Work Experience

Access to ECS systems over summer

Your ECS credentials will expire in late November.

  • When you log-in change the Realm to student.vuw.ac.nz, and
  • use your MyVUW credentials.

Before you start

Advise the Work Experience Coordinator of any work you intend to use for your BE.

The University has a responsibility to students to ensure all the employment basics are covered, such as having an employment agreement, an induction into the company, and a Health and Safety briefing. Be aware that if you choose to seek approval after the fact, you will be compromising the University's duty of care and you may be disappointed if your work experience cannot be approved.

After you start

Learning Goals

You should brainstorm your learning goals and discuss these with your work supervisor and/or mentor. Your learning goals will identify your current skill level in three to four key areas, of which two or three should be soft skills from the BE Graduate Attributes.

Daily Journal

Keep a daily bullet journal noting activities, challenges and events of interest during the day. This should take less than 5 minutes a day and will result in a second source of evidence to support your final reflective report. Your completed daily journal will be submitted as an appendix to your final reflective report.

Nearing completion

The work experience register will generate a pdf for your supervisor to sign. You sign it as well and submit it online:

The Reflective Report

Start your reflective report (up to 3,000 words) as soon as you can.

A reflective report should be more than a description of what you did, this merely forms the context. To reflect is to think deeply and critically about what you did with a view to improving your future performance should that context arise again.

  • Submit your reflective report to the submission system
  • Due 2 months after finishing your 400 hours. The end of April in most cases involving summer work.
  • 4th year students wishing to graduate in May. The reflective report is due before the last full week in February. Submitting late may impact your ability to graduate in May, especially if your report is not immediately accepted. You can of course still graduate but it may be in December instead.

Reflective Report Templates and Examples

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