University of Northampton: BMP3001 Academic Skills PDP Report

This report, created for the BMP3001 Academic Skills and PDP Assessment 1 at the University of Northampton, explores the concepts of personal and professional development. It defines these concepts and discusses the value of short, medium, and long-term goals, providing personal examples for each. The report also examines the construction and value of a Personal Development Plan (PDP), including a practical example based on the student's goals. Furthermore, it analyzes how factors like author, purpose, reliability, and relevance affect the use of a source. The report concludes with an evaluation of eight sources used in the project, assessing their purpose, reliability, and relevance. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of goal setting, source evaluation, and the importance of a PDP in academic and professional contexts.

BMP3001
Academic Skills and PDP
Assessment 1
Written Report Plan and Evaluation of
Sources
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Table of Contents
Task One:.....................................................................................................................2
Definition of the concept of personal and professional development..................2
Description and discussion of the value of short term goals identifying at least 3
personal examples...............................................................................................3
Description and discussion of the value of medium term goals identifying at least 3
personal examples...............................................................................................3
Description and discussion of the value of long term goals identifying at least 3
personal examples...............................................................................................3
Description and discussion of the value of a Personal Development Plan and
construction of an example using my goals.........................................................4
Task Two:.....................................................................................................................5
Description and discussion of how ‘Author, Purpose, Reliability and Relevance’
affect the use of a source.....................................................................................5
Task Three:...................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of eight sources that has been used by me within the project...........5
References:...................................................................................................................9
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Task One:
Definition of the concept of personal and professional development
The main aim of personal and professional development is to help an
individual to achieve their life goals. Personal skills are those skills which is essential
to create a good reputation in society and to develop ability by an individual to
represent them self better to others and professional skills are those skills which are
required to perform the desired job (Robert, Piemonte and Truten, 2018).
Professional skills are helpful to learn those important skills which are required to get
a job and to get promotions by managing work performance within an organization.
Both the skills are helpful to work upon making good life career. Personal
development plan is a criterion which is made to improve the development skills
within an individual and it also help to analyze that how a goal can be achieved. It is
useful to identify that what are the weak skills of a person and what all actions are
required to improve them and convert them into strong skills from weak skills. A
person of having good personality always attracts their surroundings to them by
improving their reputation and attracts others toward their modern skills and talents
and toward their updates knowledge.
Description and discussion of the value of short term goals identifying at
least 3 personal examples
Short term goals are those goals which are going to achieve within 1 year.
These goals are made to achieve as soon as possible because of its urgency. These
goals are consider as urgent goals which must be fulfilled as soon as possible and in
case more time is spend to achieve these goals then it will affect to further activities
of life (Bruni-Bossio and Delbaere, 2021). Short term goals help to perform those
tasks which will help in future to achieve long term goals.
Examples:-
 To improve time management skill.
 To become health conscious and eat healthy food daily.
 To develop debate skills.
Description and discussion of the value of medium term goals identifying
at least 3 personal examples
Medium term goals are those goals which are supposed to achieve within 3-5
years. These goals are the base to decide about career that in which field an
individual is planning to make their lifetime career. These goals help to improve
those mistakes which are done by an individual to make their career good. These
goals also helps to identify the obstacles in life career path so that an individual will
solve the issues as soon as possible and focus on long term goals after reaching
midterm goals (Ogunyemi, Sugiyama and Ferrari, 2020).
Examples of medium term goals are:-
 To graduate from college with good marks and become best student of
college by getting batch of best disciplined student of the college.
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 To find a good job this will help to pay home loan.
 To build network with those people this will help in getting a good and reputed
job.
Description and discussion of the value of long term goals identifying at
least 3 personal examples
Long term goals are those goals which are going to achieve after 5 years.
These goals took too much of time to get achieved because it is last stage of the
journey of life goals. This goal plays an important role in satisfying an individual
because it is last stage to achieve whatever a person wants in his life (Gordon,
2020). After achieving these goals, an individual can easily analyze that whether
he/she enjoyed their life with their desired career or not.
