Academic and Employability Skills: Reflection and Improvement

This reflection report discusses the importance of academic and employability skills such as time management, academic writing, public speaking, and analytical thinking. It explores the use of the Driscoll model of reflection and includes a SWOT analysis of the skills. The report also provides strategies for improvement and highlights the relevance of these skills in the job market.

Academic and employability
skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

TASK 2
INTRODUCTION
Academic and Employability skills refer to the various set of skills, understanding,
individual attributes and competencies that makes the graduates more likely to join employment
or undertake higher studies to become successful in the chosen careers and benefit themselves,
the organisation, community and the economy. In this project, a reflection will be undertaken for
the skills taught in the classroom, which are time management and organisation, analytical and
critical thinking skills, public speaking and academic writing. A swot analysis will be conducted
and the appropriate reflection model will be adopted will be driscoll model and learning
experiences will be evaluated. The employability skills will be compared to the present skill
level and relevant improvements will be determined.
MAIN BODY
Reflection model used
I have used the Driscoll model of reflection which is a formal framework for reflection
and is a structured process for guidance of explanation of reflection. The entire model is based
on three questions that I will be addressing in the report, which are what, so what and now what.
The first stage that I will describe will be purely descriptive and all events and instances will be
recalled by me. In the second stage, analysis will be undertaken through swot analysis and my
cognitive processes will get triggered to increase the understanding of the use of employability
skills. I will examine my own feelings that have impacted my behaviour in the learning and
application of the skills. I will acknowledge all my weaknesses and strengths. In the third stage, I
will develop action plan for the development of my weaknesses and future relevance for
initiating planning for improvement and align the improvements needed with the desired
outcomes (Golaghaie and et.al., 2019).
Employability skills
I can define employability skills as these essential skills, values and personal qualities that will
enable me in thriving in the modern workplaces and can also refer to enterprise skills. As per the
experiences and research, I can clearly state that employer’s value such skills that are been taught
in the semester. I understand that my education and gained qualification does make me eligible
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for jobs but to get into the most successful roles, I will need to inculcate and develop certain
employability skills over time. Many skills can be highly specific to jobs I select, but mostly can
be categorised as soft kills or the ones that can be transferred across industries and jobs, such soft
skills or employability skills will help me in meeting my career goals.
1. Time management and organisation
I can describe time management as the method that is used to plan and balance the time
between various activities and helps in completion of given tasks in a specific time frame in the
meddle of schedules, deadlines and challenges. Strong time management skills can help me in
moving ahead in my organisation as it will assist in in attainment of the targets and goals on
time. They also help in the accomplishment of tasks efficiently and consist of qualities like
organisation, prioritisation, flexibility, setting goals, delegation, planning and stress management
(Sainz, Ferrero and Ugidos, 2019).
Learning experiences: I have gained quality learning experiences in terms of time
management skills development as I have continuously strived to completed all my projects and
modules in any term or semester on time. I have learned the value of prioritisation of subjects
and tasks as per the need of urgency and importance. Apart from the classroom activities, I have
inculcated time management practically in my daily activities such as scheduling my work,
appointments, projects, meetings and leisure time in most appropriate way and developed habits
of organising and maintaining records and cross checking them. All these skills taught in the
class are highly relevant to employability in future, as employers ask for candidates who have the
ability to manage theory projects and understand the quality of prioritisation and delegation.
Comparison to industry requirements: I can describe my current level of time
management and organisational skills as moderate as the industry also requires people who can
have professional records of the deadlines, setting short term and long-term goals, managing
calendars, project management and scheduling.
Need for improvement: I have to improve in the areas of management of a professional
calendar, learn project management, Gantt chart development and other online techniques used
in the industry level for time management and formal task organising.
2. Academic writing
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I can describe academic writing skills as the written skill and language proficiency for
writing various assignments, research papers, essays, reports and presentation in an acedic style
with knowledge of appropriate referencing system, accurate grammar, relevant content, error free
and polished representation that presents a professional image. I can understand that academic
writing skills involve writing in a formal tone, good research methods, authentic sources,
adherence to formal structures, understanding of word precision, focussing on subject,
objectivity and subjectivity in writing etc (AlMarwani, 2020).
