Professional Identity and Practice

This document explores the concept of professional identity and practices, focusing on the case study of Premier Inn. It discusses the benefits of ongoing professional development, the skills required by employers, and the assessment of current skills for specific job roles. It also reviews different learning theories and suggests appropriate developmental approaches to improve professional and personal skills.

Professional Identity and Practice

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
LO1 & LO2......................................................................................................................................1
1. Overview of the organization..................................................................................................1
2. Evaluate the key benefits or importance of on-going professional development....................1
3. Investigate the expected skills which required by the employer for specific role...................2
4. Assessment of current skills, ability or competencies for specific job role.............................3
5. Critical evaluation their abilities, skills and competences to meet the employer’s expectation
.....................................................................................................................................................4
6. Review the range of different learning theories......................................................................5
7. Consider the most appropriate developmental approaches to improve their professional or
personal skills..............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practices is one's personality as viewed in relation to and
participation in a group. Professional identity is formed in their actual or expected personal life
by one's views and behaviours, ideals, motivations and interactions from which people identify
them (Androusou and Tsafos, 2018). Professional practices help the individual to assess their
skills and improve to get better future opportunities. For the better understanding of this concept,
Premier Inn is selected which is a largest UK hotel brand. It has more than 72,000 rooms in
around 800 hotels and Premier Inn established in 1987. This report covers the several topics such
as benefits of ongoing professional development, expected skills for employer point of view,
assess the skills for specific job role and review the range of learning theories.
MAIN BODY
LO1 & LO2
1. Overview of the organization
Premier Inn is a UK hotel chain and the biggest brand of hotels along with over 72,000
rooms and 800 hotels. This runs hotels in a number of areas from town centres, cities, and
airports along with Travelodge and Ibis hotel. Many other Premier Inn hotels are newly
constructed, while many of the chain’s downtown sites across the UK are housed inside of
redeveloped office towers that would've been demolished otherwise. Few hotels in historic
homes like "Bristol Airport" in Sidcot are located in.
2. Evaluate the key benefits or importance of on-going professional development
It is very essential for the organization to provide on-going professional development
training which is beneficial in respect of employer as well as employees of Premier Inn. Further
discussions are as follow:
 Skilled workforce: On-going professional development is the training which helps the
organization to improve their employee’s skills, ability and companies (Best and Williams,
2018). It helps to make hotel staff skilled which further beneficial for Premier Inn’s
managers to perform their daily basis operational activities. Skilled workforce helps in
achieving business goals & objective through offering quality services to the customers.
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 Employee engagement: With the help of professional development training, employer able
to increase their engagement that id beneficial to improve overall efficiency as well as
effectiveness.
 Personal satisfaction: Satisfying themselves is really very beneficial for employees as it
will allow the individual to perform their job with their maximum potential. On-going
development aims to fulfil their personal desires. Management of Premier Inn adopts
continuing career learning plan to improve their skills and abilities to meet company goals &
objectives.
 Motivate employees: As workers undertake the different learning & development services
that strengthen their skills and expertise. Therefore it motivates the workers to work safely
or effectively (Avidov-Ungar and Forkosh-Baruch, 2018). On-going
professional development helps Premier Inn's manager to encourage their staff to
accomplish their task or boost profitability and achieve business goals.
3. Investigate the expected skills which required by the employer for specific role
There are several skills which required having in an employee who is working in a
hospitality sector. Skills are required on the basis of specific role and manager of Premier Inn
find the different skills for the role of Hotel Supervisor and further discussion are as follow:
 Soft skills: Soft skills are characteristics of personality and communication skills which
define the interactions a individual has with people. Soft skills are regarded as a supplement
to hard skills in the workplace, and relate to the technical and vocational skills of a
individual.
 Hard skills: Hard skills are learnable and observable talents, such as the ability to write,
read arithmetic, use computer programs, problem solving, critical thinking etc.
 Customer service skills: In this skill, individual should have ability to understand the
customer needs or desires and further help the organization to maximise satisfaction level of
customers by using such skills.
