Academic and Professional Skills Assignment - January 2018 Semester

This document presents a comprehensive solution to an Academic and Professional Skills assignment, addressing four distinct tasks. The first task involves crafting a professional email regarding funeral arrangements, demonstrating effective communication and empathy. The second task focuses on providing crucial information about a Human Resource Management course, covering admission requirements, course structure, and assessment methods. The third task delves into the process of essay writing, outlining the essential steps from topic selection to final proofreading. Finally, the fourth task explores the advantages and disadvantages of off-the-job training, particularly in the context of developing fundraising skills for an organization. The document showcases a practical application of academic and professional skills, including clear communication, analytical thinking, and the ability to evaluate different scenarios.

Running head: ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Task 1:
To: [e-mail]
From:[e-mail]
Subject: Details of the funeral ceremony
Respected madam,
We feel extremely sorry for the loss you have gone through. We are with you in this
period of emotional turmoil and bereavement and want to share your grief and suffering. Please
provide us the scope to help you with the utmost we can do and please share your concerns.
The location that has been selected for the funeral ceremony is the Blackfriars bar that is
present on the Queen Vic Street. We have been in continuous discussion with the pub authority
and they have concluded that the pub will arrange for any food and drink that the guests need.
We have suggested them to keep sandwiches and tea for the guests. However, we are still
depending upon your permission to finalise the plan. You have all the authority to provide your
choices of the food items that you want to keep for the guests. Please inform us within the next
week so that we can proceed accordingly.
The funeral ceremony will begin from 10.30 am. We request all the guests to arrive at the
venue half an hour earlier of the estimated time of the ceremony. We have also arranged the
program by which the guests could get the scope of visiting the venue earlier and see the
deceased person from an open casket. However, in order to conduct this successfully, I would
request you to make me know about such wishes of guests beforehand so that we can perform
the needful for better experience of the guests. We would make all the arrangements properly

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and body will be taken to the ground at round 12 after the guests have seen him. It would be
better to request the guests not to bring kids as they might not have pleasant experiences or can
be affected negatively.
These are the areas where further suggestions are required:
 Obituary advertisement in the newspaper
 Your choice of flowers which you may like to put with the deceased person
 Your requirement of a piano player at the church
 Requirement of helping hands to carry the coffin on their shoulders (We can arrange
them, you just need to confirm beforehand)
 We can arrange for drivers, as that would be safe for you.
We cannot fulfil the loss that you are facing but we try our best to be your companion in your
emotional and stressful time.
From:
George Anniston,
(Customer care representative)
Ps. We would give you a call to discuss the financial arrangements in details.

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Task 2:
To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Important Information Required For the Course
I really appreciate your decision of joining back the respected university to complete your
bachelor’s degree in the human resource management. You have always had a liking of resource
management in the company where we worked and therefore it is your best choice. I hope you
have your best time in the university.
The course that you want to uptake is a full time course that has a 3years or 4 years of
foundation. The course mainly starts from September and January. The Ucas code for 3 years is
NN16 and 4 years is NN12. ARU London's standard offer is seen to be 104 UCAS points from
3A levels like that of BCC. On the other hand, the university can also ask for Scottish Highers:
BBCCC, Irish Leaving Certificate: BBCCC, International Baccalaureate Diploma: 24 points as
well as BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma: DMM in a business-related subject. They also
entertain applicants from mature individuals who have the ability to demonstrate relevant,
appropriate working experience. Therefore, you have good chance of getting admission in the
university.
Students have to attend two semesters in each year having two teaching weeks in each
semester. These teaching weeks are followed by periods of revision as well as assessment.
Students are assessed through a mix of examination and coursework. Each of the coursework is
delivered through combination of large group lectures. Moreover tutorials are also arranged

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where students are broken in small groups for interactive discussion and analysis if content of the
lecture. The university want students to be dedicating towards their academics and attend
universities regularly. Absenteeism and plagiarised work is strictly disliked by the universities.
They want their students to develop themselves as professionals who would have the ability to
recruit, motivate and manage employees to bring success in their organisations. Hence, if you are
dedicating, careful, love your subject, confident and hard working, you can definitely achieve
success.
Hope you have the best time of your life in the university.
From,
Samantha Brown.
Task 3:
Essay assignments are one of the types of assignments which every individual need to
write in their academic semesters. Writing essays may seem easier but may not bring out the best
result if the flow of the content is not smooth enough to impress the professors. Therefore,
students should first learn the proper steps of essay writing so that they can get the best results.
The first step is selecting a proper topic. Often professors provide freedom to students to
choose their topics. These situations are more difficult than those times when professors provide
a specific topic. Students should first develop an idea about the paper; he or she needs to produce
like a general overview, argumentative, persuasive or other. Once the purpose is determined, the
next step should be initiated (Cottrel 2013). The second step is preparing an outline or the
diagram of the ideas. Here the students need to analyse the ideas present in their head and jot

