Unit Synopsis
This work placement capstone unit enables you to apply the theories, content knowledge and skills you have learned to a workplace environment. Your work will involve finding solutions to a problem in a regulatory agency, criminal justice agency, government or other organisation involved in the prevention or regulation of criminal activity. This practical experience will involve 50 hours of workplace experience which may be accrued intensively or distributed throughout the term. The university will assist in finding suitable workplace arrangements. You will be required to log this time and have this certified by your workplace mentor. You will be required to keep a digital portfolio of your workplace experiences and reflect on what this means for professional practice while setting a professional development agenda. During your practical experience you will complete a workplace project, under the supervision of your workplace mentor and our unit coordinator, supported by online resources and advice. The deliverables from this project will be submitted for assessment and will form part of your professional portfolio.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Enrolment in CL55 or CL75 and 72 cp of completed units. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Portfolio | 30% |
| 2. Workplace Project | 70% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.67% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Agency and student feedback
Placement hours should be longer
There are limits to the hours students can undertake within a 6 credit point undergraduate unit. Discussions need to be had regarding the expansion of the unit to double credits so that the allocation of study hours can be doubled. This is a long term goal and cannot be achieved within the short term.
Flexibility was built into the unit to allow students to undertake more hours if this was agreed upon by the student, agency, and the unit coordinator. Students were also required to undertake a complimentary project, providing them additional hours to work on an agency-related project to increase the contact hours with their placement provider.
Source: Agency feedback
Placement providers felt the number of hours could be increased to enable onboarding.
Increase placement hours to enable students to undertake agency onboarding and induction.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Students felt that expectations around placement processes were unclear.
Offer an online information session prior to the term commencing wherein expectations and processes can be communicated to students before placements commence.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply skills and knowledge developed in the course to criminology practice in a regulatory agency, criminal justice agency, government or other organisation involved in the prevention or regulation of criminal activity
- Evaluate and report work placement experience and assess personal and professional growth, strengths and weaknesses in intellectual development, social development and professional development
- Reflect upon and describe the careers, roles, relationships, responsibilities and activities of people engaged in the practice of criminology in the workplace
- Reflect upon, evaluate and report enhanced knowledge of criminology gained as a result of participation in work placement and the nature of the environment that supported such learning.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Portfolio | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Workplace Project | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | |||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | |||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| 5 - Team Work | • | |||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | |||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | |||
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 2 - Workplace Project | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 1 - Portfolio | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||