Course Title: Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability

Part B: Course Detail

Teaching Period: Term1 2013

Course Code: BUSM6394C

Course Title: Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability

School: 650T TAFE Business

Campus: City Campus

Program: C5300 - Diploma of Information Technology

Course Contact : Swati Dave

Course Contact Phone: +61 3 9925 5811

Course Contact Email:swati.dave@rmit.edu.au


Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff

Course Contact:  Krissi Kirk

Course Contact Email:  krissi.kirk@rmit.edu.au

Course Contact: Richard Stevens

Course Contact Email: TBA

Nominal Hours: 50

Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites

None

Course Description

This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to develop and implement a workplace sustainability policy, including the modification of the policy to suit changed circumstances.
This unit also requires the ability to access industry information, applicable legislative and occupational health and safety (OHS) guidelines.

This unit is delivered using a blend of classroom based and self-paced learning activities.


National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria

National Element Code & Title:

BSBSUS501A Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability

Element:

1. Develop workplace sustainability policy

Performance Criteria:

1.1. Define scope of sustainability policy
1.2. Gather information from a range of sources to plan and develop policy
1.3. Identify and consult stakeholders as a key component of the policy development process
1.4. Include appropriate strategies in policy at all stages of work for minimising resource use, reducing toxic material and hazardous chemical use, and employing life cycle management approaches
1.5. Make recommendations for policy options based on likely effectiveness, timeframes and cost
1.6. Develop policy that reflects the organisation's commitment to sustainability as an integral part of business planning and as a business opportunity
1.7. Agree to appropriate methods of implementation

Element:

2. Communicate workplace sustainability policy

Performance Criteria:

2.1. Promote workplace sustainability policy, including its expected outcome to key stakeholders
2.2.Inform those involved in implementing the policy as to outcomes expected, activities to be undertaken and responsibilities assigned

Element:

3. Implement workplace sustainability policy

Performance Criteria:

3.1. Develop and communicate procedures to help implement workplace sustainability policy
3.2. Implement strategies for continuous improvement in resource efficiency
3.3. Establish and assign responsibility to use recording systems for tracking continuous improvements in sustainability approaches
 

Element:

4. Review workplace sustainability policy implementation

Performance Criteria:

4.1. Document outcomes and provide feedback to key personnel and stakeholders
4.2. Investigate successes or otherwise of policy
4.3. Monitor records to identify trends that may require remedial action and use to promote continuous improvement of performance
4.4. Modify policy and or procedures as required to ensure improvements are made
 


Learning Outcomes



Details of Learning Activities

Learning activities will include tutorial sessions on a variety of topics as shown in the Teaching Schedule below, projects plus out-of-class research and homework. A range of learning activities are planned for this course including self-paced and collaborative classroom based activities.
The collaborative classroom based activities will include group discussion and individual research work.
We expect you to participate and contribute in all scheduled learning activities.

 


Teaching Schedule


The nominal hours associated with this are a guide only and represent the total teaching time and student effort required to successfully complete the course. This may include not only scheduled classes but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.
 

Week Week Commencing Topics Assessment Competencies Delivered 
1 11th Feb 2013

Pre-training review:
• RPL
• LLN as required

Familiarisation with:
• Program
• Services/facilities
• Other students
• Teacher(s)
• Where to get support
• Student responsibilities
• Course requirements
• Course support documents
• Pre-reading
• Blackboard

Overview of assessment requirements:
• Grading
• Plagiarism
• Appeals
• Extensions
• Feedback
• Privacy
• Submission requirements
• Resubmission policy

Introduction
BSBSUS509A OHTH 5592C
• Introduction to course material, administration & assessments.
• Introduction to OH&S and the purpose of a policy
BSBOHS501A BUSM 6394C
• Introduction to course material, administration & assessments.
• Introduction to Sustainability, purpose and objectives

 Class Discussion
BSBSUS509A OHTH 5592C
HANDOUT: Pre-assessment “Report Specs”


BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 1:
“Understanding Resource Usage”
 

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A


 

2 18th Feb 2013

• Definition of a ‘Hazard’
• Major causes of injuries

• Introduction to workplace policy development
Scope and resources definition (Part 1)

 Class discussion


BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
DUE Assessment Task1:
“Understanding Resource Usage”
 

BSBOHS509A 

BSBSUS501A

3 25th Feb 2013

• Type of hazards at different workplaces
• Introduction to Health & Safety reporting

