Preparing for placement – health and social care learners

Here you will find the preparing for placement programme for your health and social care learners. This will be a useful tool for learners to work through whilst waiting for a suitable time to begin their placements or re-enter settings.

We know how valuable placement experience is for individuals in their learning journey. Placement enables knowledge gained in the taught environment to be applied, it provides opportunities for professional practice to be observed in action and it facilitates development of all important employability skills. Plus, placement experience is essential for those undertaking sector-led workforce qualifications where the overarching purpose is to confirm occupational competence.

However, securing placement opportunities for health and social care students in current times is likely to be challenging. It may be helpful to consider a broader range of alternative placement settings to be accessed alongside the more traditional. These may include:

Services within the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector
Leisure centres running events and activities for vulnerable individuals
Health promotion events
Inclusive learning environments within colleges and training providers.

This list is not exhaustive and in selection it is crucial to ensure the experience offered will be meaningful. Of course, for students undertaking competency-based qualifications, due consideration must be given to the assessment strategy and principles, and any experience must enable achievement of the assessment criteria. Please contact your External Quality Assurer (EQA) if you would like to discuss further suitability of potential settings.

Year one learners

There are three modules for year one learners to work through, which include videos to watch and activities to carry out.

Module 1

Module 2

Module 3

Year two learners

For year two learners, there is one module looking at reflective practice with tasks to carry out and research to undertake. Year 2 learners may also find it interesting to explore NurseryVue.

Guidance on Reflective Practice and Placement