Academic and employability skills - Assignment

Academic and employability
skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY .................................................................................................................................1
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................1
Performance development plan..............................................................................................3
Use of various skills in order to find employment in hotel industry :....................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills can be referred as array of skills which help in tackling the process of
organising as well as taking new information or retaining information and dealing with new
assessments. For a student academic skills are vital in order to achieve success. Employability
skills are the skills which are required by an individual in order to employable which may
include technical understanding and employers normally outline the set of skills which they want
from employees in order to perform the job (Suleman, 2016). In this report Travelodge Hotel is
taken as an organisation which is operating in hotels and hospitality industry in UK. This report
discusses about the SWOT and PDP in order to analyse the academic and employability skills
and also how these skills will be used for finding employment within hotel and hospitality
industry.
MAIN BODY
SWOT Analysis
Personal SWOT analysis helps an individual in improving its career and its is a common
tool which is used in the professional world in order to evaluate past, present as well as future
position of the individual. Personal swot is conducted by an individual in order to pursue its
career goals. For conducting personal swot there are various questions which are asked related to
the four areas to be examined. Each and every individual has got some strengths which can help
in pursuing the career goals and weaknesses which can create barriers for achieving the career
goals. Also there are various opportunities available and number of threats which needs to be
minimised in order to achieve a successful career. Personal swot analysis can done in following
manner and can help me to achieve my career goal which is to become Assistant manager at
Travelodge:
Strengths: Following are my strengths which can help me in achieve my career goal:
 One of the major strength which can help me in achieving my career goal is that I have
got the master’s degree in Hotel Management and I have done my internship of 6 months
in local hotel. So it can prove to be my strength in achieving my career goal.
 For any job in hotel one should posses good communication skills, I can easily
understand others what they want to say. So this skill can help me in setting a good
collaboration and understanding with employees and customers too.
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 I am also a good learner, I learn things quickly which can help grow professionally with
career.
 Being MBA in Hotel Management, I have good knowledge about food hygiene and
health and safety which can prove a key element in achieving my career.
Weaknesses: I have some weaknesses which I need to overcome in a certain period of time, if
not addresses it can create hindrances in achieving my career goal, these are as follows:
 I lack time management skills, as I face problems in completing tasks on time, so this
resulted in delay of tasks. So, lack of time management skills can create problems as in
Hotel industry every thing should be done on time in order to achieve high level of
customer satisfaction.
 Lack of leadership skills, as I have never leaded a team and with no professional
experience in the field so it can prove to be weaknesses in becoming Assistant Manager
in Travelodge Hotel.
 I also lack Analytical and problem solving skills, which results poor judgement and I am
not able to take proper decisions (Frese, Hass and Friedrich, 2016). Absence of this can
cause hindrances in achieving my career goals and if I am not able to overcome this
weakness it may result in the loss of the Hotel.
 As I don't have any real job experience so, there are technical skills in me which I lack
and also I need to develop these skills in me.
Opportunities: There various opportunities available in the industry which make achieving the
career goal easy for me, These are as follows:
 There are various job vacancies within the hotel industry which have creates a huge
opportunity for me in achieving my career.
 Also, Hotel industry is growing rapidly which can help me in developing my professional
career.
Threats: Pursuing a career is in not really easy there are various threats available in the market
which can make pursuing my career goal difficult for me, these are as:
 People who are highly experienced with high level of leadership and other professional
skills.
 I am just an worked in local hotel and there are people who have worked in large hotels
with high knowledge and technical skills.
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 I am not a good team leader which can pose threat.
Performance development plan
In order to overcome my weaknesses PDP is really important, so it can be developed as
below:
Skills to be developed Activities Measure Time period
Time Management
Skills
In order to improve
my time management
skills I, need to
prioritise my tasks and
try to finish the task on
time. I need to set
some boundaries and
need to stay away
from distractions.
It can be measured by,
I am able to complete
tasks on time without
committing any errors
(Saks, 2015).
