Developing Employability Skills: A Critical Reflection

This report critically reflects on the development of employability skills, exploring the importance of self-awareness, sector knowledge, and effective communication. It examines the role of networking, professional qualifications, and interview techniques in enhancing career readiness. The report also includes a personal professional development plan and a reflection on the skills and knowledge gained throughout the module.

EMPLOYMENT SKILLS
(A Critical Reflection)
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Current Professional Development Plan..........................................................................................4
1. Know your sector.........................................................................................................................4
How can networking help you become more commercially aware of your sector?........................4
Reflect on the networking experiences you have attended and discuss what skills you used during
these events......................................................................................................................................5
2. Know your sector.........................................................................................................................6
How you can use your overall degree programme to help develop the skills set required for your
desired career. Use specific examples.............................................................................................6
Analyse a professional qualification you could acquire alongside your degree and explain the
rationale for undertaking of this qualification to meet your career ambitions................................6
Discuss how you plan to acquire these recognised professional qualifcations and evaluate how
they could add value to an employer and make you the preferred candidate in an interview.........7
3. Let them know you......................................................................................................................8
Describe a current job description and the specification for a desired job in your sector...............8
Include what skills the job requires and how your CV and LinkedIn profile demonstrate the
essential and desirable skills............................................................................................................9
Reflect on the interview process and how well you were able to apply the STAR method and
give an example of how you responded to a question.....................................................................9
Reflect on what you have learnt about yourself (throughout the whole module) and what aspects
you need to improve on for work readiness.....................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
The report study emphasises the critical reflection necessary for developing the employability
skills and the concept relating to the self-learning has been discussed in this assignment. In
addition to this, the range of theories in regards to the career development has also been
explained in this assignment. Moreover, in the end, a professional CV has also been stated which
helps in developing the literacy skills in the context of the work. The overall assignment is
mainly based on three themes which know yourself, knowing your sector and let them know you.
The critical reflection has been made in regards to these three themes and areas. In the end, a
meaningful summary of the study is also made.
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Current Professional Development Plan
This section comprises of the study of determining the objectives related to the know yourself,
know your and let them know you. The critical reflection of own is presented below:
1. Know your sector
It is very important to know the sector in which you are studying and want to pursue your career
within and in this, there are various things which are very useful and helpful. Some questions are
addressed below.
How can networking help you become more commercially aware of your sector?
The networking is a very helpful tool in building up of a long-term relationship with the other
personnel. I belong to the human resource sector in which it is just that there should be a long-
term and a healthy relationship with the other personnel. The networking also helped me in
developing a good and positive reputation in the society. This is so because the networking
involves meeting up with so many people on a daily basis who can help you in providing of the
potential benefits for your career development (Ansmann, et. al., 2014). Moreover, with the help
of networking, I also develop my strength i.e. responsibility.
Figure: The Real Benefits of Networking
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Source: (CityHour, 2014)
The above diagram also shows the relationship of networking in developing of career and job
opportunity. It is so because the networking helps in building up of the career, opportunities,
business cards, communities, success, contacts, connection, relationships and many others
(CityHour, 2014).
Reflect on the networking experiences you have attended and discuss what skills you used
during these events.
I am a hard working person who has leadership and problem-solving skills. Both of these skills
have helped me in getting better networking experiences during events. I worked at the City Inn
Westminster Hotel as an assistant from where I made a lot of connections and associated with the
company for around 2 years. During, these two years I was able to make belief among
individuals and made good relations with other which has helped me in getting off my second
job. After, this I did work with Schreuderhuizen, Arnhem Holland in respect of support and
voluntary. It was also for the two years where I learned a lot of skills such as promoting, guiding
others, motivating teenagers, encouraging towards community development and many others
(Michael, 2015). All of these networking experiences have made me strengthening of my skills
and provided me with the strengths such as harmony, responsibility, and belief. The working
with others is one of the best of networking in which we get to have referrals, best practices,
exchanging information, reduce isolation, new ideas and many others which are very useful in
building career (Michael, 2015).
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2. Know your sector
The sector in which you are studying and practicing your career is very important. The
understanding of the sector is must for developing of skill sets and aiming at career ambitions.
How you can use your overall degree programme to help develop the skills set required for
your desired career. Use specific examples.
The degree programme which I am currently pursuing is human resource management. I earlier
worked with the HRM companies only where I come to interact with a lot of people and
colleagues. I gained a lot of positive things from there and helped in developing my skills. In the
course, the skills required for studying is exactly what is needed by the current HRM
organizations (Hesk, et. al., 2016). For example – The leadership skills, as in the current situation
many of the HR organizations are facing the lack of employee’s engagement and retention due to
lack of influencing the power of leaders. During my course, I developed the leadership skill in
me which can be used when in case of my career development. Another an example is Promoting
skill as during my training period I studied about the promoting independence which the key
essential component in current context. Also promoting for the health and safety and also for the
food hygiene is another two areas which I gained from my degree programme is useful in career
opportunity (Hesk, et. al., 2016).
