Professional Identity and Practice Assessment

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of professional identity and practice, highlighting the importance of using appropriate tools for development and growth. It emphasizes the need to identify key skills and enhance them through learning theories, approaches, and training methods. The report also touches on social learning theory and behaviorist approach in modifying behavior and motivating individuals to work with more efficiency at their workplace.

Professional Identity and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Introduction and overview of the organisation............................................................................1
Skills and competences expected by employers for specific roles..............................................1
Benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and personal development and
how it can enhance career prospects............................................................................................2
Review of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development.................................................................................................................................2
Access their own skills and abilities ...........................................................................................3
Best development approaches to enhance professional and personal development....................4
PART B............................................................................................................................................4
Development plan........................................................................................................................4
PART C............................................................................................................................................6
Interview process for the specific role.........................................................................................6
Strengths, weaknesses of interview process................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity can be described as an individual's values, experiences, beliefs,
motives through which they define themselves from other people in current as well as anticipated
professional life (Cruess, Cruess and Steinert, 2016). Practice refers to the usage of knowledge
along with skills in specific profession in order to enhance efficiency of any entity. For
understanding professional identity and practice, Travelport Worldwide Ltd is selected. It is a
UK based organisation which performs various operations in travel and tourism industry. The
present report on-going professional development and self-directed learning to enhance
professional identity and career opportunities along with skills, competencies with different
learning as well as development approaches. It further includes professional development plan,
detailed reflection of job interview process with strengths, weaknesses of process along with
obstacles and challenges to overcome for the growth of organisation.
PART A
Introduction and overview of the organisation
Travelport Worldwide Ltd is an UK based organisation which has its headquarters
located at Langley, Berkshire, UK (Bloomberg, 2019). It was incorporated in the year 2006 for
the purpose of delivering operations related to distribution, payment, technology and many more
in tourism sector. It operates its services related to customer requirements, preferences and
demand in order to satisfy their expectations to deliver tour, travel and hospital services.
The company along with its subsidiaries operated activities in travel commerce platform
to provide distribution as well as merchandising solutions to rail, hotels, cruise lines, rental, tour
operators, advertising solutions, virtual payment solutions and various platform services. It also
offers marketing analytical tools to tour and travel providers, critical IT solutions to airlines
related to departure control, ticketing, business intelligence.
Skills and competences expected by employers for specific roles
The objective of selected firm is to manage its operations in the multinational
environment successfully. For such various skills along with competences are expected by
employers to perform specific roles. Such skills along with competences are the followings:
Good communication skills: Working in tour and travel sector requires good
communication skills to strengthen the communication between management, staff members and
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customers. An employer employs an individual who has effective oral as well as written skills to
communication all informations at all stages of operations.
Problem solving: such skill is required in all industrial sector to attract and retain its
customers. Employer of Travelport Worldwide Ltd is expecting from its employees to posses
strong problem solving skill to provide new services, solve customer problems, offer reasonable
packages and many more (Mackelprang, Salsgiver and Salsgiver, 2016).
Cultural Awareness: In day to day life, selected organisation has to entertain different
clients from different places in large number. For this, employers look for a person who can
understands different religions, nationalities, cultures. Awareness of all such elements helps to
make customers feel comfortable and satisfied which in turn leads to build an positive image in
the eyes of clients.
Benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and personal development and how
it can enhance career prospects
Ongoing personal and professional development is continuous developments through
tracking as well as documenting knowledge, experiences and skills beyond any training which
helps to manage learning as well as growth throughout the career.
Importance: Undertaking ongoing professional and personal development is very important as it
helps in learning and developing skills, knowledge on continuous basis and up to date for the
purpose of working legally, effectively along with safety.
Benefits: Undertaking such development program benefit selected organisation to develop
necessary skills related to particular profession for delivering professional services to
community, customers as well as clients. It also helps in growing on continue basis throughout
the working life.
Ongoing professional and personal development enhance career prospects by providing
right type of training related to developing skills and knowledge to match the needs. It helps in
progressing current career as well as enhancing skills to carry out particular role in effective
manner throughout working life. Thus, it enhances career prospects in many ways.