Learning experiences: In the entire term, I have undertaken and written various essays,
reports and presentations which have helped me in improving my writing style and
understanding the weak points and shift from an informal way of writing to a more academic and
structured format.
Comparison to industry requirements: I can rate this kill level as low. As per
employability needs, modern workplaces are looking for people with ability to prepare
documents in regard to specific guidelines, witing formal letters, using highly professional
language, researching and fact-finding skills, IT skills, Ms word and grammatical accuracy.
Need for improvement: Improving writing style, using relevant research sources,
improving vocabulary and gain language proficiency.
3. Public speaking
I can explain public speaking skills as the verbal communication and interpersonal skills
that help in communicating my ideas and opinions to a group of people by engaging with
audience and make oral presentations. A major reason why employers tend to value the public
speaking skills is the art of speaking and delivery of speeches can help them in gaining clients by
expressional of a business-related project, motivational and counselling areas to interact with
other employees, in training events and to make professional presentations. I can highlight this
skill on my CV to express my skills and expertise in the area (Mbato, 2020).
Learning experiences: In the entire duration of my course and semester, I have gained a
lot of valuable experience in the classroom through delivering presentation and learned the
process of articulation, speaking with clarity and to the point, engaging presentation style
through right body language, timings and facial expression, tone of voice and the proficiency in
language, being composite while talking and engaging with audience.
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Comparison to industry requirements: I can rate this kill level as high. As per industry
standards and to gain employability, people are expected to be highly good in communication
skills and their ability to articulate the context clearly, maintain eye contact, being professional,
creation of value and inspiration, illustrating the subject matter effectively.
Need for improvement: I need to further improve the skills to polish the speaking style
and becoming more confident.
4. Analytical and critical thinking skills
I can describe analytical skills as breaking down of complex information into smaller
components and critical thinking skills consists of using the outside knowledge which is taken
into perspective during the evaluation of the information. Analytical thinking involves revieing
of the smaller parts while critical thinking is a more holistic approach to apply judgment for
gathered information. In employability, employers search for skills for decision-making,
attention to details, researching and thinking skills for the analysis of an issue, case study,
situation or management level problems. I can identify that they are highly relevant and
significant to the modern workplaces as they require employees to resolve problems that the
business face on a regular basis or certain specific problems (Nuroso, Siswanto and Huda, 2018).
Learning experiences: As per the course module, classroom activities and academic
knowledge attained from learning, I have developed the skill to resolve problems in the given
case studies during lectures which helped me read the tire issues with keen observation an
understanding the crux of the problem. It also helped in understanding what knowledge and
personal views I can apply to resolve the case study issue and helped in in developing my ability
to take decisions and resolve issues.
Comparison to industry requirements: As per the employability requirements, I can rate
this skill as moderate as the professional requirements are quite high and complex problems have
to be evaluated, analysed and resolved.
Need for improvement: I can improve in the areas of understanding an and breaking
down of the problem and improvement in analytical thinking to become more relevant and less
subjective.
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Swot Analysis
 Strengths: I can describe that the areas of strengths in terms of employability skills are
time management and organisation, public speaking and analytical and critical thinking.
The major strengths lie in the knowledge and application of these skills and the high
requirement in the present employability opportunities.
 Weakness: My major weakness is in context to academic writing skills where I need to
become are articulates, gain language proficiency and develop by writing style with
higher accuracy. I can also say that the analytical thinking components needs to be
further development (Gürel and Tat, 2017).
 Opportunities: I can identify various opportunities due to my strengths, which primarily
includes public speaking skills. This skill can be used for interviewing in various
organisations and there is also a high demand for this skill combines with time
management and organising skill for various jobs
 Threats: Due to a weakness in the writing style, I can face issues when development my
professional summary for the resume. Apart from that employment opportunities are very
limited in the globalised world and I need to improve all the skills along with other
technical and soft otherwise it will become harder to land on a successful job role.
