Analysis of Academic and Employability Skills: A Reflective Report

This report delves into the crucial domain of academic and employability skills, essential for both educational and professional success. The report begins with an introduction that emphasizes the importance of these skills for career advancement and personal growth. Task 1 provides a detailed self-analysis of the author's academic and employability skills, focusing on two in-class activities: paraphrasing and identifying similar sentences. The analysis includes skill audits to identify strengths and weaknesses, followed by personal development plans designed to improve areas needing attention, such as oral and written English and grammar knowledge. Task 2 presents a reflective report on how the module's learning experiences contributed to the development of these skills, highlighting the impact of in-class activities and feedback. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and reinforcing the significance of continuous skill development for achieving academic and professional goals. References and an appendix with supplementary information are also included.

ACADEMIC AND
EMPLOYABILITY
SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Analysis of own academic and employability skills...................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
Reflective report..........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
APPENDEX ..................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Academic and Employability Skills refer to a set of several attributes which are required
to be possessed by an individual in order to appropriately enhance the competence in carrying
out several activities academically and professionally. It is very necessary for a person to
practice and improve on these skills continuously, which would be providing opportunities for
growth and success in their career (Andrews and Russell, 2012). For which they can join or
attain professional and academic classes as well as they must also conduct internship under some
professional and many more. In addition to this, in ensuring a consistently progressing line of
work, it becomes crucial or people to possess several skills which provides them with
effectiveness and efficiency in their work. The following report is based on a clear projection of
several academic and professional skills, learnt through several in-class exercises and published
literature. It includes an effectively structured academic report which is formulated to analyse ow
academic and employability skills. In addition to this, the report also involves a reflective on
how learning in the module has helped in developing these skills, with a special emphasis on the
feedback received in the in-class activities.
TASK 1
Analysis of own academic and employability skills
It is highly essential to analyse one's academic as well as employability skills, which
allows them to focus on their stronger and weaker areas. Moreover, it also helps them in gaining
an insight onto the attributes which is possessed by them. In addition to this, the main agenda for
analysing the academic and employability skills is to identify the relevant type of skills which
are possessed by me, as well as those which are yet to be learnt (Speight, Lackovic and Cooker,
2013).
Below is a detailed analysis of the academic and employability skills through two in-
class activities that have been performed during the module:
Activity 1: Paraphrasing
The first activity which I have conduct in class and which will help me in identifying my
skills and ability is paraphrasing activity. In this I have to rephrase a paragraph given in class
room this will help me in identifying skills in which I am lacking behind that was required to
develop report effectively. Description of this activity is given below:-
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Description
In a business course, there are several skills required that would guide me through the
academic journey as well as my further professional career (Boahin and Hofman, 2013). For the
same, there are several activities which I indulged which allowed me to apply the relevant skills
that are require by me for the course. The very first activity in this context was paraphrasing a
passage about Mike Erwin. There are several skills which are required for conducting effective
paraphrasing such as proper English, knowledge of terms and their difference, reading skills and
many more. While I am conducting this activities I get to know that there are several skills which
are my strength and some are my weakness. Analysis of that are given below-
Skills Analysis
For conduct or developing effective report by paraphrasing, there are several skills which
are required. From which some of them I have and some of them I didn't have for which I need
to conduct improvement activities. Analysis of those skills that I already have and which I didn't
have for conducting paraphrasing in effective manner, I adopt Skills Audit which provide me
detail information about my skills, which is describe below-
 Skills audit:- It is define as procedure which an organization or an individual adopt in
order to measure as well as record their skills (Jameson and et.al., 2012). By conducting
proper skills audit I can identify those skills which are my strength and help me in
administrating paraphrasing as well as through it I also know my weak skills that I need
to improve for proper development of report by paraphrasing.
Skills Rating by me
(Out of 10)
Rating by others
(Out of 10)
Difference
Oral and written English
skills
8 6 2
Understanding skills 7 9 -2
Communication skills 5 8 -3
Knowledge of grammar 8 5 3
Strength Weakness
2

