Professional Identity and Practice

This report discusses the importance of professional and personal development in enhancing professional identity and career opportunities. It explores different learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development. The report also provides a development plan for becoming a Travel Consultant at Flight Centre.

Professional Identity and Practice

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1 ..............................................................................................................................................1
Importance of Professional and Personal Development .............................................................1
Reflection on Skill, competence required and different learning and development approaches.3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
Development plan .......................................................................................................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
My application and interview for Travel Consultant role................................................................8
Curricular Vitae...........................................................................................................................8
My Interview process...................................................................................................................9
Reflective Report.......................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Personal and Professional development is the process which involves learning for both
employee and organization to achieve organizational objectives and to accomplish goals. It is
important to learn continuously in order to remain unbeaten in this competitive or continuous
evolving era. The report will cover personal and professional development in terms of Flight
Centre organization. Flight Centre is a travel agency, which is operating in various countries. It is
one of the largest travel agency of the world. This report will cover the importance of personal
and professional development in context of Flight Centre to enhance professional identity and
career opportunities. This report will also assess individual skills, and competencies and different
learning and approaches. Then after assessing it will provide a development plan in order to
become Travel Consultant at Flight Centre. The report will also demonstrate range of Flight
Centre and needed skills for travel consultant.
Task 1
Importance of Professional and Personal Development
Personal and professional development is a continuous and ongoing process that an
individual perform to enhance its skills and knowledge for further developments. It is important
for every individual to continuous learn and enhance skills, knowledge, capabilities for personal
and professional growth in the future. Professional development of individual provides benefit to
various stakeholder, employees and at last to Flight Centre company.
Key benefits of professional development to various stakeholders
Increasing Productivity: Continuous learning new thing helps in enhancement of employees
skills and knowledge to produce products or deliver services of the company to customers.
Highly knowledgable employees perform their work effectively and efficient work thus reduces
cost and wastage of material. So, personal and professional development provide benefit to
customers by providing quality products or services of company at reasonable price.
Satisfied Employees needs: Professional development increases employees efficiency to
perform work effectively thus making employees happy and satisfied. So, it is beneficial to
employees as enhancement in skill and knowledge of employees help them in effectively and
easy performance of their task.
Raised standard of living: Continuous learning increase knowledge of people for perform
various task in the society and help in pace of economy as there is increase in level of education
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employees. So, it is beneficial to government, customers, employees as the economic is growing
, increase in Disposable income of customers, low employment rate and increase in standard of
living in the Society.
Promote economy Growth: Personal and profession development by continuous learning
update knowledge of individuals to perform various activities in the Society. It helps in
development of country by bring new ideas, change in technology, method of production thus
increases GDP of country. It also helps in utilizing various opportunity available in other
countries thus promote economy growth. So, it provides benefit to people in the society namely
consumers and employees and also government of the country.
Benefit of Personal and profession Development to employees and employer
Personal and professional development provide various benefits to both employees and
employer of the company.
Increases knowledge and skills: Personal and professional development increase knowledge
and skill of employees thus help in effectively and easy performance of task. It reduces burden
and dissatisfaction among employees of Fight Centre company. Whereas increase in knowledge
and skill helps to employer by improving performance and productivity of employees. Thus,
increasing in performance and reduction in wastage of material enhances profitability of
company.
Increase in profit: Employees of Fight Centre can easily adapt to various change of
environment due to high skill ans knowledge thus helps the company in gaining competitive
advantages in the market. Employees can effectively use update technology thus reducing
production cost and increasing profit margin of the company. Increase in profitability of
company enhance remuneration and various benefits of employees thus satisfy their needs in
effectively manner.
Satisfied employees: Personal and profession development provides benefit to both employees
and employer as employee feels satisfied and comfortable in performing is task due to its
effective knowledge and skills. At the same time it benefits to employer of Fight Centre because
satisfied employees work happy and effectively for achievement of company's goals. It also
reduce employee turnover and maintain loyalty of customer to work effectively to provide
quality services to its customers.
