Professional Identity and Practice

This report discusses the benefits of professional development, employer's expectations of skills and knowledge for specific roles, and personal development plan in the corporate sector. It also explores theories and approaches for personal and professional development.

Professional Identity and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Benefits of professional development ........................................................................................3
Employer's expectations of skills and knowledge for specific roles...........................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
Assessment of own skills and competencies...............................................................................6
Theories and Approaches for personal and professional development ......................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN...........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Professional is a term associated with the level of skills and knowledge for performing an
specific operation or activity (Chan, 2019). Application of knowledge while performing such
specific operations is a part of mental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in
how understanding, or a world view, professionalism.
This report is based on the case study of Flight Centre. Company was established in the
year 1982. Company operates its business operations in travel and tourism sector. The
organisation serve its services in many countries like India, Australia, New Zealand and other
countries across the globe. Headquarter of the Flight Centre company is located in Brisbane,
Australia.
Henceforth, this report will emphasis over various benefits associated with the
professional development related to different stakeholders of the company. This report will also
project about the expectations of the employer from the professionals in the organisation. One
specific job role will also be discussed in this report. Furthermore, in this report a development
plan will also be discussed to enhance the professional skills. Job interview will also project
based on an specific job role in company.
Benefits of professional development
Professional development is used to refer to a wide range of methods used to aid an
individual improve his or her professional skills, knowledge, efficiency and effectiveness. These
methods include specialised trainings, advanced study, coaching, mentoring, supervising,
conducting research, assignments etc. It is the process through which individuals continue their
training and education in an effort to constantly improve their skills and knowledge in relation to
furthering respective professional career. The primary goal of professional development is to
keep the employee updated on the current trends and aware of any frequent changes in addition
to developing new skills and knowledge to advance professional career (Desimone and Pak,
2017). There are some particular professions which mandate undergoing professional
development periodically for the purposes of ensuring employee effectiveness and efficiency or
to renew license or certification etc.

Employees of Flight Centre undertaking professional development courses offer various
advantages both to themselves and to their employers as well. Some of these benefits are
discussed below:
Employee Benefits:
Taking professional development courses can provide employees of Flight Centre with
various advantages, both in terms of personal and professional growth. Employees undertaking
professional development course are more up to date with the current industry trends and do not
have to conduct research upon the ever changing industry trends. Also learning new and relevant
skills and gaining knowledge is extremely beneficial for employers looking to grow their
professional career and effectively increases their employability within the industry. Undergoing
professional development also adds greatly to Flight Centre's employee's resume and any
certifications he might have received upon completion of the course are also quite valuable both
in terms of employee's job profile and in regard to his future in industry. During professional
development training Flight Centre employees also can break away from their regular job routine
and interact with new people and place which can help energize them when they get back to their
original position. Professional development courses also raise employee motivation measures as
they become better at performing their roles and responsibilities within the company (Bush and
et.al., 2018). Flight Centre employees also feel more satisfied in relation to their jobs as they feel
more valued by the organisation or business and appreciate their superiors for pushing them on
towards improving their skills and knowledge base in regard to their job responsibilities.
Employer's Benefits:
Employees undertaking professional development courses also provide multiple benefits
to Flight Centre as well. When Flight Centre's employees undergo professional development
courses, it increases their experience and efficiency in relation to their specific roles and
responsibilities within the company. This is really beneficial for Flight Centre in general as an
increase in the performance and efficiency of an employee directly results in more productivity
and profitability for Flight Centre. Workforce of Flight Centre undergoing professional
developing training also gives the parent organisation added benefit of employing a skilled,
flexible and knowledgable workforce and enables them to expand their business into new
territories knowing their workforce will be able to keep up with the changing demands. Having a
constantly developing and growing skilled workforce also gives Flight Centre major advantage

