Learning Styles and Professional Development

This assignment delves into the relationship between learning styles, personal development, and professional growth. It examines various learning styles theories, such as VARK and Kolb's Learning Cycle, and how understanding one's preferred style can enhance learning effectiveness. The document also explores the significance of continuous learning for career advancement and personal fulfillment, emphasizing strategies for lifelong learning and development.

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.………………………………………………………………………………………1
TASK 1
LO1- UNDERSTAND HOW SELF-MANAGED LEARNING CAN ENHANCE
LIFELONG DEVELOPMENT
1.1 Approaches of self-managed learning and evaluate their suitability ……………………...1
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning process in personal and professional development could
be encouraged and mention the relevance to your learning and development methods ………2
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning to the individual and organisation……………………..4
LO4- BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE ACQUIRED INTERPERSONAL AND
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
4.1 Work based problems and their solution…………………………………………………...5
4.2 Learning styles which help in overcoming problems……………………………………...6
4.3 Time management strategies for individual and justification the most suitable one………7
TASK 2
LO2- BE ABLE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Personal skills audit and evaluation against professional standards……………………….8
2.2 Identifying development needs and activities needed to overcome them………………….9
2.3 Identifying my own developmental opportunities to meet current and future goals……..11
2.4 Personal and professional development plan……………………………………………..12
LO3- BE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT AND CONTINUALLY REVIEW OWN PERSONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
3.1 Process and activities required to implement new development plan…………………….13
3.2 Undertaking and documenting development activities as planned……………………….14
3.3 Evaluating own learning against the original aim and objectives………………………...15
3.4 Updating development plan based on feedback and evaluation………………………….15
Conclusion.………………………………………………………………………………………16

References
.................………………………………………………………………………………………...17

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation tries to increase its manpower capacity for enhancing its
efficiency and quality in production. Thus, they mainly focus on people’s personal and
professional development. The aim of this development is to determine self-learning
concept used by people who will aid in meeting future uncertainties and maintaining the
quality level of production. Personal and professional development increases the
motivational level of employees which helps in making products and services in an
effective manner (Avalos, 2011). There are different methods which will be used by
enterprise to build a strong relationship with people and enhance their knowledge,
abilities and skills.
This project report is based on Travelodge which is large brand in hospitality
industry based in UK. It is the second largest hotel in the country. The purpose of this
report is to understand different approaches of self-managed learning, lifelong learning
concept, time management strategies and development plan. There are some learning
styles also explained which will identify manager’s behaviour towards the employees.
TASK 1
LO1- UNDERSTAND HOW SELF-MANAGED LEARNING CAN ENHANCE
LIFELONG DEVELOPMENT
1.1 Approaches of self-managed learning in Travelodge
Self-managed learning is a process which identifies how individuals manage their
learning process and development plans to attain growth career. It is a method that
provides new design for learning. An enterprise tries to develop their employee’s
capabilities by self-appraisal that enhances growth and development in their career.
Travelodge uses this technique for their workers that will help them in taking right
decision at correct time in proper condition. There are some benefits of this method
which support employees in self-monitoring, managing and innovating new products or
services for their clients in a proper manner.
There are many types of approaches which are used in self-managed learning
process which are like:
1

 Research- This is an approach which assists an individual in learning new things
for doing research on different concepts and topics (Bjork, Dunlosky and Kornell,
2013). It is used to gain knowledge and skills on various theories.
 Seminars and conferences- It is that method which helps an employee in
enhancing his abilities and skills within organisation. It improves the skills and
knowledge of an individual.
 Coaching- This is an approach in which managers guide their employees to
choose right direction for achieving goals and objectives. It supports the
managers in improving performance of workers.
 Meta Strategic approach- It is that approach which describes person's mental
status will be changed their behaviour and also build strategic mind.
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning process in personal and professional development
could be encouraged
There are certain ways by which lifelong learning concept can be motivated
among employees working in Travelodge. It is important for an organisation to provide
learning which enhances skills, knowledge and assists in maintaining the personal and
professional life (Bourner, 2011). There are some ways to encourage learning in
Travelodge by which personal and professional development could be encouraged.
They are:
2

