What to do! 

When to do it! 

Enrol in course C20038 (Dip. of Sci. Prac.)

As early as possible in the semester before the one in which you plan to be out working for the first time.

How do I enrol?

	In the first instance, contact the Head of Department (Dr G Anstis) or Applied Physics Course Advisor (Assoc. Prof. K McGuffie) and check your eligibility with them (completed 48 cp).  Let the IE Coordinator (Dr J. Schulte) know you are seeking a position.
	When you have found a position inform the IE Coordinator.  Then go to the Student Information Office (Level 4, Building 1) to obtain a Direct Undergraduate Application form and apply to be admitted to the Diploma in Scientific Practice (course code C20038).  Submit the form to the Information Office.  Within 1 or 2 weeks you will be advised that you have been admitted into the Diploma and enrolled into the subject 60811 Professional Scientific Practice A.
	Notify the IE Coordinator once you have enrolled. This is very important, as there is no other way of him knowing that you are now "in the system".

Component 1 60811 Professional Scientific Practice A

During the semester before the first work semester.

(a)

Attend and satisfactorily complete three UTS Careers Service workshops, viz. 

	Resume writing
	Interview skills
	Job search strategies.

To book a place at these workshops, you should contact the Careers Service-- you can do this by following the links on the Careers Service web page.
Note that workshops run irregularly, so it will take considerable organisational skills to schedule yourself into them. This may well be the first test of your readiness to fend for yourself in life outside the lecture room!

Finally, you must provide proof of attendance at the workshops to the IE Coordinator. Make sure you ask the workshop presenters for the necessary documentation.

(b)

As soon as possible after completing the workshops, you should prepare a resume and submit it electronically to the IE Coordinator (as a Word document, or rtf file generated by some other word processor).
He will read through it and perhaps suggest improvements or other modifications.
The resume will then be filed and ready to email to potential employers as opportunities arise.

In the meantime, however, you should not be sitting back just waiting for something to happen. Rather, you should be scouring newspapers and the internet for jobs, and talking to friends and relatives about employment possibilities they might know about, etc.

If it comes to a choice between students to send for interview, the first selected will be those who can demonstrate that they have been active in looking for jobs.
For this reason, it is important that you keep the IE Coordinator informed (by email) of what applications you have been submitting to secure your own placement.

Component 2 Professional Scientific Practice A

As soon as you start work.

The requirements here cannot be completed until you have a position, and have actually started working:

Email us your contact details at work, including:

	Name and address of employer
	Contact telephone number
	On-site supervisor's name and contact details (phone and email)

Component 3 Professional Scientific Practice A

During the first semester of work.

You must:

Maintain a diary (download the diary booklet here). This is in addition to any diary your employer may require. Entries are a weekly summary of your activities. Make sure you get your on-site supervisor to initial each page as you complete it (i.e. very 4 weeks), and encourage him/her to write comments in the space provided. The same diary will be used for the duration of the Diploma. Your UTS supervisor will request to see it when he/she visits you during the first semester of work. You must work for at least 30 weeks in order to qualify for the Diploma. This time need not all be with the same employer, but cannot consist of more than 3 positions.

	Submit a report (300 words) on your activities during the semester. This might include a general description of the work environment (the company, what it does, etc.), with some details of your specific duties and responsibilities. The report is due by the end of the examination period (Autumn or Spring, depending on when you began work).
	We will monitor your progress during the semester, by maintaining contact with your on-site supervisor and arranging a visit to the workplace once during the semester.

Have your on-site supervisor fill out an assessment form (download here). This should be done at the end of the first semester of work, and the form should be submitted together with your report, either in person or by mail, to the IE Coordinator (UTS, Dept. of Applied Physics, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007). It is your responsibility to ensure that the assessment form is completed on time. Delays may result in a withheld result, or even failure in the subject.

Once all the above have been received and are satisfactory, a result will be submitted for the subject Professional Scientific Practice A. 

Enrolling in 60812 Professional Scientific Practice B

During the enrolment period at the end of your first semester of work.

How do I enrol?

When you are sure you have a position for the coming semester complete a Variation of Program form with this subject added.  If you do not have a position you will have to apply for Leave of Absence from the Diploma.

There are several requirements for the successful completion of the subject Professional Scientific Practice B. These are detailed below.

60812 Professional Scientific Practice B

During or at the end of the second semester of work

	You must continue to maintain the diary started in your first semester of work. It should be submitted with your other assessment tasks at the end of the second semester of work.
	We will again liaise with your on-site supervisor to monitor your progress, and perhaps visit you again at your workplace.
	On finishing the semester's work (or on reaching 30 weeks), your on-site supervisor must complete another assessment form (download at Online UTS) for the current semester. Again, it is your responsibility to ensure that this is done on time. For students completing their degrees, delays could mean having to wait an extra semester for graduation.
	Finally, you must submit a report of at least 2000 words to the Applied Physics Industrial Experience Coordinator. The subject and format of the report are open-ended; that is, you can choose your own topic to write about. For example, you might wish to focus on a particularly interesting aspect of the work you were doing, perhaps describing the physics of some instrument or device you were using, designing or manufacturing; alternately, you could discuss the corporate structure of your workplace, highlighting some interesting scientific, social or other issues you observed - the choice is yours.