Personal and Professional Development Plan

This article discusses the concept of personal and professional development plan, the value of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals, and provides examples for career growth. It also explains how to create a personal development plan and provides references to books and journals on personal and professional development.

Academic Skills and
PDP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
The concept of personal and professional development..............................................................3
Value of short-term goals identifying 3 personal short term goals.............................................3
Value of Medium-term goals identifying 3 personal Medium-term goals..................................4
Value of long-term goals along with 3 personal long-term goals...............................................5
Personal development plan..........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journal........................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development plan is the plan which is designed by an individual to
develop their personal as well as professional skills (Hasan and Zaini, 2021). This personal and
professional Development Plan helps an individual to identify the goals and objectives of their
career. Preparation of the development plan is a lengthy process which takes a lot of time and
planning in order to identify the required skills for future development. To have the skills an
individual can set they are goals in three ways that are short term long term and medium term
goals. This report contains concept of personal and professional development plan in life of an
individual and the short term long term and medium term goals which are created by them in
order to achieve their career growth. This report also contains value of all the three goals and a
personal development plan which helps an individual to achieve growth in their personal as well
as professional career.
MAIN BODY
The concept of personal and professional development
Personal development refers to a continuous process in which an individual assess their qualities
and skills and their goals to realize those skills and qualities up to the maximum of their
potential. It contains several activities which are connected with the development of capability of
an individual and help them to achieve their dreams and aspirations. On the other hand
professional development refers to the process of attaining professional skills in order to work
effectively in an organization. The main difference between personal development and
professional development is that the personal development is a process which is carried out by an
individual for themselves whereas in case of professional development it is organized by an
organization for their employees to develop their skills so that they can capable enough to carry
out necessary functions of the organization. Professional development facilities provided by an
organization also helps them in motivation of employees. In order to achieve goals either of the
personal development or of the professional development and individual requires to prepare an
effective plan so that they can identify their actions which they need to take for their
development. Personal development plan refers to a process of developing an action plan which
is based on reflection planning awareness values and many more for development of an
individual in terms of their education relationship self-improvement or career growth (Mamburu,

2020). On the other hand professional development refers to the process of developing an action
plan which focuses on various skills and training which is required in an individual to become an
efficient and effective professional for the organization. Although, personal and professional
development are two different concepts but they can be achieved by an individual by focusing
either of them. Taking an example of communication skills an individual set their goals to be an
effective communicator it will not only help them in their personal development but also shows
their result in professional development. These development goals can be of three types that are
short term medium term and long term goals. All the three goals have their different values and
importance in a Development Plan of an individual. The value of short term medium term and
long term goals in a development plan are given below:
Value of short-term goals identifying 3 personal short term goals
Short term goals refers to the goals of an individual which they decided to achieve in a short
period of time. They are generally formulated to be achieved in 3 to 5 months. This short term
goals help long term goals to diversify their time period in smaller parts in order to achieve them
successfully. Short term goals helps an individual to keep themselves motivated and provide
more confidence to them in order to face various challenges in their life as well as workplaces.
Achievement in short term goals helps and individual to accept challenges and try more
challenging activities which box as an essential step for their success and growth in career. Lack
of short term goals create lack of clear vision and individual to achieve their long term goals of
their career (Palacios and Salas-Blas, 2020).
Taking an example of development of nonverbal communication skills in an individual
can be considered as a short term goal. Development of nonverbal communication is very
essential for an individual for their personal as well as professional development. Nonverbal
communication is equally or more important than verbal communication because body language
of a person says a lot about them. Identifying development of nonverbal communication skills as
a short term goal will help the individual to be an effective communicator which is beneficial for
their life and workplace. The second example which can be considered as a short term goal is
augmenting expression in communication part. Augmenting expressions in communication
includes the communication which has been made with the help of eye pointing, pointing,
gestures and vocalizations provide symbols as a communication to people who have limited

ability to speech. Written communication is also essential to develop because expression says a
lot in a communication. This can be my short term goal because I can learn it in short period of
time in effective manner s learning off expression can take less time as compared to other skills.
The third skill which can be identified as a short term goal is the development of interpersonal
and soft skills. Interpersonal and soft skills are very essential for a person to maintain and
establish good relationship between employees, management and customers which will help
them to achieve success in their life. This can be achieved in short span of time and that is the
reason it can be considered in short term goals.
Value of Medium-term goals identifying 3 personal Medium-term goals
Medium term goals of the goals which are for longer period than short-term goals but are for
shorter period than long term goals. They are generally formulated for more than 5 months and
less than 1 year. Medium term goals are not of that much important that are short term and
medium term but also have a value foreign individual as they help to convert long term goals in
short term goals. Long term goals are firstly bifurcated in medium term goals and further
medium term goals diversify in smaller parts to make short term goals of an individual.
According to a survey every person have their medium-term goals but they do not give much
attention to these goals as generally they consider short as well as long term goals. Dream
personal medium term goals are identified in order to the topic clearer. Taking an example first
medium term goal is to take online courses as much as possible to increase knowledge.
According to this goal of mine I will utilize the lockdown period of covid-19 to develop my
knowledge in different courses and take various online courses as much as possible. Second
example of my medium term goals is to improve skills of multitasking (Passmore and Sinclair,
2020). As I have observed that type of person and in order to be part of an organization it is
essential for me to improve my multitasking skills. These skills will help me in completing my
work in timely manner with the help of multitasking. Third example which can be considered by
me as a medium term goal is to create an active attitude towards various things. There are several
things which effect and I can't take it with active attitude. In order to improve my habit I'll
suggest to take it as my medium term goal to give my activity towards those things