against its competitors in order to maximise its productivity and profitability and increase its
market share (DiPaola and Wagner, 2018). Flight Centre's brand image in the market also
increases due to the professional development their employees go through. Employees also are
more innovative and creative after undergoing professional development and quit jobs less often
resulting in low turnover rates for Flight Centre.
Employer's expectations of skills and knowledge for specific roles
Flight Centre's administration has its own standards and expectations when it comes to
evaluating a candidate's ability to perform delegated duties. Here we evaluate the standards and
expectation for 3 different job profiles: Business Development Manager, Commercial Air
Manager and Travel Consultant.
Business Development Manager: For the role of business development manager, Flight Centre
prescribes to industry standards and requires a candidate who is an entry level professional,
possessing a high internal drive to succeed. Flight Centre is willing to provide the necessary
training, but only to deserving candidates who are enthusiastic about their job duties and
responsibilities. For this particular role Flight Centre requires candidates with great sales
prowess and experience, while knowledge of the travel industry would be advantageous but not a
priority amongst interested candidates. The candidate also is mandated to have more than six
months of prior relevant experience in a sales job and posses the necessary skills to not just cover
but also exceed his sales targets set (Blau and et.al., 2017). Finally as the manager would have to
travel a lot, a passion for travelling amongst candidates is also preferred .
Commercial Air Manager: For this particular role, Flight Centre is looking for candidates who
are skilled in negotiations, prioritisation and sales disciplines in order to achieve maximum air
income for Flight Centre. As the manager will head a core team within Flight Centre he should
excel teamwork and have good communication skills in order to lead team efficiently. Flight
Centre requires candidates who possess good understanding of the airline and travel industry and
is able to build long and fruitful relationships between the business and various clients and
customers. Additionally the candidate needs to be able to perform within limited supervision and
be disciplined with regards to deadlines.
Travel Consultant: For this job role, Flight Centre is looking for candidates who are passionate
about travelling to new locales and are enthusiastic about succeeding in sales. Flight Centre is

willing to provide the necessary training to deserving candidates who are willing to improve their
sales skills, knowledge of global travelling and of airline industry and travelling fares. As the
primary job responsibility is the sales of travel packages Flight Centre requires candidates who
possess relevant prior sales experience and good IT skills and acumen (Ermasova, Wagner and
Nguyen, 2017). The candidate also needs to be able to communicate and articulate effectively to
customers in order to close sales deals. Finally the candidate must be highly motivated not just to
achieve but also to exceed his set sales targets.
LO2
Assessment of own skills and competencies.
With the support of self evaluation techniques I identified my skills and abilities that will
support me in building my professional career in corporate sector. I conducted SWOT analysis
and skill audit over my personality to assess and evaluate my skills and abilities. I also assessed
myself on the basis of personality trait assessment (Cortes, DeSalvo and Mohri, 2016). Based on
the outcomes from all the above mentioned techniques used for self assessment I could identify
my skills and capabilities. I have recognized that I carry the good communication skills which
enables me to interact with anyone. Effective communication play crucial role in building both
personal and professional relationship with colleagues and other staff members. Self confidence
is also a good reflector of soft communication skills that also indicate about my confidence level.
Based on the SWOT analysis on my personality I got to know about my effective time
management skills. To assess my skills I also utilized Henry Mumford model. This model has
guided me about my characteristics of the personality. I have a reflective personality which resist
me in making decisions spontaneously. Analysis also enabled me to identify about my
ineffective sales skills. I prefer a job role of travel consultant and being spontaneous is among
the major characteristics travel consultant should possess. Decision making is an effective tool
that guides towards achieving success in corporate sector specifically for the job role of travel
consultant. I must focus over developing my decision-making skills and selling abilities as it will
ensure success of being in the position of travel consultant in Flight Centre. It will also save
enough time of clients as well because I will be able to guide customers in right direction in
order to provide benefits from my services. I also followed questionnaires to assess about my

potential of being a travel consultant. Based on the questionnaires and other analysis I
recognized about my major ability that will be utilized efficiently in order to meet my
responsibilities of being a travel consultant is my research and IT skills.
Theories and Approaches for personal and professional development
Learning Approaches
Tactics followed to acquire specific skill or knowledge is considered as a learning
approach.
Cognitive Approach: Cognitive approach is an effective learning approach use to acquire and
adopt new skills and knowledge. This approach is more like a mental presence of an individual
in a specific situation(David, Banerjee and Ponnam, 2017) This approach involve human
experimental psychology, computer analogies and cognitive neuroscience approach for
implementing learning process. Human experimental psychology is more keen towards utilising
memory attention and problem solving aspects of a human being. Computer analogies emphasis
over utilising technology and search engines for collecting and garbing information related to the
topic. To learn new skills and abilities it is crucial to gather right information. This tool
specifically focuses over channelising right platform to gather information and collect data.
Another aspect of this approach is cognitive neuroscience. This aspect deals with mental
presence of an individual while performing an specific task or project.
Learning Theory
To acquire new skill and knowledge learning theories are also acquired. Self efficacy and
social learning theory is an effective tool utilised under learning theory model.
Self Efficacy and Social Learning Theory: Social efficacy and social learning theory emphasis
over how behavioural, personal and environmental factors impacts over an individual in order to
learn new skills and adopt new knowledge. Environmental factor involve the surrounding of an
individual in order to gain information and skills (Dodescu, Cohut and Chirila, 2017). This
theory also indicates about various elements like self observation, self evaluation, self reaction
and self efficacy of an individual. All such factors drives the learning process of an individual in
order to upgrade and expand the skill.
Development Options
To improve the skills and knowledge off the job development programs can be
implemented so that utmost excellency can be achieved in order to meet the operational