Illustration 1: Ways by which lifelong learning can be encouraged
(Source: Ways by which lifelong learning can be encouraged, 2017)
 Self-motivation- It is the key to get success for a person. It assists in avoiding
depression, negative thoughts, frustration and irritation towards life and job.
 Self-management- It is the manner by which company organises their
professional work and personal life. It needs more regulations, rules and
organized work.
 Self-modification- After finish above task an individual get the variation in his or
her life. Then a person works in his or her variations and modifies oneself
according to the role models.
 Self-monitoring- This is the way which assist in evaluating and analysing own
performance and searching for the existing deviations. On the basis of same,
individual needs to take corrective actions.
Other than these, there are some more effective ways to lifelong learning which are like:
Planning and organising events- Travelodge has a plan to support self-
learning in a proper manner in the hotel. Staff can be encouraged to attend learning
3

events such as conferences and seminars or managers need to give them motivational
sessions which enhance their abilities or capabilities that will assist lead to increase
production.
Training and development- It is the method which can be used to encourage an
employee in self learning. Managers provide training to their workers for knowing the
functioning of new technologies or techniques which are adopted by an enterprise.
Training can enhance employee’s skills and knowledge which is necessary for the
business.
Career development opportunities- The hotel management has to ensure that
they will provide innovative developmental opportunities to their employees through
transfers, promotions and other non-monetary methods. It is used to develop the career
of workers.
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning to the individual and organisation
Self-managed learning is very important for company and their staff members
that will provide opportunity to grow and develop their career (Brody and Hadar, 2011).
Travelodge used this learning for gaining skill and new capabilities in individuals which
will increase productivity and provide growth.
This method assisted in learning new concepts or theories and helps in
developing employee’s career. Self-managed learning concept mainly concerns
changing point of view and mental structure of a person which diversifies the approach
towards some issue or problem. There are certain benefits of self-managed learning to
individual and organisation:
Benefits for individual:
 Increased capabilities- It enhances employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities
(KSA) on the basis of their performance within organisation (Bunderson and
Boumgarden, 2010). Workers need to enhance the capabilities or abilities which
will help them in achieving goals and objectives.
 Career development- By self-managed learning, an individual can choose the
direction for their career that will provide growth to them. The workers can
develop their career to increase performance level.
4

 Improves efficiency and effectiveness- This is the method that will increase
effectiveness and efficiency of workers at higher level. The organisation needs to
improve performance of employees by training or motivating them. Improve decision making- This process assists in identifying various issues or
problems to enhance capabilities and abilities of an individual. It is essential for
an individual to improve their decision making abilities which assist in achieving
goals and objectives.
Benefits for organisation:
 High productivity and profitability- An employee’s perform their work with
using skills and knowledge that provides better outcome to the hotel. They need
to improve productivity and enhance profitability.
 Improve team building and working- Organisation maintains and improves
team building among employees and enhances coordination with their
colleagues. An enterprise should build team or groups to work together.
 Customer satisfaction- A skilled worker will fulfil customers’ needs and
demands as well as satisfy their wants in a proper manner. It is important for the
organisation to satisfy their buyers.
LO4- BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE ACQUIRED INTERPERSONAL AND
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
4.1 Work based problems and their solution
In Travelodge hotel, there are certain changes which are causing different
problems or issues in the firm and they can be managed in an effective manner. The
current problems in Travelodge are effectiveness and efficiency of workers (Elliott,
2011). This is a big problem which occurs in hotels and it affects the productivity and
profitability of business. Workers are not able to give their best performance due to lack
of training and communication gap. This is the reason; they do not understand the way
to tackle different types of issues and accomplish set targets on time. Thus, to solve the
same, there are certain ways by which it can be solved by managers in an efficient way.
These are stated as below:
5

 Provide training and development opportunities- It is necessary for
company's managers to guide their employees in right direction and provide
training sessions.
 Develop communication channels- Top management is responsible to provide
correct information to their staff effectively. It can be related to meetings, tasks
and work.
 Reduce confusion related to functions- It is the duty of manager to remove all
confusion from the minds of employees which is based on functioning of an
organisation’s activities (Gilakjani, 2011). They need to provide clear information
of action or tasks which take place in an enterprise.
4.2 Learning styles which help in overcoming problems
It is important for managers to resolve issues or problems in a simple manner
that will assist in learning new things by an employee. This is a method which solves
queries of employees that directly improves the worker’s performance in terms of results
gained from tasks assigned to them. There are different learning techniques such as
seminars and conferences which need to be used by manager for enhancing skills of
employees. Manager of Travelodge hotel can use various tools like visual, audio and
logical method to attract people and change their mind set. Basically, they need to
effectively conduct behaviour which modifies individual efforts in the same direction.
There are some issues or problems which were determined by an individual in
effective and efficient manner. The manager use learning styles that are combination of
different styles such as logical, visual and physical (Komarraju and et. al., 2011). There
are three styles which will use to manage management:
 Controller style- In this style, manager presents report in front of top
management and takes permission for future actions or events. The manager
sends letter to their top management for informing some activity details.
 Supporter style- All managers and leaders will advised by memo for make sure
that they do not have any state of mind.
 Analyser style- There are different activities or functions which will provided to
the top managers and they deal with in proper manner. It is middle level style in
which managers send email for their employees for given some information.
6

