Academic and Employability Skills

This report discusses the importance of academic and employability skills and how they are interrelated. It explores the use of the Gibbs reflection model to analyze and improve these skills. Topics covered include academic writing, referencing, CV writing, and reflective writing.

Academic and
Employability Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Gibbs reflection model................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills are the skills which are consist of core skills like presentation skills,
referencing and the academic and technical writing skills which undergoes more different things
such as reflective practices, critical thinking etc. Whereas the soft skills and capabilities that can
used to get any job or used in the employability sectors are defined as the employability skills.
They are the skills which provides the employment to the person and that makes the person
employable. Both the academic and employability skills are interrelated with each other as
academic skills are necessary to gain the employability skills. Without having the academic skills
employability skills are not worthy.(Cotronei-Baird, 2020). Academic skills are generally
developed by the students when they are pursuing their education in schools, colleges and
universities. As academic skills includes the increasing and developing the skills which requires
more amount of dedication and attention and employability skills ensures that the person is
ensuring and having the appreciation on its workplace.(Pusriawan and Soenarto, 2019) The
report below is based on the Gibbs reflection model that defines the relevance on various topics
like employability, academic writing, referencing, CV writing, reflecting writing along with its
conclusion.
MAIN BODY
Gibbs reflection model
For a person it becomes very difficult task to analyse the various academic and
employability skills. So with the analysis of the Gibbs reflection model it become easy for the
person to ensure and analyse their different variants of skills according to the reflection model
related with the different topics. The reflection model makes the person thinks about the
experiences and feelings. (Bhagra and Sharma, 2018). The positive and negative impact of the
experiences and things and they can learn from it and can take the action plan according to it. It
refers to a practice based learning. Gibbs reflection model is explained in importance of different
topics are as follows:
 Description
 Feelings
 Evaluation
 Analysis
1

 Conclusion Action plan
Description: In the first stage of description of Gibbs reflection model, a person can
determine the answers of question that arises with work like what happened, when it occurred,
who was there at that time. In this stage no conclusion can be drawn by the person. This is the
where individual can determine the situation in detail. It generally defines the situations that are
arising in the mind. (Nisha and Rajasekaran, 2018). During the phase of description in the
reflection model we have different topics that is to be taken into mind with the aim of enhancing
the academic and employability skills of the person. So that it will be easier for the students to
survive in the competition. The description stage can be performed as:
In context to the employability description of the employability skills questions are
answered in that stage.(Byrne, 2020).As when I was a student and was at the starting of my
working my various academic and employability skills are analysed. I used to determine the
various questions to enhance my employability so that I will be able to survive in the competitive
world and can be able to get my desired job and become employable. In context to the academic
writing which refers to the non fiction type of writing which is a part of academic work.
Academic writing is clear, focussed, structured and concise. The main purpose of academic
writing is to focus on the reader 's understanding. In description phase of academic writing
different writing skills are analysed. When I was student I used to analyse my various writing
skills on different topics .In context to the referencing I learned about reference where I used to
analyse different projects and my tutors taught me to find the references according to the given
projects. Referencing in general basically means defining and acknowledging the sources
through which I found information about the projects. After analysing and learning the
referencing the next I learned from the stage of description is CV writing where my tutors are
taught me to build my CV, so that it will be beneficial for me to identify and mention my learned
skills to get job. (Griffin and Coelhoso, 2019). CV writing refers to the writing where I can
mention my experience related to my academic qualification, personal background and academic
qualification to apply in different places to get any job. As reflection defined as the mental
process and it is a contemplation. I learned about the reflective writing.The reflective writing are
the thoughts and the opinion which comes when we are reflecting which is known as the
reflection. Reflective writing is generally used in academic writing that is done to examining our
2

response to a newly things which we have experienced of writing. Reflective writing can also be
applied and analytical as when it is applied critical analysis and critical thinking is done which is
used in research of the project. (Pereira, Villas-Boas and Rebelo, 2019).
Feelings: After analysing the situation in detail the step in the reflection model is feelings
in which an individual can explore the feelings and thoughts that was there at the time of
experience. The thoughts and feelings can be determining the answers of the question like what
were you feeling during the situation, what do you think about the situation now. As when I
learned about all the topics as a coarse to improve my academic skills as well as my
employability skills to achieve success.(Pouratashi and Zamani, 2019). As some of the topics
were familiar and some topics are proved to be more worth for me. For understanding each and
every topic it is full of interesting activities. I felt very excited and enthusiastic for learning these
topics and my level of interest and focus is on high as I was about learn new topics that will help
me in developing my personality. And for having a better performance it is essential for me to
have a brief knowledge about these topics. (Bryan and Clegg, 2019).I participated with full
energy and sincerity in the activities. As I was happy and thought that its been a great experience
but sometimes I felt little irritated because of the others students as they were totally not
cooperative. I had motivation to do CV writing where I can do the activities with full of
activeness.
Evaluation: In evaluation an individual can determine how and what things worked and
not worked during the situation and experience. Evaluation can be analysed by answering the
questions like was the experience is good or bad, was the experience helpful or not. In context to
the different topics I can evaluate that my effectiveness and efficiency towards learning the
academic skills and employability skills has now wider up as these learnings in these topics
made me realise that it is very complex and difficult to have better communication. So it is
necessary to learn these topics like academic writing, CV writing etc. to have a clear vision and
maintain better communication with the other students with a improves personality. Also with
the help of reflective writing it helped me to facilitate myself and analysed my different areas of
improvement through which my performance can be enhanced more and personality can be
developed. (Gill, 2018). Which helped me to make a comparison among the other students to
match their desired level of performance. We used to work in team to complete different
3