Professional and Competence skill in Flight Centre
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Various professional and Competence skills are required in employees of Flight Centre
to perform function as per their roles and levels in the company. As per various roles of
individual requirement of professional and competence skills by Fight Centre are as follows:
Travel Consultant: Travel Consultant of Fight Centre should be passionate and courages to
learn new things, he should update its knowledge as per the trends in the industry. The aim of
Travel consultant is to help customers in suggesting best places that can satisfy their needs
effectively. Good communication skill is crucial for Travel consultant to communicate with
employees clients and to deliver presentation to stakeholders. It should also possess some
technical knowledge and update its knowledge as per changes in IT sector. He should also have
ability to make quick and appropriate decision to provide benefit to the company. At last, it is
most crucial for Travel Consultant to have persuading ability in order to influence customer to
choose expensive package. Travel consultant plays an important role by suggesting customer
about various places it should visit to get tremendous experience. Thus, it influence client to
choose various Flight centre services over other company as consultant provide very crucial and
attractive suggestion to satisfy need of customers.
Business Development Manager: He is responsible for evaluation and analysation of current
business performance and suggest ways to improve performance of company. Business
development manager of Fight Centre should possess Strategic and analytical skill in order to
develop plan and strategies for achievement of company goals. Possess basic knowledge of
computer and should also have ability to develop and manage business projects. Business
intelligence is another skill required for Business development manager to understand business
of competitor as well as of its company. Business development management should have
creative and innovative thinking so that it can helps company to gain competitive advantages and
protect company form various external threats.
Commercial Air manager: He is responsible for portfolio of airline commercial agreements the
group has placed him and accountable for contracting with airlines. So, for this he should be
passionate about all air things, understand airfares and ability to build strong relationship.
Manager should have ability to pay high attention to details and can work under little
supervision. He should represent overall needs of FCTG to maximum Air Distribution while has
ability to maintain cooperative commercial partnership. Commercial Air manager should have
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good interpersonal skills to build strong relationship and have high knowledge related to
accounting to effectively perform its function.
Reflection on Skill, competence required and different learning and development approaches
There are different learning theories and approaches for personal and professional
development on basis of way of learning such as in classroom, one-to-one or self learning.
Different people learn different things at different point of times as per their circumstances and
lives. There are mainly following approaches and theories for learning:
Behaviourism: It includes systematic approaches in understanding people behaviour through
external environmental factors. Modification in behaviour of individual occur due to change in
external environment or association it thus may helps in increasing knowledge and learning of
individual. This theory suggests that person can enhance its skills or learning by constant
repetition of a task and use of feedback received from facilitator. Positive feedback promote
success and helps in learning more things by motivating individual while negative decrease the
motivation to learn new things. Individual by performing task on regular basis or performing
daily activities get specialised in particular field. At the same time feedback from other people
helps it to make specific changes or improvement for further growth and expansion of
knowledge in future.
Cognitivism: In this theory people learn most of the thing through lecture or by reading text in
books, magazines and newspapers etc. so, in this person use cognitive pathway and experience
by physical response. It is corned for active mind those who wants to learn new thing and grab
and develop opportunity to learn more in order to enhance their skills and knowledge. As
according to Dewey learning involves 'learning to think' which means the people should take
active part in learning new things to solve problem and should conduct further research to know
more about it. He said that the people should learn from its experience and critically reflect on
information gather by him. Individual get knowledge and skill to perform various function
through study of various material such as newspaper or magazines. Individual that take active
part in learning are able to get more knowledge and skill related to various subject than before.
Constructivism: In it peoples make their own understanding by use of their previous experience
and linking it with new learning. So, in this people make use of new information and their
experience to create their own meaning. It is the best approached to learn new things as
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individual learn new things through previous experience and try to avoid specific mistake that it
had done previously.
