Effective Professional Development Strategies

This assignment discusses the importance of daily practice in professional identity formation and its impact on long-term career development. It emphasizes the need for individuals to take advantage of opportunities to develop their skills and activities, which will help increase self-competencies. The report highlights various resources, including books, journals, and online articles, that provide insights into effective professional development strategies.

Personal and Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Overview of the company...........................................................................................................1
P1 Key benefits of on-going professional development for stakeholders in a company............1
P2 Employer’s expectations of skills and competencies in a company......................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P3 Assess own abilities, skills, and competences for the role of Assistant Manager.................4
P4 Learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
processes.....................................................................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P5 Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific
work context................................................................................................................................8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6 Undertake a job interview for the role of Assistant Manager................................................9
P7 Review key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practice are the essential components for every professional as
these provide the basis for carrying out skill enhancement, which serve as prerequisite for a good
career. This includes analysis and comprehension of professional needs and wants of individuals
together with the necessary skills, knowledge and competence for development of a long-term
career (Baker and et. al., 2015). This report is based upon Thomas Cook which is a multinational
organisation functioning within the hospitality sector and dealing in provision of travel and
tourism packages and related services. This report includes discussion upon merits of on-going
professional development for stakeholder groups. Besides this, it covers the expectations of
employers in relation to skills and competences of an employee. Also, it will include learning
theories that help in carrying out personal and professional development. Further, a development
plan is made and a job interview is undertaken.
LO 1
Overview of the company
Thomas Cook is a British company which holds specialisation in carrying out business
operations within travel and tourism sector and has the record of holding largest quantum of
content consumers. This organisation has its headquarters within London, United Kingdom.
Operating within over 70 nations, Thomas Cook has entered into strategic alliances with a
number of other companies with an aim to attain business growth and ensure sustainability
within market place. The offerings of this entity are inclusive of holiday packs and other related
amenities (Basturkmen, 2014). Further, this organisation also offers services within airline
industry. Thomas Cook is also working for the milestone of generating employment for young
generation and give a positive direction to their career.
P1 Key benefits of on-going professional development for stakeholders in a company
On-going professional development is a systematic and overall process through which
skills, potential and competence individual are empowered with a view to ensure career flow for
a person. Further, it also comprises of the scope as well as the potential of an entity to enrich an
individual’s personality for the purpose of their growth and continuing progress. The key benefit
of on-going development is that it persuades an individual to pursue an appropriate career
opportunity with a view to elevate their career (Luft and Roughley, 2016). Beside this, it holds
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long term career expectancy of a person in the manner so as to equip them with the right skills,
competence and knowledge. Further, on-going development aids personnel to improve their
career by analysing and evaluating the needs and demands of workforce, where individuals are
looking forward to self and organisational development. It offers benefits for stakeholder groups
within the company such as the employees as well as the organisation itself. Such benefits are
briefly stipulated below:-
For employees: On-going professional development provides assistance to employees
working in an organisation so that they enhance their skills and performance with a view to
ensure effectiveness and efficiency at workplace (Flores, Kleyn and Menken, 2015). Also, the
process aids the workforce within Thomas Cook to attain their personal and professional goals
and objectives in the desirable manner within due course of time.
For Thomas Cook: By way of on-going professional development, an organisation
derives relevant and appropriate results from the professional and personal development of its
employees. Apart from this, as a result of this process, the capability of Thomas Cook to achieve
the organisational objectives also tends to increase.
P2 Employer’s expectations of skills and competencies in a company
Within each and every organisation, an employer has certain kind of expectations from its
workforce in terms of skills and competencies. In this regard, Thomas Cook also holds the below
mentioned expectations from different kind of roles within the entity:-
Job Role Nature Skills and competencies
Sales consultant The nature of this role is a practical
type whereby guidance, views,
opinions, supervision, advice has to be
rendered to a number of other persons.
This job role within Thomas Cook
requires a number of skills,
competencies and abilities to be able
to successfully execute the associated
activities (Cruess, Cruess and Steinert,
This job role primarily requires
communication skills so as to
influence the behaviour of potential
consumers. Besides this, it also
requires negotiation power for
effectively handling all the sales
leads or calls with an aim to increase
the profits of entity. Further, a sales
consultant is required to possess a
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2016). good convincing power so as to
maintain a healthy relation with
customers and enhancing their
loyalty towards the brand, Thomas
Cook.