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them down on the paper. The students should be able to see connections and link their between
their ideas clearly. This structure would serve as the foundation of the paper. He should create a
diagram in the middle of the page and then draw four to five lines from them. Here the main
ideas would be written at the end of the lines. Below that, the main points included in each
heading would be written under the words. The third state is writing the thesis statement. The
student should keep in mind that the thesis statements should have two parts –the first part would
be the topic and the second part would state the main point of the essay (Redman and Mapples
2017). The fourth part would be writing the body. Each of the main ideas that the students has
written in the diagram would form separate sections within the body. The introductory lines of
the body paragraphs would have the information in short about what is expected in that
paragraph. Next, the supporting ideas would be written in sentence format that would be
supported by critical analysis and introduction of sub points if possible. The introduction part
would be then written after the formation of the thesis and the overall body of the essay. The
introduction should be written by using shocking information, dialogue, story, quote or simple
summary of the topic. The main intention of the student would be to attract the readers’ attention
and develop focus of the essay. The next step would be to write conclusion that brings closure of
the topic (Sternglass 2017). Here, the students need to sum up the overall ideas while providing a
final perspective of the topic. The final step would be adding final touches to the essay. The
students should pay attention to the small details, check the ordering of the paragraphs, proofread
the essays to avoid typing and grammar mistakes and check the flow of the assignments.
Moreover, the requirements of the essays should be checked again to find out all the information
had been inculcated or not in the assignments (McNamara et al. 2015).

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Task 4:
Off the job training usually occurs when the employees of the organisation are taken
away from the place of their work and is then trained in the new place. There are many methods
of off the job training sessions that Unicef London can uptake for the employees to develop their
fundraising skills. These are Day releases where the employees can take time off from their work
in order to attend training in the training centre. They can also arrange for distance learning as
well as evening classes. They can also arrange for sandwich courses where the employees are
allowed to spend a longer period at the college where the training would be provided like around
six months and then coming back to work. Self-study computer based training as well as
sponsored courses can also be provided by the organisation to make sure that the employees
develop proper attributes to be expert fundraisers.
The main advantages of off the job training is that the trainers who mentor the trainees
are experienced enough to train effectively. The training sessions are systematically arranged
(Carneige 2006). Moreover, it is true that off the job training sessions are efficiently created
programs that add a lot of value to the attributes of the employee. Other advantage of this form
of training is that it gives a wider range of skills as well as qualifications that cannot be provided
efficiently in the in-job training sessions. The fundraising employees need to develop important
skills like excellent written and spoken communication as well as presentation skills. They also
require developing the ability to motivate and manage others in the team (Harrison 2009). They
also require excellent organisational skills and budget management skills. They also need to
develop the capability of working under pressure. They need to research, develop and plan

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fundraising ideas and keeping records, controlling budgets and meeting targets. All these require
huge training sessions that can never be developed while being on job. Therefore, off job training
sessions would help in providing knowledge to them in a sequential manner so that they can
become successful in their skills. Such off job training sessions give the scope to the employees
to learn from outside specialists or experts who are already stalwarts in their own fields
(Sonnentag et al. 2014). Employees are seen to be more confident when they start their jobs
again in the organisation.
However, large numbers of disadvantages remain associated with off-the-job training
sessions. Such training sessions are often formal and do not remain based on experiences. Many
researchers state that such training sessions are expensive and trainees do not remain motivated
for attending off-the-job training sessions. Moreover, they are also artificial in nature. Such
sessions are mainly expensive, as the employees need to fix budgets for transports and
accommodations. For this disadvantage, many employees try to avoid off-job trainings. This
training procedure results in added issues and pressures on the employees. Moreover, such
trainings cause the employees to lose the working time and they cannot provide their potential
output in the workplace. Such training sessions make the employees lose their flow and habit of
working in the office environment that may affect productivity. In order to make the employees
come back on the track of regular office work, it requires time that affects the completion of
goals and objectives. Again, researchers have also noted another interesting factor. Employees
develop new set of skills and qualifications after attaining such on job training sessions (Niks et
al. 2016). Many of them is seen to leave the job then in the organisation and go for better
opportunities. Such a situation results in tremendous loss of the organisation. Moreover, the
training centres are completely detached from the actual workplace and therefore when the actual

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job needs to be conducted, employees find it difficult to adjust themselves to the requirements of
the organisation and the practical needs. Therefore, the fundraisers of the Unicef London may
learn new skills in the centres but may not be able to apply on the real situations, as they would
be comfortable with the restricted environment within the training sessions but not in the reality.
Therefore, Unicef London should first be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of
the off-the-job- training sessions properly. Then only they should proceed with the plan so that
their human resources can be maintained and productivity is not affected.

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References:
Carnegie, D. 2006. How to win friends and influence people. London: Vermilion
Cottrell, S. 2013. The Study Skills Handbook:4th Revised edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan. (Chapter 11)
Harrison, R. 2009. Learning and development 5th edition.London: Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development.
McNamara, D.S., Crossley, S.A., Roscoe, R.D., Allen, L.K. and Dai, J., 2015. A hierarchical
classification approach to automated essay scoring. Assessing Writing, 23, pp.35-59.
Niks, I.M., Gevers, J.M., De Jonge, J. and Houtman, I.L., 2016. The relation between off-job
recovery and job resources: person-level differences and day-level dynamics. European Journal
of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(2), pp.226-238.
Redman, P. and Maples, W., 2017. Good essay writing: a social sciences guide. Sage.
Sonnentag, S., Arbeus, H., Mahn, C. and Fritz, C., 2014. Exhaustion and lack of psychological
detachment from work during off-job time: Moderator effects of time pressure and leisure
experiences. Journal of occupational health psychology, 19(2), p.206.
Sternglass, M.S., 2017. Time to know them: A longitudinal study of writing and learning at the
college level. Routledge.