HCM4001 Essential Skills in Health and Care Management | Portfolio Assignment 2026 Assessment Brief HCM4001 Essential Skills in Health and Care Management Module title
Essential Skills in Health and Care Management
Module code
HCM4001
Assignment title
Portfolio
Assignment format
Word Document
Word/time limit
2000
File type
Word Doc/PDF
Percentage of final grade
This assignment is worth 100% of your final grade for this module.
Submission deadline
See the module page for the date of submission.
Grade release
You will normally receive your provisional grade and feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline.
Useful terms Learning outcomes (LOs)
The skills and knowledge that you should be able to show in your work.
Rubric / Marking Matrix
A set of rules or guidelines used to grade or assess work.
Task summary: A portfolio of three tasks Assignment instructions Task 1 Assess your own personal qualities by completing a SWOT analysis. An example of how to do this is below.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
(400 words) (LO1)
Task 2 Create 6 SMART goals that focus on 2 academic goals, 2 professional and 2 personal goals. You may use generative artificial intelligence tools such as Copilot to refine your goals.
You should reference the use of any AI tools within your reference list.
You can find an example of how to structure this below.
2 Academic Goals
2 Professional Goals
2 Personal Goals
   (200 words) (LO2, LO3)
Task 3 – Essay Based on your own personal or professional experience, consider work-based stressors within the health and care sector.
Write an essay that outlines a range of approaches to develop your own communication skills with colleagues and other stakeholders that will support the management of these stressors considering how you would use communication.
A full template of the assignment is issued with the module materials.
(1,400 words) (LO4)
This module is marked using categorical marking criteria.
You will have one opportunity to receive written feedback on your draft submission, covering up to 500 words of your work (equivalent to 25% of word count). The deadline for submitting your draft for feedback is the end of teaching week 8. Additional support is available through drop-in sessions; please check the module page for the session timings.
Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count/time of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list (see the referencing section for more information). You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.
You must not include your name in your submission because the assessment uses anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.
Learning outcomes (LO) By completing this assessment, you will have shown and be assessed on all of the learning outcomes:
LO1 Assess personal qualities and skills to develop a personal development plan for mapping employability and career development goals.
LO2 Explore a range of workplace opportunities, challenges and identify different tools and techniques to support personal and professional development in health and care.
LO3 Recognise the academic study skills needed to gather and use information that supports evidence-based practice.
LO4 Evaluate a range of approaches to develop own communication skills with colleagues and other stakeholders in the health and care sector using personal experience and examples of professional practice.
You will be graded based on how well you meet these learning outcomes. Your marker will use a Rubric/Marking Matrix to grade your work. This is provided on the module page, under the assessment or submission area.
Guidelines and policies You can find more useful information about the assignment and assessment policies in the module materials, including:
Word/time limit policy Harvard referencing guidelines (follow the referencing guidelines that are appropriate for your degree programme; if you are unsure which you should be using, please contact your module team) Academic integrity and misconduct policy Statement on the use of artificial intelligence on assessment Support information on short-term extensions, extenuating circumstances and academic skills support