• Development of workplace policy
Scope and resources  (Part 2)

 BSBSUS509A OHTH 5592C
DUE: Pre assessment
“Report Specs”

Presentation & Discussion
Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A  

BSBSUS501A

4 4th Mar 2013 • Group task: Role play of Health & Safety Representative
• Inspection and documenting OH&S matter

• Development of strategy for resource use minimisation

 BSBSUS509A OHTH 5592C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 1: “OHS Auditor Report”

BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 2 “Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 1”
 

BSBOHS509A  

BSBSUS501A

5 11th Mar 2013 • Group task: Finalising “Auditor” report on OH&S

• Integration of sustainability policy as part of the business plan
• Case Study: Apple Environmental Footprint in 2011

 BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
DUE: Assessment Task 1
“OHS Auditor Report”


Group activity
Discussion & Analysis
 

BSBOHS509A  

BSBSUS501A

6 18th Mar 2013

• Introduction to Emergency Medical & Fire Scenarios
• Group task: Develop an emergency procedure

• Gap Analysis
Development of a policy implementation plan

BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 2:
“Emergency Procedure”
Class time to finalise group task


Class Discussion
Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A
BSBSUS501A
 
7 25th Mar 2013 • Finalising emergency procedure

• Consolidation of the workplace sustainability policy - Part 1

BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
DUE: Assessment Task 2:
“Emergency Procedure”


Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A 

BSBSUS501A

    Mid Semester Break 28th Mar - 3rd Apr 2013    
7 1st Apr 2013

• Finalising emergency procedure
• Consolidation of the workplace sustainability policy - Part 1

 BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
DUE: Assessment Task 2:
“Emergency Procedure”


Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A 

BSBSUS501A

8 8th Apr 2013

• OH&S and the Law
• Acts, regulations and codes
• Workplace Sustainability Policy

Class discussion


BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
DUE: Assessment Task 2 “Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 1”
 

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A

9 15th Apr 2013 • OH&S responsibilities across an organisation
• OH&S penalties
• Promotion of workplace sustainability policy
• Assigning roles & responsibilities during implementation phase
 Class discussion


BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 3 “Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 2”
 

BSBOHS509A 

BSBSUS501A

10 22nd Apr 2013 • What is an OH&S system
• Purpose of the system

• Development of a continuous improvement system
• Life Cycle Management

 Class discussion

 

Class Discussion
Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A  

BSBSUS501A

11 29th Apr 2013 • Group task: Development of an OH&S system
• Develop as a Website or blog

• Group task: Development of a continuous improvement system
• Life Cycle Management

 BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
HANDOUT: Assessment Task 3:
“Development of OHS System”
Class time to finalise group task

Class Discussion
Group activity
 

BSBOHS509A 

BSBSUS501A

12 6th May 2013 • Group task: Development of an OH&S system
• Develop as a Website or blog

• Development of communication strategy to promote sustainability

Class time to finalise group task

 

Class time to finalise group task
 

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A

13 13th May 2013 • Group task: Development of an OH&S system
• Develop as a Website or blog

• Group Task: Development of communication strategy to promote sustainability

 Class time to finalise group task

 

Class time to finalise group task
 

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A

14 20th May 2013 • Finalising OH&S system

• Finalising Sustainability policy

Class time to finalise group task

Class time to finalise group task

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A

15 27th May 2013 • OHS System Presentations

• Workplace sustainability policy continued

 BSBOHS509A OHTH 5592C
DUE: Assessment Task 3:
“Development of OHS System”

BSBSUS501A BUSM 6394C
DUE: Assessment Task 3 “Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 2”
 

BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A

 16 3rd June 2013 • Feedback and Review

Re-submission of work if required for both competencies.

 Summary of lessons learned BSBOHS509A

BSBSUS501A


Learning Resources

Prescribed Texts

There is no precsribed textbook fo this course.


References

Materials will include worksheets distributed by the teacher in class and various Websites which will be indicated.


Other Resources


Overview of Assessment

Students must demonstrate an understanding of all elements of competency to be deemed competent.

A range of assessment methods are used to assess practical skills and knowledge, for example:
• direct questioning combined with review of portfolios of evidence and third party workplace reports of on-the-job performance by the candidate
• review of authenticated documents from the workplace or training environment
• demonstration of techniques

Students are advised that they are likely to be asked to personally demonstrate their assessment work to their teacher to ensure that the relevant competency standards are being met.


