Academic Skills and PDP

This article discusses the concept of personal and professional development plan (PDP), its value, and the importance of short, medium, and long-term goals. It also highlights the significance of academic skills and how PDP can help improve them. The article includes examples of short, medium, and long-term goals and a personal development plan template. References are also provided for further reading.

Academic Skills and
PDP

INTRODUCTION
The word academic skills can be understood as the core values of a person which is a
collection of habits, talent, time management tools, learning strategies which helps learner to
learn and absorb those trainings. These skills encourage learners to become more productive and
efficient in their work (Amand-Santos, M. S., 2018). This helps to boost confidence to
participate in front of others which includes critical thinking, note-taking skills and many more
which are very important for the success of a person. Personal and professional development
planning is a concept or a process in which action plan is created on the basis of planning, goal
setting, values, reflection and awareness within the context of self-improvement career
education.
MAIN BODY
The concept of personal and professional development plan.
Personal and professional development plan is the process and pursuit of improving
oneself by improving the quality of life through conscious habits and activities. It can be
understood as an official record of the employee’s skills that needs to develop. It is a framework
that supports as a reflection on what they have to achieve and how to go about it (Aunio, P.,
2019). Personal development plan provides a purpose in order to do something towards work it
includes new skills, promotion and qualification. For employees it is a source of inspiration,
discovery and motivation, for managers it can become the basis of personal appraisals in which
they inform about objectives and goals. Sometimes it become a guide rope that keeps individuals
to be focused in development process. Managers in the organisation evaluate how members meet
their objectives, in order to grab opportunities which may encourage individuals to study, learn
and develop themselves. Personal development plan is an investment in the most critical resource
in order to manage life in the best possible way regardless of hurdles and obstacles along the
way. These plans enables a learner to be proactive rather than waiting for things to be happen, he
steps forward by himself in order to make it happen. It work as a self-reflection and draws a road
map by setting goals in life in which a learner thinks about his abilities, creating skills, interest
opportunities, capability or competencies and so on. He put his strength and weakness in front of
the table and try to find methods to overcome the gap in order to become more productive and
efficient in his work life and personal life. They set goals which is based on short term, medium
term and long term goals. It must be considered in the right format and structure which should be
update on the regular basis in order to fulfill the personal and career objectives which required
proper coordination and concentration.
Value of short term goals with examples.
Short term goals is a something which can be done in the near future, it can be today, in a
week, month or a year. These goals needs to accomplish as soon as possible. These goals help an
individual to think about what he can do right away and help him to manage the time. These
goals tend to be small but completion of these goals can lead to big achievements in career and
personal life. Short term goals are need to be actionable and specific so that it can accomplish in
a timely manner (Toe, D. and Et.al., 2020). It is the first step towards the future. The length of

the time required to accomplish a short term goals differs from individual to individual and it is
also depends on the goal being set. An individual need to accomplish short-term goals within the
period of 12 months or less. By setting short term goals signifies an individual in their career to
achieve professional aspirations and be more productive in the organisation as well as enhance
the overall job satisfaction. By the establishment of short term goals it supports in success as
well as support the long term goals in future. Short term goals is the one thing to set long term
objectives but it must be necessary to achieve short term goals (Holzer, H. J., 2021). It act as a
path to the long-term objectives and provides a step that an individual required to take to get
there.
Examples of Short term goals:
 Improve work related skill.
 Manage time to arrive at the office earlier.
 Improve communication.
Value of medium term goals with examples.
Medium term goals are established to achieve something in between short term goals and
long term goals. Medium term goals encourages an individual and help him to stay motivated
and he is willing to take day to day short-term steps which is essential for the sound progress
towards the long term goals. Medium term goals needs 3 to 5 years to be accomplished. It is
necessitate to pay attention to them and keep tracking of the progress, through which noticeable
progress can help an individual to know how much time is left to accomplish. That makes them
easier to track then long term goals but it should be aligned with long term goals. These goals are
very useful and long enough to make vital progress as well as short enough that an individual
priorities and values won't be intensely unlike by time he accomplished the goals. It also
represents that short term goals are achieved. Medium term goals needs to be monitored on the
regular basis and needs determination that a learner is sure about their objectives. These goals
supports an individual to face problems and risk in his life and manage time in their personal and
professional life.
Examples of medium term goals:
 Go on a dream vacation.
 Start an own business.
 Paying off an immense education loan.
Value of long term goals with examples.
When an individual wants to get something in the future which needs proper planning
and time can be termed as long term goals. This cannot be achieved within a week or a year it
takes more than 5 years. This requires multiple steps to accomplish a long-term goal. It includes
short term goals. Long term goals helps an individual to think about education, career which he
will required in future. These are very important to the future in terms of career (Kurt, O. and
Kutlu, M., 2019). These goals helps an individual to think about their jobs in which field he want
to maintain and grow his career. These goals defines an individual a lot about who is he, where
he want to go, where he is going and what his values. These goals are very important for an

