Professional and Academic Skills Development

This presentation discusses the challenges faced while studying business management and professional practice, and the skills required for success. It also emphasizes the importance of effective academic and professional skills development and personal development plan.

Professional and Academic Skills Development

INTRODUCTION
● This presentation is going to discuss some challenges that individuals face
while studying business management and professional practice.
● It will further discuss some skills that are required for becoming a successful
professional in any field.
● Some important skills that are vital and can help us out in accomplishing our
academic and professional goals include: communication, decision-making,
creativity, time management and team working.
● Professional development plan also plays a vital role as it improves all those
areas where we lack behind.

Challenges of studying business management and
thriving in professional practice
● Before sharing my experience and evaluating myself, it is important to understand professional development
and academic learning. In regard to professional development, it can be said that it refers continuing education
aa well as career training after an individual has entered the workforce. After completing educational course,
students want to get an employment opportunity within their interested area. Studying business management is
not an easier task as people face some problems or challenges while studying business management such as:
● Poor team working: In business management, everyone is asked to work in a team. Some people prefer to
work individually rather working in a team. When I was asked to work in a team while studying business
management then initially I faced some problems due to different perceptions of team members.

Cont.…
● Time management: Managing time is other main challenge that students face while
studying business management. Business students have to do a lot of scheduling
during their day. Creating a schedule in order to accommodate all daily academic
tasks become challenging. It became hectic for me to manage workloads and
completing all tasks, given to me. I was finding problems in managing work life
balance. Balancing academic with my other parts of life was challenging and it made
me frustrated many of the times. But my tutors and friends helped me out in solving
this problem. They told me better ways of managing time and completing important
tasks in a timely manner. At that time, I came to know about importance of managing
time and having time management skill. This skill helps all of us in our future because
we all will need to strive hard for being in the competition and accomplishing all
academic as well as professional goals.

CONTD.
● In addition, one of the other main challenge that I faced while studying business management and professional
practice was: working in constantly changing environment. Business environment is made up of number of
factors and changes in such factors affect the way of performing function. One of the main example of such
factors is: Covid-19 and changing needs of people. This factor affected businesses to the great extent and I
came to know about importance of having flexibility skill. In was lacking behind in this skill and due to
Covid-19, We were asked to perform business activities and professional practices with maintaining social
distancing. So, it increased requirement of working digitally completely. I had knowledge of making use of
technology and internet and this ability helped me out in solving this problem.
● Overall, I can say that professional practice is not an easier task but support of peers, friends make it easier
and helped us out in solving all problems that we face while studying business management.

Importance of effective academic and
professional skills development
● After knowing about business management and challenges that people face
while professional practice, it is important to identify skills that are required
for becoming successful in professional and academic field. There are
number of skills that are required for working in organizations and succession
in professional field such as:
● Critical thinking: It is one of the main skill that is vital for becoming
successful in professional life. it is an ability to think in both positive and
negative manner. A successful leader or employee is the one who think
critically. By thinking critically or in critical manner, employees can take
better decision. When they think each side of factors and business activities
then they can prevent themselves against failure. It can decrease errors in
their production process and functions.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS
● Communication: It is other main skill that is vital for becoming successful in both personal and professional
lives. In regard to this, it can be said that communication skill makes us able in delivering information to
stakeholders and team members in an effective manner. There are number of job roles where employees
require having this skill such as marketing assistant, manager, HR and others. In professional field, we all are
required to communicate with internal as well as external stakeholders and we can do this only when we have
an effective communication skill. With self-evaluation, I came to know that I am good in this skill. This skill
helped me out in working in a team in an effective manner. I believe that this skill will make me able in
preforming job roles in my desired field or sector.

CONTD
● Time management: It is other main skill that is required in professional field as this skill help us out in
completing our tasks in a timely manner. While studying business management and at the time of professional
practice, I came to know that I am lacking behind in this skill. At the same time, I came to know consequences
of lack of this skill. When we are not able to manage our tasks in a timely manner then it makes us frustrated.
As a professional business manager or employee, we find difficulties in maintaining a balance between
personal and professional lives. It is important for all of us to engage in social activities and it is possible only
when we complete our job role or given tasks in a timely and effective manner. This skill makes us refreshed
and energetic and with refreshed mood, we find easier in performing functions and increasing productivity.

●Problem solving: Working within organization is not an easier task. Employees have to face number of problems
due to changing environmental factors. Sometimes, we all have to work in adverse situations. We can perform our
functions and can perform under critical situations only when we have an effective problem solving skill. While
working in a team and studying business management, I came to know that I am good in this skill. This skill helped
me out in solving all problems that we faced while professional practice and also made me able in taking decision.
●Overall, on the basis of above discussion, I can say that I need to improve time management, creativity and
numeracy skills by which I can become a successful professional employee in the future.
CONTD

●On the basis of above discussion, I can say that I am lacking behind in time management, numeracy and creativity
skills. For becoming successful in professional field, I need to focus on improving all these skills. I believe that
professional development plan is one of the effective tool that can help us out in improving all these identified
areas.
Personal development plan
Areas need to improve Activities Timescale
Time management There are number of tools available that can help me out in improving this skill. Trello, focus booster and others. I believe that by
making use of these tools, I can complete my tasks in a timely manner. Along with this, I believe that by reducing procrastination
or prioritising tasks by making an effective time table as per the allocated tasks, I can improve this skill.
It will take 20-25 days.
Creativity I will take participation in group discussion and seminars. I believe that we can make us creative by exploring ourselves. So, for
this purpose, I will take initiative and participation in all activities and will try to grab opportunities, given to me.
Approximate10-15 days
Numeracy Numeracy and an ability to access internet is also vital nowadays. It can help us out in performing our tasks with effectiveness and
in a timely manner. For improving this area, I will take classes where I will learn better ways of making use of internet and
appropriate technical software. I will ask for training to manager as training can also make me able in understanding ways of
implementing technologies and performing functions with software.
It will take around 2-3
months

CONCLUSION
● It has been discussed from the above presentation that transferable skills play a vital role for being successful
in academic and professional field.
● This presentation has discussed some skills that people required for being successful in professional field such
as: communication, time management, team working, problem solving, numeracy, creativity and leadership.
● All these skills help us out in solving all problems that we face while studying business management and
professional practice. It has further discussed effectiveness of professional development plan in improving all
those areas where as all lack behind and this can help us out in solving all problems that we face while
business management study.

REFERENCES
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● McAdam, J., 2020. An Investigation of the Relationship Between Student Critical Thinking Skills and Professional
Development (Doctoral dissertation, Northwest Nazarene University).
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