In context of Premier Inn Hotel, manager required some specific skill set for the role of
Hotel supervisor and some of it discussed below:
Effective communication: For the position of Hotel Supervisor it is most essential skills as
they have to communicate with the client (Binyamin, 2019). Therefore contact is needed to
consider the needs and expectations of customers as they reach the restaurant. Manager of
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Premier Inn should make sure that, this expertise should be in Hotel Supervisor to manage all the
operational activities and has to interact with other members of staff.
Problem solving skills: The Premier Inn employer needed these abilities for the position of
Hotel Supervisor who needed this knowledge and capacity to solve operational problems. It
allows the company to achieve its corporate goals & priorities to accomplish its mission. Hotel
Supervisor had to settle numerous disputes between team members so this skill is essential for
this role.
4. Assessment of current skills, ability or competencies for specific job role
Self assessment of skills for the role of Hotel Supervisor is very essential because it helps
in evaluating that individual is capable for that role or not. This assessment will be done with the
help of personal SWOT or by using skill audit tool. It helps in measuring individual’s strengths
and weakness in the form of skills, ability and competencies. These are as follow:
Skills Audio:
Required skills Individual having Required skills Strength & Weakness
Communication 8 7 Strength (1)
Problem Solving 7 8 Weakness (-1)
Interpersonal Skills 8 9 Strength (1)
Creative Thinking 7 6 Weakness (-1)
Time Management 8 7 Weakness (-1)
Personal SWOT:
Strength Weakness
This contains all the key qualities that help
individuals to flourish in his or her personal
life and career (Bruno and Dell’Aversana,
2018). I have good communication skills and
It reveals the person's weak points which they
have to focus on this field to make things better
to turn it from weak spot to strength.
Individuals should intended to solve this
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presentable skills for the role of Hotel
Supervisor that required me to fulfil the role
and responsibility or achieve business goals &
objectives.
deficiency to get better opportunity in the
future. My weak points for the role of Hotel
Supervisor are time management, creative
thinking and problem solving. I need to work
on those skills in required to be allowed to act
as Hotel Supervisor.
Opportunities Threats
It contains the future opportunities which
individual need to identify or improve their
personality. Developing skills is beneficial for
the person to increase their efficiency or
viability in order to accomplish their
company's goals & objectives. I have the
opportunity to be promoted as restaurant
manager from Hotel supervisor if i am
contributing in the company through
generating revenue.
This factor includes those skills which affect
the individual career and its competitive skills.
So, individual need to identify threats and
work on it to improve their skills which
further helps in achieving hotel goals that
further increase the overall profitability as well
as demand of hotel. Threats may create
competition for the position of Hotel
Supervisor and in the future, individuals can
face problems.
5. Critical evaluation their abilities, skills and competences to meet the employer’s expectation
In order to meet the employer’s expectation of Premier Inn, selected candidates should
have some specific skills sets. Such as excellence communication, problem solving, critical
thinking, time management etc (García-Martínez and Tadeu, 2018). these skills help the selected
candidates to perform their roles and responsibility effectively. Premier Inn is the hospitality
sector based organization where interaction with customers is most essential and these
organizations are based on customer focused. With the help of skills audit, individual able to
identify that, in which skills they have to work on it for the improvement and which one is the
strongest one. Focus on weak abilities is most essential to maximise their chances of selecting for
that particular post. In addition, personal SWOT also helps the person to improve their capability
and further meet the employer’s expectation to achieve their business goals & objectives.
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6. Review the range of different learning theories
There are several learning and development approaches which are used for personal as
well as professional development. Some of the learning and development approaches are adopted
by the managers of Premier Inn to improve their staff efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Learning Approaches:
Gagné’s theory of instruction: It is professional development concept is based on the
psychological events that occurs when individuals are introduced with visual conditions and
concentrates on the learning outcomes and also how various learning events can be arranged to
achieve those results. This learning approach includes the several instructions which provide
better learning to the individual and this can be implemented by the managers of Premier Inn.
