Employability Skills Report: Skills Audit, Cover Letter, Career Plan

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) principles and employability skills. It begins with an analysis of the insurance sector, specifically focusing on Ascend Broking Group Ltd, highlighting its operations and opportunities. The report then includes an application for a job as a Sales Agent, followed by a justification for a short-term career goal. A detailed skills audit is conducted, evaluating various employability skills such as self-management, teamwork, business awareness, problem-solving, communication, IT skills, numeracy, project management, intercultural awareness, social responsibility, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and negotiation. The skills audit provides self-assessment scores and identifies areas for improvement. The report also contains a cover letter, a CV, and an online profile, followed by a reflective essay and a career plan outlining specific goals, resources, and timelines. The report concludes with a list of references.

Human Resource
Management
1

Table of Contents
Analysis of business sector..............................................................................................................3
Application for a job, internship or placement................................................................................3
Justification short term career goal..............................................................................................3
Skills Audit..................................................................................................................................4
Cover letter..................................................................................................................................7
CV................................................................................................................................................9
Online profile.............................................................................................................................11
Reflective essay.............................................................................................................................11
Reflection...................................................................................................................................11
Career plan.................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
2

Analysis of business sector
It is very important for individual to enhance their skills and knowledge to work in corporate
world. This is possible by doing self analysis and identifying own strengths and weaknesses. The
organisation given for report is Ascend Broking Group Ltd which was established in 2016 at
United Kingdom (Ascend Broking Group Ltd, 2020). It is private insurance company having
employee between 11-50. This is specialities in different types of insurance such as business,
high net worth, marine cargo, commercial vehicle, fleet, cyber, construction, healthcare,
telematics, liability, property and so on. It is modern, growing, forward thinking insurance broker
with good experience in market of insurance. The team working in respective organisation has
lifetime of broking experience as well as underwriting and provide category of specialist
expertise, services and products to consumers across United Kingdom (Ahmad, 2015). Ascend
Broking Group Ltd offer competitive premium insurance as well as never loses sight to provide
value for money. It only deals with those insurer who are innovative, financially secure,
competitive, supportive and supplying claims as well as covers service which are demanded by
them. They want to bring true partnership with insurer having mutual commitments on
competitiveness, innovation and service. It is the fastest growing sector at marketplace which has
large number of opportunities for people living in society to fulfil their need and requirement in
an effective manner. The insurance sector creates employment opportunity for people so that
their survival and sustainability is possible in easy manner. Therefore, in order to build career in
insurance company, it is great opportunity for job seeker to grow and achieve success in best
manner.
Application for a job, internship or placement
Justification short term career goal
Insurance sector is highly growing as well as succession portfolio in marketplace. The
choice of job selected in this assignment is Sales Agent who is liable to contact with customers
in order to sell them specified types of insurance (Albrecht and et. al., 2015). They have to
explain about policies, guide consumers in process of selection as well as maintaining their
records in proper manner. Many insurance sales agent works for brokerages and insurance
agencies. Job of sales agent take place in office but sometimes they need to travel to clients.
3

It is very important to do personal assessment to know about oneself. Here, self
awareness analysis is the way to be aware about oneself which includes feelings, behaviour and
traits (Baum, 2015). Awareness of personality assists in analysing decision for ourself. The result
of personal assessment helps me to choose job and work accordingly to build my career and
attain success and growth in most effective manner.
Skills Audit
Skill audit is defined as procedure which is used in identification of skills gaps in
organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2017). For improvement of skill audit, training is required which
helps to enhance skills and knowledge of individual in an effective way. The skills audit includes
different competence and ways to improve them which are as follows:
Employability
Skills
Do you
have this
skill?
Yes No
If YES score 1 - 5 (with 1 being
less skilled and 5 being most
skilled) How can you evidence
this skill? How can you improve
on your existing score?
If NO, how could you gain this
skill? Consider and list
potential opportunities within
your degree study, campus
services, paid/unpaid work,
extra-curricular activities
Self -Management Yes 4
In order to work in insurance
sector, this skill is very important.
I have worked in different
projects at university level where
I managed everything by myself.
This can be improve by taking
more responsibility, taking
feedback, reflective learning
(Stone and et. al., 2015).
Teamwork Yes 3
This is very important
competence for individual to
work in organisation. While I was
in university, I worked under my
group project where teamwork is
required to complete it in given
time period. I have to improve
this skill by respecting other,
working in more team, providing
full contribution to discussion and
awareness of each other.
4

