Development Report Date of Submission

BPP Coursework Cover Sheet
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should be before the cover/title page of your submission.
Programme IMBA
Module name
Employability Skills and Academic
Practice
QAA Level Level 7
Schedule Term September 2019
Student Reference Number
(SRN) BP0182550
Report/Assignment Title Professional Development Report
Date of Submission(Please attach the
confirmation of any
extension received) 01.01.2020
Declaration of Original Work:
I hereby declare that I have read and understood BPP’s regulations on plagiarism
and that this is my original work, researched, undertaken, completed and
submitted in accordance with the requirements of BPP Business School.
The word count, excluding contents table, bibliography and appendices, is 4955
words.
Student Reference Number: BP0182550 Date:

01.01.2020
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BPP regarding assessments and awards for programmes. Please note,
submission is your declaration you are fit to sit.
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BPP Business School
Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Working Background.......................................................................................................................3
Critical Analysis of Learning events...............................................................................................4
Analysis of skills through Kolb’s Reflective Cycle:.......................................................................5
Taking responsibility skill:..............................................................................................................6
Product Knowledge Skill.................................................................................................................8
Linked learning journal?................................................................................................................16
Personal assessment and Conclusion.............................................................................................16
References:....................................................................................................................................18
Appendices:...................................................................................................................................21

Introduction
This report analyses personal development process in detail and point out all the strengths
and weaknesses to be transformed for professional growth. I have a foreign cultural background
in the University and have been undergoing various professional academic experiences since the
start of this course. I have come to London, UK from my home country Uzbekistan for attending
International MBA with Employability Skills and Academic Practice module from which I have
learnt most of the important chapters of international business. I have been studying in this
particular course for 18 months and have gained adequate knowledge of the business operations
of the giant conglomerates, their sales, marketing and other activities. Through various case
studies and examples, I have also gained in depth knowledge of the business related finance,
human resource management and IT related to the business organizations. The coursework has
been more effective for me because of the tests and workshops arranged here (Forray et al.,
2017). Through these I have gained intense knowledge of the practical workings of the
companies in one hand and the tests revealed how effective my knowledge as well as skills are to
solve those issues. In this particular aspect, I have understood how I need to learn and gain
knowledge to achieve my short time goals.
Along with the studies, I have started to work at one of the busiest shops in London. Thus
I have gained a working experience in a coffee shop, Pret a Manger, and dealt with the customer
service. I have practiced problem solving process while mitigating confusion among the
management and the customers (Sudria et al., 2018). My short time goal is to get a job as a
manager in an automobile company operating in the different parts of the world. This will help
me in achieving my long term goal that is to start my own business back in my home country.
The knowledge of these coursework relating to business operating will be helping me in solving
issues, manage time, communicate effectively with the others, work in the teams and manage all
the other aspects of the business. This paper will be analysing my professional growth through
learning process of this coursework on the basis of Kolb’s reflective cycle (Peterson, DeCato and
Kolb, 2015). There will be four aspects on which the reflective cycle will be analysed which
include leadership skills, adaptability, flexibility and resilience, communication and problem
solving.

Working Background
Through this coursework I have gained an in depth knowledge about the operations of the
companies around the world. It has also been pointed out that only the academic background and
theoretical knowledge of the person cannot help his or her to get placed in an important company
nor can it guarantee to secure his place in the global business. I have the aim to start my own
business in Uzbekistan and work in such an industry sector that would be innovative it its
structure as well as operations. This is the reason why I had to have a professional working
experience so that I get the opportunity to see how my learning can be applied in the practical
places.
In London, I was recruited at Pret a Manger, an international sandwich shop brand based in the
United Kingdom and have more than 450 shops in different parts of the world. I have been
working in one of the shops here as team member and studying in the university simultaneously.
I feel fortunate that I have been recruited in such a company that has a global image to share and
reputation in the food industry of the country and the entire world. I had work in this company
from February 28, 2018 to December 21, 2019. These 1.5 years of experience in this company
has let me understand many complicated aspects of the business to get clarified and develop
many professional skills effective to solve many a problem. As a team member, I have faced
many issues and I have effectively solved them with the help of my team members. Here I have
learnt working in a pressure situation and communicate effectively with both the management as
well as customers. Here I have been exposed in the direct customer handling hence I have learnt
to understand their demands in an effective manner and change my response to serve them well.
I was a part of the service team hence worked effectively with the other team members to
provide better service. Here my duties included the customer service, arranging the floor,
checking the floor to make sure that all areas are clean and tidy. Helping to barista in busy time
was also important part of my job duty. Arranging the sandwich and drink langar, checking the
date whether there is any expired one or not, checking the delivery from supplier. Helping to
other staffs or team leaders or hot chefs was also an important part of my job duty. Gradually I
have learnt to manage the customer issues in one hand and do all the other experience that the
company needed to maintain its reputation in the market on the other. My job duties were:
 Working on the tills, receiving payments from customer as per their order;