Examples:-
 To buy a house.
 To buy a luxury car.
 To have world tour with mom and dad.
Description and discussion of the value of a Personal Development Plan
and construction of an example using my goals
Personal development plan is a plan which is made to identify the ways and
techniques to achieve life goals and to measure time as well as performance. This is
made in the form of chart or table which will help to understand it easily. It is
basically made to achieve those goals which are weak and which is essential to
achieve for satisfying with career. This PDP plan is also helpful in organization
because many organizations ask their new employees to prepare their PDP plan
before training so that whole training will be based on that PDP plan (Brewer,
McCann and Harwood, 2020). Hence, it is necessary to learn to make PDP and to
understand how it works to develop required skills.
Goals Current
Proficien
cy
Target
Proficie
ncy
Course of Action Time
period
To become
health conscious
and eat healthy
food daily (Short
term goal)
2 5  Wake up early in the
morning and exercise for
at least 1 hour every day.
 Avoid junk food and eat
green vegetables as much
as possible.
6 months
To graduate
from college with
good marks and
3 5  Study at least 2 hours a
day and especially those
subjects which are weak
2 years
4

become best
student of
college by
getting batch of
best disciplined
student of the
college
to understand.
 Participate in online test
series to check the
performance
(Hammersley-Fletcher,
Clarke and McManus,
2018).
 Follow all guidelines and
rules and regulations of
college to get best
disciplined student title.
To buy a luxury
car
1 5  To get a good and
valuable job and save
money to buy desired car.
7 years
Task Two:
Description and discussion of how ‘Author, Purpose, Reliability and
Relevance’ affect the use of a source
There are some factors which decide the effectiveness of sources and these factors
are defined below-
Author- They are the persons who writes the article or book. Their name
and popularity about what other famous books they write were mentioned in their
every book (Tino and Frison, 2018). People generally prefer to read books of
experienced and famous authors because they use true knowledge and their way of
writing a book is good to attract their targeted readers.
Purpose- It consist the main aim of conducting research, journal, book or
other sources. In case sources did not mention their purpose or did not clarify their
purpose then no individual will get interest to reward that book. Purposes are
important to mention because every book reader always prefer to notice its purpose
and if the purpose matches with their interest of reading then they prefer to read that
book or articles.
Reliability- It refers to provide well- reasoned theory, argument and
discussions of the source (Heled and Davidovich, 2019). In other words it tells how
consistently a method is used to measure something. It contain the time period or
the methods which is used in books and articles must contain in a proper way.
Relevance- It is the proof that the information which is shared is true. In
other words it means that how much the information of source is authenticated. It is
important to give a proof that the following article, research paper or book is
containing true facts and figures and in case the source is hypothetical then it is
compulsory to mention that the information contained is hypothetical. Today, most of
the people choose those books only which contain true information to enhance their
knowledge.
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Task Three:
Evaluation of eight sources that has been used by me within the project
Sources Author
(s)
Purpose Reliability Relevance
Working with Māori
adults with aphasia:
An online
professional
development course
for speech-language
therapists. Aphasiolo
gy. 34(11). pp.1413-
1431.
Brewer,
K.M.,
McCann,
C.M. and
Harwood
, M.L.,
2020
The main
purpose
behind
choosing this
article is to
know that
personal skills
related to
language that
how an
individual can
focus on their
language to
develop
personal
skills.
This is
reliable upon
those people
who
underestimat
e the factor of
language in
personal
development.
This is an
relevant
resource
because
authors are
experienced
and famous for
their studies
related to
same topic.
Not everything
important is taught in
the classroom: Using
cocurricular
professional
development
workshops to
enhance student
careers. Journal of
Management
Education. 45(2).
pp.265-292.
Bruni-
Bossio,
V. and
Delbaer
e, M.,
2021
To find out
what are
productive
and
unproductive
activities
related to
teaching of
personal and
professional
development
in schools and
colleges.
