Log books - Explanatory notes
The completed logbook must be returned to Annette Toms at the Work Placement Office, School of Business on completion of your placement (or before August 31st 2009 if earlier). The log book should be typed and submitted in both hard and soft formats.
Get your copy of the log-book here.
The log-book comprises three sections:
1) Cover sheet / Front sheet – to be completed and returned to the Placement office as soon as possible after starting your placement
2) Record of practical experience (RPE) – to be completed on a daily or weekly basis and reviewed at the end of your placement
3) Reflection on work experience – to be completed at the end of the work placement
A regularly maintained record is essential; if you do not adopt a systematic approach you will inevitably find its completion a daunting task and will probably not do justice to the range and depth of experience you will have gained. The following is intended to give you some guidance on maintaining your Log Book.
RECORD OF PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE (RPE)
This is mainly descriptive in nature and is intended to show the tasks undertaken, together with the amount of time spent on, and the frequency of, those tasks.
- Select your headings and style (bullet point or narrative) according to that which best suits the experience you are recording. For example, you may wish to use a daily/weekly/monthly division of tasks;
- Use action words (eg, analysis, design plan);
- Note any quantitative factors of the job which give an indication of its scope or size and which highlights your level of responsibility. For example, you may have observed a task being performed, or participated as a team member on a task, or performed it independently, or even supervised a task;
- Avoid jargon and explain any organisational terms and abbreviations you use;
- Also be careful to avoid including any confidential information or statistics - if in doubt, check with your supervisor.
Timing:
It is recommended that you update the RPE weekly. If this is not done, obtaining verification can become very difficult. Updating the RPE on a regular basis serves the following important functions:
• It will give you a clear indication of your progress;
• It assists your employer in planning your tasks;
• It makes obtaining placement verification of experience much easier.
Set targets for collecting, collating, analysing and presenting the necessary information. Set aside a regular time for completing the record from interim notes of key activities which you should be keeping. These notes should include approximate amounts of time spent on main tasks. There may be an overlap if work is relevant to more than one area.Style of Presentation:
The RPE should reflect the main points of your contribution to the work described. Each page should reflect what has been contributed and what has been learned. As a guide your RPE should result in a document length of approximately 6-10 pages.
The inclusion of too much detail becomes laborious and is unnecessary, but too succinct a style may oversimplify your RPE by omitting important details altogether. The right approach is to balance these two extremes with enough detail to give an accurate indication of the level of work carried out.
There are five points you might like to follow
• State the activity
• Describe your approach to the task
• Indicate the size of the task
• Indicate for whom the task is to be performed (if appropriate)
• Indicate the outcome (if appropriate)Preparing for final version
Make final checks for accuracy, brevity, clarity, conciseness, spelling, punctuation and grammar. Make sure that in being concise you do not become too brief thereby losing full meaning and substance.
Skills that you might have learned or improved on a work placement include:
General Skills
• Working as a team / working as a team player
• Working to tight deadlines / under pressure
• Time management
• Social – communication, inter-personal, negotiation, relationships, confidence, etc
• Problem solving – problem identification, coming up with solutions, judgment – consider consequences of different solutions, deciding on one and implementing it, evaluating outcomes, etc
• Attending meetings, contributing to meetings, running meetings
• Presentation – preparing, presenting, etc
• Project work experience
• IT system - particular packages that you learned to use (examples: Sage, SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, banking systems, in-house developed systems, e-mail systems, etc)
• New ideas / new ways of doing things that improved processes or increased productivity
• Specific achievements or accomplishments or awards received (example: 3rd best salesperson in Ireland; some new marketing/PR/HR idea that you came up with, best newcomer, employee of the month, etc)
• You can include non-work-related achievements – getting involved in local community, learning to live away from home, learning to drive, managing a difficult commute, etc
Customer-related skills
• Customer service - dealing directly with customers / clients
• Sales / marketing skills / understanding
• Cold calling potential customers
• Credit control experience - trying to get customers to pay on time
Supplier-related skills
• Dealing with suppliers and suppliers' issues / resolving disputes with suppliers
• Running payment process for suppliers
People / HR-related experience
• Dealing with employees and employee issues
• Payroll experience - understanding of various requirements: filings, tax, etc
• Working in a unionised environment either in HR or other department
• Involved in running or scheduling training programmes
• Keeping and updating employee records
• Working in reception area – meeting visitors, telephone skills, etc
Accounting-related skills
• Working with clients and client's accounts
• Understanding private/company/farmer accounting, reporting and filing requirements
• Understanding tax and tax return filing deadlines
• Creating accounts from incomplete data
• Attention to detail / accuracy of numbers
• Understanding a company’s accounts, understanding when a number “looks wrong”
• Performing bank reconciliations
• Understanding VAT and preparing VAT returns
• Physical inventory experience - either performing or checking/monitoring/supervising
What was enjoyable / not so?
For most people, the work experience obtained on Placement was enjoyable. This might be due to liking your co-workers, learning new things, experiencing a new city, having money in your pocket, etc.
Examples of things you may not have enjoyed include having to get up every morning, working to tight deadlines, commuting to/from work, etc.
Strengths and weaknesses (well done / less well done)
Perhaps subjective, this space is a good place to summarise your achievements and highlight areas you wish you could have done better or where you would like more training/experience.
Motivation (what encouraged / discouraged)
This is relatively self-explanatory – what made you work harder/faster/better? Things like pay, praise / public recognition, feeling good about a job well done, and prizes are all common motivators. Conversely, too heavy a work load, poor briefing, too little work, and commuting could all be factors which de-motivate you.
There may be other points which you consider to be relevant, so feel free to add them in.