Review of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional
development
Various learning as well as approaches which are used for personal and professional
development to improve knowledge as well as skills in efficient manner. Learning theories and
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approaches describes set of principles which can be used as guidelines for selecting appropriate
instructional strategies, tools and techniques to promote learning. Some of them followed by
Travelport Worldwide Ltd are the followings:
Social learning theory: Such theory defines that new knowledge, behaviours and skills
can be acquired by observing others. It explains the manner in which people imitate new values,
attitude, behaviours, skills and many more. For example, employees of selected enterprise
observes managers as well as peers and accordingly follows practices to acquire new things in
order to enhance professional along with personal development.
Cognitive approach: It is a psychology approach which involves study of human brain
and it's thinking. It focuses on learning along with receiving. For instance, manager of chosen
company studies clients mind in order to acquire informations to improve services in order to
fulfil requirements and demands of customers.
Behaviourist approach: It involves ideas and thoughts of any person to respond quickly
for solving problems. Such approach is useful in respective business to define the speed of an
individual to solve critical situations for accepting changes. For example, managers of Travelport
Worldwide Ltd wants to adopt new strategies by applying technology to attract potential
customers. In such case, employees by adopting this approach will respond quickly to provide
stimuli results to managers as well as customers (Mariet, 2016).
Access their own skills and abilities
Self assessment is the evaluation of own performance, actions and attitude. It is very
important for me as to identify my own capabilities for performing the role of Business
developer at Travelport Worldwide Ltd. I need to develop my skills, knowledge in order to fulfil
necessary requirements for this role. For such role, employer requires various skills,
competencies, abilities to help the enterprise to formulate and implement effective strategies
which the aim of increasing efficiency along with profitability to attain my business objectives
and goals. With the help of auditing of skills, I can evaluate my capabilities, skills as well as
abilities required for the role of business developer. All are discussed below:
Required skills Scores required for
particular job
Self Evaluation score Improvements
required or not
Communication 9 8 -1 ( Required )
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Inter personal skills 8 9 1 (Not Required )
Time management 7 8 1 ( Not Required )
Cultural awareness 8 8 0 ( Not Required )
Problem solving 9 8 -1 ( Not required )
Travelport Worldwide Ltd requires Business develop who has the skills to formulate
effective strategies to get successful results (Olsen, 2016). Planning, directing, managing,
coordinating and controlling internal activities as well as all will be done with the help of
described skills. Some improvements are requirements in my skills related to problem solving,
cultural awareness and communication.
By using the above described theories, I can improve my skills which are required for the
role of Business developer in Travelport Worldwide Ltd. My focus is on behaviourist approach
as well as social learning theory with the help of such theories and approach I can improve my
cultural awareness skills along with problem solving skills.
Best development approaches to enhance professional and personal development
By using the approaches of social learning theory and behaviourist approach personal as
well as professional developments can be enhanced.
Social learning theory: With the help of this approach, personnels learn by observing peers,
managers in direct or indirect manner. They learn, analyses and reinforce all actions which they
observe and apply them in personal as well as professional life in order to enhance professional
and personal development.
Behaviourist approach: By applying such approach, managers understand the behaviour of
employees and clients related to any changes pertaining in the business. By adopting latest
technologies and tools to increase skills, knowledge and capabilities helps to enhance
professional and personal development.
PART B
Development plan
Development plan refers to the set of planning strategies which helps in identifying key
skills as well as enhancing them by using various learning theories and approaches along with
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training methods which are required for Business Developer role. Development plan application
can help me to analyse key areas where improvements are required in order to become
compatible for such role. It includes objectives, trainings and strategies to enhance my skills to
order to increase my efficiency by optimum utilising resources. It will further help Travelport
Worldwide Ltd to enhance profitability as well as productivity by resolving problems through
effective development plan.
Skills Required activity Resources Time Required
changes
Problem Solving I have to apply critical
thinking procedures in order
to solve issues and focus on
each aspect related to
situations and later solutions
are provided. Interpersonal
skills as well as flexibility at
workplace is required for
the purpose of solving
business problems.
Aptitude tests,
training &
development,
stimulation,
case study and
many more
will help in
solving
problems.
It requires
the time
period of 1
month or
more to
develop such
skills and
enhancing
personality.