requirements associated with the travel consultant. Following approaches can be utilised to
improve the decision-making and selling skills.
Training: Training can be conducted with the guidance of professionals over decision-making
and sales. Professionals will brief about several tactics that will guide in order to make suitable
decisions. Analysis is also a crucial aspect involved in sales. Sales is all about meeting the
requirements of customers that also involve evaluation of the consumer needs. Professional will
enable learning related to the needs identification and assessment. Situation evaluation also
guides in making decisions. Professional training will improve both the skills.
Work shops: Taking work shops over decision-making and sales is also an effective way to
improve both the skills (Lanza-Kaduce and Capce, 2017). Work shops will involve both
theoretical and practical knowledge about the decision-making approach and selling skills. Just
like training programs work shops also conducts by experienced professionals. This is a good
learning approach as professionals also share real life experiences that actually enable proper
personality development of all the individuals taking work shops.
Social Learning and Networking: Social learning and networking is denoted by utilising social
networking application in order to learn new skills and knowledge. Many experts post daily on
decision-making approach and approaches used to make sales. With the access of internet both
the skills can be improved by watching videos of experts.
All the techniques will enable an individual to improve both the skills in order to achieve
high excellency in decision-making approach and sales.
LO3
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Specific Skills to
be developed
Activities Resources
Required
Time frame to
Develop skill
Criteria of
Success
Customer service
skill
I need to become
more interactive
with people
around me. With
the help of
different feedback
I will need to be
more disciplined
and gain better
knowledge. I also
need to
understand the
2 months Patience and time
management to
give time to each
and every
customer properly
which will help

I will learn the
issues and make
myself more
effective in
influencing
clients to satisfy
them.
needs and wants
to what other
person
effectively.
me to increase my
customer services
skills
successfully.
Communication
skills
I will engage in
different activities
like guess the
emotion which
will help to
understand my
client's feelings. I
will become more
active in listening
to what other are
saying by paying
more attention.
I will use
YouTube to
watch video
lectures in
gaining more
information to be
more practical in
achieving my
activities
effectively.
5 months Better customer
satisfaction and
20% increase in
sales.
Organizing Skills I will make a list
of all the
activities which I
have to perform.
Strategic planning
before taking any
action.
Attending
coaching classes
and learning more
about leadership
skills and
management
skills will helps
me to organize
my activities
more efficiently.
3 Months Effective
management of
all travel log of
customers and
understanding
their
requirementsPER
SONAL
DEVELOPMEN
T PLAN
Specific Skills to

be developed
Customer service
skill
Communication
skills
Organizing Skills

Technical skills
Problem Solving
skills

Interpersonal
skills

to increase their
satisfaction.
Technical skills I will need to
improve my skill
to operate
computer
software and
internet to gain
more information
to provide
effective
travelling
consultancy. I
will also need to
learn to be
digitally
connected to
analyse
competitors
strategies and
being updated in
market to
compete
effectively.
I will read
technical books,
subscribe to
magazines which
have information
about
competitors. Also
learn to use social
media and
increase
promotional
activities of the
business
effectively.
5 Months Successfully
understanding
Change in trends
of customers with
the help of digital
tools and
increasing sales.

Problem Solving
skills
I need to handle
my customer's
problems in their
travel and also
make them
comfortable in
less time.
I will work on
more challenging
task and prepare
my mind by
gaining more
experience and
increasing
improving
decision-making
process
effectively.
Online test to
solve riddle and
mind challenging
games will help
me to become
more attentive in
understanding all
information and
making better
decisions.
9 Months Effective in
making customer
satisfied with the
services and
making them
loyal to gain high
profit margins.
Interpersonal
skills
Empathy relation
of my clients.
More focused to
analyse my
potential with
different act ivies
to increase
efficiency of my
work effectively.
I will use the self
I will adopt
online training
session which
will help me to
understand the
factors which are
important for me
to improve in
development of
this skill. Case
6 months Improved
customer relation
with the business
and high
engagement in
travelling with
my consultancy.

