Guide to Completing Your Coursework

Your coursework should start with a cover page saying your name, where you went on work experience, and including some colourful pictures.  For example:

Next you should include the following sections.  Remember to put a heading in for each section, even if you haven't written the section yet.  That way the heading will be ready for later, when you have come back from work experience.

The Aim of This Coursework

This section must contain the following paragraph:

The aim of this assignment is to investigate the system of communication in place at (Name of Company):
bulletinternally with management and employees
bulletexternally with organisations and people
and then make recommendations which could improve the system.

Action Plan

Here you must make a table like the following.  Each lesson, fill in the table to say what you did, or what you plan to do in the coming weeks:

Date What I did Resources used Problems encountered and how I solved them
30 April 2004 Started making my questionnaire.  I will finish it next lesson. PC None.
5 May 2004 Tried to phone the company to ask details about my placement. Phone No one was available to tell me.  I'll try again tomorrow.
... ...   ...
... ...   ...

About the Company

Explain what the company you are going to work for do.

Where are they based?

Who works for them, i.e. what type of people?

Who are their competitors?

How the Company Advertise

List all the ways you know of that the company advertise themselves, e.g. radio advert, in magazines, on the internet.

What information can you find out about them online?

Can you find them in an online Yellow Pages or other local guide?

If they don’t have a website, do their competitors?

Company Organisation Diagram

Make a diagram showing the people that you worked with, and how they are arranged in the company hierarchy.

Types of Communication

List all the systems of communication you expect to see at your place of work.  The best way to do this is in a table:

Type of communication Internal or External Definition Advantages Disadvantages
Fax machine External A way of sending printed information from one company to another, very quickly, over the phone line. Fast. Can be expensive, and doesn't always send a clear image first time.
Email Both A way of sending messages and computer files from one computer to another. Can be sent very quickly and cheaply anywhere in the world.  Tends to be informal. Sender and receiver need a computer with a connection to the internet, which can be expensive.
... ... ... ... ...

Legal Aspects

Find out and write about:

  1. Health and Safety at Work.  What aspects could be dangerous to your health and safety at the company?  For example, do people work with dangerous chemicals, lift heavy boxes, or spend hours at the computer (which can lead to RSI, eye strain, headaches, etc.)  Find out about what your company is legally obliged to do for its employees.
    For an example, see this health and safety notice from a company.
  2. The Data Protection Act.  Find out about this law, and describe how it affects your company.  Hint:  Do they record and store information about people?  For more details, see this website.

Questionnaire

You need to produce a questionnaire to take with you on your work experience placement.  You will be using this questionnaire to ask other people at the company how they use communication and ICT.

The questionnaire should ask intelligent questions to find out information such as:

bulletHow often different types of communication are used.
bulletHow much money is spent on different types of communication and ICT.
bulletHow effective the types of communication are.

If you are going to a company that you think will not use many types of communication, you should ask them questions about how they operate certain systems in the company.  For example:

bulletHow do clients book appointments?
bulletHow does the company advertise job vacancies?
bulletHow do they advertise?
bulletHow do they make decisions within the company?

You must use precise and well thought out questions to get the information you want.  For example:

Bad question Better question
Do you use communication in your company? What forms of communication does your company use regularly:
[ ] Phone
[ ] Fax
[ ] Email
[ ] Letter
Other _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How often do you use the phone? How often do you communicate with people outside this company, using the phone, per day?
[ ] Never
[ ] Once or twice
[ ] 3-5 times
[ ] 6 or more
How do you advertise? If you were going to advertise a special offer to your customers, which method would you most likely use?
[ ] Advert on your website
[ ] Word of mouth
[ ] Radio / TV advert
[ ] Advert in a magazine
Other _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Findings

Write down what you found:

Put "numerical" results in a table and make a graph of them.

Put "wordy" results into clear English sentences.

Conclusion

Sum up what you found. Are they good at communicating internally? Are they good at communicating with customers / the public? Why do you say that?

Recommendations

How could they improve communication within the company? Would they have to buy new equipment, re-organise themselves, have more meetings? What would be the effects of these changes?

How could they improve communication with the outside world? Better advertising? A website? Publicity stunts? What would be the cost / requirements for these things?

Sources of Information

Write in this section:
bulletThe addresses of any websites that you look at to help you write your coursework.
bulletThe names and job titles of the people that you talk to in the company to find out information.
bulletAny other materials that you refer to, such as the company magazine, an advertising brochure, or a letter they send you.

Other Tips

You should use a footer at the bottom of each page so that you can automatically number each page and put your name and candidate number on it.