Professional Identity and Practice Report: Skills and Development

This report delves into the realm of professional identity and practice, focusing on the key benefits of ongoing professional development for stakeholders, particularly within the context of Brightsun Travel, a UK-based travel and tourism company. It investigates professional employer expectations regarding skills and competencies, assesses the author's own abilities for a specific job role, and explores various learning theories relevant to personal and professional growth. The report further outlines a development plan to enhance skills, demonstrating transferable skills applicable to the service industry. Additionally, it includes an analysis of a job interview process for a suitable role, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. The report underscores the significance of professional development in fostering employee retention, boosting confidence, maintaining trust, and improving decision-making capabilities, ultimately contributing to organizational success.

Professional Identity
and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Explain key benefits of on-going professional development in context of their stakeholders....3
Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in the
context of organisational..............................................................................................................5
Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role......................................6
Range of learning theories and approaches which is used in personal & professional
development.................................................................................................................................7
PART B............................................................................................................................................8
Development plan to enhance skills and competencies within specific work.............................8
PART C..........................................................................................................................................10
Job interview for service industry for a suitable role.................................................................10
Strength and weakness of interview process.............................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practice refers to the set of individual attribute or the value that
help the individual to excel in their respective fields and develop them by articulating their
learnings effectively. It basically refer to the demonstration of the individual skill as well as
knowledge that one derive from their respective professional field and practice it in order to gain
the growth effectively (Barley and Kunda, 2016). Thus, adoption of certain skill motivate the
individual to practice their capabilities in the professional world and constantly develop their
performances. To better understand the report, Brightsun Travel company has been selected
which provide the hospitality services related to travel and tourism within UK. The headquarter
of company is in United Kingdom and provide various platform to the customer. This report
cover following topics like key benefits of on going professional development regarding various
stakeholders. Identify their own skills, competencies through various approaches. Along with
this, it include development plan and demonstrate the transferable skills in service industry.
Interview process of the company and its strength as well as weakness which faced by the
candidates who sitting in the job interview process.
PART A
Explain key benefits of on-going professional development in context of their stakeholders
Company's Overview:
Brightsun Travel is a core service company based travel and tourism which was founded
in 1986. Although it is UK's based company but offer the service worldwide like it currently
handle the needs of around 380000 passengers per year at every destination around globe and
almost 1500 passenger every day. Company provide three different platform for their customers
such as Brightsun.co.uk provide leisure products that create holiday for the long haul
destinations in best air fares. Traveasy.com provide flight booking services and last one is
Premier is the feature where company provide services to the high net worth companies (Bruss
and Kopala, 2013).
Key benefits for stakeholders:
Stakeholders are the creditor, employee, investor, government and so on which are the
part of internal and external society of an organisation. They are essential part of an organisation
because they are interest in the functioning of business along with that the organisation need to

build effective strategy in order to attract them and participate to elevate the long term growth of
an organisation. In relation with the Professional Development which is the learning process
where individual maintain or create their professional credentials such as attending conference,
academic degree, informal learning process through various training programs and other
learning opportunities. On going professional development is the process which track and
document the individuals skills, experience and knowledge that person gain through formal or
informal way of work. This process include the past experience and then provide training for the
development. On going professional development is beneficial for the different stakeholders and
it is discussed below:
Retain the existing employee and attract new one: In order to increase the retaliation
power of both existing and new employee employees Brightsun company can provide long term
growth opportunity. Like, if the manager associate the monetary or non monetary benefit with
the performance of employee then they will remain dedicated to offer supreme quality of
services and work to enhance productivity and profitability. That further beneficial for the
employees in terms of various compensation and incentives.
Participate in order to develop successful plans: With the help of On-going
professional development, manager can develop effective plan for the further operational work.
Manager of Brightsun travel use their own skills and capabilities to develop successful plan
which is further beneficial for the consumer as well as for the whole organisation in term of
productivity and profitability.
Boost up confidence: When employee have proper knowledge and skill set then it build
confidence among them and make them capable to face any challenges without any fear. Manger
of Brightsun company provide effective training that build confidant which increase employees
productivity that is beneficial for the organisation to achieve their goals (Chamberlayne and
Bornat eds., 2014).
Maintain trust between manager and employee: Professional development and
practice offer the platform where employee and employer work together in order to achieve
overall organisational objective. In order to do so it is necessary for the internal stakeholder of
company that they need to have mutual understanding and trust over each other. Thus, the
employees enhance their skill and able to perform well in their area which create trust on the
company and then they retain for the longer time in the same organisation. Brightsun travel

