Personal and Professional Development at National Trust

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development refers to development activities for individual
in their career. This report includes self managed learning which can enhance lifelong
development of individual not just in professional context but in personal and social context as
well. This report discusses professional development of individuals at National Trust. This
report also includes how an individual can take responsibility of their own career and they
should not rely on the organisation when it comes to their own development in their career.
This discussion have been followed by design and development of a personal and
development plan for the individual at National Trust.
MAIN BODY
LO1
1.1 Approaches in self-managed learning
Self-managed learning is basically the process through which an individual stimulates
the learning process by oneself. In short, this is the process which helps the individual to set
the targets and thus engage in managing the ways of learning. There are various ways as well
as approaches of the self-managed learning
Kolb learning cycle
Kolb learning cycle is basically the model which helps the individuals to manage their
learning by reflecting upon their own experiences. Students can make use of Kolb learning
cycle where they can reflect their won strength and weak points and thus will help to gain the
experience for learning.
Coaching as well as mentoring
Coaching is one of the most effective process through which individuals are able to
increase their overall performance by receiving the proper guidance and direction. Employees
in National trust can take the help of Coaching for increasing their learning capability (Perry,
2017). Students can seek the support of seniors and management which will help them to
provide right guidance on specific aspect and this will eventually increase their overall
knowledge base.
Internet
Since the advent of globalization, the use of internet has become highly popular and
nowadays no individual can survive without technology. Internet is considered as the treasure

of knowledge and thus provides the great information to people related to various aspects. It
also plays an important role in self-managed learning where employees in National trust can
access internet for increasing their knowledge base as well as increasing their learning by
gaining various kinds of information on their Job related activities (Cunningham, 2017).
Self-learning approaches
 Learning through research: it is the most useful for approach that can be used various
journals, books, web pages on internet. In order to improve their self awareness.
 Learning through seminar and conference: people attain the conference, seminar for
identifying the individual skill and knowledge.
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning can be encouraged
Lifelong-learning plays an essential role in the life of each and every individual and
thus act as a driving force for increasing the skills. It basically provides a momentum to the
career and helps in growth.
Lifelong learning is an important for individual’s personal as well as professional
development. It always encouraged to enhance the overall own abilities for achieving
significant goal or objective. As per evaluation, it can be identified the lifelong learning
through different medium such as
 Apprenticeship: This is one of the most effective way through which lifelong learning
can be encouraged in the professional manner. Apprenticeship is basically the
approach of providing training to the practitioners for specific period of time for
increasing their skills. Apprenticeship is the best way through which employees can
engage in lifelong learning and will help in their professional development as through
this, they will gain the necessary skills for performing job (Clampitt and Dekoch,
2017).
 Further education: This is one of the highly remarkable way through which
individuals can increase their lifelong learning in the personal context. Seeking the
further education like post graduation after graduation of Phd will help employees to
develop their learning ability. This will help the students to develop their personal
skills and thus will lead to lifelong learning (Cunningham and Dawes, 2016).

1.3 Benefits of the self-managed learning
Improved skills
The self-managed learning basically helps to improve the skills as well as knowledge
of the employees. When employees engaged in the self learning then they come to know about
their strength as well as the areas which needs improvements. Thus by evaluating their weak
points, employees are able to make the thorough plan for their development and thus
eventually leads to the enhancement of skill. Like for example- employees in National Trust
set the goal for learning the essentials of communication thus this will at the end will increase
their overall communication skills. This is highly beneficial at the organizational level (Perry,
2017).
Personal learning
Self-managed learning not only helps in the growth of people at the organizational
level but also helps in the growth trajectory at individual level. Self-managed learning
basically increases the knowledge base of employees and helps them to boost up their
productivity and performance. This is one of the widely known benefit of self-managed
learning wherein it helps each and every employee in National Trust to effectively plan their
goals and objectives and thus make plans for achieving them. In this way, it helps in their
personal learning (Cunningham, 2017).
LO2
2.1 Skill audit
Communication skills
My communication skills are not well-developed as I face problems while interacting
with others. I am not able to effectively communicate with people and generally hesitate in
asking questions from them. Besides this, I also face problem in openly discussing the
particular issue or topic with my colleagues hence, I would say my communication skills are
weak (Perry, 2017).
Different communication skill such as
 Verbal skill: it is based on the interact with one person to another through speaking. In
order to share information from one person to another. Sometimes, it can be used the
telephone to communicate with other staff members.

 Written communication: it can be possible when exchange information or data
through written format while sending data through email, text messages.
Leadership skills
Due to my weak communication skills, my leadership skills are also weak. I am not
able to effectively handle a team and communicate with the team members. I generally face
problem in delegating the tasks as well as activities to other and is not able to manage the
team. Whenever a new project is assigned to me as a leader then I face difficulty in properly
distributing the task as who have to do what and is not able to take the right decision.
2.2 Development needs
Communication skills
In order to improve my communication skills, I will seek the help of communication
classes and will take the support of my mentors for overcome the problem of interaction.
Besides this, I will also take the help of internet and YouTube to watch the different videos on
communication. This will help me to effectively interact with other people and will also help
in my personal as well as professional development. I have included the different
communication skills such as verbal, non-verbal and written
Verbal skill: it is based on the interact with one person to another through speaking. In
order to share information from one person to another. Sometimes, it can be used the
telephone to communicate with other staff members.
Written communication: it can be possible when exchange information or data through
written format while sending data through email, text messages.
Leadership skills
For improving my leadership skills, I will take on more challenging tasks as well as will
step out of the monotonous work. Like I will increasingly work in the projects where the
collaborative work of team is required. Along with this, increasing this skill I will also observe
my tutors as well as other students who effectively plays the role of a leader in different
project. This will help me in my professional life and will help me to work in a team for
achieving targets (Cunningham, 2017).