Introduction to Personal Development Profile

The Personal Development Profile (PDP) is a reflective process that helps students enhance their self-awareness, confidence, and ability to promote themselves to prospective employers. It involves assessing personal attributes and skills, identifying strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and creating an action plan for future development. The PDP will help students improve by planning and taking responsibility for their own learning and development, boosting self-confidence, recognizing how experiences are contributing to their skills and personal development, and enhancing employability.

Introduction to your Personal Development Profile
The Personal Development Profile (PDP) enables you to reflect on your academic and personal development and to plan for your
future. Often students are not confident in recognizing the range of personal attributes and skills they have and therefore do not
communicate these well to prospective employers. The PDP process helps you enhance your self-awareness, confidence, and ability to
promote yourself via your CV/applications and, in turn, enhance your employability. This is a personal reflection that is owned and
maintained by you but which should be discussed regularly with your tutor.
The PDP will help you improve:
2 By helping you think about planning and taking responsibility for your own learning and development
3 By boosting your self-confidence when you realize knowledge, skills and positive personal attributes you have
4 By helping you recognise how the learning you are experiencing in your courses and subjects is helping you to acquire a
valuable range of skills and to develop your personal qualities
5 By helping you recognize how your experiences outside the university programme are contributing to your skills and personal
development
On the following pages you will find a list of skills and personal development qualities which you must assess carefully at the
beginning and end of the academic session by giving yourself scores using the 1-5 scale provided below. The initial score refers to
your view of your confidence/ability at the start of the academic year, while the final score refers to your level of
confidence/ability at the end of the academic year (April for this purpose). More importantly, you are required to discuss/reflect
on where and how you feel you developed these qualities and what they contribute to your employment prospects. You should draw
upon your experiences in education AND life outside of education. You must add reflections on events/experiences/actions from the
past and from this year as you have new experiences. Note that the text boxes expand as you type, so please engage in a genuine
piece of personal reflection, rather than one sentence responses.
Self-evaluation scale
1. I feel very skilled and confident in this area of activity/attribute
2. I feel somewhat skilled and have limited confidence, but some improvements could be made in this attribute/activity
3. I am lacking confidence in this activity/attribute; I feel I need to improve this skill/attribute
4. I have no confidence in my ability in this area/attribute; I feel I need to put in considerable work to develop this

5. I have not had any opportunity to develop this skill/attribute in the past.
Management of Self Initia
l
Score
Final
Score
Explain where and how have you developed this skill/attribute and why
you feel confidence or lack of confidence in each ability/attribute
Time management
Attendance at classes and labs
Active listening
Planning and organizing for
coursework or projects
Flexibility
Reflection on one’s own work
Taking responsibility
Coping with stress
Working as part of a group
Working productively in a group
setting
Taking initiative within a group
Delegating
Negotiating
Offering constructive criticism
Supporting others in their work
Managing tasks
Identifying key issues
Setting priorities
Identifying different courses of
action
Implementing a course of action
Planning and organizing tasks
Managing information

Effective use of appropriate
sources
Effective handling/processing of
data/information
Interpreting data/information
Effective visual presentation
Effective oral presentation
Effective written communication
Using information critically
Subject knowledge and
understanding
Safety in the lab or field
Understanding nature and
properties of hazardous materials
Safe practice in lab or field
Safe handling of materials in lab or
field

Your evaluative discussion of your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT ANALYSIS)
Individual Strengths Individual Weaknesses
Opportunities
(things that are found in your wider life that are helping put
you in a position to be more successful e.g. job, family,
friends, volunteering, university etc)
Threats
(things in your wider life that are barriers to your chances of
success – getting in the way of your success e.g. family
problems and pressures, financial pressure, personal
struggles etc.)

Extra-curricular activities - Discuss how these have contributed to your skills development and to experiences useful for learning,
personal development and future employment. Extra-curricular activity can include working, volunteering, domestic responsibilities,
active involvement in clubs/societies, sports etc.
Action Plan - what do you want to achieve after this stage of your education? What do you think you need to do in order to be
successful/more successful in what you do?

These issues have been discussed and agreed
Signature of student…………………………………………………….
Signature of tutor……………………………………………………….