Pastoral and Academic Support through PDP Stuart Cross

PDP in The Law School First used 4 years ago Embedded and assessed in a level 2 module Law became involved in the University’s SHEEN funded Employability and Professionalism project

SHEEN Project A small number of pilot projects were developed Law developed the LEAP programme This integrated a range of existing activities and allowed us to trial PDP as a support mechanism for advising meetings Trial ran for one year Key lesson-too many templates

A revised approach building on LEAP Focus in levels 1-3 on transitions and advising meetings Level 4 linked to dissertation and supervision meetings

Level 1 Standard entry through My Dundee Blackboard portal Two templates each semester Both linked to timing of advising meetings

Level 1 Level 1 templates included focus on personal as well as academic skills Generated some very frank comments and feedback

Level 2 Greater reflective focus in relation to transition between years and preparedness for what lay ahead

Level 3 Much greater emphasis on career issues and strategic issues for level 4 such as module and dissertation choices

Timing Issues

Lessons The linking of completion and sharing of templates with advising meetings was very effective for some A proportion of students simply did not engage Completion % lower than when we used PDP as an embedded tool Worked best at levels 1 and 4

Next Steps Law Society of Scotland is moving to a new competence based approach which will require a change in our curriculum We will use a greater level of module level embedded PDP BUT retain key transition templates to coincide with advising meetings