Business &
Commercial
Awareness
No I can gain business and
commercial awareness skills by
learning drivers for success and
growth of business. I have to
analyse market regarding new
trends followed at business place
and using those at organisation in
innovative and unique style. It is
very important for me to know
about happening in market and
business for creating customer
satisfaction and loyalty.
Complex Problem
Solving
Yes 4
I possess this skill as I was class
representative during my college
time where I have to handle
problems of student and provide
them suggestion from my side for
better improvement. I need to
develop such skills through
solving complex problem by
analysing actual situation and
applying creative thinking in
order to develop proper solution.
Communication &
Literacy
Yes 4
For working in insurance sector,
communication and literacy skills
is very important which I have
developed at my study level. I
have to enhance my score by
reading books, participating in
activities to improve my oral as
well as written communication in
most effective manner (Stone and
Deadrick, 2015).
Application of IT No I could gain this skill by learning
basic about IT first such as use of
word processing; spreadsheets file
management, internet search
engines. It is very important for
me to focus on application of IT
skills so that I could improve
myself in using of IT in corporate
world.
Numeracy Yes 5
My mathematics and practical
5

subjects were superb. I can solve
large number of calculation
within a second. My numeracy
skill is excellent in terms of
measuring, weighing, applying
and using of formula and so on.
Project Management No In order to work in corporate
world, I could gain project
management skills through
learning about project first and
then planning, organising,
controlling, motivating resources
in order to achieve specific goal
and objectives.
Intercultural
Awareness
No There are large numbers of
employees working in
organisation. They belong to
different family background and
possess culture. I need to enhance
my intercultural awareness by
learning about them in terms of
cultural differences and so on
(Sparrow and Makram, 2015).
Social
Responsibility
Yes 3
In order to work in society, it is
the responsibility of employee to
follow value and norms of society
so that growth and success is
possible.
Emotional
Intelligence
Yes 4
I am good in controlling myself
and expressing emotions in order
to handle relationship. I have to
improve my emotional
intelligence to work in corporate
world in effective manner.
Critical Thinking No I have to gain critical thinking
skills by understanding, analysing
and interpreting information in
6

proper manner. I have to draw
conclusion from given work. This
is important skills to enhance
productivity of organisation by
thinking each and every aspects in
an effective manner.
Negotiation and
Influencing
Yes 5
For building career in insurance
sector, negotiation and
influencing plays an effective role
to gain positive outcomes. This
helps to influence people and
their behaviour towards work and
comes to mutual satisfaction in an
effective manner (Shen and
Benson, 2016).
Cover letter
The job selected for given assignment is sales agent in insurance sector. The person
specification and job specification are as follows:
Person Specification
It is defined as description of skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and attributes
which should be possessed by candidates in order to perform job duties (Brewster and
Hegewisch, 2017). These specifications are derived from job description as well as forms
foundation for recruitment procedure. It is as follows:
Person Specification
Job Title: Sales Agent Reporting To: Sales Manager
Location: United Kingdom Nature/Purpose of Job role: Insurance Sector
Organisation: Ascend Broking Group Ltd Hours of Work: 9:00 am - 06:00 pm (9 hours)
Main Duties:
Generate new business
Maintaining relationship with clients
Assisting clients in choosing products
Salary: Not Disclosed
Qualification: Bachelor Degree (B.Com)
Essential: Communication, Influencer,
Negotiation
Desirable: Problem solving, decision making,
application of IT skills
7

Knowledge and Skills:
Effective communication skills
Good influencer
Ability to negotiate
Knowledge of insurance products
Positive attitude
Quick learner
Customer service
Job Specification
It is referred as skills, knowledge and abilities which are required to perform job in an
organisation (Collings, Wood and Szamosi. 2018). This includes different aspects such as work
experience, education, managerial experience that assists in accomplishment of goal and
objectives related with job in an effective manner. The job specification is as follows:
Job Specification
Job Title: Sales Agent
Location: United Kingdom
Organisation: Ascend Broking Group Ltd
Reporting to: Sales Manager
Skills and Knowledge
Communication skills
Numeracy
Negotiation skills
Good knowledge of field
Roles and Responsibilities:
 To design as well as implement effective marketing strategies
 To create contact with clients
 To make clients understand about polices of insurance
 To implement new plan to enhance sales.
8

CV
Curriculum Vitae
Name: John Sena
Email id: [e-mail]
Contact No: [phone]
Address: House no- 10 downing street, London, United Kingdom, SW1A 2AA
Objectives: Work in reputated organisation to enhance my skills and knowledge in insurance
sector
Educational Qualification
Course/Degree Name of
School/University
Years of passing Percentage/ Grade
Graduation (B.Com) University of Oxford
(London)
2016-2019 8.50 CGPA
12th St Mary's Church
of England Primary School
(London)
2014-2016 80%
10th St Mary's Church
of England Primary School
(London)
2014 75%
Skills
 Self –Management
 Teamwork
 Complex Problem Solving
 Communication & Literacy
 Numeracy
 Social Responsibility
 Emotional Intelligence
 Negotiation and Influencing
Strengths
 Ability to listen
9

