BSc Business Management: Academic Skills and PDP Report Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of personal and professional development, focusing on the importance of academic skills and goal setting. It defines personal and professional development, highlighting their significance in academic and career paths. The report explores the value of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals, offering personal examples for each. It then discusses the value of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and includes a practical example outlining skills, targets, development opportunities, and timelines. The report emphasizes the role of PDPs in guiding students toward their career aspirations, ensuring they develop necessary skills and achieve their objectives effectively. The document uses academic sources and provides references using the Harvard referencing system, fulfilling the requirements of the assessment brief.

Academic Skills and
Personal
Development Plan
(PDP)

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT...........................................................................................................................3
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF SHORT TERM GOALS
IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES...........................................................4
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF MEDIUM TERM GOALS
IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES...........................................................5
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF LONG TERM GOALS
IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES...........................................................6
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF A PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills are those respective skills and capabilities that are essential for a
student to develop in order to excel in their lives and during the academic period. Some
of the academic skills are academic writing, presentation skills and referencing. Then
also certain critical in complex capabilities which are essential and considered as
academic skills that are critical thinking and reflective practices (Aliu, Aigbavboa and
Thwala, 2021). Personal development plan is a very important documents which
provides a clear aspect to a student or an individual using it. In the report below there
are certain aspects which are looked over in relation to academic skills and
development. Short term goals, medium term goals and long term goals are described.
Lastly, a personal development plan is also generated.
DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
The aim of personal and professional development it is to help an individual in
managing their personal learning and growth throughout their academic journey and
career. It is a very important notion for students and individuals to focus upon as it
enables them to continuously learn and develop which will help them in keeping their
skill sets and knowledge up-to-date along with ensuring them to work in a safe, legal
and effective manner (Bintani, 2020).
In a more precise and simpler manner personal and professional development is
a notion which will reflect upon the student’s or an individuals present position in their
academic and career perspective and enable them to look forward in the future and
develop a respective aim which day want to achieve in recent years. Along with it the
professional and personal development plans also allows them to look over different
opportunities and aspect through which they can attain their objectives and reach to a
specific place in their lives.
The phenomena of professional and personal development is also addressed as
continuous professional development as it is determined that for a human being and
specifically for a student enhancing their capabilities and learning more is an ongoing
process which goes on for the lifetime. Both personal development and professional

development are two different aspects which are separate from one another looking
over to different perspectives. Professional development involves building up and
constructing certain capabilities in a student or an individual which will help them in
identifying and understanding their role as a professional while they are performing a
respective job role and also help them in understanding how they can improve it.
Basically professional development is focused upon the workplace and the skills which
are needed by an individual to work in a company on a respective job role.
On the other hand the concept of personal development is specifically focus
upon those skills and capabilities which are essential for an individual to live their life
and become successful. In other words personal development is a notion which helps
the student in developing for habits of success. It is a major time saver for individuals
and students as the better the get over and earn certain skills the less time it will take
for them to achieve their goals in near future or in the long term. A very common aspect
which revolves around personal and professional development is there are number of
skills which are needed by an individual but their time span differs from one another.
Therefore personal and professional development is divided into three categories short
term goals, medium term goals and longer term goals (Carter, 2021).
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF SHORT TERM
GOALS IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES
The short term personal and professional development goals are small
professional objectives which are developed by an individual to help themselves and to
to move one step forward towards their ultimate career aspirations and targets. Short
term personal and professional objectives are more tend to focus upon the near future
and are typically achievable in certain days, weeks or months. These type of girls never
take more then certain months to be attained.
In simpler perspective talking Tom personal and professional objectives are
positioned as certain agendas for which some actions are taken to accomplish them are
often on personal level. Short term goals have the time San off some days to months
that is certain tasks are easy to obtain and only take one few hours on the other hand
some tasks are ongoing commitment and they may take several months to be
accomplished by the individual for the student.

Short term personal and professional development goals are determined to be e
the stepping stones for an individual and a student which derive their paths from the
current standings to where they hope to end up. It is very difficult for an individual to
attain their ultimate long-term objectives without developing many goals and attaining
them as per the time period and according to the requirements. The short term
objectives not only help in reaching to the ultimate agenda but also enable the individual
in breaking down the overwhelming objects into small parts and moving towards their
victory slowly.
As a student they are certain goals which are short term in nature and which I
really want to attend in near future that is in upcoming 3 months. These goals are as
follows:
 Communication skills
 Time management skills
 Organising daily environment
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF MEDIUM TERM
GOALS IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES
Medium-term goals or medium term personal and professional development
objectives are those series of targets which are supportive of a longer term vision. A
medium term goal normally takes 3 to 5 years of milestones and time period to be
achieved and worked as a ladder for the individual or the student to reach towards their
vision and the ultimate targets. Every individual have certain visions of their career and
their future (Liu and et. al., 2020).
The medium term goals and agendas enable them to break down these ultimate
targets into smaller objectives. This is the second segment of an individuals or a
student’s career plan which are ultimately supported by the first step that is short term
goal development and accomplishment. The medium term goals are not necessarily
needs to be very specific the person only need to have an overall sense of the steps
they are going to be taking.
For an individual and a student to be successfully attaining the medium term
goals in the most relevant manner he or she needs to be e planning towards it as