Humanism: It includes system of though or rational outlook to give importance to human rather
than supernatural matter. It means a person learns many things from its experience, observation
thus reach at a point of self actualization. The most important natural factor in learning are
Scenarios and role mode of individual. Most of the people learn while performing different
function or watching other people doing similar task therefore such approaches helps in effective
learning of individual.
Connectivism: It is another theory related to learning new things that is recently developed upon
idea that people learn new thing by forming connections. It is come in front due to development
in technology and digital era as people by connecting to each other learn new things. Learning
process of individual continuous at its job and does not end after formal education. Individual
learn new skill, gaining knowledge, experience and form network at its workplace. By use of
various social media and sites is able to form network and access to various information that help
in learning new thing. In recent trend most of the people uses social media to learn new and
innovative things, it also hselps in learning each other culture tradition, live styles thus such
connective and strong relationship helps in enhancing learning skill of individual.
Experiential Approaches: This model was developed by David Kolb, and he explained that
learning is a complex and dynamic process, and we constantly learn and develop by moving
around cycle. Learning cycles have four aspects such as concrete Experience, Reflective
Observation, Active Experimental and abstract conceptualization. Individual learn new skill
through their previous experience, by observing other people and making experiment to identify
outcome of certain steps.
Bandura's Self Efficacy Theory: This theory explains the way people appraise themselves to
increase their competence in process of learning. People that have high self efficacy does not see
challenges as problem rather they see it as an opportunity and develop their skills and abilities.
They are capable of managing threat and are ready to learn from every challenge's situation thus
it is most effective means to learn new things. Such types of individual learn new things by
taking each and every challenge as new opportunity to grow and enhance knowledge and skill of
individual. Challenges make them strong and teach them new things, skills and knowledge to
perform various functions.
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From the above analysis and evaluation of various learning theories and approaches I can
use some of them to enhance my knowledge and skills that are crucial in my career as Travel
consultant. First I can learn thing quickly from external environment, by repetition of task and
can improve myself as per feedback. So, Behaviourism is one of the appropriate method of
learning new thing as Travel Consultant in Flight centre. By using Experiential approaches I can
learn new things from my experience while performing my task. Bandura' Self efficacy can also
use by me to enhance my skills as I learn most of the thing by continuous evaluation of my
performance and activities. So Bandura self Efficacy is the most suitable appropriate method that
can be used by me while working as Travel Consultant in Fligth centre. By seeing each
challenges of life as positive individual can easily learn new things and enhance its knowledge
and skills to perform various task within organisation.
TASK 3
Development plan
Areas of Improvement Activities Measurable Target
Quick Decision-
making
Quick decision can be
taken by using
Connectivism model
as it can effectively
coordination between
various departments
and achievement goals
of the company.
Connecting with
people effectively
helps in bring quick
changes in the
organisation and
effective
implementation of
decision. By
It should be
measurable at equal
interval that effective
connection is made
with employees and
clients. In order to
grap market
opportunities and gain
competitive
advantages in the
market.
This can be improved
within few 3 months
by building good
relationship with
clients and employees.
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connecting with
people can get new
idea which would help
in quick decision-
making and in
increasing profit
margin of the
company.
Time Management Bandura self Efficacy
can be used for
completion of task on
time as by evaluating
its performance
continuous it can
improve and complete
its task within time
limit. Thus, it help in
achievement of Flight
centre goals.
This problem can be
measured by
supervising and
monitoring accurate
and timely completion
of project.
It can be improved
within 6 months by
self-actualisation of
performance and
effectively completion
of task within time
limit.
Internet Ethics Internet ethics can be
increase by
Connectivism as it
helps in connecting
with people by using
modern technology. It
is also helpful in
enhancing internet
ethics as Travel
consultant has to
It can be measure by
monitoring that easily
and comfortable in
communicating with
clients and employee
through emails. It can
be measure how
effectively gather
information related to
market trends in
It can be achieved
within 2 months as it
is easiest and simplest
way to communicate
with others.