 Network ability
 Competitiveness
 Empathy
Achievement and awards
 In 2014, I won 1st prize for debate competition organised by St Mary's Church
of England Primary School (London).
 In 2016, I won 2nd award for negotiation skills organised by St Mary's Church
of England Primary School (London). It was related with skills competition.
 In 2018, I won 1st prize for group assignment where I played role of team management
organised by University of Oxford
Hobbies
 Reading books
 Involving in different activities to enhance skills
 Sports and music
Personal Information
Father’s Name: Alex Sena
Religious: Hinduism
Language Known: English, French
Declaration
I hereby declares that the above information provided by me is true and correct to best of my
knowledge
Signature
John Sena
Name: John Sena
Date: 13th April, 2020
Place: London, United Kingdom
For working as sales agent profile, it is very important to be aware of roles and
responsibilities to be carried out to work in an organisation (Guest, 2017). Some of the roles and
responsibilities are as follows:
 Generating leads
10

 Meeting as well as exceeding sales goals
 Negotiating with all contracts in proper manner with prospective clients
 Preparation of monthly as well as weekly reports
 Assisting in determination of schedules for quotes, negotiations and promotions
 Creating professional relationship with clients to enhance sales
Online profile
This helps in connecting candidate with large number of organisation, people and job seeker
to get best jobs (Jabbour and de Sousa Jabbour, 2016). Online profile plays an effective role in
creating awareness about job seeker as well as job provider. This contains all information about
candidate and accordingly to their skills and knowledge possessed by them is called for interview
in respective field. The different types of online profile for job search are used to find right
candidate for right job. This includes livecareer apply, switch, linkup, LinkedIn,
Reflective essay
Reflection
For building career in particular field, it is very important for me to enhance my skills and
knowledge so that success and growth can be attained in an effective and efficient manner. I
want to build career in insurance sector in sales filed (Kanki, 2019). There are many skills which
are possessed by me which helps me to build career in respective field. Experiences gained by
me helps in changing my behaviours as well as views in relation to career management. For
getting good job, I have to work on job search engine to get placed at highly reputated
organisation. I have to be very careful about recruitment as well as selection process. There are
different ways through which they hired candidate for different job profile. They provide
advertisement in newspaper for particular field and qualification so that right candidate is placed
at right time. I have to apply in such portal to get highly paid jobs to enhance my career. At time
of selection also, different rounds are conducted such as technical round, personality test, group
discussion which all assist in enhancement of skills and knowledge. I have to focus on both
recruitment and selection process to be placed at right organisation. I have to update myself for
self awareness to know more about myself and give my best.
From this learning module, I have identified my strengths and weaknesses. My strengths
include self management, teamwork, complex problem solving, communication & literacy,
11

numeracy, social responsibility, emotional intelligence and negotiation and influencing. These all
are my strong area which assist me to work in effective manner (Liu and et. al., 2017). For
working in corporate field, such skills are very essential and required. Similarly, on other hand,
my weaknesses are Business & Commercial Awareness, application of IT, project management,
intercultural awareness and critical thinking. I have to focus on improving my weak areas
through taking coaching and learning from online. Business and commercial awareness is
improved through learning about business with help of newspaper and magazine. For application
of IT, I need to take class of IT where I should learn basic concepts of computers and apply in
my real life. This skill is very important in current scenario, as all activities are performed with
help of IT. It helps in saving time as well as cost for individual to work in organisation. In order
to manage project at organisation, I have to participate in different project work so that my
skilled can be improved. It is important skill which should be required within individual for
better work performance in an organisation. There are all categories of people working in
business so I have to improve my intercultural awareness as well as critical thinking skill to learn
about those people and work with them to attain goal and objectives. These all skills are
necessary for individual to work in any organisation and sector under any department. I have to
focus on my weak areas to improve and enhance my strong point in effective way to attain
business as well as self desired targets.
I have prepared job specification and person specification to know about requirement of
skills, knowledge, role and responsibilities to perform particular job assigned to me (Noe and et.
al., 2015). Similarly, person specification denote about oneself and their knowledge, skills and
capabilities possessed by them. In order to work in corporate field, it is essential to identify
person and job specification so that skills and knowledge can be improved accordingly in
effective manner. From job specification, it has found that different skills and knowledge are
required such as communication, numeracy and so on. The job’s roles and responsibilities are:
designing as well as implement effective marketing strategies, creating contact with clients,
making clients understand about polices of insurance and implementing new plan to enhance
sales. Similarly, person specification required particular skills within person which are effective
communication, good influencer, ability to negotiate, knowledge of product, positive attitude,
quick learner and customer service. The duties are required to performed are: working on given
time period, generating new business, maintaining relationship with clients and assisting clients
12