Assessment Tasks

Assessment Tasks BUSM 6394C

You are required to complete 3 assessment tasks. You must successfully complete all 3 assessment tasks to be deemed competent in this unit.
Assessment task 2 and 3 form your policy project.

ASSESSMENT TASK 1 – “Understanding Resource Usage” (Due: 18th Feb,2012- Week 2)

The task takes you through a process of understanding your own household environmental impact. You are required to collate your latest energy and water bills and analyse the data contained with respect to your resource usage and greenhouse gas emissions. You are required to interpret your usage and footprint and make a recommendation on how to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and resource usage.

Helpful links for this assessment are:

• www.climatechange.vic.gov.au
• www.watercorporation.com.au
• www.savewater.com.au

Please prepare your report with all required data and graph and submit it in PDF format.

Submission Requirements:
Please upload your report in PDF using the blackboard and clearly indicate it with your credentials. Please review your document before you submit.


ASSESSMENT TASK 2 –Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 1 (Due Date: 8th April, 2013 - Week 8)

You are required to draft the first part of your workplace policy for a business of your choice. Please provide sufficient information in your document so that a person, who reads your document for the first time, can understand what your business is about, what it does and value chain phases within your business. As a business, you would have a vision, objective or aim to become successful. Different businesses express their vision in different ways, e.g. to become the most innovative IT service company with the highest customer rating. Consider your statement and qualify it from a sustainability perspective based on your current work practices. To achieve your vision you will be also looking at how you use the resources available to you. In your policy, you will seek to find innovative/sustainable ways (Strategy) on how you go about operating your business. You will provide recommendations on how to do certain steps differently, more economically, more sustainable, ...etc. and include these in an overall strategy. The below sections of the workplace policy should help you get started for this part of the assessment task:
• About your organisation/business
• Description of your business: Who you are, what you do, what is your selling proposition (Why customers will choose you), how you are conducting your work (e.g. Customer Scenario) and what are the typical processes that your business undergoes.
• Specifying your typical business processes as a value chain
• This is a more detailed description of your typical business processes, where you describe the steps and what resources are required in each
• Scope of the policy
• This section identifies what resources in particular your policy will look at within a sustainability policy.
• Choose the resources, in which you can demonstrate that you can make a difference, by introducing methods, strategies, systems, ...etc.
• These resources (the scope), you should be able to measure, monitor and review at different time periods. Therefore, you set a measurable target.
• Recommendations
• This section is about those methods/strategies. For example, if the scope of the policy is to reduce paper wastage in the office by 20%, the strategy/method is to print double-sided and monitor the paper usage of implementing this strategy.
• Other additional recommendations could also include purchasing recycled paper.

Submission Requirements:
Please upload your policy to the file exchange and mark it clearly. You will receive feedback on this part of the policy during class.

TASK 3 – Workplace Sustainability Policy Part 2 (Due Date: 27th May, 2013 - Week 15)

Based on assessment Task 2 part 1, this section is more focused on your strategies/methods and how you are going about them. What exactly do you need to do to implement such strategies to achieve the target that was set in your recommendation section. For this part, the best approach is to look at each strategy separately and list action items that need to be done and allocate respective resources. For example, our strategy for reducing paper wastage would include the following actions: how is current paper usage stock used, investigating if double-sided printing is an option for the particular workplace. If the current printer can in fact print double sided, if the default settings are set on double-sided print ...etc. In addition, you would like to allocate each of these actions to some personnel, ideally with the environment where this strategy is taking place. You also want to decide how you are going to monitor this progress, how often, how to measure and how to report.
To make this easier for you an example of an action plan will be discussed during class. With such an action plan, you would have specifically identified clear steps of what you want to do and who is responsible for it. Within this context the last part of the policy is to think what you will do after the review date. That means, no that we have executed the action plan, monitored its progress and measured the outcome (on target/not on target), what steps can you plan to continuously improve our commitment to sustainability. This can take the form of the following:
• Stakeholders: expanding the responsibility of the commitment to other partners, choosing environmentally-friendly suppliers, ...etc
• Life Cycle Management (LCM), what you potentially can do instead of disposing, for example, what can be recovered, recycled, re-used or even from the beginning to avoid and minimise the impact in the ’life cycle’ of a product or service
• Monitoring and Evaluation: where your methods in monitoring and reviewing adequate enough to reflect the real picture. Do you need to consider a more ’improved’ way to do monitoring, for example through the use of new technologies?
• Continuous Improvement: These kinds of plans need to be in place to ensure that you are continuously endeavouring to do your bit for a sustainable future.