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connect with clients
and employees with
use of computer by
sending emails.
tourism industry by
use of various social
sites.
Management Skills Constructivism is a
method in which
individual can learn
from his previous
experience. So, it can
use in management of
people by use of past-
experience conflict can
be resolved and people
can be managed
effectively for
attainment of company
goals.
It can be measured by
seeing effectively
coordination between
employee, reduction in
conflict and
enhancement of
performance of
individual.
It can be achieved
with the time period of
6-7 months as it
require more efforts to
coordination goals of
individual towards
organisational goals.
Listening Skills Cognitivism is another
theory and approaches
for learning. In this
theory new things are
learned by active
participate in the
problem. By actively
participate to listen to
clients, shareholders
and employee Travel
consultant can achieve
objectives of company
. As by listening it
It can be measured by
satisfaction of
employees and clients.
It can also be
measured by seeing
reduction in customer
grievance and
complaints.
It can be developed
within the time frame
of 5 months as I have
to change by
behaviour and have to
more listen to
customers and
employees before
suggesting them for
any place.
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identifies customers
preference and
thinking so as per that
he can consult best
places that will suit
clients and influence
him to make purchase.
TASK 4
My application and interview for Travel Consultant role.
Curricular Vitae
Oliver Jones
Address- 85, Westminster, 234388
Phone- ([phone]
Email- [e-mail]
Current Job- Freelance Travel Consultant
Experience- Freelance Travel Consultant at various travelling companies. (2015- present)
Aim- To enhance my knowledge and experience of travel consultant and to build prosperous
career, by working in leading travelling agency like Flight Centre and to.
Qualifications and certifications- Schooling from Westminster school (2000-2010),
Bachelor's degree in Travel and Tourism from University of Lincoln (2010-2014),
Certification program by National Travel Agency (2015).
Cover Letter
I find myself suitable for this position as I am passionate about this industry since from
my childhood. After attending personality development classes, I strengthened my
communication and interpersonal skills. I possess required ability to manage travel plans, from
my experience. I also took training and got certifications from National Travel Agency, that
further increased my self-confidence while applying for this job. Also, I am multi-lingual, I can
speak and communicate in widely spoken languages. I also participated in various cultural and
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social events, that required addressing lot of people, through this I developed and improved my
leadership skills, which will be required in this job. I also did my bachelors in tourism and
management program for three years and worked as freelancer travelling consultant.
My Interview process
My interview at Flight Central went quite well. My interviewer asked several questions
and I had to pass from many rounds. Here is a glimpse of my interview.
1. Interviewer: Why did you chose travel consultant as your career?
My answer: I am an adventurist, I like to travel and explore different cultures and diversities, for
that reason I find myself suitable for travel consultant. Knowledge of various cultures will be
required for this profile. I am passionate about this industry since from my childhood.
2. Interviewer: What would you do if client rejected your package?
My answer: If my client will reject my package, then I will analyse about their preferences. I am
good at analysing customer needs and demands, and on the basis of my analysis I will offer them
appropriate packages and travelling itineraries, which will be designed according to individual's
choices.
3. Interviewer: Describe about current holiday season.
My answer: (through this question interviewer wanted to test my industry awareness). I
answered him, by describing about various festivals and holidays trends that are happening right
now in the world and explained how those trends can benefit for Flight Centre.
4. Interviewer: How will you manage trouble creating clients?
My answer: (through this he wanted to know about my problem solving skills). I will request
them to behave nicely, I will try to understand what is troubling them. If in case situation goes
out of hand, I will use the law against them for safety of fellow passengers.
5. Interviewer: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
My answer: (through this interviewer wanted to see my commitment and engagement towards
profession). I see myself at top position of Flight Centre in 5 years, I am confident enough of
achieving such position. A position through which I will influence, motivate and inspire many
others.