Development Approaches:
Social learning theory: It is believed that individual tend to display defensive behaviours
as they are watching others behaving aggressively and are able to see how these actions are
improved over time (Leeferink And et.al., 2019). Theories of social learning highlight the
influence of the human environment and assert that people will learn by watching the actions of
others and how these people are improved negatively or positively by displaying violent
behaviours. This approach can be followed by the managers of Premier Inn for the development
of their staff not only in context of professional life but it also beneficial for the personal life as
well. In order to implement this approach, managers and other senior staff should follow the
hotels regulations properly so the new candidates can learn from that how their seniors perform.
Also know that, how they face the issues or find solutions for it.
Cognitive approach: It is an involved, positive and long-lasting tool for increasing the
productivity of their employee's mind. It would enable staff to learn and retain for longer periods
of time. Cognitive framework depends on such approaches that offer useful feedback and further
aid with both personal and career growth. This strategy can be embraced by Premier Inn for
successful leanings towards its employees. On the basis of feedbacks, individual improve their
performance and that is most importance to improve personal as well as professional
development to get future growth.
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7. Consider the most appropriate developmental approaches to improve their professional or
personal skills
From the above evaluations it has been observed most appropriate approach of learning and
development (Meldgaard Hansen and Kamp, 2018). The pattern of Gagne should be applied by
the manager of the Premier Inn to have a formal way of learning. That improves productivity or
effectiveness for achieving business objectives & priorities.
Attention: Before providing any information, administrators have to make sure they receive
employee's feedback.
Assuring participants about goals: Give comprehensive details about their objectives &
other priorities, as it lets the person accomplish their mission to achieve company goals and
goals.
Stimulating memory for past learning: This stage involves combining new acquired
knowledge with the prior definition of learning.
Stimulus presentation: Organisation must guarantee that they frequently supply the
learning process with fresh knowledge.
Provide learning instructions: Manager provides the learner with specific advice or
direction in each period to ensure them stay older.
Eliciting output: In this phase, supervisor highlighted individual performance that lets the
company recognize its ability.
Input: It is the duty of managers to periodically offer feedback to the learner or person. And
they're able to enhance their performance as needed.
Performance Assessment: Leaders and managers evaluate the real success that helps to
define their progress.
Retention and transmit: It is also the decision of the manager to maintain or exchange the
learning process after an assessment of individual efficiency.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been concluded that professional identify and practices
help the organization to improve their employee’s efficiency through improving their skills. On-
going professional development is beneficial for employers as well as employees context which
helps in generating skilled staff members, increase employees efficiency, motivation etc. In
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addition, skill audit or personal SWOT use for the self assessment which helps in identifying
individual strengths as well as weakness.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Androusou, A. and Tsafos, V., 2018. Aspects of the professional identity of preschool teachers in
Greece: investigating the role of teacher education and professional experience. Teacher
Development. 22(4). pp.554-570.
Avidov-Ungar, O. and Forkosh-Baruch, A., 2018. Professional identity of teacher educators in
the digital era in light of demands of pedagogical innovation. Teaching and Teacher
Education. 73. pp.183-191.
Best, S. and Williams, S., 2018. Integrated care: mobilising professional identity. Journal of
health organization and management.
Binyamin, G., 2018. Growing from dilemmas: developing a professional identity through
collaborative reflections on relational dilemmas. Advances in Health Sciences
Education. 23(1). pp.43-60.
Bruno, A. and Dell’Aversana, G., 2018. ‘What shall I pack in my suitcase?’: the role of work-
integrated learning in sustaining social work students’ professional identity. Social Work
Education. 37(1). pp.34-48.
García-Martínez, I. and Tadeu, P., 2018. The influence of pedagogical leadership on the
construction of professional identity. Systematic review. Journal of Social Studies
Education Research. 9(3). pp.145-162.
Leeferink, H. And et.al., 2019. Overarching professional identity themes in student teacher
workplace learning. Teachers and Teaching. 25(1). pp.69-89.
Meldgaard Hansen, A. and Kamp, A., 2018. From carers to trainers: professional identity and
body work in rehabilitative eldercare. Gender, Work & Organization. 25(1). pp.63-76.
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