Understanding skills Oral and written English skills
Communication skills Knowledge of grammar
Skills I have-
 Understanding skills- This skill will help me in understanding paragraph which I have
to paraphrase in class for develop proper report.
 Communication skill- By this skill I can identify words that used in day to day
communication process. Through this skill I use more appropriate and effective words
which can easily understand by others.
Skills I need to develop-
 Oral and written English skills- I am lacking in this skill because I am not able to write
or frame sentence by using proper English.
 Knowledge of grammar- It is essential for me to have proper knowledge of grammar
because by it I can form impressive and suitable sentence.
By conducting skill audit I get to know that there are some skill on which I need to work
on so that I can conduct paraphrasing properly. For development of skill effectively I develop
personal development plan, which is mentioned below-
 Personal development plan:- It is define as a procedure in which an individual develop
or create a plan that will be based on values, goal, reflection, awareness and many more.
This generally help a person in developing plan through which he/ she can improve their
skills as well as ability (Finch and et.al., 2013). I also develop personal development plan
so that I can improve my weak skills that I required for paraphrasing properly. Personal
development plan created by me is given below:-
Learning
Goal
Current
Competence
Target
Competence
Development
practices
Development
opportunities
Time
Period
Oral and
written
English skills
6 10 For development
of this skill I can
attain English class
so that I cane
enhance my oral as
well as written
By developing this
skills I can
paraphrasing things
impressively in
English. Along
with this proper
3
Month
3

skills. Along with
this in order to
enhance this skills
I also need to
conduct self
practice so that I
can effectively
improve it.
oral and written
English skill will
help me in
interacting other
properly as well as
this will also help
me in developing
report successfully
with effectual
English.
Knowledge of
grammar
5 10 For enhancing this
skills I need to join
English classes or
coaching so that I
can learn proper
use of grammar. I
can also take e
learning coaching
as well as test in
order to learn
proper use of verb,
tens, vocabulary
and many other.
By enhancing this
skill I can improve
knowledge of my
grammar which
will directly
enhance quality of
my English. This
will also help me in
developing report
with quality as well
as impressive
English.
2
Month
Activity 2: Identifying similar sentence
The second activity which I conduct in class is identifying similar sentence which have
closest meaning to a particular sentence. For this activities I need to have several skills so that I
can identify appropriate one. This skill as well as activities help me in developing report in
effective manner. During conducting this activity I analysis that for activity I have several skills
but I am lacking from skills. Analysis of which is given below:-
Description
4

While conducting or developing report there are several skills which help an individual in
developing it effective as well as impressively (Fallows and Steven, 2013). For completing task
properly there are various skills required, in respect of activity second which I conducted i.e.
identifying similar sentence I need several skills. During conducting this I analysis that I have
various skills but I also need to improve some skills so that I can properly identify similar
sentence. Analysis of all those skills and capabilities are given below:-
Skills Analysis
In order to identify similar meaning sentence I required various skills and abilities so that
I can do it properly. While conducting this activity in class I analysis that I have several skills
which are my strength on the other hand there are also some skills which are my weakness and
that I need to improve. So in order to analysis those skills I conduct skills that will help me in
identifying which skills I have and which I have to improve for identifying similar meaning
sentence. Evaluation of which is given below-
 Skill Audit- This is consider as a process that generally adopted by a person for
determining as well as recording skills and ability (Chalmers and Partridge, 2013).
Through this I can identify my skills which will help me in attaining my target or goal as
well as it will also help in identify those skills which are my weak points and that I need
to improve. Skill audit conducted by me after conducting second activities is given
below:-
Skills Rating by me
(Out of 10)
Rating by others
(Out of 10)
Difference
Grammar knowledge and
understanding
8 5 3
Understanding skills 6 8 -2
Oral and written English 8 6 2
Strength Weakness
Understanding skills Grammar knowledge and understanding
Oral and written English
5

