Professional Identity and Practice

This report discusses the importance of professional development and its requirements in different roles within Thomas Cook. It includes a discussion on personal and professional development, skills and competencies expected by Thomas Cook, and a personal development plan for an assistant manager role.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
AND PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
PART 3............................................................................................................................................7
CONLCUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identify and practice means to understand the requirement of and includes
those in general practices and to comply with them while delivering the services under a
particular profession. The professional development of the employee not help in their personal
grooming but also guide their behaviour in the professional conduct to enhance their carrier
opportunities within an organisation with developing their skills and roles. In the present report a
discussion related with professional development and is requirement done. This starts with
making a poster over the induction of the staff with raising the awareness related with personal
and professional development with depicting tis importance within Thomas Cook. In this a
reflective report is includes where training and development require for the manager is
explained with outlining the opportunities available to a the mangers within present skills set. In
the second part of the report a personal development plan is prepared where them angers have
identifies the skills that are required to developed under professional conduct and how the
same will be achieved with allotting each skill development a time frame. The last part of the
report is related with developing an application and interview of the assistance manager for
Thomas Cook. In the present report all the requirements are duly met and are presented in the
following report.
PART 1
A) Individual Poster
Personal development
Personal development is a process which asses skills and qualities of people and consider
aim of their life. Also, by personal development goals of individuals set in order to maximise
their potential (Luft and Roughley, 2016). Personal development enables individual to satisfy
their self actualisation needs. The personal development enhances quality of life of an individual
and assist them in attain their aspiration and dream.
Professional development
The professional development is associated with aim to learn and maintain credentials
which includes academic degrees, conferences and opportunities of informal learning.
Professional development adopts special training, knowledge, expertise, effectiveness and skills.
This development provides aid to maintain and build morale of employees and to attract higher
staff quality to a business entity.
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The Importance of Ongoing professional development for both employees and Thomas Cook.
Importance of professional development for employees
 The professional development enables capabilities of employees working in Thomas
cook by develop their current standards within same field. This enable employees to
satisfy their individual as well as professional goals.
 Professional development ensure employees to maintain their knowledge, expertise and
skills which they need to render to professional services to client and the community. The
skills and knowledge is helpful for them to develop individual skills as well as
professional skills.
 Thomas cooks by enabling professional development able to build public confidence
among employees which help them to improve their professional life. By ongoing professional development employees able to improve their quality of life,
property and sustainability.
Importance of professional development for Thomas cook
 The job satisfaction as well as morale of employees increases with helps the company to
decline employee turnover ratio.
 Also, the employees capabilities to adopt new technologies enhances with professional
development which assist the company to maintain and accomplish goals in efficient
manner.
 The company by ongoing professional development able to attain financial gain along
with it, the employees efforts help the company to attain competitive advantage. The image of company also enhances by professional development which helps the
company to attain and attract huge customer base. This learning includes ethical training
in which employees train in work place about ethical doing which not only enhances their
professional image but also assists company to develop their image among rest of the
world.
Skills and competences expected by Thomas cook for different levels and roles
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There are different skills needed through different levels and roles of companies to attain
development as well as to perform their assigned task. The different roles and levels are as
follows :
Sales consultant – Executing sales is difficult part of a business in which fund need to be
generated. The sales consultant must have strong listening and communication skills so that they
can communicate with the client and able to enhance ratio of sales of Thomas cook. In addition
to this, sales professionals must have accompanied with skill of conflict management and
resolution. This enables them to build relationship with client, management and other party of
company to attain targeted sales in efficient manner.
Assistant manager – The assistant managers requires performing leadership role
effectively. The role of leadership for assistant manager in cabin crew includes trouble shoot
problems in company, disputes resolution between clients and employees. Along with skill of
leadership the assistant manager must have capable enough to execute decision making. The
assistant manager working in Thomas cook must able to make quick and appropriate decision for
the company which is beneficial for the Thomas cook.
Cabin crew – The cabin crew for working under Thomas cook company need to maintain
good communication as well as interpersonal skills in them. Also, they must know and able to
work in team and coordinate within the team. Along with this, the skills of numeracy must be
there is member of cabin crew. The skill of confidence and flexibility enhances their quality of
work executing in cabin crew member of Thomas cook.
B) Individual reflective report
Own skills, abilities and competencies for assistant managers role
Skill refers to the ability of a person to perform its work well and in good way. Various
types of skills and competencies are required by a person to become distinctive from others
because the person can differentiate from the another person by way of skills, capabilities and
competencies only. Since the competition is so tough in this modern era so it is of utmost
importance that the person posses some special skills, competencies and ability to perform work
well. For the post of Assistant Manager role in Thomas Cook it is very essential for a person to
posses specialized skills and traits.
For working in Thomas Cook as an assistant manager it is very necessary for me to have
good communication skills. According to Marañón and Pera, (2015), communication skills are
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very crucial and necessary for a person dealing in hospitality sector because without
communication no work can be accomplished in a travel company. This skill is of utmost
importance because communication is a medium through which person can share its feelings,
views and information with one another. In travel industry this skill is of priority because a
manager ha to constantly deal with a number of different types of person on regular basis.