 Offer pastries, cookies and free coffees to make them happy;
 Listening to the customer response towards any product or services;
 Organizing the breaks among staffs accordingly;
 Helping customers to create better facility by organizing tables and chairs;
 Cleaning the floor and keep on checking whether they are clean all the time;
 Checking the quality of the products such as hot foods offered to the customers;
 Deliver food and drink service to customer;
 Checking the quality of products at the time of receiving those from the suppliers;
 Helping new employees and introduce their tasks how to do best customer service;
 Respond to enquiries and complaints and find the solutions;
 Deliver food and drink service to customer;
 Regulating health and safety procedures;
All of these experiences have given me the scope to develop certain skills on me but I lack
many to achieve my long term goal that is to return home and help my father to run his business
to start my own business in the future eventually.
Critical Analysis of Learning events
In my professional employment, I have worked in Pret a Manger, global sandwich chain mostly
reputed in the different parts of the UK. I used to work in a branch in London area as a team
member having different types of responsibilities to serve the customers. This would be
appropriate to state that these responsibilities have pointed out all the strengths in my personality
as well as the weaknesses. The experiences that I have gained at Pret shop have helped in my
personal and professional growth. For the critical evaluation, I have will be analyzing four
aspects which include leadership skills, adaptability, flexibility and resilience, communication
and problem solving. On the basis of these four aspects my experience will be analysed relating
Kolb’s reflective cycle. For selecting these four skills, I have undergone several tests and
feedback from the mentors and the other peers who know me well (Barker, Lencucha and
Anderson 2016). I feel that all of these skills are interconnected for a future entrepreneur like me
and of all of these weaknesses are not properly overcome. I will not be able to achieve the short
term goals as well as the long ones (Chen and Rybak., 2017). The main issue that I have faced
here is the language and cultural understanding of the communication process and the industry in

which I have worked so far is not related to the automobile industry for which I am going to
prepare myself.
However, through this job I have directly communicated with the customers and understanding
how I might be able to get the feedback from the customers regarding products and how to
mitigate the customer oriented problems. These are connected with the understanding of the
market in a great deal because the customers gather to create the market trends. It is crucial for
me to understand that the entrepreneurs need to have all inclusive knowledge about the business
like finance, human resource manage, customer handling, product manufacturing sales and more
effectively the marketing process. Through this particular coursework I have developed all of
this knowledge effectively (Robertson 2016). This study process has thus pointed out all that I
lack.
Analysis of skills through Kolb’s Reflective Cycle:

Figure 1. Kolb’s Reflective Cycle
(Source: simplypsychology.org 2019)
There are four factors of Kolb’s Reflective Cycle that includes concrete experience, reflective
observation of the new experience, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation
(Schultz, McEwen and Griffiths 2016). Concrete experience refers to the new experiences and
situation encountered or re-interpretation of the existing experience. The second stage is
reflective observation of the new experience captures the inconstancies between the perfect
understanding and experience (Tomkins and Ulus 2016). In the abstract conceptualization part
refers to the fact that the people through this stage get the scope for bringing new ideas or modify
existing abstract concepts learnt from the experiences and active experimentation connects the
idea that the learners apply their own ideas to the people and environment around them to see the
reaction.
Taking responsibility skill:
In the professional field, it is important for a person to be capable enough to take
responsibilities. It can be considered as an effective skill that can help to improve customer
service. In the competitive working environment this skill helps the person to take proper
decision based on the environment. It has been identified that I am not efficient in taking
responsibilities. I have worked in several companies in the home country Uzbekistan as well as
in London UK. In all of these companies I have worked as the common employee but never as
the leaders. This is the reason why I do not possess the leadership skills or do not know whether I
possess or not. I have working experience in the home country Uzbekistan and in the UK
hospitality sector. Hence I have found out that taking responsibility are the essential for me to
start new business and survive the competition. Group members who have the capability and
tendency to take responsibilities in the organizational functioning can be considered as the
important key resources of the company. In my case I am not efficient enough to take

responsibilities, which can create certain issues for my upcoming future. While performing as the
important member in the organization, ensuring the customer satisfaction it is important for me
to take responsibilities.
 Concrete experience:
 Description:
I was working in the Pret as a manager. Here my reasonability was to handle the entire
marketing process as well as solve the quarries of the customers. While performing as manager I
have noticed that various conflicts among the employees based on duty segregation that have
created stress for me. I was not confident enough for the handle the responsibility to solve the
conflict.
 Actions:
I started to communicate with the new employees to understand the roles and responsibilities of
mine.
Enhancing initiatives to help the colleagues and assisting the team leaders.
 Reflective observation of the new experience:
 Description:
As I have intended to help in my father’s business in the future and start one of my own, I have
gained adequate knowledge about the business operations. Although, I need to adopt adequate
knowledge on taking more responsibilities for dealing with the changing business environment.
 Actions:
I have gained all the understanding of the job responsibilities but to manage the store I
need to be more confident (Kearns et al. 2015).
 Abstract conceptualization