Skills I have-
 Understanding skills- I have effective understanding skills which help me in understand
sentence in effective manner.
Skills I need to develop-
 Grammar knowledge and understanding- I have good understanding skills but I have
less grammar skills due to which I am not able to identify proper sentence.
 Oral and written English- I am lacking in English due to which I am not able to identify
sentence which have similar or correct meaning.
Through respective analysis I understand that I have several skills which are my strength
as well as I also have some weak skills which I need to develop in order to identify sentence
which are similar or deliver correct meaning of a particular sentence. So for develop or improve
my weak skills I develop personal development plan where I can find ways that help me in
improving skills and abilities.
 Personal development plan- This is define as a process that is generally adopted by a
person in order to create plan through which they can improve their skills and abilities
(PârvuIpate and Mitran, 2014). This plan is generally based on reflection, goal set by
person, their awareness and many more. I adopt person development plan so that I can
develop strategies which help me in improving my skills that are required for identifying
those sentence which have similar meaning in effective manner.
Learning
Goal
Current
Competence
Target
Competence
Development
practices
Development
opportunities
Time
Period
Grammar
knowledge
and
understanding
5 10 In order to
improve this skill I
can join or attend
English classes
where I can learn
proper grammar
and their use
which will help in
forming proper
sentence as well as
By developing this
skill I can easily
identify similar
sentence. This will
also help me in
gaining more
marks in
respective type of
activities when it
will conduct in
1.5
Months
6