Assistant
manager
The nature of this job role is to render
the facilities of mentoring, coaching
and developing the group of sales
consultants within Thomas Cook.
Further, this role constitutes the
activity of encouraging the team so
that they can effectively make sales of
holiday packages of company, thereby
enabling increased revenues as well as
profitability (Cruess and et. al., 2015).
The role of Assistant Manager holds
to a large extent, the managerial
responsibilities with apparent
guidance as well as support from the
Cluster Manager.
The main skill required for the role
of Assistant Manager is time
management as this ensures the
completion of activities within the
targeted course of time. Further this
role requires adequate and relevant
education to be able to devise an
induction plan for a specific time
period. Also, skills such as
mentoring, development and
coaching abilities are required so as
to equip the new candidates with the
most appropriate skill set for their
job role.
Cabin crew This job role is regarded as the most
challenging one owing to the
difficulty in fulfilling the needs and
demands of every customer at a
specific point of time.
For the job role of Cabin Crew,
decision making as well as critical
situation handling skills are regarded
to be the most important in case of
an urgency (Valentino and Reardon,
2015). Apart from this, resource
management is yet another important
skill that must be present within the
candidate working as a Cabin Crew
for effectively managing the
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situations prevailing within the
flight.
LO 2
P3 Assess own abilities, skills, and competences for the role of Assistant Manager
I was carrying out a number of learning-based projects upon the area of recruitment and
selection within Thomas Cook when the Human Resource department shifted me in the Training
& Development unit. For T&D, I should develop extensive base of knowledge and skills in
relation to every aspect of HR operations. Being an intern, my focus was upon learning and
development of knowledge in accordance with the job role to ensure career enrichment. Within
Recruitment and Selection, I gained expertise in communication and this allowed me to be able
to effectively work within any company (Marañón and Pera, 2015). Owing to the impression that
the T&D manager held of me, he suggested me to pursue a career within Thomas Cook by
undertaking the job role of Assistant Manager. I was extremely excited to get this opportunity
and planned my skills, potential, abilities and competencies gained during internship in
accordance with the assigned job role. To ensure my career enrichment and elevation, self-
evaluation of my skills, abilities and competences would be relevant. I have made use of a Self-
evaluation questionnaire on the basis of which I have rated my skill set. This will help me in
gaining knowledge about the areas where I need to work upon in order to bring improvement in
my productivity as well as performance.
Self-evaluation questionnaire
Rating scale (1 to 4)
S. No Skill/competence Rating #1 Rating #2 Rating #3 Rating #4
1 Interpersonal skills
a. Listening skills X
b. Problem-solving X
c. Negotiation X
d. Verbal communication X
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e. Decision-making skills X
2 Intervention skills
a. Counselling X
b. Group facilitation X
c. Education/training X
d. Empathetic relationship X
e. Conflict management X
Rating #4: High extent of competence - Immense experience within a specific skill area
Rating #3: Moderate extent of competence - Good experience within a skill area
Rating #2: Average extent of competence - Fair experience within specified area of skills
Rating #1: Low extent of competence - Slight experience within specified skill area
As per the above mentioned self evaluation questionnaire, there are two kinds of skills,
namely, interpersonal and intervention skills. Further, these skills are characterized into
components like decision making, conflict management, negotiation, counselling etc. (Wald,
2015). To effectively execute the activities and responsibilities associated with the role of
Assistant Manager, I should link my skill set with the desired skills and competences for the job
role within Thomas Cook. Effective communication and persuasion skills are a must.
What is appropriate: In contrast to my actual skill set, my communication skill is
appropriate and relevant with lesser number of hurdles in the interaction process. Also, I have
analysed that my commitment towards work as well as my decision making skills are relevant to
the demands and requirements of the assigned job role.
What is identified to incorporate improvement: I have analysed that my problem solving
skills need enhancement so as to develop effective solutions to the problems being faced within
Thomas Cook. Besides this, I have also acknowledged that my conflict management skills are
ineffective to handle the issues prevailing within the team. Further, enhancement is also required
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in education/training for rendering Training & Development to new employees hired within
Thomas Cook.