identifying certain information earlier I will help them in keeping their plans up to date
and making the most effective use of short term objectives already attained.
As a student I also have certain medium term goals to be developed which are
going to be helping me in attaining much higher steps in my career. These goals are as
follows:
 Critical thinking
 Analytical skills
 Earning a professional degree
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF LONG TERM
GOALS IDENTIFYING AT LEAST 3 PERSONAL EXAMPLES
The final step in career development and ultimate development of an individual
as a human being and as a student it is accomplishment of the long term objectives and
aim. The long terms personal and professional goes refers to the future stage which is
expected by a person where they want to reach in their career and how they expect
their career to become(Sasson and Miedijensky, 2020). These goals elaborate upon
how an individual can achieve them bye depending upon their professional values.
Building long term career plans and objectives is absolutely a critical task for any
individual.
These goals are the dieting path and light for the individual which keeps on
Focus and on track. The stepping stones which helps these long term objectives to be
accomplished are the short and medium term goals. It is the final section of the career
plan of an individual and it is inevitably be the most abstract as well as the most
exciting. The reason behind the same is it revolves around the ambition and aspirations
of the student or the individual which keeps them excited and motivated (McGill,
Heikkila and Lazarowicz, 2020).
The long term goals are those which are bigger in nature and require a lot more
time than just some months or years. Most significantly long-term agendas at least take
five years or more for effectively accomplished and these showcases the place in which
the student wants to move and stand in their career as a professional. Some of my long
term objectives are as follows:
 Acquiring a job at a prestigious organization

 Improve the professional and networking relationship
 Completing leadership and management trainings
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE VALUE OF A PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
A personal development plan which is also denoted as PDP is a structured
framework that is used by professionals and individuals in order to be aware of the skills
they have, identify new skills which did not have and develop them by setting targets
and achieving them as when is by determining the ways how to achieve them. In simple
words a personal development plan is a structured process followed by individuals for
developing their personal capability in order to reflect upon learning and achievements
made (Moir, 2021).
A personal development plan works as a guiding document which will enable the
person to make sure all the appropriate steps are been taken in order to gather all the
required academic skills. There are several different ways by which a PDP can be used,
a major aspect for which it is utilised is to focus on retention study areas, evaluating the
career options, examining the development options and goals, prepare for the
appropriate job and the career and lastly demonstrate your personal readiness for
examining the presented opportunities.
Learning and development is a lifelong process in which a personal development
plan helps the student and an individual to be reflect about their own learning and
achievements as well as to make sure that they plan for their own personal, educational
and career development goals. A good PDP helps people in being focused on their
career orientation agendas, the definition of success and also guide them in the right
direction for making correct decisions towards their big vision in order to attain the long-
term objectives.
It is very clear that a personal development plan will support the students and
individuals to direct their efforts and practices towards the direction which will enable
them to become a well-rounded person and help them in attaining their career
aspirations and dreams in respective of their domains in their lifetime (Oates, 2020). It is
very important for the student for the individual who is developing their PDP to stay
focused and to develop their goes with the help of SMART objective development

frameworks. My personal and professional development plan is presented below in the
table.
SKILLS CURREN
T
ABILITY
TARGE
T
ABILIT
Y
DEVELOPME
NT
OPPORTUNIT
Y
CRITERI
A FOR
JUDGE
SUCCES
S
TIME
FRAM
E
PRIORIT
Y 1
Communicati
on skills
Average Excelle
nt
Online
activities and
more group
engagement
Feedback
from peer
group
3
month
s
PRIORIT
Y 2
Critical
thinking
Average Excelle
nt
Critical thinking
activities
Self
evaluatio
n and
analysis
3
years
PRIORIT
Y 3
Management
and
leadership
skills
Poor Excelle
nt
Training
programs
Training
results
and
certificate
s
6
years
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded and summarised that academic and
professional development are two very important and essential aspects of an individuals
life and also plays a very important role in constructing their future. In the report
discussion is conducted over short term long term and medium term goals. Along with it
evaluation of PDP is also made a PDP plant is also provided as example focusing over
all three types of goals of an individuals life.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aliu, J., Aigbavboa, C. and Thwala, W., 2021. A 21st Century Employability Skills
Improvement Framework for the Construction Industry. Routledge.
Bintani, K., 2020, August. Personal Development Plan as a Guidance and Counseling
Strategy in Higher Education. In 2nd International Seminar on Guidance and
Counseling 2019 (ISGC 2019) (pp. 18-22). Atlantis Press.
Carter, J., 2021. Work Placements, Internships & Applied Social Research. SAGE.
Liu, Z. and et. al., 2020. A Medical Pedagogy Reform by Integration of Biomedical
Research into the Clinical Medicine Program. Medical Science Educator, 30(4),
pp.1569-1576.
McGill, C.M., Heikkila, M. and Lazarowicz, T., 2020. Professional development,
performance expectations and academic advisors’ perceptions of relational
skills: a sequential explanatory mixed methods study. New Horizons in Adult
Education and Human Resource Development, 32(4), pp.50-69.
Moir, J., 2021. The rhetoric of PDP in higher education: a gender-neutral
discourse?. Academic Journal of International Education Research, 2(1), pp.7-
18.
Oates, R. ed., 2020. The student practitioner in early childhood studies: an essential
guide to working with children. Routledge.
Sasson, I. and Miedijensky, S., 2020. Transfer skills in teacher training programs: the
question of assessment. Professional Development in Education, pp.1-38.