Reflective Report
After going through the application and interview processes. I analysed my various
strengths and weaknesses and how they impacted in interview and will impact upon my
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performance in Flight Centre. Before applying for the interview, I researched about Flight Centre
in details, in order to know about company and their policies. As I never applied to any company
regarding any job before, so I didn't know the process and format for the application. Then, with
the help of internet I looked upon applications of various expert candidates, and learned and
analysed how they make their applications and apply so that it creates a lasting impression on
interviewers. My preparation for the interview involved, struggling to write decent interview
application/CV and also practising in front of mirror and watching interview videos on YouTube.
I also consulted with various placement services on how to crack the interview in first attempt,
which increased my self-confidence. My key strengths during interview were that I had
appropriate knowledge of tourism and travel sector through my bachelors in travel and tourism
program, This also boosted my self-confidence. Through my knowledge we had healthy
discussion and conversation on contribution of tourism and sector towards shaping economy.
Also, experience which I gained by working as a freelance travel consultant impressed my
interviewer, as I had managed groups and individuals in creating, coordinating their bookings
and other travel related activities. Successfully organized travelling activities by monitoring
weather activities. Also, several times acted as tour guide and operator whenever needed.
Interacted with various travelling agencies to negotiate and offered best prices to customers, in
order to make my presence in the market. Also, assisted customers while travelling by
identifying and analysing their needs and desires, and guided them accordingly. All these factors
impressed my interviewer and worked as strengths for and increased my chances of selection. I
am fond of learning and studying about various cultures and demographics, this emerged as an
important strength during my interview.
My communication skills are also good, and that helped me in convincing my interviewer
that I will overcome all my challenges and weaknesses. All these strengths contributed in easing
my interview process. If I talk about my negative experience or weaknesses that I encountered
during whole interview and application process. I would say my poor writing skills proved to be
a hurdle in the interview. My interviewer also gave me a hypothetical scenario to test my sales
abilities, which I failed. Through this I identified that I need to work upon my selling skills too.
Also, my sensitive nature, further made me uncomfortable during interview, when I was not able
to answer some questions. I also cannot handle criticism. When interviewer criticized me about
my failure to deal with sensitiveness. I became angry and frustrated, I have anger issues. During
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that time, I felt like quitting the interview and continuing as freelance travel consultant. As I felt
I cannot work under someone, who orders and asks for services that I cannot provide. But
extreme self-control helped managing my anger (Alhammouri and Abdulaziz Alenzi, 2018) .
Also, before starting my journey as a freelancing travelling assistant, I was extremely introvert.
Although I overcame my introvert attitude quite a lot, but still during interview I got to know
there is room for improvement. From my negative experiences or weaknesses I also felt insecure
during interview. I doublet on my abilities and thought I would be rejected after interview. Also,
during interview I stammered a lot, as I didn't have any interview experiences earlier.
Overall I feel my interview went quite well, although I had to face some challenges like
anger management issues, insecurities, poor writing skills and selling skills etc. I will try to
overcome these challenges which I faced during interview process as they will affect my future
performances. First, I will start from basic to improve my writing skills, I will learn about basic
grammars and principals of writing. After writing down and then proofread it and will correct
mistakes if found any. Also, I will attend classes of writing, to improve my writing abilities. I
join workshops and develop habit of reading newspaper and magazines and will analyse writing
methods, and will include them while writing applications. Regarding my anger issues, I will
never make any decisions and will not speak until I became calm. To deal with anger issues I
will do meditation and exercises. I will try to become more humorous to forgive things easily
and to evaporate all my stress. Also, I will take frequent breaks, whenever I will feel exhausted. I
will follow such personalities that remain calm even in extreme conditions. I will speak in the
mirror and also will sing songs in order to overcome my stammering problems. I will not allow
development of any negative thoughts that will lead to insecurities, I will try to behave positively
towards every situation. Also, to come out of introvert attitude, exposing to various events and
volunteering in programs will definitely help (Georgeou and Haas, 2019). I will address larger
audiences and lead and guide my colleagues to improve my leadership attitude. I will be studying
about human psychology to identify needs from attitudes of customers, in order to guide them
accordingly towards selling packages. By doing all the above activities, I will improve my
attitude, my selling, leadership verbal skills, etc and also my anger and insecurity issues.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that professional and personal development
plays an important role in order to grab various opportunities in the future. It provides various
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career opportunities to individual to enhance its knowledge and skills for performance of task
and promote economic development. It benefits to employees and employer as enhances
productivity and profitability o the company. There are various approaches and theories used in
learning new skills and knowledge that can be useful for Travel consult to perform its function.