As an Assistant Manager, one should have effective communication skills as well as
immense influencing power. In this regard, I am enriched in both these skill areas. Further, my
analytical skills along with empathetic relationship building skills are also strong. Besides this,
owing to my strong listening skills and commitment to deliver efficient customer service, I will
be able to effectively execute my job role as Assistant Manager.
P4 Learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development processes
Post the determination of required skills, abilities and competencies for the role of
Assistant Manager, a number of models or theories of learning are used with a view to carry out
learning development and enhancement. In this regard, personal and professional development
assists an individual in enriching one’s career for a long period of time. For carrying out the
process of development, learning is essential and pro-active to fill the gap of skills whereby I
lack. There are a number of learning approaches by way of which personal & professional
development can be carried out. One of the most popular approaches in this regard is found to be
Cognitive learning approach that is largely associated with the role of active mind in
tapping advantage of learning opportunities to carry out development. This learning theory is
mainly related to two major domains, namely, cognitive domain and affective domain. The
former is associated with memory as well as understanding while the latter one depicts how
feelings or emotions can be altered or controlled as a consequence of learning. Further, I
comprehended that performance of individuals is connected with their emotions and the manner
in which a person reacts. In this regard, Bloom is of the view that parallel learning occurs
between cognitive and affective domains in a cumulative manner in accordance with the degree
of difficulty. He further tells that learning process should be much more than just carrying out an
activity or task. The purpose of carrying out learning should be defined at the start of learning
process. Thoughts must be generated for optimally undergoing the process of learning. The
purpose of thoughts is the state of equilibrium that allows a person to effectively solve critical
issues.
Behavioural approach: This approach is dependent upon learning based on the primary
ideology that a relevant and appropriate behaviour can be taught only by way of a consistent
repetition of task together with the feedback from facilitator (Wald and et. al., 2015). A positive
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feedback strives to promote and underpin success whereas a negative feedback discourages the
replication of an undesirable mistake. One of the major ways to make use of behavioural
approach is to clearly state the behavioural objectives at the very beginning and post that, render
the learning opportunities which ensure that goals and objectives are fulfilled. Herein, social
learning style will be taken in use to indulge others while undergoing the learning processes.
Learning style: For better understanding as well as learning, logical learning style
should be used in order to generate favourable outcomes. Further, social based style can be
another option by way of which ability to operate within groups can be increased for me.
Personal Development Approach
As to build up personal and professional skills of mine, two most important skill time
management and leadership training acts as an essential skill which is required to be consider by
be in order to increase the level of my personality in a best effective way.
Approach Aim/objectives Action plan Desired outcomes
Time management It is important for me to
male myself that much
capable the time of
mine rules out my
career. In addition with
this it is essential to
consider continuous
development as most
important part in my
professional stage.
Planning will act as a
one of the most
essential element
which will benefit me
to conduct my work as
per perfect time
classification.
If the determined
strategy of planning
rolled out in perfect
manner, them time can
be effectively managed
this will automatically
benefit me in my
professional carrer.
Leadership training It is essentially required
to enrich myself with
leadership by taking
With the help of
continuous practices
by highly expertise
It has been effectively
analysed by me that
day to day life basis
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leadership training into
effective consideration.
people effectively
benefits in assessing
general leader that will
Effectively increase
level of my
personality.
activities acts as an
one of the major
contribution that lead
towards stimulating
my professional gains.
LO 3
P5 Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific
work context
Skills Activities needed to be
undertaken
Resources Time-
Limit
Desired
improvement
Conflicts
managem
ent
For the role of Assistant
Manager, conflict
management is one of
the most essential skills
that must be presnt in
order to enhance the
overall performance.
This includes a
performing, simulating,
real life case having
control over their mind
set and attitude by way
of which conflict
management can be
achieved.
Some of the most
imprortant resources
which are required by an
individual includes
active participation
group activity, effective
presentation, reading as
well as analysing books,
articles and journals.
1.5
month
s
After utilisation
of resources,
the desirable
improvement is
the scope of
conflicts
management
and resolution.
These are
relevant for my
role of
Assistant
Manager within
Thomas Cook.
