Academic and Employability Skills Report: Will Byers' Self-Assessment

This report, authored by Will Byers, provides a comprehensive analysis of academic and employability skills essential for higher education and professional success. The report begins with an introduction outlining the need for skill development in preparation for college and employment, followed by a detailed self-assessment. It includes screen grabs of a presentation, key learnings from delivering a successful presentation, and identification of required skills for higher education and employment. Byers evaluates his strengths and weaknesses, comparing his perceived skills with actual abilities. The report then details short-term and long-term goals, accompanied by a practical action plan to improve identified weaknesses, such as communication and time management. Furthermore, the report covers a backup strategy, time management techniques, and the implementation of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) along with LinkedIn profile analysis. The report concludes with recommendations and a skill evaluation questionnaire, incorporating a personality test report to provide a holistic view of the student's development.

ACADEMIC AND
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................3
A brief overview.........................................................................................................................3
Screen grabs of the presentation.................................................................................................3
Key Learnings while delivering a successful presentation.........................................................5
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................5
Skills required.............................................................................................................................5
Self Evaluation............................................................................................................................6
SECTION 3......................................................................................................................................7
Short as well as Long term Goals:-.............................................................................................7
Action Plan..................................................................................................................................8
SECTION 4....................................................................................................................................10
Backup Strategy........................................................................................................................10
Time Management and Organization........................................................................................11
SECTION 5....................................................................................................................................13
PDP implementation.................................................................................................................13
...................................................................................................................................................14
LinkedIn Profile........................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................15
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................16
SECTION 6....................................................................................................................................17
Skill Evaluation Questionnaire.................................................................................................17
Personality Test Report.............................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
In this report, various skills that an individual should posses before venturing for higher
education or for employment i.e. working in the professional; environment has been discussed
upon. This report will analyse the skills of a student who is aiming to develop his skills preparing
himself for both the stated above and involves implication of an academic and professional
approach for their development (Sala and Gobet, 2017).
MAIN BODY
SECTION 1
A brief overview.
My name is Will Byers and I have recently completed my school education by passing
Year 13 or Upper 6th. I now intend to go for higher education i.e. en route to college and then
ultimately find a job. For this purpose, I need to prepare myself with required skills which will
help me in achieving good grade at the college and finally help in obtaining an excellent job.
Screen grabs of the presentation.
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Key Learnings while delivering a successful presentation.
I identified that while giving presentation, I was:-
 Experiencing a great deal of nervousness and I even forgot my lines initially.
 I was able to keep the attention of the audience as I spoke what was relevant and kept it
up to the point.
 I learnt that I was not using hand gestures and could not decide the movement that I
should implement while giving a presentation.
 I also learnt that eye contact is an extremely important issue while giving presentation as
I could not make the eye contact with everyone and only focused on my lecturer's face.
This irked him and he reprimanded me in front of everyone.
SECTION 2
Skills required.
There is an extremely assorted set of skills that are required while planning for higher education
or preparing oneself for employability :-
Higher Education:- When a student steps in a university, normal behavioural tendencies are no
linger implied and a student needs to adapt himself. A student must:-
 Develop communication skills along with empathising with them rather than asserting
your own viewpoint.
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 Develop ability to work in teams successfully and integrate with other students, teachers
etc. This also includes taking other along while progressing rather than focusing on
individual development (Messum and et.al., 2017).
 While studying in an university, it is extremely important to integrate one's own
ideologies with those developed by the institute. This will help the student in achieving
success as per the parameters defined by the institute and therefore take risks in a
calculated manner. Lastly, it is also important to increase and develop your networking skills an d join
different clubs and societies as per the aims of an individual like a student aiming to
become and editor or writer can join book reading clubs etc.
Employability Skills:- Getting a job is only an initial step because an individual needs to perform
the job in order to establish themselves and should develop following skills:-
 Teamwork. This helps an individual in collaborating in a better manner and also avoid or
mange conflicts rising at the workplace (Hart and et.al.,, 2016).
 Critical thinking which will help an individual in adequately analysing the situation or
problem faced and hence develop appropriate and relevant interpretations and
conclusions.
 Ethics. When an individual enters a workplace, he is expected to comply with the norms
of the organization and maintain the integrity towards the company.
