This module is intended to provide the academic and personal skills essential for successful HE study and employment. It provides a foundation for the development of graduate level academic and professional skills later in the course. Academic skills relating to accessing and interpretation of research literature will be developed through a mixture of workshops, practicals and independent study. There will also be an introduction to research techniques, particularly handling and analysis of data. Professional skills will be developed through a Personal Development Planning approach and guided self-reflection on the part of the student to enable them to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as targets for improvement. Students will also reflect on feedback they have received for work in this and other modules then use this feedback to determine steps to take so that they are always improving in future assignments.