3 months
Leadership Skills To improve my
leadership skills, I
need to learn about
various leadership
style which I apply
during the job and
should try to lead the
team by setting proper
collaboration and
communication.
This skill can be
measured if I will lead
a team in an effective
manner with positive
outcomes.
6 Months.
Analytical and
Problem Solving
Skills
In order to improve
this skill I need to
analyse the situation in
better way and check
out the possible
outcomes of various
This skill can be
measured, I am able to
take decisions that are
fruitful and best for me
and for the
4 months.
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decisions taken. organisation.
Technical Skills In order to improve
my technical skills I
will read technical
books on Hotel
Management. Watch
videos and read
articles which will
improve my technical
skills and I will be
able to gain more
technical knowledge.
These skills can be
measured, I will be
able to do my job
technical which save
time and money.
3 months
Use of various skills in order to find employment in hotel industry :
In hotel industry a high level of customer service is must as it helps the company to gain
the trust and loyalty of employee. A customer feel good when a warm welcome is given to them.
A good customer service lies on the fact that is a customer needs are met or not. Therefore in
order to understand the need of employee and to entertain them it is very necessary that a person
has good communication skill. As I have good communication skill it will help me to find
employment in hotel and hospitality industry. This skill will also help me in customer and staff
management. I also have a ability to work in a team. In order to work in a company or industry
team work is very necessary. Therefore it this skill will help me in working collaboratively with
my team members(Ko, 2015.).
Problems are inevitable, the most important part is how you deal with a problem. I have
the ability to deal with difficult situation and resolve problems. I have the creativity to find
solution to the problems. Therefore it will make easier for me to work with the other team
members and deal with every type of situation. As the employees in hospitality industry have to
work overtime it is not a job of 9-5 therefore a person has to be flexible in working with the time
phrase. And as I have done a internship in local hotel for about six months. Therefore it will be a
advantage for me. Also as I have completed my MBA in hotel management I think that it will
not be a difficult task to find a employment in same industry. I have learned many things during
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my MBA degree in hotel management which will be a positive point for me as I already have
some idea about the working of the industry.
One of the most important skill which is needed in hotel industry is leadership skill(Skills
required for hotel industry, 2019). And I am not good in it but I have started to work on it. The
expected time that I will learn this skill is about three months. I will try to learn this skill as early
as possible and in a good way which will help me with my work in same industry.
The other most important skill in hotel industry is operational skill(Le, McDonald and
Klieve, 2018). A mangers or a leader in organisation should know the fundamentals of
operational management. As I have done MBA in human resource I have enough knowledge
about the operation management in hotel industry. Without the understanding of basic concepts
such as human resource management, cost control, accounting etc., it will be difficult for
managers to stay in a industry.
As the industry needs professionals who are good in multitasking therefore my internship
which I have done and the learning which I have taken from the internship will help me with
working in the industry.
CONCLUSION
The study helps in understanding of SWOT analysis. And how this help an individual in
order to determine their strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. Professional development
plan help an individual to work on its weakness and to enhance their skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Frese, M., Hass, L. and Friedrich, C., 2016. Personal initiative training for small business
owners. Journal of Business Venturing Insights. 5. pp.27-36.
Ko, W.H., 2015. Constructing a professional competence scale for foodservice research &
development employees from an industry viewpoint. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 49. pp.66-72.
Le, A.H., McDonald, C.V. and Klieve, H., 2018. Hospitality higher education in Vietnam:
Voices from stakeholders. Tourism management perspectives, 27. pp.68-82.
Saks, A., 2015. Managing Performance Through Training & Development, (Canadian ed.).
Nelson Education.
Suleman, F., 2016. Employability skills of higher education graduates: Little consensus on a
much-discussed subject. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 228. pp.169-174.
Online
Skills required for hotel industry. 2019. [Online] Available through
<https://www.kangan.edu.au/students/blog/essential-skills-for-a-career-in-hospitality>
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