 Communication. It involves various type of communication i.e. oral, written, listening
ability etc. which helps an individual in understanding what the other person is saying
and interpret accordingly.
Self Evaluation.
After going through the skills that an individual aiming for higher education or
employment should have, I think I can clearly analyse the skills that I have distinguishing them
as my strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:- I recognized that out of all the skills required, I have good comprehension and
evaluation skills as I can understand and interpret things in a better manner. This signifies that I
will be able to analyse situations more correctly while working in a professional environment
also. My ability to handle critical situations is also extremely well and I can take important
decisions handling such crisis well. The writing skills are extremely developed which will help
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me in higher education as I will have to prepare many assignments and reports and further while
working as well.
Weaknesses:- The major weakness that I posses is lack of good communication skills. I cannot
clearly explain what I intend to convey and this will be a major setback in my academic as well
as professional life but I can capture the attention of my targeted audience successfully. Another
is improper time management skills under which I am not able to complete my tasks on time and
this leads to procrastination and unnecessary delay.
Therefore, while some of my skills are already developed to suit the purpose of higher
education and employment but I lack in many important aspects which I ned to work upon so
that I can succeed in my life further. I have an introvert personality because I shy away form
communicating with others and I think the best career which I can at present think of succeeding
is of a writer or an editor and therefore to improve myself I will need to work harder.
Comparison:- While comparing the skills that I actually have as compared to the ones I thought I
possessed, I can conclude some major points while comparing them:
 I earlier though that my communication skills are extremely poor and I cannot make the
other person understand what I intended to convey but after the analysis I discovered that
this is not entirely true and I can capture the attention of the audience which indicates that
I might not speak as poorly as I thought (Collet, Hine and Du Plessis, 2015).
 I also learned that my writing skills are although good yet I need to work upon it in order
to bring them at par with the standards that is required in university and further in
professional environment.
 Lastly, I also recognized that despite my ability to integrate well with others, I sometimes
tend to not understand what the other person is saying and rather than understanding them
I exert my opinion over them which is an extremely negative point.
SECTION 3
Short as well as Long term Goals:-
At present, my ultimate aim is to become Treasury Manager of any NGO or National
bank. For this purpose I have formulated various sort term and long term goals:-
Short term Goals:-
 To develop the skills which I lack at present like communication and time management
skills.
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 Attending different workshops and seminars related to the finance management held by
various institutions and banks. Secure internship in finance or treasury department for a leading bank such as HSBC or
Barclay's Plc.
Long term Goals:-
 Preparing myself for handling the duties and responsibilities of a treasury manager.
 Developing skills that I require so that I can become a top student and ultimately the
Senior Wrangler of my batch.
 Acknowledgement of powers that I will be vested upon along with different
responsibilities that I am expected to fulfil.
These are my short term and long term goals that I intend to achieve by working hard for the
same so that I can succeed in life and achieve whatever I have ever dreamt of.
Action Plan.
Action Plan help in analysing how much time is required to achieve the skills that are
required to be implemented and identify how they can be improved. In the present scenario, I
have created an action plan to improve the skills in which I am lacking:-
SKILLS TO BE
DEVELOPED
ACTION PLAN RESOURCES
TO BE USED
INTENDED
TIME
OUTCOMES
Presentation
Skills
I will try to modify the
skills that I posses so
that I can learn and
implement various
techniques associated
with the art of giving
presentation
successfully. I intend to
join some good
coaching classes which
help in overall
development.
Coaching
Classes,
Relevant Books
and other
material.
This will be
improved
within 3
months
covering
duration of
coaching
classes as
well.
This will help me
in developing the
necessary skills
and understand as
well as adopt the
difference
presentation
techniques so that I
can understand
how to position
myself and body
language that I
should adopt
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which will help in
maintaining the
attention of the
audience.
Communication
Skills
I intend to develop this
skill by increasing the
communication in
formal settings and
taking mock interviews
etc. which help me in
building the confidence
that I lack.
Videos and
YouTube
tutorials,
practising in
front of mirror,
relevant books
and other
material.
I will
improve this
within four
consecutive
months along
with working
on
presentation
skills
Improving and
working upon this
skill will help me
in conveying in a
better manner my
ideas and other
things that I intend
to make them
understand. This
will help me in
developing better
and clearer
communication
channels.
