deliverables that you supplied to your project sponsor during the project.

Your report should use a formal report format, including the following:

• Letter of transmittal addressed to your client
• Cover page
• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Table of Figures if required
• Introduction and Scope
• Methodology
• Discussion
• Recommendations
• Conclusions
• Appendices (if applicable – for example, you might include samples of work completed)
• Professional Formatting

Note : All reports will be treated in the strictest confidence, however, if specific information cannot be included for client confidentiality reasons, then general commentary will need to be provided.

The report should be submitted in Word or PDF format. Harvard style referencing shall be used.

Detailed assessment matrices will be provided on Moodle during the term. The assessment criteria for each Part are summarised below.

Failure to complete 120 hours of placement will result in failure of the Portfolio 2 assessment.

Part A - Professional reflective journal of your placement (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part A is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

The Part 1 sections will be assessed to identify that you

• Completed a minimum of 120 hours for your placement
• Took part in activities that were appropriate to your project plan, as well as possible additional activities
• Obtained supervisor’s signatures to verify hours and activities.

The Part 2 sections will be assessed to ensure that you have critically evaluated your own performance and demonstrated reflective learning.

Part B - Self-Evaluation Exercise (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part B is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit. You will be assessed on the depth to which you have:

• Summarised the types of activities and explains how these added to overall learning during the project
• Evaluated the daily journal reflections and themes to draw constructive conclusions of what worked well, what could improve, which could have been done differently and what was learned.
• Demonstrated a constructively critical understanding of the physical, organisational and team work environment, with specific examples to support key learnings
• Evaluated self thoroughly and fairly against the mentor evaluation criteria, making use of specific examples
• Constructively reflected on and demonstrated understanding of the mentor's feedback and evaluation, explains differences/agreements between mentor and self evaluation and clearly identifies specific learnings
• Described examples of the technical, skill, leadership and influencing learnings acquired during the placement
• Demonstrated understanding of their own expectations and evaluates whether the project fulfilled their expectations, supporting with specific examples
• Demonstrated critical reflection on feedback received and identifies specific opportunities for self improvement
• Identified new area of interest or reinforces existing interests as a result of what was learned in the project placement and starts to think about how to explore them
• Used written expression appropriate to a reflection.

Part C - Mentor-assessment (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part C is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit.

This will be assessed based on the mentor written evaluation and the mentor discussions with the Unit Coordinator during the placement. The Unit Coordinator maintains a contact log for each contact with mentor/supervisors. A copy of the contact log will be provided to the student as part of the assessment feedback.

Part D - Project Closeout Report (10%)

The total marks allocated for this Part D is 100. This represents 10% of the overall grade for the unit. You will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Explained the context, aims, objectives and scope of the project
• Demonstrated critical thinking in detailing and justifying the problem solving approach or methodology
• Critically evaluated the success of the project
• Provided logical discussion based on the evidence gathered during the project
• Demonstrated understanding of application by making recommendations that are supported by the discussion
• Listed the project deliverables supplied to the client
• Structured the report in a logical manner appropriate to a professional report.
  
• Used written expression appropriate to a report
• Used professional formatting
• Made use of appropriate sources and referencing in accordance with current CQUni Harvard Style.

At the compulsory online residential school, you will have 20 minutes to present a conference paper on a topic.  This assessment consists of three parts:

• Part A - Conference Paper (20%) and Slides (10%)
• Part B - Final Presentation (conference) (P/F)
• Part C - Professionalism (P/F)

The total marks allocated for this assessment is 100. This represents 30% of the overall grade for the unit.

Part A Conference Paper (20%) and Slides (10%)

Your conference paper topic must explore your project or an aspect of your project that is of interest to a professional audience. You must:

• choose a topic for your Conference Paper and obtain approval from your Unit Coordinator
• develop a written Conference Paper suitable for publication within the proceedings of this Conference
• write a set of supporting slides which will enable you to present the key points of your conference paper.  

When presenting at a conference, speakers are required to register.  At our conference, you will fill in and submit a Speaker Registration Form with your Conference Paper and slides.

When presenting at a formal conference, there are specific formatting instructions supplied by conference organisers for the submission of the conference paper document which is published to delegates. For our residential school conference, please follow the formatting supplied on Moodle during the term, which is based on the formats required for an international conference.

Within the Conference Paper and slides, you should include:

• Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
  
• Background on the industry
• Background on the organisation
• Context surrounding the topic being addressed
• Details of the interesting or over-the-horizon aspects of your topic
• Evidence base for the interesting or over-the-horizon aspects of your topic, including a brief review of literature relevant to your topic
• Learnings for your professional colleagues
• Alignment between the conference paper and the slides.
  

Use supporting slides such as a Powerpoint presentation or PDF slides

• Include pictures and graphics to illustrate your points
• Reflect the key points of your Conference Paper

Complete the Speaker Registration Form and submit it with your conference paper and slides. 

The presentation slides, conference paper and speaker registration form should be submitted as three documents via Moodle in the following formats:

• The presentation slides should be a PDF or Powerpoint file
• The Conference paper should be a PDF or Word document
• The Speaker Registration Form should use the pro forma provided on Moodle and be submitted in either Word or PDF format.
  

Part B Final Presentation (Conference)

You will deliver your Presentation in person during the compulsory online residential school 13-15 October.

You will be provided with the opportunity to practice your presentation delivery during the term at one of Presentation Skills and Practice Tutorials in weeks 10-12. Constructive feedback will be provided during these sessions, to assist you in practising for your Final Presentation.

Please note, as part of the assessment process, CQU may record your presentation.

Part C Professionalism

Throughout the online residential school conference, you will be assessed on your ability to apply professional approaches to all activities. No submission is required.

All elements of this Conference Paper and Presentation assessment are compulsory. Detailed assessment matrices will be provided on Moodle during the term.

The total marks allocated for this assessment is 100. This represents 30% of the overall grade for the unit.

Part A Conference Paper and Slides (30%)

• Pre-conference information is provided, including a "bio"
• Client approval for the paper is obtained
• Abstract is succinctly written and clearly summarises the key points of the paper
• Keywords reflect key themes within the paper
• Introduction and context communicate understanding of the industry and the topic being addressed
• Communicates critical thinking about the topic
• Communicates the over-the-horizon and interesting aspects of the topic at a professional audience standard
• Clear link between the project, the conference paper title and the content of the paper
• Conclusions are supported by the discussion
  
• Follows the stipulated conference paper formatting
• Uses written expression appropriate to a conference paper
• Supported with authoritative, referenced sources, referenced in accordance with current CQUni Harvard Style.

Slides

• Structure is logical and easy to follow, aligned with the conference paper
• Content is relevant to the material presented
• Professionally formatted.

Part B Final Presentation (Conference) (Pass/Fail)

The Presentations will be assessed as Pass/Fail.

Part C Professionalism (P/F)

Throughout the residential school conference, students will be assessed on their ability to apply professional approaches to all activities, including attendance, teamwork, personal leadership, professional and ethical practice.