writings. I evaluated that by working in a team it can become easy for the team members to
complete the task on time with full of their efficiency and effectiveness.
Analysis: After evaluating the experiences and situation a true analysis of reflection is
done. It focuses on evaluating the situation properly. (Menz, 2020). The situation can evaluated
by determining the answers of the questions like what went good, what did not worked. With the
analysis stage of reflective model I am able to analyse that what we thinks ans assume towards
any situation and the situation makes as it is. In this stage of reflection model I have developed
the understanding about the reflective actions. With analysing stage I am now able to analyse my
strengths and weakness of mine and what are the different key factors on which I can improve on
so that the performance can be improve and personality can be enhanced. As a individual I found
it difficult to analyse the different tasks and situations and build the confidence level. With the
learning of the topics I am able to analyse and make me believe that I am able to perform better
and build my confidence level with a improved personality. As the CV writing skills helped me
to build my experienced and helped me to improve my academic and employability skills so that
I am able to present in front of the persons and have the potential to present myself better in front
of the employers also to have desired job of my choice.
Conclusion: After analysing the situation the next step of reflection cycle is conclusion
in which an individual can determine what he has learn from the situation and what else could be
did to face that situation. (Suleman,2018).When I have analysed the different situations, tasks
performed build a point of view the next phase of reflection model is to make a conclusion of the
experience about what happened and what I have concluded about the topics. As being a student
as a individual I have gained and learned different academic skills and employability skills
through the universities and online courses by tutors. It have been proved to be positive and
knowledgable experience for me. As I learned several skills which helped me to build my
personality and improve myself on my key areas so that I am able to present myself in front of
the employers to get the job and become employable. (Osmani Hindi and Weerakkody, 2018).
These topics have the relevance in my life to make myself a person with a improved personality.
Action plan: The last step of the reflection cycle is action plan in which an individual can
learn from his experience and according his skills next situations can be faced. It focuses on
learning from the situations and experiences and taking the actions by having the answers of the
question like what else can be done to face that situation again if it arises and other situation
4

comes. In the last phase of the reflection model that is taking action plans, as I was active and
participated in the all activities that made me learn different skills which leads me to enhance my
academic and employability skills to develop my personality.(Wrye, Chafin and Higginbotham,
2019). When I used to learn all the topics at the same time I analysed different things and
learned different skills. From that the action plans that can be taken to enhance my skills more
and to deal with that activities again are that I will ensure that the activities are to be done with
the teams is with their efficiency and effectiveness.(Ornellas, Falkner and Stålbrandt, 2019). I
will check that the task that is offered from the team members should be performed wisely and
provide learning things to them and provided different ways to deal with challenges and
activities which leads the team heads to formulate their decisions.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that a person or student should reflect to their
behaviours and activities so that they are able to analyse and identify the good things and the
improvements that are to be made to increase their strength and gain competitive advantage to
the students to deal with with the others students competitively. The report is based on the Gibbs
reflection model where the reflective behaviour of the student can be analysed and monitor
reflections of the student perspective. The reflection model is used to analyse the different
activities that cannot be understand. There were different topics that were interrelated to the
reflection model. With the help of this report different topics of employability, referencing, CV
writing, reflective writing and academic writing in context are explained to get better
performance of the students to get better job opportunities with the improved abilities and
capabilities.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhagra, A. and Sharma, D.K., 2018. Changing paradigm of employability skills in the global
business world: A review. IUP Journal of Soft Skills .12 (2). pp.7-24.
Bryan, C. and Clegg, K. eds., 2019. Innovative assessment in higher education: A handbook for
academic practitioners. Routledge.
Byrne, C., 2020. What determines perceived graduate employability? Exploring the effects of
personal characteristics, academic achievements and graduate skills in a survey
experiment. Studies in Higher Education, pp.1-18.
Cotronei-Baird, V.S., 2020. Academic hindrances in the integration of employability skills
development in teaching and assessment practice. Higher Education .79 (2). pp.203-
223.
Gill, R.J., 2018. Building employability skills for higher education students: An Australian
example. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability .9 (1). pp.84-
92.
Griffin, M. and Coelhoso, P., 2019. Business students’ perspectives on employability skills post
internship experience. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
Menz, M., 2020. Integrating academic skills and employability-revisiting the learning journal.
Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice .8 (1).
Nisha, S.M. and Rajasekaran, V., 2018. Employability skills: A review. IUP Journal of Soft
Skills .12 (1). pp.29-37.
Ornellas, A., Falkner, K. and Stålbrandt, E.E., 2019. Enhancing graduates’ employability skills
through authentic learning approaches. Higher education, skills and work-based
learning.
Osmani, M., Hindi, N.M. and Weerakkody, V., 2018. Developing employability skills in
information system graduates: Traditional vs. innovative teaching methods.
International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education
(IJICTE) .14 (2). pp.17-29.
Pereira, E.T., Villas-Boas, M. and Rebelo, C.C., 2019. Does Entrepreneurship and Innovative
Education Matter to Increase Employability Skills?: A Framework Based on the
Evidence From Five European Countries. In Global Considerations in
Entrepreneurship Education and Training (pp. 218-231). IGI Global.
Pouratashi, M. and Zamani, A., 2019. University and graduates employability. Higher
Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
Pusriawan, P. and Soenarto, S., 2019. Employability skills of vocational school students in Palu
City for entering the work world. Jurnal Pendidikan Vokasi .9 (1). pp.33-42.
Suleman, F., 2018. The employability skills of higher education graduates: insights into
conceptual frameworks and methodological options. Higher Education .76 (2). pp.263-
278.
Wrye, B., Chafin, C. and Higginbotham, C., 2019. Creating a Win-Win: Designing and
implementing mutually beneficial collaborations between community organizations and
academic programs. Education+ Training .61 (5). pp.605-621.
6

7