Submission Requirements:
You are required to present and submit your policy. For the presentation, please consider a presentation format and focus on the key aspects of your policy. Submit only the workplace policy in WORD or PDF format to the file exchange. Your policy should be complete and including the reviewed part 1 (assessment task 2) and this part. Your policy should be appropriate formatted to represent a professional document. Please mark your policy clearly with your credentials.
 


Assessment Matrix

Other Information

 

 

 


General Submission Requirements:
Assessment tasks need to be submitted via Blackboard

You should:
• Ensure that you submit assessments on or before the due date. If your performance in the assessment is affected by unexpected circumstances, you should consider applying for Special Consideration. Information on the process and application forms is available at http://rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=ls0ydfokry9rz website.
• Always retain a copy of your assessment tasks. (hard copy and soft copy)
• When you submit work for assessment at RMIT University you need to use a cover sheet that includes a declaration and statement of authorship. You must complete, sign and submit a cover sheet with all work you submit for assessment, whether individual or group work. On the cover sheet you declare that the work you are presenting for assessment is your own work. An assignment cover sheet for submission of work for assessment is available on blackboard.
• Each page of your assessment should include footer with your name, student number, the title of the assessment, unit code and title and page numbers. For example, Julie Macpherson, 324567, Task 2, OHS2345C Ensure safe workplace, Page 1 of 10.

Resubmission Guide:
Once a student has submitted an assessment task, a resubmission maybe granted if deemed NYC. On resubmission, student will not receive a grade higher than CAG (Competency achieved)


Marking Guide (competency):

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is based on current industry needs and the focus on preparing you for the workplace. Because VET courses are informed by practical application of knowledge and skills, they are based on a system known as ‘competency based training’ (CBT).

So when you are assessed in VET it is about whether you are competent to do the job, as well as having a firm grasp on the knowledge and skills required to do that job, as opposed to traditional curriculum based education settings that are often based on knowledge retention.

You need to demonstrate you are competent in each element of the unit of competency you are studying.

You will receive feedback on each assessment task that will inform you whether you are competent or not and how well you are performing. Once competent in all elements of the unit you receive a competency grading.

Please refer to the Final Grades table below.

Marking Guide (Grading)

After achieving competency we then grade your performance in the unit; this gives you the opportunity to have the level of your performance formally recognized against industry standards and employability skills.

The grading is according to the following criteria:

1. LEVEL OF INDEPENDENCE, INITIATIVE, ENTERPRISE AND PERFORMANCE OF WORK TASK

We are looking for a high level of ability to complete all tasks as per the specifications required as well as demonstrating a high level of initiative and independent thought in your approaches to developing and implementing a sustainability policy.

2. DEMONSTRATED BREADTH OF UNDERPINNING KNOWLEDGE AND A WILLINGNESS TO CONTINUE LEARNING

We are looking for depth of understanding of the environmental issues facing the IT industry as well as a comprehensive knowledge of best practice sustainability strategies and methods for implementing and continuously improving sustainable work practices in the workplace.

3. TECHNIQUES & PROCESSES, TECHNOLOGY SKILLS AND PROBLEM SOLVING


We are looking for appropriate use of technology to assist in preparing a clear and accurate policy suitable for implementation in the workplace. You also need to show an understanding of the kinds of problems that can arise in promoting sustainable work practices and how these might be addressed.

4. WORK ORGANISATION, PLANNING AND SELF MANAGEMENT

We expect to see ongoing progress on class discussions and exercises and full utilisation of Blackboard as per course requirements and timely submission of all required assessment tasks.


5. COMMUNICATION, PEOPLE NETWORKING, LANGUAGE AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS AND TEAMWORK

We expect to see contributions to relevant discussions and scheduled team sessions. In addition your tasks should demonstrate a very good understanding of strategies for a collaborative approach towards teamwork and interpersonal skills.

Final Grades Table:

CHD Competent with High Distinction
CDI Competent with Distinction
CC Competent with Credit
CAG Competency Achieved – Graded
NYC Not Yet Competent
DNS Did Not Submit for assessment

Further information regarding the application of the grading criteria will be provided by your teacher.
 

 

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