provide various training which help the staff members in effectively dealing with customers and
communicate with them. It also help employees to face critical situations and they take
necessary actions according to their ability.
Effective decision making: Decision making is the valuable part of an organisation that
provide benefit while conduct the functioning of business as it lead enhances the capability of
people and lead to preparation of innovative decision. It is the most important benefit of On-
going professional development because it will enhance the decision making capacity through
analyse situation. Training & development process help the employee to develop their creative
thinking, make them able to identify problems and then resolve it according to their capabilities.
Manager of Brightsun Travel company provide on going professional development to their
employee and make them capable to face challenges in order to solve it through effective way. It
help the employees to take fast and better decision which is required by the organisation because
it further helps in achieving business goals & objectives (Crocket, 2014).
Above mention benefits help the organisation to achieve their business goals & objectives
that further increase the productivity and profitability. On going professional development is the
important as well as beneficial for the Brightsun Travel company. It will enhance the capacity of
employees to deal with difficult situations and find effective solutions.
Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in the
context of organisational
In case of tourism service where the traveller either travel within the same geographical
area or from one place to another have certain expectation from the company which are further
carried out by the different people such as travel agent. So in order to be competitive it is
significant for the company that they need to constantly work upon the skills of their employee
with whom they function and achieve the business objective. In relation with the Brightsun
Travel company have its main objective which is to provide suitable and affordable tour and
travel services which satisfy customer and their expectation too. Here, employees plays very
important & valuable role because they have to perform their duty in well manner because
customer satisfaction is totally depend upon some element (Edwards and Dirette, 2010). It
includes, cleanliness of rooms, quality of food & it's freshness, luggage facilities, help customer
and provide various important information. Positive and polite response from employee will
increase the customer satisfaction level as well as loyalty for the organisation. It include other

expectation too such as administration, back office, front office etc. In the Brightsun organisation
they required assistant manager for the development of their business by developing various
marketing strategies and it create interest among the customer. Their is such specific skills which
required to fulfil the responsibility of assistant manager and it discussed below:
Affirmative attitude: It is the important for the organisation to develop positive
behaviours in their employees because it influence the customers that directly affect the
organisation. This help to create the synergy and create positive working culture where different
member collective perform the task and function in order to enhance their capability and
successfully perform the challenging tasks. Positive behaviours make manager able to face
challenges and develop positive work culture that will increase employees effectiveness and
efficiency. It further helps the business to increase their productivity as well as profitability.
Positive behaviour required for the post of assistant manager to deal with critical situation
without mental stress. It will help the person to deal with problem and provide strength. This
skill motivate other employees to because when one member have positive behaviour that they
can achieve target then it provide courage to the other members as well.
Problem solution skills: For the post of assistant manager, this skill is very important as
while carry out the business activity it is significant to resolve the query and take desirable
action. In order to solve the problem at ground level only without hampering the functioning of
overall organisation. As every organisation face some challenges and it is totally depend upon
the internal staff how they tackle with it. On-going professional development helpful for the
Brightsun company because this training & development increase the capability of employees
which make them capable to face challenges and identify effective solutions to solve problems.
Because recently company face the low issue of low profitability due to less customer. To
resolve this issue, business need to hire highly skilled person who have market knowledge,
critical thinking ability to solve the problems buy effective solutions to overcome this issues. It is
the most important skill because it is possible that assistant manager face the situation where
they face some critical situation. So they have to take necessary actions in order to solve
problems.
Proper flow of communication: In order to carry out the role of assistant manager, this
is one of the prominent skills that assist the member of respective company to carry out the
functioning effectively like it help to effective deal with customer and resolve any issue if occur.

