The School of Health & Social Care at the University of Essex is seeking to appoint an external examiner for our undergraduate Occupational Therapy degree apprenticeship. The School of Health and Social Care is an interprofessional, pioneering School committed to making a difference to local, national, and international health, social care and voluntary services through education, research, and knowledge transfer. The School works in close partnership with the local and regional health and social care economy to drive forward innovative, high-quality education.
The majority of activity within the school focuses on the development and delivery of pre-registration curricula, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, across a range of health and social care professions. The school also offers a number of specialist postgraduate taught (PGT) and research (PGR) pathways as well as continuing professional development (CPD) modules. The occupational therapy programmes (BSc, MSc, and BSc Occupational Therapy Degree Apprenticeship [OTDA]) were validated during the 2021/2022 academic year. To widen access to the OTDA, a bridging module has been developed to allow those who require additional profession specific knowledge in addition to existing qualifications, to enter onto the apprenticeship. The modules within the apprenticeship are as follows:
Occupational Therapy CPD Bridging Module
• HS179 – Introduction to Occupational Therapy
BSc Occupational Therapy (Degree Apprenticeship)
• HS805 – Developing Professional Skills: Therapy and Occupation
• HS801 – Professional Reasoning
• HS806 – Collaboration and Leadership in Service Enhancement
• HS240 – Professional Enquiry
• HS807 – Advancing Occupational Therapy Practice in Diverse Communities
• HS340 – Professional Enquiry Proposal
• HS808 – Becoming a Professional: Professional Skills
• HS809 – Autonomous Practitioner (OT)
We would like to appoint an External Examiner who can enhance the quality of teaching and learning within the school. They should have or be willing to develop knowledge and awareness of these qualification types. Whilst applications from experienced External Examiners are preferred, anyone with appropriate educational and professional experience would be considered.
The appointment will be for four years from September 2024 and the commitment required is as follows:
• To attend one examination board per year.
• To submit the annual External Examiner’s Report and comment on the content of the subject area particularly regarding subject benchmarks.
• To review coursework throughout the year and provide comments to ensure academic standards and achievements of students are comparable with those in other HEIs.
• Provide informative comment and recommendations on whether the assessment process measures student achievement rigorously and fairly against the intended outcomes of the course/s and is conducted in line with the relevant policies and regulations.
• Engage with the programme team in the continuous development of the programmes.
• Engage with the integrated end-point assessment to facilitate the completion of the apprenticeship process.
For informal inquires please contact Alicia Smith, Programme Lead on a.smith@essex.ac.uk
Applications should be accompanied by a C.V. to hsc_examboards@essex.ac.uk by 19 April 2024
Further information is available on our website: https://www.essex.ac.uk/departments/health-and-social-care