Analyse a professional qualification you could acquire alongside your degree and explain
the rationale for the undertaking this qualification to meet your career ambitions.
It is observed that the undertaking of a professional qualifications leads to adding of a perk in
your professional career. I did diploma in promoting independence and mental health study
which will help me in my future career in case of working in any health and social care
organization. The comprising of sufficient knowledge of such courses will help me in getting
jobs in social and health care organizations (Collet, et. al., 2015). The consisting of alongside
professional degree is very helpful in meeting up of the required career ambitions (Collet, et. al.,
2015). In addition to this, my employment is also helped in gaining the knowledge and skills
required for the further career.
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Discuss how you plan to acquire these recognised professional qualifcations and evaluate
how they could add value to an employer and make you the preferred candidate in an
interview.
In order to acquire a position for the assistant human resource manager or professional health
care leader my skills and degrees learned are very much sufficient. In the case of the post of the
assistant human resource manager, the employer will seek for candidate’s experience and his/her
working year with another company. I have the work experience within two organizations for
almost 4 years which adds value to become one of the preferred candidates in case of an
interview. On the other hand, in case of healthcare leader, I have done the training in health and
safety plus CPR, mental health study and others till the second level which is also sufficient
when applying for the respective job position and employer will consider the employee who is
having the undertaking of such degree.
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3. Let them know you
Describe a current job description and the specification for the desired job in your sector.
Job Description
Job Title Specialist Community Public Health Nurses
Reports to (job title) Public Health Nurse Team Leader
Line Manager to Public Health Staff Nurses and Community
Health Workers
Job Purpose
 To work in a group of team and ensure that the team is targeted to achieve the
organizational goals and objectives
 To efficiently and effectively lead to developing the community and improving service
deliveries
 To positively team lead all the other departments and areas in the health and social care
organization.
Key Responsibility
To provide with the quality services to patients and also to guide others for working effectively
and attaining the goals and objectives.
To do mentorship of other people within the team
To supervise the working styles and behavior of others (Jackson, 2014)
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Include what skills the job requires and how your CV and LinkedIn profile demonstrate
the essential and desirable skills
There are various skills which are required for the respective job and which are focused are as
follows:
Responsibility Skill – The organization seeks for the responsible person who can undertake its
various roles and functions effectively and efficiently. It is my personal strength also.
Managerial skill – This including managing and co-coordinating with other people and make
them work accordingly for the attaining of goals and objectives.
Discipline – An employee must have disciplined nature and perform its work as per disciplined
behavior. It is also one of my skills.
Reflect on the interview process and how well you were able to apply the STAR method
and give an example of how you responded to a question.
The interview process has been carried forward with the question and answering session through
the interview. The interview process has been based on the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, And
Result) method (Jackson, 2014). I was provided with the entire STAR during my interview
process. The interview went well as the skills needed and required were possessed by me and I
was able to answer each and every question will full confidence.
Reflect on what you have learnt about yourself (throughout the whole module) and what
aspects you need to improve on for work readiness.
From the assessment of the whole module, I get to learn about my personal strengths and
weaknesses. Moreover, I learned about my area of achievement, traits and gain knowledge which
is significant for my whole life and career. I also transformed some of the weaknesses into my
strengths and abilities to answer with confidence to the interviewer. I also gained knowledge and
learning regarding the proper format required for being improving the work readiness.
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Conclusion
On the basis of the overall reported study, I have analysed the various things and learning
regarding pursuing a career. I also analysed my strengths and areas of interest. Moreover, the
study was helpful in determining the key aspects and methods which is significant in knowing
one. Furthermore, the analysis of various sources such as local, global or regional has also been
identified which is very relevant to the career development. The study also helped in the making
the current professional development plan.
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References
 Ansmann, L., Flickinger, T.E., Barello, S., Kunneman, M., Mantwill, S., Quilligan, S.,
Zanini, C. and Aelbrecht, K., 2014. Career development for early career academics: Benefits of
networking and the role of professional societies. Patient education and counseling, 97(1),
pp.132-134.
 CityHour, 2014. The Real Benefits of Networking. [Online] CityHour. Available at:
http://cityhour.com/blog/benefits-of-networking/ [Accessed: 28 March 2018]
 Collet, C., Hine, D. and du Plessis, K., 2015. Employability skills: perspectives from a
knowledge-intensive industry. Education+ Training, 57(5), pp.532-559.
 Hesk, G.C.O., Stanley, A.M., Coleman, A.R., McCaughan, S., Shahin, M. and Davies,
C., 2016. Collaboration project to embed skills for employability.
 Jackson, D., 2014. Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills
and its implications for stakeholders. Journal of Education and Work, 27(2), pp.220-242.
 Michael, 2015. Six ways networking can benefit your career. [Online] Michael Page.
Available at: http://www.michaelpage.com.cn/advice/career-advice/career-progression/six-ways-
networking-can-benefit-your-career [Accessed: 28 March 2018]
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