Time
Management
Skills
I will properly schedule
all the activities that I
need to perform in a
day and allot them
adequate time so that I
can complete them on
time and within
appropriate time frame.
Preparing a
time evaluation
sheet and
maintaining a
Journal
(Elliott, , Frey
and Davies,
2015).
This is a time
consuming
activity
which will
require at
least 6
months of
skill
development
program.
When I learn to
mange my time it
will be the biggest
achievement as it
will save my time
and further give
me additional time
to develop other
skills and hobbies
which will increase
my expertise level.
Critical thinking Although I have good Attend debates In intend to Developing this
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and decision
making skills
decision making
capability, it needs to
be further developed in
order to match the level
required at higher
academic levels and
professional level.
and group
discussion
workshops.
develop this
skill within a
time frame of
6 months as it
is a very
important
skill and I
want to
master it.
skill will help me
in improving my
skill of critical
thinking and
decision making so
that I can handle
situations of crisis
if they arise and
also help me in
properly
understanding how
the authority and
power should be
implemented.
This action plan will help me in building up the required skills tat will assist me in
excelling at the university and further in the professional life as a treasury manager has many
responsibilities and duties.
SECTION 4
Backup Strategy
In technological field, it is extremely important to formulate proper backup plans that
help in recovery of the lost data if the need arise so. Developing a proper backup system helps in
retention of all the lost data and also protect the data making it's access difficult. The Rule of
Three is a backup plan for the computers and I followed this technique while creating a backup
strategy since my work done was extremely important to me and could not be duplicated to the
same extent if it gets damaged (Cabaj, Gawkowski, Grochowskiand Osojca, 2015). Therefore,
using the rule of three which I was taught in my class, I created a backup strategy since crypto
wall is an extremely nasty virus which deletes copies of files if any and make it impossible to
restore any data and I followed three different steps for saving my work-
 Creating 3 copies of all the relevant items present on my laptop an computer which I
cannot afford to loose.
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 Saving all the copies in 2 different devices or formats i.e. in memory card as well as
google drive etc.
 Lastly, 1 physical backup of the files having tangible form at another geographical
location i.e. in my case I have kept a copy at my sister's house as well.
I ensure that I update my computer within two days and subsequently the backup sources as well
and in case something very important turns up I add it to my backup file immediately so that at
the moment of crisis, I do not loose any significant data. Some major crisis situations that can
occur are:-
Theft of laptop or computer:- In such case, by the time I recover my device or not, I can take
advantage of all the backup data that I updated regularly which would not disturb my ongoing
activities.
Mechanical damages or malware damage:- In these situations, having a backup proves to be a
blessing as you never know when hardware or software of your device might become damaged
and having a backup helps you in retaining necessary data (Bhattacharya and Bhattacharya,
2019).
Natural disasters:- Earthquakes, fires, explosions, hurricanes etc. are some of those disasters
which can occur at any moment and therefore, having a virtual backup like on google drive or
Dropbox can prove to be a life saviour for me.
Time Management and Organization
Since time management is the one criteria which is extremely weak for me, I have
watched many tutorials and videos along with reading books etc. that have helped me in
underrating the importance of time management and develop some key points:- Avoiding distractions:- This is the first step in effectively utilising the limited 24 hours in
a day and there are a lot of distractions at workplace or institution. An individual needs to
learn when to avoid them and when is the appropriate time to indulge in them. Setting up Priorities:- The key to success is defining the priority of the tasks that have
been assigned and completing them on the basis of urgency in their nature or their
sensitive nature (Srinivasan, 2017). Many tasks require less time and yet they add more
value to the company or an individual. Therefore, it should be identified which tasks are
important and which can be completed later.
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 Tracking and estimating time requirement:- The time that is allocated for any activity or
task to be performed should be correctly estimated as overestimation or under estimation
can lead to mismanagement of time and cause delay in completion of tasks (Asonitou,
2015). Developing Schedule:- Building up a daily schedule that lists down all the activities that
are required to be performed along with their allotted time helps in avoiding skipping of
any activities and completing all the tasks.