The method
used to
analyze the
difference
between
what is useful
teaching and
what is
unproductive
teaching is
approved by
many other
researchers.
This is how an
student can
learn to take
decisions
among what is
useful and
what is not
useful in their
learning so that
they can only
learn those
things which
will provide
them benefit.
Standards for
supervision of
professional
development.
In Standards for
Instructional (pp.
155-169).
Gordon,
S.P.,
2020.
The main
purpose of
choosing this
source is that
it analyzes the
importance of
supervisor in
context of
learning
professional
development.
The source is
new and
contains
many other
important
factors which
is essential to
learn
professional
development.
This is relevant
while
measuring self-
performance
about how
much an
individual
develop their
professional
skills by
consulting to
supervisors.
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Agonistic democracy
and passionate
professional
development in
teacher-leaders. Ca
mbridge Journal of
Education. 48(5).
pp.591-606.
Hammer
sley-
Fletcher,
L.,
Clarke,
M. and
McManu
s, V.,
2018
Reason
behind
selecting this
book is to
understanding
in dept about
the meaning
and
importance of
personal and
professional
development
in life.
The source
contains
information
about some
definitions of
professional
development
given by
famous and
professionally
successes
people.
The thoughts
and ideas of
famous
popularity is
shared in this
article which
makes it true
and more
interesting for
readers.
The Impact of
Academic, Personal,
and Professional
Attributes on the
Occupational Identity
of School Counselors
in Israel. International
Journal of
Educational
Methodology. 5(4).
pp.513-523
Heled,
E. and
Davidovi
ch, N.,
2019
The purpose
for choosing
this research
paper is that it
helps to
understand
the impact of
personal and
professional
skills within an
school
counselors.
It helps to
identify the
importance of
professional
and personal
skills required
in a teacher’s
life and this
research is
filled with
teacher’s
point of
reviews and
their personal
experience
which is true.
This makes
importance
upon
developing soft
skills and the
paper is based
on personal
experiences of
some teachers
which makes in
relevant.
A professional
development
workshop to facilitate
self-forgiveness. Jour
nal of Graduate
Medical
Education. 12(3).
pp.335-339.
Ogunye
mi, D.,
Sugiyam
a, N.I.
and
Ferrari,
T.M.,
2020.
The main
purpose
behind
selecting this
article is that it
suggest the
ways that how
one can
improve their
mistakes
which they
made while
learning
personal and
professional
skills in their
life.
It is reliable
because the
methods and
techniques
which are
shared are
used in many
other
researches
and they
seems to be
effective.
This makes
relevancy upon
consisting
ways through
improving
oneself for
developing
professional
skills.
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The reflective scribe:
Encouraging critical
self-reflection and
professional
development in pre-
health
education. Journal of
Medical
Humanities. 39(4).
pp.447-454.
Robert,
J.,
Piemont
e, N. and
Truten,
J., 2018
The purpose
to choose this
article is to
learn the
importance of
self reflection,
where is used,
how it is used
and what are
the benefits of
learning self
reflection.
In this article
recent
medical
conditions
are
discussed by
famous
Doctors
about their
personal
experience.
This article is
relevant
because
famous
Doctors reflect
their
experience and
secondly the
way which is
explained by
author that
how self
reflection is
important in
one’s life is
better to apply
in practical life.
Fostering
Transformative
Professional
Development: The
Process of a Training
Perspectives
Questionnaire
Tino, C.
and
Frison,
D., 2018
The main
purpose of
this book is to
state the
importance of
training which
is essential in
one’s life to
develop their
professional
skills and
achieve their
life goals on
time.
This book is
reliable
because the
is shares the
real life
situation in
organizations
and how their
trainers of
new
employees
help their
employees to
gain
additional
professional
skills.
The
information
provided in the
book is true
because it
share the skills
of a trained
employee with
untrained
employee.
References:
Books and journals
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