1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
Most supervisors will not volunteer detailed feedback to someone who is only there three days. Waiting to be told is how you leave with nothing useful. You already named transferable skills from placement in Strand 2.2. Today you are applying that work: you turn those skills into a short feedback ask that ALT 4 (your development plan built from real workplace feedback) will use later.
In this lesson you will prepare a five-minute conversation that asks for specific, evidenced feedback, or write up feedback you have already received so it is usable later.
Vague praise feels nice and teaches you nothing. A concrete example of one skill you used well, and one you need to grow, is gold for ALT 4.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Three terms you will use when you ask for feedback and when you write it up.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace feedback | Specific comments from someone who has seen you work, with real examples rather than vague praise. This is the raw material your Feedback Request Script is designed to collect, and what ALT 4 later responds to. | Your supervisor naming how you handled a short delivery on Wednesday, not just saying you had a great attitude |
| Supervisor | The person who oversees your day-to-day work on placement. They are the first person to ask; if they are not available, name a second person who actually watched you work. | The floor manager who set your tasks each morning and watched you serve customers |
| Dialogue | A two-way conversation where you ask clear questions, listen fully, and check you understood. Your script should invite answers, not a monologue or a defence of yourself mid-way. | Asking for one strength and one development point, then repeating back what you heard before you leave |
3 - Write Your Feedback Request Script or Feedback Write-up ~35 mins
First, study Orla's five-minute feedback request below. Use the annotations on each beat to see what makes the ask specific, fair, and easy for a busy supervisor to answer. Then produce your own artefact for Strand 2.2.
If you have not yet had the conversation: write a five-minute feedback request script for your work-experience supervisor (or the person who watched you most). Your script must:
- open with a clear, short time ask
- name two transferable skills or moments from your placement you want feedback on
- invite both a strength and an area for improvement, each with a specific example if they can give one
- say briefly why the feedback matters to you
- propose a concrete time or next step
If you have already received feedback: write a structured note instead: who gave it, when, the exact words or closest paraphrase for each point, which parts were evidenced and which were vague, and one line on what you will do with the actionable part.
Save it as Feedback Request Script or Feedback Write-Up in your Strand 2.2 folder. You will sort vague praise from actionable points in the next feedback lesson, and this becomes source material for ALT 4.
Feedback request script: Orla to her placement supervisor
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Talk these through with the person beside you, or work through them quietly on your own.
- Which part of Orla’s script would feel hardest for you to say out loud, and what would make it easier?
- Why does effective workplace feedback need both a strength and an area for improvement before you can build a real development plan?
If you want a portfolio note later, add two lines under your Feedback Request Script or Feedback Write-Up: the skill you most want evidenced, and the person you will actually ask.
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
In this lesson you:
- Saw why waiting for feedback on a short placement often means leaving with none
- Studied a strong five-minute feedback request that named real moments, asked for both a strength and a development point, and made it easy to say yes
- Wrote your own Feedback Request Script or Feedback Write-Up into your Strand 2.2 folder
- Prepared material that the next feedback lesson and ALT 4 will use when you turn feedback into a plan
Optional stretch: practise the opening thirty seconds of your script out loud once, then cut any sentence you would not actually say to a busy adult.
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