individual’s life as it provides a purpose and direction to his personal and professional life. An
individual required to take significant time, planning and effort to accomplish those goals. They
are the stuck satisfaction result of months or years of concentration. Long term goals represents
the individual to the employer whether he has realistic objectives that the business can meet.
They will also show that how an individual is passionate, ambitious and motivated in the
organisation. When an individual hires in the organisation, the manager requires to know
whether he will stay in the organisation for some time or left organisation in between. Recruiting
and training a new employee is quite expensive for organisation that's why and interviewer wants
to ensure that he will stay for a while or not. Long term goal needs focus and patience to stay
unbroken until an individual accomplish the ultimate goal (Lambie, I. and Law, B., 2020,
October). It needs proper dedication of work in short term and medium term goals. An individual
must have to work on specific thing and develop his overall skills that he can accomplish their
long-term objective in a best possible way. These objective last for an entire personal and
professional life of an individual and support in important decisions of life.
Examples of long term objectives:
 Learn a foreign language.
 Earn a college degree.
 Commitment to fitness plan.
Value of a personal development plan.
Personal development plan is also identified as individual development plan or personal
enterprise plan. It indicates a statement of individual’s strength or competencies, aspirations,
stages or steps, education and training that how a plan is to be appreciated. It includes an
individual analysis of opportunities and risks, lifestyle priorities, positioning, curriculum vitae
and so on. For the future planning, taking responsibility for the career path, establishing direction
for the growth of career looks like a big order but it require not to be with a slight support from
the PDP. It is a lifelong process of an individual which must be constantly reviewed. It aims to
simplify an ongoing employability through enhancing organisational skills and needed
knowledge (León, J. A. and Et.al., 2019). Whatsoever aspirations an individual grip an altered
into a practical action plan through implementing and drafting a organized course that takes into
training requirements or exchangeable skills, current learning and perceived hurdles to results.
Personal development plan needs a honest appraisal and reflection which includes strength and
weakness of an individual. It requires with appropriate leadership and management training. If an
individual does not have an idea about their goals it is hard to offer a tactical plan in order to
direct them to accomplish the goals. The initial stage requires a specific degree of honest self-
analysis, request clear vision, objective should be vital to the career path, and it must be
prioritized and differentiate short term, medium term and long term goals (Rudasill, K. M. and
Acar, I., 2019). PDP comes in the varieties of formats some of which are tougher than others. It
doesn't have right or wrong way to create a plan of personal development. This can help an
individual as well as provide a well thought out objective to work towards and keep motivated in
his career progression. When a personal development plan is created it is very significant to
highlight the personal objectives of an individual, how important they are and what plan are

available to achieve them. It will also require to state any obstacles that might face in his
progress and what are the methods to overcome it so for that a contingency will required to be
deliberated to relief to keep moving forward. (Continue to appendix. 1)
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report is that personal development plan is an aid to
identify the relevant areas which needs improvement so that it can benefit both in personal and
professional life of an individual. These plans helps to boost up person’s motivation level and
improve his decision making skills as well as and ensures work life balance. Overall it is a
process of learning and development in order to enhance the skill, knowledge, confidence and
morale.

REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Amand-Santos, M. S., 2018. Generalization of Social Skills Based on Instructional
Setting (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).
Aunio, P., 2019. Early Numeracy Skills Learning and Learning Difficulties—Evidence-based
Assessment and Interventions. In Cognitive foundations for improving mathematical
learning (pp. 195-214). Academic Press.
Holzer, H. J., 2021. Building labor market skills among disadvantaged US workers: four-year
college degrees and alternatives. In Human Capital Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kurt, O. and Kutlu, M., 2019. Effectiveness of social stories in teaching abduction-prevention
skills to children with autism. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 49(9), pp.3807-
3818.
Lambie, I. and Law, B., 2020, October. Teaching online during a pandemic: Pedagogical skills
transfer from face-to-face support to online synchronous support provision. In Proceedings of
the European Conference on e-Learning (pp. 270-277).
León, J. A. and Et.al., 2019. Metacomprehension skills depend on the type of text: An analysis
from differential item functioning. Psicothema.
Rudasill, K. M. and Acar, I., 2019. The synergy of teacher-child dependency and temperament
for children’s early language skills. Early Education and Development, 30(5), pp.639-654.
Stutz, J., 2018. Interventions for Disruptive Behaviors: Reducing Problems and Building
Skills. School Social Work Journal, 43(1), pp.73-74.
Tersi, M. and Matsouka, O., 2020. Improving Social Skills through Structured Playfulness
Program in Preschool Children. International Journal of Instruction, 13(3), pp.259-274.
Toe, D. and Et.al., 2020. The assessment of pragmatic skills in young deaf and hard of hearing
children. Pediatrics, 146(Supplement 3), pp.S284-S291.

APPENDIX
Personal Development Plan
Skills to be
developed
Development plan Resources Target date
Learning new skills
(interaction skills)
Being an individual
and a learner I have
to be confident
enough to interact
with my co-workers
without any
hesitation. I have
much capabilities and
personalities to
communicate with
others, also have
sufficient knowledge
to put my opinions in
front of others. I need
to perform in
activities and grab
opportunities to make
an interaction with
friends and
colleagues so that I
can improve my
action skills in a
more effective way.
Websites, online
learning, attend
seminars.
By August 2021
To start a new
business
Start a new venture I
should develop
entrepreneurship
Stutz, J., 2018.
Interventions for
Disruptive Behaviors:
Reducing Problems
and Building
By July 2022

skills for which I
must read and
investigate what is
best for the
enterprise. I am also
planning to rent a
small part of land in
UK.
Skills. School Social
Work Journal, 43(1),
pp.73-74.
Learn to speak
foreign language
(French)
I am planning to
learn and speak
French language and
improve my basic
grammatical errors.
For which I am
planning to watch
videos and online
sessions for French
language.
Tersi, M. and
Matsouka, O., 2020.
Improving Social
Skills through
Structured Playfulness
Program in Preschool
Children. Internationa
l Journal of
Instruction, 13(3),
pp.259-274.
By December 2021