Every business required this skill because communication is the best way to convenience other.
In the Brightsun travel company employees have to deal with customers and it required proper
communication. Assistant manager have to be skilled & knowledgable who can response well to
the customer and identify their demand through effective communication as well as cross sell
their packages (Elman, Illfelder-Kaye and Robiner, 2015). It is one of the best skill which can
increase productivity and then profitability.
Above mention skills required for the role of assistant manager who can handle any
situation with pressure. So manager of the company have to ensure that recruiting person analyse
the importance of this role and then select candidate who is more suitable for this position.
Importance of undertaking ongoing professional development:
On going professional development help the employees to develop themselves and build
their professional identity. With the help of training & development programs, organisation can
achieve their goals & objectives which is completed by the workers. On going training enhance
employees skills and make them capable to to resolve problems in effective way. Assistant
manager have to be responsible regarding their role & duties and perform their task according to
the requirement. Brightsun Travel company offer their services in wide area so they have to
enhance their employees skill which increase productivity and profitability (Gale, Wheeler and
Kelly, 2017). Company required above mention skills for the role of assistant manager and on
going professional development will enhance their skill to achieve their goals & objectives.
Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role
It is very important for the me to identify my own skills, ability and capabilities for a
specific role and it will done through own assessment. Every employee have different skills
according to the requirement of their job profile. So I analyse and then compare with the role
assistant manager and the required skill for this post. It will provide me proper idea where I have
to improve my skill according to the requirement of job position. So after self assessment, i can
enhance my skills, knowledge which make me capable to achieve business goals & objectives.
Brightsun Travel company required staff members who have market knowledge and they can
develop various strategies to attract more customers in order to increase their sale and
profitability.
Company required marketing manager who can build effective advertisement regarding
their services. For completing this role, manager required various skills such as person can

handle team members, can motivate their employees, coordination with customer and employee
relation. Assistant manger have above mention skills which is sufficient or not to fulfil the
responsibility of this role. Assessment provide clear thought regarding my goals and how it can
be achieved with competent skills. Company measure this with the help of skill audit that help
the organisation to identity what skills set required for the role of assistant manager or how it
will increase profit margin. Brightsun use this audit methods to identity skills and then provide
training programs according to the requirement (Kram, Wasserman and Yip, 2012). Assessment
of skills is discussed below:
S No. Capable in: Score Comparison with
other one
Strength &
Weakness
1 Problem Solving 7 8 -1 (Weakness)
2 Communication 6 4 2 (Strength)
3 Presentation 5 6 -1 (Weakness)
4 Time Management 5 8 3 (Strength)
5 Interpersonal Skills 6 9 3 (Strength)
Range of learning theories and approaches which is used in personal & professional
development
There are various learning theory or the approaches that assist the individual to enhance
their capability or generate effective personal and professional skills. Thus, there are certain
approaches or the theory which can be followed by the Brightsun Travel company and are
discuss below:
Social learning theory: In this theory, people will learn through observing others and
they learn other's behaviour, values, attitude etc. In the Brightsun company this theory help the
employees observe their managers behaviours and so they learn new things which help them to
increase their personal & professional development.

Cognitive approach: It is the psychological theory where it include the study of mind &
thinking process. Manager of Brightsun can use this approach to study their customer's mind and
then analysis their demand which make organisation to improve their travelling services and
satisfy them (Lamote and Engels, 2010).
Humanistic learning approach: Such approach is used by the individual to perform the
work as per their goal, capability or the interest area that encourages the learner and help them to
take the responsibility by developing human values. This learning approach reduce the stress or
feeling of being weird in individual behaviour. Brightsun's manager apply this and make them
capable to identify their own behaviour and them improve according to it.
Behaviourist approach: This theory function on the basis of different idea or the
thought which an individual generate in order to expand their knowledge and effectively come
up with the solution in order too solve the different problem faced by an organisation effectively.
Basically, it make individual capable to response & face critical situation that improve personal
as well as professional development. Manager of Brightsun company build strategies where
employee have to immediately response and solve the queries of customers.
Above discuss theory & approaches improve the learning capability and it will develop
my personal & professional skills. Through focusing on cognitive and behaviourist approach,
Brightsun's employees can be able to deal with challenges effectively and resolve them very
quickly. Moreover, social learning theory help me to solve problems by observing others.
PART B
Development plan to enhance skills and competencies within specific work
Development plan as it suggest is used develop the effective strategy by which an
individual can gain the strength or enhance their capability by working on the weakness and
expanding the strength effectively. Further I can enhance my skills through various learning and
training that is required for the role of assistant manager . Development plan is the effective way
to measure my personal skills and required resources which can accomplish the goal &
objectives of the job role. This plan include strategies, objectives, necessary training that are
required in order to fulfil the requirement. It will increase my efficiency of work which improve
productivity & profitability of the organisation (Mellin, Hunt and Nichols, 2011). Development
plan help my self to maximise my own skills which help the business to increase profitability by