But in accordance with the views of Cyrino, (2016), leading and motivating others is the
main skills required by assistant managers. This is because of the main reason that leading other
people are very necessary for the hotels and travel company. Also, motivating others and the
consumers to come back again is also very necessary. Motivation is very crucial and this can be
provided to the customers by way of providing good and satisfying experience to the consumers.
But Olsen and Buchanan, (2017), articulated that the assistant manager must have
commitment of delivering excellent services to the consumers. This skill is very good in me.
This skill is important according to Wald, (2015), because if the manager will think that it is the
moral duty of the manager to provide the consumer with proper service then only the manager
will perform well and good. This skill of manager will also help in attracting more consumers
because if the manager will be very courteous and friendly and helping then more and more
people will love to come to the place again and again.
In the views of Webb, ed., (2017), having competent IT skills is also very necessary in
this modern era. According to the latest trends almost everything is being recorded and entered
through with help of computers and machines. So it is very necessary for the assistant manager
to be tech friendly. It means that the manager must be efficient and be able to use the latest and
new technologies very efficiently and productively. But Luft and Roughley, (2016), argues that
the manager must have good influencing skills. This is of importance because the manager has to
ensure that the consumers and happy and satisfied with their stay at the hotel.
Different learning theories and approaches used in personal and professional development
For developing some skills and knowledge the person applying for Assistant Manager
post in Thomas Cook can take help of different types of learning approaches and theories. For
this a model named Kolb's learning style has been used. David Kolb has proposed these learning
styles in 1984 which helped him to develop his learning style inventory. According to him
learning includes acquiring of raw and abstract ideas which can be applied in different situations
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in different way according to the mind of the person and in accordance with the situation
prevailing. This involves four different type of learning style which is discussed as follows-
Diverging- this style is followed by people who have different perception for all the
things, and they are very sensitive. It is called diverging style because people using this style
performs better in situations which requires idea generation like brain storming.
Assimilating- it is a style in which person first watch and then critically thinks about that
situation and then generating some different skills and competencies. People with assimilating
styles are less focused and more interested in extract ideas and concepts.
Converging- person with this style is able to solve problem and will use its learning to
find solution to practical issues. These type of people prefer technical skills and are less
concerned and relating to people and interpersonal aspects.
Accommodating- it means doing the thing and generating feeling on that work done.
These type of learning is based on intuition and not on logical thinking. These kinds of people
take help of other people's thinking and analysis.
Other then this Kolb's model skill audit have also been done in order to know the skill of
the person. Skill audit is a tool used in order to analyse the person's skills completely with help
of SWOT analysis. With this skill audit a person came to know about what he is good at and
what it lacks.
Strengths
 I am very good at learning, so I will be able to learn the recent changes taking place in
the environment. Another strength is that I am very good and apt with communicating with others which is
the most important thing which I need to posses at time of job in travel industry.
Weaknesses- these are the things which the person lacks and which hampers them from growing
and working ahead. Some weaknesses are like-
 The major weakness which I have is that I am very short tempered which will not be
good at time of dealing with customers Another weakness is that I am not that good at managing my time well so that every work
is managed on time.
Opportunities- these are the option from the external environment which the person can use in
growing and developing. Some opportunity lying for me to develop these skills are as follows-
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 I am very good at catching new things very fast (Cyrino, 2016). So it can be an
opportunity for me in grabbing knowledge relating to all the latest developments.
Threats- these are the substances which restricts the person from developing the skills. Some
threats which might stop developing my skills are like-
 the major threat can be of the competition for the post of assistant manager.
PART 2
Personal development plan
Skills to be
developed
Priority Requirement Resources
required
Start
date
End
date
Activities
undertaken to
develop the
skill
Communication
skills
5 High Human
resources as
communication
can be
developed
through
effectively.
communicating
with people.
1-7-19 31-12-
19
Attending
seminars and
workshops
over effective
communication
will guest as
well as the
staff as
different
people are met
by the
manager on
daily basis for
providing
services of
Thomas cook.
IT skills 4 Moderate Fir
developing this
skills funds
are required to
15-7-
19-
31-8-
19
For this
classes will be
taken and the
tutor will teach
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purchase the
IT hardware’s
to which
manger can
easily access
and operate.
Also, this
required funds
for taking
trainings and
class to
develop the
technical skills.
on how to use
the technical
hardware’ and
software’s
effectively in
delivering day
to day
operations
effectively
without any
mistakes.
Commitment in
deliverance
4.5 High This do not
require any
funding or any
human
resources
rather it is a
personal
development
which a person
is required to
do own
development
by giving time
to each activity
and deciding
how to achieve
that in time
without
1-8-19 31-12-
19
For this them
anger ill under
take personal
development
activity no
daily basis
where he will
assign a task to
himself which
is a daily
requirement of
his job
performance
and will try to
achieve it
perfectly on
time and this
will lead to
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comprising its
requirements.
manage his
time and
delivering
excellences in
his services.