disclosure method
which will helps
to understand the
feeling of my
clients in making
effective
decisions.
studies will hep
me to increase my
experience by live
examples
effectively.
CV
John Def
johndef.321@ gmail.com
Mob. No. 7693458562 .
13, Park Street Road,
London, UK.
Academic Qualification
 MBA in Marketing and Finance from Imperial College of London.
 Masters in Commerce from King's College London.
 Bachelors in Commerce from King's College London.
Experience
 3 years experience of Business Development Executive in Eagle Eye Solution
Certificate courses
 1 year experience of Business Development Associate in Comfort Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.
 2 year experience in travel and tourism sector as a travel agent.
Work shops and Certifications
 Certification of Information Technology.
 Tally Course.
 Certificate in computers and general science.
Career Objectives
Looking for an attractive career path where get to deliver all my skills effectively.
Wishing to pursue a professional career as a travel consultant. I hope to work with an

organisation which can give freedom to deliver my knowledge and skills and also can provide
opportunities to expand my existing skills and knowledge in order to improve my over all
personality development.
Cover Latter
Dear Manager
I, am here for a job role of travel consultant. I have a great communication skills and research
skills that suits me for the designation of travel consultant in the company. I also keep myself
up to date about the current situations across the globe that also conveyed me about all the latest
developments across the globe. I have an effective analytical skill that supported me to analyse
and assess the situation in more effective manner.
Preparation of Interview
Travel consultant is an attractive designation associated with the Flight Centre company.
Travel consultant must have a good knowledge base about the world and its respective history as
well. Current situation of each and every targeted travel destinations across the globe must be
recognised by the travel consultant (.Maclellan And et.al.,2016). To prepare for the interview of
travel consultant videos over different tourist destinations can be watched so that proper
information about all such planes can be gathered. Travel consultant must know about all tourist
places associated with a specific travel destination so that proper consultancy can be provided to
clients. Travel consultant must be spontaneous enough in order to clear all the doubts of
customers associated with the tourist destinations. It crucial for travel consultant to handle all the
doubts of the clients about the destinations like perfect stay such as hotels, resorts, famous food
of the destination, restaurants and so many details that can improve the travelling experiences of
the travellers. Watching videos over YouTube is a good way to prepare for all the professional
requirements associated with the job position of travels consultant.
Evaluation
As I got to know about the positional requirement of travel consultant in Flight Centre I
started preparing my self for the job role. I prepared my CV in order to present myself in front of

the interview panel of the company ( Ritter and Moster, 2017). I was nervous before the start of
the interview. During the whole interview I was active while listening all the questions of the
interview panel. IN order to give proper response against the questions asked by interview panel
it is crucial to have an active listening skill. Effective listening enabled me to respond effectively
on each and every question was asked from me. My confidence level was also good in the entire
interview. My preparation before the interview also supported my confidence as I had a proper
knowledge about all the famous tourist destinations across the globe. My effective research skills
made me more confident during the interview. Research skills helped me in gathering proper
information abut all the tourist destinations across the globe. I also faced confusions during the
interview (Rózsa,2016). Many times interview panel asked me questions rearing to current
situation across the globe that made me confused many times. As I was not efficiently aware
about the current ongoing situation across the world. Interview panel also tasted my decision-
making ad sales skills during the interview. My decision-making and sales skills is not effective
enough that also influenced my presence in the interview. Travell consultant needs to take
immediate decisions while suggesting the tourist destinations to customers after analysing about
the situation of customers. Sales is also an important part of the job role of travel consultant as he
needs to sale the packages of company that can best suits the requirements of customers and
travellers. I will take professional guidance by watching videos over internet on sales and
decision-making ( Mostert, 2017. Enhancement of creative thinking skills using a cognitive-
based creativity training. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. I will also take seminars and work
shops over both the aspects which will also guide me in improving both my skills.
CONCLUSION
This report concludes about the professional development of professionals work in the
company. Professional development guided to implement better operations as it improves the
skills like communication skills, decision-making skills and various other skills that enable the
professionals to perform actions more effectively. This report also project the benefits of
professional development in respect to employers. Employers get more productive actions from
the human resources of the company. This report also project a reflection to demonstrate the
possessed skills and knowledge of professional. All the possible improvement in term of skills
and knowledge that can enable the professional to perform, better tasks of being on the job role
of the travel consultant. Professional development plan has also projected in order to improve the

skills of professionals. A suitable CV, Cover Latter has also projected for the job role of travel
consultant. Interview evaluation has also concluded to demonstrate the experience of
professional during the interview.
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