Decision
Making
Effective simulation,
condition-based scenario
Coaching classes is one
of the most imporant
1
month
Strategic
decision
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and long term role
practices will be
conducted by way of
which decision-making
skills will lead to
desirable response.
Social learning style of
logic is meritorious in
order to execute
effective decision
making. Such style
includes development
of logical thinking by
way of which collective
decision power would
get raised.
resources (Professional
Development, 2018).
Training sessions as well
as decision-based books
or journals are some of
the most valuable
resources to get desired
results associated with
practice.
making power
will enhance to
ensure my
personal
development in
future. This
would facilitate
my career in
future with the
sole motive to
get it for long
term.
LO 4
P6 Undertake a job interview for the role of Assistant Manager
A: Are you here for an interview?
B: Yes sir, I'm here for an interview.
A: Okay, good. Can you me give me your CV to check your educational and professional
qualifications?
B: Sure.
A: Tell me something about yourself.
B: My name is Jeffie Colone.......
A: Do you hold any professional work experience?
B: Yes. I have worked for an year in Travelodge.
A: Will you be able to effectively handle this job profile?
B: Yes sir, I think I am capable of handling this job profile.
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A: Okay Jeffie. Our HR department will communicate the results to you by way of a call or
email.
P7 Review key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process
The strengths and weaknesses for the overall interview experience are discussed as
follows:-
Strengths: I have gained lots of experience, knowledge & skills by way of carrying out
learning process during my internship within the top travel and tourism organisation, Thomas
Cook. Besides this, practical learning was carried out together with the ability to plan with a
view to improve the outcomes for long term. Further, I gained the skill to communicate with
other individuals.
Weaknesses: I observed that analytical learning was one of the biggest weaknesses.
There are a number of approaches which were undertaken to prepare the candidate for
interview, such as past experiences consideration, data generation about experiences gained
within Thomas Cook.
The interview was good and from the interviewer, I got valuable and relevant information
about the actual skill set which are required to deliver desirable performance.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that, in order to gain long term
efficiency it is essential for an individual to take advantage of day to day practise of professional
identity. As this will help in fulfilment of long term career development need. For effective
professional development it has been suggested to take best effective suitable course with the
help of which a person can able to avoid any types of insufficiency of skills and activities. It will
automatically help in increasing the level of self competencies.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Baker, C. N. and et. al., 2015. Teacher (mis) perceptions of preschoolers’ academic skills:
Predictors and associations with longitudinal outcomes. Journal of educational psychology.
107(3). p.805.
Basturkmen, H., 2014. Ideas and options in English for specific purposes. Routledge.
Cruess, R. L. and et. al., 2015. A schematic representation of the professional identity formation
and socialization of medical students and residents: a guide for medical
educators. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.718-725.
Cruess, R. L., Cruess, S. R. and Steinert, Y., 2016. Amending Miller’s pyramid to include
professional identity formation. Academic Medicine. 91(2). pp.180-185.
Flores, N., Kleyn, T. and Menken, K., 2015. Looking holistically in a climate of partiality:
Identities of students labeled long-term English language learners. Journal of Language,
Identity & Education. 14(2). pp.113-132.
Luft, T. and Roughley, R., 2016. Engaging the Reflexive Self: The role of Reflective Practice for
Supporting Professional Identity Development in Graduate Students. In Supporting the
Success of Adult and Online Students. CreateSpace.
Marañón, A. A. and Pera, M. P. I., 2015. Theory and practice in the construction of professional
identity in nursing students: A qualitative study. Nurse Education Today. 35(7). pp.859-
863.
Valentino, R. A. and Reardon, S. F., 2015. Effectiveness of four instructional programs designed
to serve English learners: Variation by ethnicity and initial English proficiency. Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 37(4). pp.612-637.
Wald, H. S. and et. al., 2015. Professional identity formation in medical education for
humanistic, resilient physicians: pedagogic strategies for bridging theory to
practice. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.753-760.
Wald, H. S., 2015. Professional identity (trans) formation in medical education: reflection,
relationship, resilience. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.701-706.
Online
Professional Development. 2018. [Online]. Available through:<https://www.inc.com/joel-
trammell/10-ways-to-maximize-your-professional-development.html>.
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