4.3 Time management strategies for individual and justification the most suitable one
Time management strategies are important to be adopted by each and every
individual to increase their efficiency level. Effective strategy provides less activity and
minimal resources input. These assist in achieving goals and objectives in an effective
way. There are various types of time management techniques that can be used by an
individual:
 Focus strategy- This strategy is used to achieve certain tasks in an effective
manner by focusing resources at one place (Leite, Svinicki and Shi, 2010). It
helps in accomplishing some desired goals which will need to fulfil future
requirements.
 Delegation and organisation- There are different resources which need to be
organised or delegated by adopting various functions (Different learning style.
2017). It is an effective technique which assists in achieving the goals with
minimum resources.
 Preparing to do list- It is a list which will assist to perform task on the basis of
priorities and urgency. Some tasks have to be completed on time which will be
set in time period. It is used to achieve desired goals and objectives in an
efficient manner.
Focus strategy is the most suitable strategy for me to work in Travelodge hotel. It will
assist me in achieving the assigned tasks in an efficient manner as through the same,
my major focus will be on the target only. This strategy provides focus of an individual
on each work and completes it in given time.
TASK 2
LO2- BE ABLE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Personal skills audit and evaluation against professional standards
SI.
No.
Skills and Competencies Score Score
from
Variances
7

others
1 I am able to solve issues 7 8 -1
2 Team building skills 6 8 -2
3 I have researching abilities 8 6 2
4 I am able to achieve targets effectually 8 7 1
5 I have strong leadership skill 7 8 -1
The negative values are shows as good and positive consider as bad.
Strengths
 Resolving issues
 Team building
 Strong leadership
Weaknesses
 I need to improve my researching
ability.
 I am not able to achieve set targets
on time.
As per self-analysis of my all personal qualities, I have prepared my curriculum vitae.
Name: Raluca Voinea
Address: 39 Drive Way, HA0 5DB
Telephone number:07865319725
Email: [e-mail]
Career Objective: To make a good place in corporate area and assist in achieving
target goals and objectives of company
Academic Qualification:
1. Graduate
2. Masters in HR
Experience:
1. Fresher
Personal skills:
1. Hard working
2. Loyal
8

3. Honesty
4. Managerial and technical skill
5. Team spirit
6. Leadership abilities
Declaration:
I hereby announce that all above information is true to my knowledge.
It is clear that personal and professional development should be developed by each firm.
In this, enterprise will analyse skills of person by giving scores to their qualities and abilities. For
developing effective skills and knowledge among individual then company need to identify their
strength and weakness. In the above table, CV will shows a person personal details, skills,
experience, career objectives and education qualification.
2.2 Identifying development needs and activities needed to overcome them
An individual has to learn new things and develop their skills and knowledge for
better career opportunities. There are some areas in which I am strong and weak which
help me in focusing on actions (McNair and et. al., 2011). Each person has certain
strengths and weaknesses that assess his/her growth and development. SWOT
analysis provides details about my personal abilities which are like:
Strengths
 Resolving issues
 Team building
 Strong leadership
Weakness
 I need to improve my researching
ability.
 I am not able to achieve set targets
on time.
Opportunities
 Improved managerial capabilities
 Increased communication skill
 Learning new things
Threats
 Lack of money
 More competitive employees
 Highly skilled co-workers
9

(Source: Swot Analysis, 2017)
There are some areas where I lack and need to improve:
 Solving difficult problem- I need to enhance my skills to solve difficult issues or
problems which assist in running business properly.
 Improve team building skills- Being a manager; I should improve my team
building ability which will help me to coordinate with workers effectively.
 Improve leadership abilities- I can enhance my leadership skill which is used to
motivate the employees that would support to achieve target goals and
objectives.
There are certain activities which will help in identifying different issues or problems:
 Simulation training- It is the training which will assist in pushing my abilities to
estimate future activity and taking appropriate decisions in organisation.
 Take guidance from managers- It is an activity which will lead my senior
manager for choosing the right direction or path and help in taking decision by
me on the basis of need.
 Seminars and conferences- I will be attending seminars and conferences
where an expert personality will speak in front of huge audience that will help me
to understand how I can improve my work.
10
Illustration 1: Swot analysis