Effective
decisions to be
taken on time by
consulting with
other internal
members to
ensure required
resources are
available to me
for solving
problems.
Communication Reading articles &
newspapers, participating in
organisational events,
frequent communication
with team as well as internal
members.
Participation
of other
members to co
ordinate, co
operate and
providing
presentations
related to clear
performance
informations.
By carefully
and
effectively
following all
strategies, it
requires more
than a month
to enhance
communicati
on skills.
I have to
communicate
with all
members at
work place by
sharing ideas,
opinions in order
to perform
further for
achieving
objectives.
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PART C
Interview process for the specific role
Travelport Worldwide Ltd sets interview procedures for marketing manager role where
particular skills are required for completing various tasks as well as contributing help towards
business develop to increase efficiency, productivity and profitability. I am going for the post of
marketing manger where I have to face 3 rounds of interviews. First is related to evaluation
where qualifications of candidate are compared with the required post. Second round is related to
technical round where interviewer analyses my marketing manager as well as thinking skills by
providing different situations and my impacts or solutions related to those situations. After
clearing both rounds, I have to go for last round which is HR manager round. In this, my
personality is checked along with various questions are asked.
As my academic background and past experience was strong, it benefited me to get this
job opportunity and secured marketing manager role. Before interview, I was preparing for such
post considering job profit, responsibilities, roles and other information. I start collecting
information and got prepared after searching a lot related to such position.
I also prepared some of other questions which are frequently asked in any interview. In
addition, I identified my strengths as well as weaknesses which suits for marketing manager role.
My time management, interpersonal, creative thinking, effective communication skills helped me
in great manner to secure such marketing manager position.
Strengths, weaknesses of interview process
Strengths: interview process helped me in identifying my communication skills, gaining
knowledge and providing benefits for sitting in further interviews. It provided valuable
experience which acts as a motivational factor to motivate me in future. Most of my questions
were based on internship or past experience. Different interview rounds benefited me to identify
work culture, expectations of interviewer and information related to business environment.
Weaknesses: The interview process helped me to analyse my knowledge related to
general awareness, current affairs, logical reasoning. All such aspects might had become the
reason to loose this job position. By observing other candidates, I got panic and it decreased my
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confidence level a little low. Some of my answers were not according to the interviewer
expectations and this was one of an obstacle.
CONCLUSION
According to the above report it can be concluded that professional identity and practice are
important to be assessed on right time with the help of appropriate tool for the development and
growth of personal along with professional life. Different people have different capabilities,
skills, abilities which influences their performance level at organisation. Professional
development plan is very helpful in identifying identifying key skills as well as enhancing them
using appropriate learning theories, approaches, tools as well as training methods. Learning
theories and approaches related to social learning theory along with behaviourist approach are
used to modify behaviour of personnels and motivating them to persuade the work with more
efficiency at work place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Cruess, R. L., Cruess, S. R. and Steinert, Y. eds., 2016. Teaching medical professionalism:
supporting the development of a professional identity. Cambridge University Press.
Mackelprang, R. W., Salsgiver, R. O. and Salsgiver, R., 2016. Disability: A diversity model
approach in human service practice. Oxford University Press.
Mariet, J., 2016. Professional socialization models in nursing. International Journal of Nursing
Education. 8(3). pp.143-148.
Olsen, B., 2016. Teaching for success: Developing your teacher identity in today's classroom.
Routledge.
Pennington, M. C. and Richards, J. C., 2016. Teacher identity in language teaching: Integrating
personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC journal. 47(1). pp.5-23.
Seo, K. and Kim, M., 2017. Professional identity of Korean nurse practitioners in the United
States. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 29(4). pp.195-202.
Sherwood, M. and O’Donnell, P., 2018. Once a journalist, always a journalist? Industry
restructure, job loss and professional identity. Journalism Studies. 19(7). pp.1021-1038.
Song, W. J., 2016. 'Caring'a an understanding of professional identity by first-year nursing
students. Whitireia Nursing and Health Journal. (23). p.37.
Zwozdiak-Myers, P., 2018. The teacher's reflective practice handbook: Becoming an extended
professional through capturing evidence-informed practice. Routledge.
Online:
Bloomberg. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.aspprivcapId=4048958>
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