Value of long-term goals along with 3 personal long-term goals
Long term goals are those goals which helps to achieve long term objective of an
individual. These goals are generally set for more than one year and take time to achieve. Long
term goals need to be set in such a manner that it is difficult to achieve those goals and a proper
satisfaction can be get by achieving these long term objectives and goals. Long term goals
creates a value to the life is it helps to decide an individual the pass they will choose to run on.
Three examples which can be taken as a long term goal for me is to attain postgraduate degree in
management improve various management skills and to be able to manager team or group of
people in effective manner. All the three skills are of nature that requires long time to be
achieved as a graduate degree is generally take one year or more and in order to achieve
management as well as leadership skills it requires a lot of efforts from me to be able to achieve
these long term objective (Pitan and Muller, 2020).
Personal development plan
Learning
target
Present
profici
ency
Target
Profici
ency
Development
opportunities
Criteria for
judging attainment
Time
period
Interactio
n
skills
6 10 To be successful in my
career I need to be
confident and capable
enough to interact with
people without any
hesitation. My personality
and my communication
skill can be shown with the
help of interaction with
other individuals.
Activities in a classroom
helps me to interact with
my class fellows and
teachers which is a great
opportunity for me to
Feedback taken
from my class
fellows and
teachers will help
me to provide
various points of
improvement from
which I can be able
to make necessary
improvement in me
which will help me
to achieve more
success in the
future.
3
months

improve my interaction
skills by removing my
hesitation to interact with
someone. Activities to
present in front of an
audience will provide an
opportunity for me to
develop my
communication skills
which is very essential to
have good interaction skills
(Rashid and Lim, 2020)...
Presentati
on skills
6 10 Presentation skills will help
me to present my thoughts
and ideas in front of large
audience. Presentation
skills provide me an
opportunity to give my
thoughts and point of view
among various persons in
effective manner. Along
with this these skills will
help me to deliver effective
presentation in various
activities held during the
education.
To improve my
presentation skills I
will try to present
myself in front of
my teachers and
class fellows and
seniors and take
valuable feedback
from them which
will further help me
to make essential
changes in order to
have effective
presentation skills.
6
months
Leadershi
p skills
7 10 Taking participation in
various activities and
functions in a business will
help me to understand
various processes which
By analyzing the
achievements of the
objectives and
goals of the team it
will help me to
1 year

are going in the
organization in suitable
manner. It will provide me
various skills to assist and
lead a team during my
operations in the
organization. The
leadership skills then help
me to provide various
opportunities in the
organization to get more
success and appraisal from
them.
guide and just
myself. It will
provide me and
effective
knowledge about
the coordination
and collaboration in
an organization
which is very
essential to
establish between
employees and
team members
within the whole
project (Rashid and
Lim, 2020)...
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be concluded that short term medium term as well as
long term goals are very essential for any individual to achieve required success. Short term
goals and medium term goals helps an individual to break the long term goals in smaller parts in
order to achieve them in easy as well as timely manner. There are various examples of short term
long term as well as medium term goals which are explained above in detail.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Hasan, N.D. and Zaini, S.H., 2021. Application of social skills to children through role-playing
activities. Jurnal Pendidikan Awal Kanak-kanak Kebangsaan, 10(1), pp.25-40.
Mamburu, M.E., 2020. The effectiveness of a skills development programme in the improvement
of service delivery within a district municipality in South Africa (Doctoral dissertation).
Palacios, S.S.S. and Salas-Blas, E., 2020. Resiliencia y habilidades sociales en estudiantes
secundarios de San Luis de Shuaro,
Passmore, J. and Sinclair, T., 2020. Personal Development Plans. In Becoming a Coach (pp. 203-
207). Springer, Cham.
Pitan, O.S. and Muller, C., 2020. Student perspectives on employability development in higher
education in South Africa. Education+ Training.
Rashid, R. and Lim, M., 2020. Redesigning a PhD Course to Promote Interdisciplinarity and
Cultivate Key 21st-Century Skills: An Exploratory Study. Asian Journal of the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), pp.179-197.