Improvement Plan
Skill Improvement strategies Resources
needed
Time
management
and
organisation
I have to undertake various online courses related to time
management which includes the areas of weakness such as
prioritisation, planning, stress management, goal setting and
communication. I have learnt the use of professional calendars,
project management tools like Gantt chart for scheduling
activities. I have to focus upon starting task early, setting
limits, giving appropriate breaks, schedules as per deadlines,
importance of task and its urgency. I have to learn my patterns
of productivity and use technology to assist me. Overall
reinforcement of good habits (Ahmad Uzir and et.al., 2020).
Ms office,
Internet
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Academic
writing
In order to improve writing styles, I have to undertake writing
assignments like essays, reports and formal writing courses. I
can join various writing workshops and competitions. I have to
work on my vocabulary by use of language flash cards and
basic dictionary and implement them in my writing. I have to
work on writing worksheets. I can undertake a daily topic and
write different styles from argumentative and analysis to
descriptive and reflective writings. I can aim at getting proper
feedback and working toward development (Yu, 2020).
Dictionary,
workshops,
internet
worksheets
Public
speaking
I have to plan appropriately before initiating conversations,
start practicing from written speech to improvised speaking. I
can take the help of debate clubs and public speaking
competitions and courses. Engaging with audience by asking
them questions, taking feedback and involving them in the
topic of speech. I have to learn on improving the body
language and use relevant eye contact, smile, facial expression
etc. To improve the speaking style, I can record the way I
speak, find mistakes and work on it though practice (McNatt,
2019).
Debate
clubs.
recorder
Analytical and
critical
thinking skills
Reading more books ranging from academic books, business
magazines, articles to newspapers etc. Playing brain games,
teasers, solving puzzles, more case studies, riddles etc.
Thinking about decision and learning about formation of
decision-tree. Improve visualisation and articulation skills,
using CBL model etc (Sudibyo, Jatmiko and Widodo, 2016).
Books,
internet,
puzzles &
brain teasers
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above reflection report using driscoll model that
employability skills are highly relevant for career progression and attaining career goals. It was
evaluated the major strengths are time management and organisation skills, public speaking and
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analytical and critical thinking skills while weakness determined was academic writing. The
problem was evaluated through learning experiences and the need of improvement against
employability requirements were identified. A swot analysis of skills was explained in brief and
an improvement plan was devised.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmad Uzir, N.A., and et.al., 2020. Analytics of time management strategies in a flipped
classroom. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(1), pp.70-88.
AlMarwani, M., 2020. Academic writing: Challenges and potential solutions. Arab World
English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL, (6).
Golaghaie, F., and et.al., 2019. Integrating case-based learning with collective reflection:
outcomes of inter-professional continuing education. Reflective Practice, 20(1), pp.42-55.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social
Research, 10(51).
Mbato, C.L., 2020. Confronting Cultural Barriers in Public Speaking through Multiple Learning
Strategies: A Case of Indonesian EFL Learners. Humaniora, 32(1), p.51.
McNatt, D.B., 2019. Enhancing public speaking confidence, skills, and performance: An
experiment of service-learning. The International Journal of Management
Education, 17(2), pp.276-285.
Nuroso, H., Siswanto, J. and Huda, C., 2018. Developing a learning model to promote the skills
of analytical thinking. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 12(4), pp.775-780.
Sainz, M.A., Ferrero, A.M. and Ugidos, A., 2019. Time management: skills to learn and put into
practice. Education+ Training.
Sudibyo, E., Jatmiko, B. and Widodo, W., 2016. The Effectiveness of CBL Model to Improve
Analytical Thinking Skills the Students of Sport Science. International Education
Studies, 9(4), pp.195-203.
Yu, S., 2020. Giving genre-based peer feedback in academic writing: sources of knowledge and
skills, difficulties and challenges. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, pp.1-
18.
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