By professional development plan Travel can improve its skill and knowledge in which it lacks
to achieve company goals. There are range of service industry and transferable skill for a job
application that helps in achievement of organisational goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alhammouri, K. A. and Abdulaziz Alenzi, S., 2018. Anger Management Strategies’ Used by
Gifted Students. International Journal for Research in Education. 42(1). pp.98-120.
Allen, C. G. and et.al., 2018. Building a framework for community health worker skills
proficiency assessment to support ongoing professional development. The Journal of
ambulatory care management. 41(4). pp.298-307.
Boeker, R., 2018. Shaftesbury on Persons, Personal Identity and Character
Development. Philosophy Compass. 13(1). p.e12471.
Charlton, B., 2016. Science is fundamentally self-regulated by the integrity of individual
scientists: therefore young scientists must develop their personal qualities, as well as
learning their subject. The Winnower.
Georgeou, N. and Haas, B., 2019. Power, Exchange and Solidarity: Case Studies in Youth
Volunteering for Development. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and
Nonprofit Organizations. 30(6). pp.1406-1419.
Hjort, K., 2017. Personal development is motivating. In Understanding Learning and Motivation
in Youth (pp. 96-103). Routledge.
Lindvall, J., Helenius, O. and Wiberg, M., 2018. Critical features of professional development
programs: Comparing content focus and impact of two large-scale programs. Teaching
and Teacher Education. 70. pp.121-131.
Mackay, M., 2017. Professional development seen as employment capital. Professional
development in education. 43(1).pp.140-155.
Tymms, M., 2018. Implementing educational innovations: A staff perspective of personal
development planning. Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 23(4). pp.463-478.
Zohar, A. and Lustov, E., 2018. Challenges in addressing metacognition in professional
development programs in the context of instruction of higher-order
thinking. Contemporary pedagogies in teacher education and development.
Online
Cain, E., 2019. 9 Simple Ways on How to Improve Your Writing Skills. [Online]. Available Through :
<https://elnacain.com/blog/writing-tips/>.
Professional development. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.edglossary.org/professional-development/>.
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APPENDIX
Skill/Competence based questionnaire
Evaluation of Performance Skills
Employee Self Evaluation Questionnaire
Name:
Position:
Date:
This form is used to evaluate various skills that you possess which is required while
performing your job in Fight Centre company.
1 Do you possess effectively and good communication skill?
 YES ✔
 NO
 NOT SURE
2 Do you have ability to persuade customers to make purchase of expensive package?
 YES ✔
 NO
 NOT SURE
3 Do you have knowledge regarding worldwide travel, Tourism industry and its various trends?
 YES ✔
 NO
 NOT SURE
4 Do you have ability to make quick and effective decision that can be helpful to company?
 YES
 NO
 NOT SURE
5 Do you perform your activities on time?
 YES
 NO
 NOT SURE
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2 Self evaluation Questionnaire
Skills Required Not True Seldom
True
Occasionally
True
Somewhat
True
Very True
Technical skill ✔
Management
Skills
✔
Basic Internet
Ethics
✔
Administrative
Skills
✔
Listening skills ✔
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