use of optimum utilization of resources. It helps in solving problem through development plan
and it mentioned below:
Skills Required Activities Resources Time Changes
Required
Communicat
ion
I have to read article,
new papers and frequent
communicate with
others.
I am also required
others participation in
team work where co-
ordination, co-
operation and
presentation provide
clear information
regarding performance.
To
improve
their
communic
ation
skills, it
required
almost one
months.
I have to start
communicate with
others through
sharing my ideas
that further
perform better to
achieve their
goals.
Time
Managemen
t
I have to manage time
and complete my task
on given deadline. For
this I have to decide
my priority and then
complete according to it.
I have to take help
from other such as
team members & my
peers to manage work
according to
requirement. Also
training help me to
manager my task and
make me able to
complete.
I have to
manage, or
recheck
my
scheduled
on weakly
basis, so
important
task not
missed.
I need to develop
proper schedule
and regular
review it.
Problem
Solving
For this, I have to use
critical thinking process
to resolve the issues and
need to thing about
every aspect then give
solutions. It required
Training &
development, case
study, aptitude test,
stimulation, reasoning
etc. it will help myself
to solve problems.
It required
almost 1
month to
develop
this skills
into my
I have to take
effective decision
on time need to
ensure that all
required resources
are available

interpersonal skills and
flexibility in my work
which helps in solving
problems.
personality
.
which me possible
to solve problems.
PART C
Job interview for service industry for a suitable role
Brightsun company set interview process for the role of marketing manager where it
required specific skills for the completion of various task and the contribution of assistant
manager help the business to increase their productivity as well as profitability. I am going for
the assistant manager post in the Brightsun company where I have to face different rounds of
interview. First round of interview is evaluation where my qualification compare with
candidates. After clearing my evaluation process I have to faced interview and it is called
technical round where interviewer check my marketing knowledge and thinking process through
providing me different situation and then they ask me that how I am going to act in that
particular situation. After clearing my technical round, I have to face HR round where they
check my personality and ask me various number of questions (Miller, 2018).
Because of strong academic background and my past experience, it helps me to get this
job and I secure the post of assistant manager. Even before my interview, I search about the
companies, job profit, role & responsibility of the post and other relevant information. I was
preparing my interview when I get the information regarding vacant post in the Brightsun
company. I was prepared for my interview and start collecting information such as search a lot
regarding assistant manager role & responsibility.
I also prepared to answer the questions which are commonly asked by the interviewer in
the interview process. Along with this, I identify my strength & weakness that suit for the role of
assistant manager. My creative thinking, problem solving skills, effective communication, time
management and interpersonal skills help me to secure this assistant manager position.
Strength and weakness of interview process
Interview process: It is basically a kind of evaluation process which include the face to
face interaction round between the employer as well as employee. This is one of the most
effective process of selection where final aspirant is taken forward and other are weed out.

Strength of interview process: Interview process help me to gain knowledge, increase
my confidence, provide experience and benefits for the further interviews. At the time
answering interviewer questions, I can feel that interviewer impress with the words and my way
of modifying my answer with critical through. Most important thing is that, it will provide
valuable experience which always helps me in my future. I observed that internship plays very
important role because most of the questions in interview is related to my internship period.
Interviewer frequently ask me about my work, experience, my role in the company, my
responsibility and what problems I faced that time of period. Along with this, past experience of
my job also matters because it the duration where I apply my internship experience in my job
life. Different interview rounds help me to identity the business environment, work culture and
expectation of interviewer (Sims, 2011).
Weakness of interview process: In the interview process, I observe that my knowledge
regarding general awareness, reasoning, current affairs and other general information might be
reason for loosing this job. Because of the stress and pressure of other applicants I was getting
panic and it reduce the my confidence which affect my interview little bit. Some answer of my
not up to the mark which I expected. I am getting nervous start doing wrong things such as play
with pen, move my leg and not focusing on interview process. Lack of required skills such as
communication and confidence can reduce my chances to get this assistant manager post.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been determined that professional identity and practice is an
essential component for both employees as well as organisation. Like, it include certain skills
like creative thinking ability and problem solving attitude that one develop by adopting and
developing their personality effectively. It basically assist the member to make the best possible
effort and enhance their efficiency by achieving the long target to attain the objective
successfully. Addition there are certain method that can help the individual to determine their
performances and take prominent actions in order to receive best possible result. Thus, with the
application of such methods the individual can take the necessary actions and reduce the gap by
working on the area where they can actually function and improve their performances.
Therefore, this depict that with the help of professional development and practice one van
enhance their capability or strength in order to exhibit the performance effectively and within
stipulated time frame.