Steps take by me include:-
 Preparation of an time evaluation sheet which details the estimated time and the actual
time taken, importance of the task i.e. their priority level etc. which helps in determining
the urgency and sensitiveness of any task.
 Maintaining a journal which regularly records the activities performed and details down
time taken for each activity and reflection on whether there is any improvement or
progress.
 Developing visuals and charts like Gantt Chart, critical path etc. in case of detailed
analysis.
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SECTION 5
PDP implementation
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Developing this PDP plan has helped me in determining the goals that I intend to achieve
and provided me with an action plan. This has helped me in properly evaluating my growth and
also identify the obstacle that I faced while working toward achievement of such goals.
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LinkedIn Profile
Conclusion
By summing up above report it has been concluded that academic skills helps an
individual to understand the academic text as well as lectures. On the other side, it has been
concluded from the present study that if an individual have good academic skills then it will
directly help a person to raise their employability skills. Thus from the section 1, it has been
concluded that Will Byers want to become a treasury manager in a Bank or NGO. But it has been
analysed that he is moderate in the academic discourse while he is a good a good academic
reader and writer. On the other side, from the employability skills, it is concluded that Will faces
difficulties in the problem solving and also did not able to make other understand. But in
addition to this, he is easily accepted the changes, but have poor time management skills and that
is why, he is not complete the task in the defined time.
In addition to this, from the section 2, it has been concluded that for higher education,
there is a need to develop communication skills and team working abilities as well. While on the
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other side, there is a need to increase the employability skill as well in which Will Byers has to
improve critical thinking skills and time management skills. Further, in order to determine the
strength and weaknesses, report concluded that using SWOT analysis in which Will analysed
that he posses good comprehension and evaluation skills, have an ability to handle critically
problems, while he posses the weakness such as lack of communication skills, time management
skill.
Moreover, in section 3, it is find that Will develop short and long term goals that neds to
be attain by using action plan. And in section 4, report concluded different places rule that helps
to robust the level of data and concluded the steps of time management.
Recommendations
From the above, it is to be recommended that Will must posses strong academic skills
and employability skills that helps him to become a treasury manager in Bank and NGO.
Therefore, Will may also use Professional developmental plan in order to improve the weakness
and it should be properly monitored, so that all the aim easily attain. Moreover, Will Byers
should also develop strong critical thinking and time management skills so that it will help him
to become a treasury manager as well.
In addition to this, it is also recommended to Will that he must start attending training
session and also start involving the public speaking so that it will help to improve his
communication skills. In this way, he will easily attain his defined aim. It is also realized that he
may also join online training classes in order to become the treasury manager and this strategy
also help him to develop his interest towards the higher study. Thus, in this way, Wil Byers will
make his interest and develop the academic and employability skills for his future.
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SECTION 6
Skill Evaluation Questionnaire
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Personality Test Report
20

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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asonitou, S., 2015. Employability skills in higher education and the case of Greece. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 175. pp.283-290.
Bhattacharya, T. and Bhattacharya, A., 2019. Financing biodiversity action plan using state
appropriation account analysis: A case study of an Indian state. Ecosystem
Services, 39.p.100971.
Cabaj, K., and et.al., 2015. Network activity analysis of CryptoWall ransomware. Przeglad
Elektrotechniczny, 91(11). pp.201-204.
Collet, C., Hine, D. and Du Plessis, K., 2015. Employability skills: perspectives from a
knowledge-intensive industry. Education+ Training, 57(5). pp.532-559.
Elliott, S.N., Frey, J.R. and Davies, M., 2015. Systems for assessing and improving students'
social skills to achieve academic competence.
Hart, E.M. and et.al., 2016. Ten simple rules for digital data storage.
Messum, D. and et.al., 2017. Senior Managers' and Recent Graduates' Perceptions of
Employability Skills for Health Services Management. Asia-Pacific Journal of
Cooperative Education, 18(2). pp.115-128.
Sala, G. and Gobet, F., 2017. When the music's over. Does music skill transfer to children's and
young adolescents' cognitive and academic skills? A meta-analysis. Educational
Research Review, 20. pp.55-67.
Srinivasan, C.R., 2017. Hobby hackers to billion-dollar industry: the evolution of
ransomware. Computer Fraud & Security, 2017(11). pp.7-9.
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