Identifying skills and competences expected by an employer

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK A................................................................................................................................................3
1. An introduction to, and overview of the organisation you have chosen......................................3
2. An investigation into the skills and competences expected by the employer for specific roles in
your chosen organisation.................................................................................................................3
3. An evaluation of the benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and
personal development and how it can enhance career prospects.....................................................4
4. A review of the range of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development................................................................................................................5
5. A critical evaluation of your own abilities, skills and competences for one of the job roles in
the organisation, using at least two self-evaluation models to undertake an audit of your hard and
soft skills..........................................................................................................................................5
6. Consideration of the best development approaches to enhance your own professional and
personal development......................................................................................................................6
TASK B................................................................................................................................................7
1. References to how elements of your plan apply underpinning learning and development
theory...............................................................................................................................................7
And...................................................................................................................................................7
2. Clear and achievable targets, strategies and outcomes of learning and training you will need to
work in your chosen organisation....................................................................................................7
TASK C................................................................................................................................................8
1. Produce a detailed and coherent critical reflection of the interview process and your own
abilities during this process..............................................................................................................9
2. A review of the key strengths and weaknesses of the interview process you experienced..........9
3. An evaluation of the job interview process and the obstacles and challenges you had to
overcome..........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is a term, which is used by individuals for explaining that how the use
to precise themselves in their professional life. For an individual it is very important for them to
judge their performance and also make changes accordingly, so that their skills and performance
can get improved. This report is based on Thomas Cook Group Plc, which is one of the leading
travel and tourism organisation in UK. This report will help in detailing about the skills and
competence required by HR manager and customer executives of them (Brooks, 2016). This is
because the organisation is working a no loss no gain conditions, but now they want to increase
their margin ratio. Along with this, a discussion will take place on benefits of training and
development sessions used by organisation for improving the performance of their employees. Also
theories will get discussed which will help in developing the skills of employees working in
organisation.
TASK A
1. An introduction to, and overview of the organisation you have chosen.
Thomas Cook Group Plc, is one of the biggest hospitality and travel organisation of UK. It
was founded on 19th June, 2007, by the merger of Thomas Cook and Sons with MyTravel Group
Plc. They use to provide their services and has owned ample number of tour operators and some
European based air lines in United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and Balearics. Along with this,
the currently organisation is at the condition where they are not able to make any type of profits in
their favour, and working in a situation where they are at no profit and no loss condition. For
coming out of this condition, it was very important for them to make some strategies and plans
which help their employees in improving their skills . This will help them in performing in better
manner, so that Thomas Cook Group Plc can attain some profit ( Clark, 2014). So, for improving
the performance of their employees, they start providing proper and essential training and
development sessions to them, so that their skills get enhanced and also performance of them can
improved.
2. An investigation into the skills and competences expected by the employer for specific roles in
your chosen organisation
The important job role for an organisation like Thomas Cook Group Plc, are their Human
Resource manager and also their support executives. As it is very important for travel and tourism
organisation to maintain their team and also to make proper communication with their customers.

The basic skills required in HR manager and customers support executives of Thomas Cook Group
Plc are as follow :-
Competencies and Skills required for HR manager :-
1. Organisation : It is very important for HR manager of Thomas Cook Group Plc to have
proper skill of making proper organisation in different functions of them ( Gibbs, 2015).
2. Communication : For completing all the tasks and activities, it is very much important for
them to have to proper communication skills, which will help them in making proper
interaction with their employees and subordinates.
Competencies and Skills required for Customer executives :-
1. Listening skills : It is very important for customer executives to have good listening skills,
which will help them in gaining proper information that what customer want to ask and what
they have to give them.
2. Communication skills : Along with listening skills, it is essential for them to have proper
communication skills, so that they can attract customers towards them.
3. An evaluation of the benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and personal
development and how it can enhance career prospects.
Training and development sessions are very much important for an organisation, as this help
them in proving knowledge to their employees, by which they get chance to improve their skills and
also get opportunities to grow and develop themselves ( Kearney-Nunnery, 2015). There are ample
number of benefits which an organisation like Thomas Cook Group Plc can get providing proper
training and development session to their employees, few of them are below :-
1. Lead to increase in level of job satisfaction and also help in increasing their moral.
2. This help in increasing motivation of employees.
3. Increase the efficiency of different functions and process performed by them.
4. Help them in adopting new technologies in an easy manner.
5. Help in implementing innovation in working of a system.
6. Help in improving the working of each and every unit in organisation, which reduces the
cost of them.
7. Help in maintaining good relationship with employees and also help in filling the
requirements of customers.