2.3 Identifying my own developmental opportunities to meet current and future goals
There are certain opportunities which are available in the environment and used
to meet current and future goals. Being the manager, I have to identify all my required
opportunities for enhancing growth and development of the firm (McNiff, 2010). Self-
analysis assists in evaluating my weaknesses which need to be improved by me. So,
firstly I have to set my current and future needs which are like:
Current need
 Overcoming problems faced at workplace- There are certain issues which are
faced by me in company. This is related to lack of research ability, leadership
and motivational issue.
Future need
 Better growth in career- It will achieve growth only when I will start
management learning process in an effective manner. It includes monitoring,
evaluation, analysis and implementation the career.
There are certain opportunities that I need to grab for meeting both long as well
as short term goals.
 Taking part in decision making process
 Setting target goals and objectives
 Attending seminars and conferences
 Building connection with colleagues
 Taking guidance by senior managers
 Attending training sessions for increasing my problem solving skill
 Increasing research abilities
These are some opportunities which need to improve my skill and knowledge
(Personal and Professional development. 2017). This will assist in ensuring that my
weaknesses are highlighted and I need to overcome any uncertainties which are related
to them.
2.4 Personal and professional development plan
Planning is something which is important for setting a correct path to accomplish
all goals and objectives in an enterprise. This is an activity that provides set direction
which will analyse the right direction (Moon, 2013). The hotel manager sets path and
11

provides enhanced growth and development in my career by the help of personal and
professional development plan. It will identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of employees.
SI.
No
.
LEARNING
OBJECTIV
E/GOAL
CURRENT
PROFICIEN
CY
TARGET
PROFICIEN
CY
DEVEL
OPMEN
T
OPPOR
TUNITI
ES
CRITERI
A FOR
JUDGIN
G
SUCCES
S
TIME
SCAL
E
EVIDENCE
1 Motivation
al skills
I have not
been able to
create an
environment
which assist
employees
in enhancing
their
performance
Learn new
concepts or
theories of
motivation
Attendin
g
seminar
s and
confere
nces
Judging
criteria is
based on
my
performa
nce
1
month
Co-workers
judgement
2 Leadership
style
As a
manager I
use only
democratic
style of
leadership
which slows
down
decision
making
Improve my
decision
making
Learnin
g from
books
or
magazin
es and
other
success
ful
leaders
Judged
by my
senior
managers
who
supervise
each
activity or
task
3
months
Judged by
senior
managers
3 Efficiency
and
effectivene
Adopt time
managemen
t strategies
Learn by
focus and
concentratio
Learnin
g from
books ,
This can
be judged
by senior
3
months
minimu
Managers
judgement
12

ss n on task journals
and
other
leaders
activities
leaders
after
going
through
quarterly
reports
m
LO3- BE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT AND CONTINUALLY REVIEW OWN PERSONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
3.1 Process and activities required to implement new development plan
Goal Short term Mid term Long term
Achieve all goals
for organisation
Enhance skill and
ability help in
achieving goals and
objectives.
It will assist in
increasing all the
level of
improvement.
To achieve all
objectives in time.
Improve
Leadership skill
To enhance my
leadership ability to
the highly level.
Working with other
skills which
encourages me to
push towards my
objectives.
Need to figure out
more ways and
approaches to
develop efficiency at
great level.
Acquire skills and
knowledge
Need to add more
knowledge through
use of various ways
such as newspaper
and media.
Through various
books and other
sources.
It will be effective to
learn by observing
other people working
strategy.
Needed resources Attending seminars,
discussions
group meeting Research and
innovate new things
Time schedule 3 months 6 months 1 year
13

Start 1st October2017 1st March2018 1st October 2018
Finish 20th December2017 20th August2018 20th December2018
Completed step Mid- November Mid-May Mid-November
Every organisation requires to set their short, long and mid term objectives which help
them in achieving these goals in better manner. They also motivate their employees for share
their vision and basic objectives by which they work hard for reaching these targets for the firm.
They will also maintain their time schedule that assist in providing information of beginning date
of task and ending date of task.
3.2 Undertaking and documenting development activities as planned
Period of task Action
undertaken
What is learnt
up till now
What to do
next
When
April- May Adopt
democratic style
for effective
leadership
Learning how to
take decision in
difficult situation
Attending
meeting and
actively
participating in it
Same period
August- Sept Use time
management
strategies
How to use
effective
methods or
techniques
Need to update
all equipments
or technologies
for time
punctuality
Within this
period
As per the above discussed table, Travel Lodge firm requires to undertake and
documenting the development activities which help in making planning for completing task at
given time period. They will develop action plan in which adopt only leadership style and also
understand how to use time management strategies.
14