identifying
sentence which
provide meaning
of a particular line.
Along with this I
can also take self
classes where I can
learn through e -
learning
applications.
class.
Oral and
written
English
6 10 For enhancing this
skill I can attain
English class or
tuition where I can
improve my
written as well as
oral English skills.
Along with this I
can practice by my
own with some
activities like I can
conduct test, try to
communicate with
others in English,
identify similar
kind of sentence
and many more.
By improving this
skill I need to
conduct easily
identify sentence
which are similar
and giving correct
meaning. By
improving this
skill I will also
able to develop my
report in effective
manner with no or
minimum
grammar mistakes.
2
Months
By conduct analysis of both the activities i.e. paraphrasing as well as identifying similar
sentence which are required to develop proper report I get know that both activities required
various skills. When I conduct analysis of those skills I understand that I have some of them and
some of them I need to improve, for this analysis I conduct skills audit. Along with this then I
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develop personal development plan through which I identify ways by which I can improve my
weak skills. At the end I can summarise that by improving these skills as well as capabilities I
can develop by report proper and this will also help me in my future professional life.
TASK 2
Reflective report
While I am conducting activities in class I understand that I have several skills from
which some are seems as strength and other are weakness. That I need to improve so that I can
develop by report properly and effectively. Such as while conducting first activity i.e.
paraphrasing I identify my good skills like Understanding skills and Communication skills as
well as my weak skills are Knowledge of grammar as well as Oral and written English skills. In
addition to this, second activity which I conducted in class is identifying sentence which provide
correct meaning of a particular given line. During this I identify my weak skills i.e. grammar
knowledge and understanding as well as I am also lacking in oral and written English
communication. But for this activity I have skill which is my strength i.e. understand skill.
Through this I get understand line in proper manner but I am not effectively write in English.
While I conduct these activity my teacher provide me feedback through which I can improve my
skills accordingly. Feedback is define as a tool which is provided to a person by another person
so that he/ she can improve their next action effectively. This is essential to provide feedback
because through it a person able to improve their skills as well as ability which leads to
conducting work properly (Thomas, Wong and Li, 2014). Through proper feedback I get to
know which skills as well as abilities that I need to improve so that I can develop effective future
at my desire section or industry. There are various type of model as well as theories can be used
by an individual in order to develop their reflective statement in effective manner. By theories as
well as model a person able to know and understand their experience properly. Along with this, it
will also help them in developing framework of whole journey which they go through while
conducting particular activities. Such as for analysing activities which I conduct in class room
i.e. paraphrasing activity as well as identifying similar sentence activity I adopt Gibbs Reflective
Cycle, which is explained below-
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
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This model was published by Graham Gibbs who is an American sociologist and
psychologist in 1988. He published Gibbs Reflective cycle model in his book named Learning by
Doing. This model is developed with the motive of identifying own learning thought experience.
Gibbs reflective cycle model has encourages me to think systematic about my experiences of
developing skills for report making (Simatele, 2015). Though this model I was able to think my
experience and learning in more detail as well as about the activity which helped me in
developing my skills. Gibbs reflective cycle model leads to identifying both negative and
positive impact of this activity. This model includes a cycle of six steps such as description,
feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. These steps of Gibbs reflective cycle
helped me in better understanding of my learning as well as experience I gained thought this
event.
Step 1: Description
In first stage of this model, I have to give description about my experience. This step
include the complete description about situation, event or activities. Each and very detail about it
is provide without drawing any conclusion (Dhiman, 2012). For analysing this step more
carefully I have ask some question to me. These question helped me in identifying the event or
situation in better way as well as analysing description of activity. By evaluating all details of
about activities better and relevant data can be identified which helps me in developing my skills.
Question that I have asked to myself in order to create an objective description are what
happened in that situation? when and where this happen? who all were involved and what they
were doing? In this situation we all have given test about report writing. I have given two test,
one is paraphrasing and second is question or answer. Along with this, in respect of activities
which I conducted during class I get to know that there are several issues or problems which may
I faced due to my lack of some skills like poor English, knowledgeable of grammar and many
more.
Step 2: Feelings
This stage includes feels and though about the experience (Reddy and Moores, 2012). In
this step I am able to understand my feeling and though while conducting this situations or
activity. This helps me in analysing what I have feel during this event as well as after completion
of the task. After clearly identifying the description of the event it is very important to
determined all thoughts and feeling that has occurred while completing this task. In order to
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increasing knowledge about report I have to given two different test. These test helps me in
identifying my current skills or capability regarding report making. While conducting this test I
have fear for failure as well as I have faced many problems in answering these questions. When I
was giving my second test which includes multiple answer question. I was very confused while
answering these questions. I have discussed about this test with my classmate and they also feel
that this was very difficult test. Feeling which I go through when I identify that there are several
skills in which I am lacking then I feel fear of failure because if I didn't improve this I may face
issues like less marks, inappropriate report and many more.
Step 3: Evaluation
After determining my thoughts and feeling about this event or situation clearly now in
this step I have evaluate about my experience. At this stage of Gibbs Reflective cycle model a
proper evaluation is needed in order to analyse whether the experience of the event in step one
was good or bad (Smale and Fowlie, 2015). This step helped me in analysing that what went well
during this whole event or activity. I have to evaluate that what was those things that worked
well when I was in that situation. I have evaluated that while I was giving this test I have faced
all the issues and perform with my skills and capabilities. I did not panic and completed the
given task with my full potential. Along with this by this I effectively evaluate performance
during activities which help in identifying skills which are effective as well as which required to
be improved. This is so because through those improved skills I can conduct my work in
effective manner or develop report properly.
Step 4: Analysis
This phase of Gibbs Reflective cycle model helps in analysing about the learning from
situation or event. Analysis is a step which is conducted after proper evaluation process. This
steps helped me in analysing about this what are the most important thing I have learned from
this situation as well as what are those things that does not go well and needs to be improved.
This step helped me in analysing what exactly has happened as well as what make sense during
this whole event. From evaluating this situations of report test, I have analysed that there are
many thing on which I have to works. Thought this process I have identified that my
understanding skills are good but there are other skills such as grammar knowledge about topic
and so on these needs to be improved. Along with this, according to this stage of Gibbs
Reflective cycle I am able to analysis proper situation or activities which help me in designing
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