Motivational
skill
3 Moderate For this both
funds and
human
resources are
required to
develop the
motivations
parasites to the
employees and
staff by taking
training and
attending
seminars over
the same.
1-8--
2019
31-10-
2019
For this
seminar over
how to be
motivates
always and
implanting this
skill in thw
workplace to
keep the clines
as ell employee
always
motivated. For
this
meditational
classes will
also be taken
in ode rot gain
a self control
and increase
the
motivational
level of the
manager.
PART 3
Step 1
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Curriculum vitae
Curriculum vitae
Name : Adeline Nelson
Email : [e-mail]
Date of birth : December 25, 1992
Career objective
To aim at accomplishing both professional and personal goal and completing the task with
perfection by zeal, sincerity and diligence.
Educational qualification
 Bachelor in accountancy in the year 2011 with 67%
 Masters in business administration in the year 2013 with 74%.
 Diploma of full 1 year in PGDBA
Experience
 4 + year experience in working as Junior assistant manager in Expat Explore travel
company.
 2 + months experience in Titan travel company working as a sales manager.
Technical knowledge
 Expertise in net browsing and MS Office.
Skills and qualities
 Leadership skill
 Excellent in communication skill
 Problem solving skills
 Quality of decision making
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Cover letter
Adeline Nelson
[e-mail]
New Zealand
To,
Human resource department
Thomas cook group
UK
Dear,
I am writing to express my interest which is associated with working in your company Thomas
cook group as an assistant manager. I have learnt for your company through a well reputed
student centre and after visiting and go through your website I have come to apply in vacant
position of Assistant manager.
I am currently working in Titan travel company for more than 2 months as a sales manager.
Earlier I had worked in Expat Explore travel as a Junior assistant manager for more than 4
years. I feel that vacant position of your company is matching with my experience and
qualification. Also, I want to enhance my learning opportunities and allow me exposure to my
career by getting hired by your company.
I would like the opportunity to meet you to discuss about this vacant opportunity. Please let me
know if you have any questions. You can contact with me 406-891-9889 or email me at
[e-mail].
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Adeline Nelson
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Step 2
Thomas cook is British travel company and was founded in 2007. The company Thomas
cook is known for their leisure travel with innovation history started in 1841. The company has
served to almost 19 million customers which choose to travel each year and transform their
business through accomplish their holiday dreams.
I have skill of leadership which is a requirement of Assistant manager in Thomas cook.
Also, mine communication skill is excellent along with this I have skill of problem solving skill.
I have a quality of decision making in which I have contributed my decisions towards
development of previous companies I have worked.
Step 3
Reflective report
I have prepared for my interview in Thomas cook by executed research about company. Also, I
have analysed my skills in which I found that my qualities are matching with the vacant position.
I was nervous while reaching at premises of Thomas cook group but then I feel confident as
getting succeed in various stages of interview. Also, my confidence boost enough and my desire
for this job has risen. This interview have helped in me gaining my knowledge in many fields
like about company, experience about travel industry, tourism, etc. This interview not only
enhances my confidence but also I am able to figure out my strengths. The interview procedure
with Thomas cook was a great and memorable experience.
CONLCUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that for a person under the profession is
required to posses certain set of skill to carry out the activities under a particular role. In the
above report all the requirement for professional development have been met. This includes
developments of a poster over the requirement of professional developments and making
awareness among the managers over the training and development to explore more
opportunities of growth with in same organisation. A individual report is written where skills set
have been identified to be possess by the mangers of Thomas Cook and this includes
communication, IT, motivational and commitment skills. Furthermore, for development of the
same a professional development plan have also been prepared in order to enhance those skills
under professional conduct. Moreover in the last part of the report an application for applying the
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role of assistant manager have been present in the specific format with a cover letter and
outlining all the professional skills and achievement of managers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cyrino, M.C.D.C.T., 2016. Mathematics teachers’ professional identity development in
communities of practice: Reifications of proportional reasoning teaching. Bolema:
boletim de educação matemática. 30(54). pp.165-187.
Luft, T. and Roughley, R., 2016. Self: The Role of Reflective Practice for Supporting
Professional Identity Development in Graduate Students. SUPPORTING, p.53.
Marañón, A.A. and Pera, M.P.I., 2015. Theory and practice in the construction of professional
identity in nursing students: A qualitative study. Nurse Education Today. 35(7). pp.859-
863.
Olsen, B. and Buchanan, R., 2017. “Everyone Wants You to Do Everything”: Investigating the
Professional Identity Development of Teacher Educators. Teacher education
quarterly. 44(1). pp.9-34.
Wald, H.S., 2015. Professional identity (trans) formation in medical education: reflection,
relationship, resilience. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.701-706.
Webb, S.A. ed., 2017. Professional identity and social work. Taylor & Francis.
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