3.3 Evaluating own learning against the original aim and objectives
It is an important activity that helps in developing market situations which
enhance the effectiveness and efficiency in a proper manner. Company's manager’s
main objective is to supervise the performance of employees and determine necessary
changes and growth in an enterprise. There are some methods that evaluate the
process of learning like:
 Motivation- It is essential that company’s manager should motivate their staff
members to achieve set targets and objectives in an effective manner (Williams,
Karousou and Mackness, 2011). They need to encourage employees for
completing their task with co-workers within organisation. Main objective of
manager is to motivate the workers for performing each task in a proper way.
 Formal meeting- This is the most important method for evaluating individual’s
current and future performance report in front of top management and they
should identify problems and issues which occur in organisation.
 Experience of senior management- senior managers assist in providing
strategies and plans that achieve goals and objectives. They gives knowledge
and skill which helps in solving issues or problems (Bjork, Dunlosky and Kornell,
2013). The objective of employer is to provide necessary experience of each
work.
3.4 Updating development plan based on feedback and evaluation
Objective number Objectives Objective evaluation
1 Improve my leadership skill Need to attend seminars
and conferences and group
meetings
2 Adopt effective time
management strategies
Use methods or techniques
for manage time
Objectives met YES
15

UPDATING ACTION PLAN
Action plan
objective
Why the objective
was
not achieved
What required to
be
undertaken to
achieve
the objective.
Date
for completion.
Improvement in time
management
strategies
Lack of resources or
methods
Latest techniques or
technologies
20th august 2018
Enhancing
leadership skill
Lack of proper
guidance of seniors
Attending more
seminars and
conferences
20th October 2018
It is important for cited company for updating and evaluate their customers needs and
demands. They requires to develop a plan in which firm objectives will be addressed on the basis
of person feedback and reviews. In the first table, they will explain major two objectives in
which they need to improve leadership styles and also use time management strategies.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that different styles of learning assist
in learning new things that help to manage the workers in an effective manner. Self-
managed learning process aids to learn through online, internet, books and
newspapers. Travelodge also identify current and future requirements that motivate an
employee to evaluate their needs and wants. The style of learning assists to solve
issues and troubles which arise conflict between organisation and employees success.
It has been assessed from the report that self-managed learning management helps to
16

encourage whole process of learning new things and share information with their co-
workers. Further, time management improves employee’s performance and also,
supports in achieving the goals and objectives.
17

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Avalos, B., 2011. Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education
over ten years. Teaching and teacher education. 27(1). pp.10-20.
Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J. and Kornell, N., 2013. Self-regulated learning: Beliefs,
techniques, and illusions. Annual review of psychology. 64. pp.417-444.
Bourner, T., 2011. Developing self-managed action learning (SMAL). Action Learning:
Research and Practice. 8(2). pp.117-127.
Brody, D. and Hadar, L., 2011. “I speak prose and I now know it.” Personal
development trajectories among teacher educators in a professional
development community. Teaching and Teacher Education. 27(8). pp.1223-
1234.
Bunderson, J. S. and Boumgarden, P., 2010. Structure and learning in self-managed
teams: Why “bureaucratic” teams can be better learners. Organization Science.
21(3). pp.609-624.
Elliott, J. ed., 2011. Reconstructing teacher education (Vol. 221). Routledge.
Gilakjani, A. P., 2011. Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic learning styles and their impacts on
English language teaching. Journal of Studies in Education. 2(1). pp.104-113.
Komarraju, M. and et. al., 2011. The Big Five personality traits, learning styles, and
academic achievement. Personality and individual differences. 51(4). pp.472-
477.
Leite, W. L., Svinicki, M. and Shi, Y., 2010. Attempted validation of the scores of the
VARK: Learning styles inventory with multi trait–multi method confirmatory factor
analysis models. Educational and psychological measurement. 70(2). pp.323-
339.
Logenthiran, T., Srinivasan, D. and Shun, T. Z., 2012. Demand side management in
smart grid using heuristic optimization. IEEE transactions on smart grid. 3(3).
pp.1244-1252.
McNair, L.D. And et. al., 2011. Student and faculty interdisciplinary identities in self ‐
managed teams. Journal of Engineering Education. 100(2). pp.374-396.
McNiff, J., 2010. Action research for professional development: Concise advice for new
action researchers. Dorset: September books.
Moon, J. A., 2013. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and
practice. Routledge.
18