University Report: Academic Skills and PDP, Personal Development Plan

This report delves into the critical aspects of academic skills and personal development planning, essential for career advancement. The report begins with an introduction to the concepts of personal and professional development, emphasizing their significance in shaping an individual's career trajectory. The main body of the report explores goal setting across different timeframes, including short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals, providing personal examples for each. Furthermore, it details the construction and value of a personal development plan (PDP), illustrating its practical application with an example. The report also discusses how author, purpose, reliability, and relevance impact the evaluation of information sources, and includes a written evaluation of eight sources used in the report plan. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, reinforcing the importance of both personal and professional development in achieving career objectives.

Academic Skills and
PDP

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Concept of personal and professional development................................................................1
2. Description of short term goals and identification of personal example.................................1
3. Description of medium term goals and identification of personal example............................1
4. Description of long term goals and identification of personal example..................................2
5. Description of personal development plan with example........................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Description and discussion of how author, purpose, reliability and relevance create impact on
source...........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Written evaluation of eight sources used in report plan..............................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills are those skills which helps a person in development of career opportunity in
life (Dennis, Bailey and Abbott, 2018). These skills include communication skills, presentation
skills, leadership skills, motivation skills. This project report includes concept of personal and
professional development. It also includes different types of goals with example and
development of personal development plan.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
1. Concept of personal and professional development
Personal development: Personal development refers to lifelong process which include different
ways of developing various skills as well as qualities to consider aim in life (Lejeune, Beausaert
and Raemdonck, 2018). It includes attainment of goals of a person with realisation of their full
potential. It includes different activities that helps to develop various capabilities in a person for
purpose of enhancement of their life.
Professional development: Professional development refers to process of developing skills in
an individual which helps them attain their goals. This development take place with training,
certification and education which helps a person in enhancing their skills and capabilities.
2. Description of short term goals and identification of personal example
Short term goals are those goals which a person wants to achieve soon as it can attained within
few months. These goals enhance motivation of a person as these are attained easily. These goals
help to improve skills of a person which helps them in life. It increases confidence of a person
and helps them to learn to manage time in efficient ways to improve themselves. Sone of
personal example of short term goals are as follows:
 Improvement of writing skills by completing assignment.
 Improving presentation skills and communication skills
 Time management to avoid stress of work.
3. Description of medium term goals and identification of personal example
Medium term goals are those which include take more time in compare to short term goals and
helps to reduce gap between current situation and long term goals. Medium term goals are
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important for an individual as it create significant impact on skills and capabilities of a person
(McGill, Heikkila and Lazarowicz, 2020). Some of personal example of medium term goals are
as follows:
 Promotion on a high position for career growth
 Gaining experience of job for career development
 Improvement in English speaking skills as it helps to find better job opportunity and to
build relation with others.
4. Description of long term goals and identification of personal example
Long term goal is those which helps require proper planning as well as efforts of a person. These
goals are future oriented goals as attainment of these goals takes more time. These goals helps an
individual to provide better career opportunity in future. Some of personal example of long term
goals are as follows:
 Finding a job with good working environment and excellent package.
 To fulfil my dream to travel all over world.
 Gain experience of life which to learn new things.
5. Description of personal development plan with example
Personal development plan refers to these which include all action taken by a person for purpose
of attaining their personal goals (Mulherin, Walter and Cox, 2018). Example of creation of
personal development plan are as follows:
Personal Development Plan
Personal
goals
Goal type Strategies to be adopted Outcome Time to
be taken
Presentation
skills
Short term
goals
By taking active participation
in various activities conducted
in organisation. These
activities including various
presentations, assignments,
group activities which helps
individual for development of
their skills.
This will help to
develop various skills
and capabilities which
provide personal
development to a
person.
2 Months
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Gaining
experience
Medium
term goals
To gain experience individual
need to find an employee
which helps them to learn
work. This experience helps to
find better employment
opportunity in future.
This helps to find a
job which helps to
understand working
environment.
6 Months
Finding a
job
Long term
goals
To find a job with good perks
and benefits, individual need to
gain work experience and
develop sills in them. They
also need to prepare
themselves to face interview.
This helps to find a
job with good perks
and benefit which
provide overall
development to a
person.
2 Years
TASK 2
Description and discussion of how author, purpose, reliability and relevance create impact on
source
Author and its reliability create significant impact on source as it affects quality as well as
credibility of research work (Osgerby, Marriott and Gee, 2018). To assess credibility of source,
one can use CRAAP test which is as follows:
C: Currency include information used is up to date.
R: Relevance is one of which include that information is suitable for research.
A: Authority include if the author was published an where information is published.
A: Accuracy include that available information is right or not.
P: Purpose include reason behind information.
TASK 3
Written evaluation of eight sources used in report plan
Source Author Purpose Reliability Relevance
Journal Lejeune, C.,
Beausaert, S. and
Raemdonck, I.,
2018
Purpose of this
source is to
understand
impact of
It is reliable
source as it is
taken form
It is one of
relevant source.
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personal
development
plan on
performance of
individual.
internal journal.
Book Grit, R., 2019 Purpose of this
plan is to provide
understanding of
personal
development
plan.
This is one
reliable source as
it is taken form a
book.
It is relevant
source as it
provide subject
knowledge.
Journal Hong, M., 2021 Purpose of this
source is to
provide
knowledge of
student mobility
in personal
development.
It is reliable is as
it taken form a
journal based on
education
research and
development.
It is relevant
source.
Journal Borg, S., 2018 Purpose of this
source is to
provide
information
related to impact
on professional
development.
It is reliable
source as is it
taken from
known journal.
It is one of
relevant as it is
providing
information
related to topic.
Book DiPaola, M. and
Wagner, C.A.,
2018
Purpose of this
source is to
improve
supervision and
evaluation of
professional
It is a reliable
source as author
is well known.
It is one of
relevant source.
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development.
Books Tattum, D. and
Tattum, E., 2017
Purpose of this
source is to
provide
knowledge of
personal
development.
This is reliable
sources as it is
taken form book.
It is relevant
source related to
topic.
Journal Förster, N.,
Kawohl, E. and
Souvignier, E.,
2018
Purpose of this
source is to
provide
importance of
short term and
long-term goals
for individual.
This is one of
reliable source as
it is taken form
reliable journal.
Relevant source
which is related
to subject.
Book Bowen, W.G., Bok,
D. and Nygren,
T.I., 2019
Purpose of this
source is to
provide
information
related to long
term goals.
It is taken form
book with known
writer.
It is relevant
topic related to
subject.
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned project report, it can be concluded that both personal and professional
development is important for s person. These goals help individual for attainment of their goals.
There are basically three types of goals which include short term goals, medium term goals, long
term goals. Ultimate goals of these goals are to get career opportunity and enhancement of skills
as well as knowledge of a person.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Dennis, C., Bailey, J. and Abbott, S., 2018. Developing academic integration. In Transition In,
Through and Out of Higher Education (pp. 113-138). Routledge.
Lejeune, C., Beausaert, S. and Raemdonck, I., 2018. The impact on employees’ job performance
of exercising self-directed learning within personal development plan practice. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-27.
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.
Mulherin, K., Walter, S. and Cox, C.D., 2018. National preceptor development program (PDP):
influential evidence and theory. The first of a 3-part series. Currents in Pharmacy
Teaching and Learning, 10(3), pp.255-266.
Osgerby, J., Marriott, P. and Gee, M., 2018. Accounting students perceptions of using visual
metaphor as part of personal development planning: an exploratory case
study. Accounting Education, 27(6), pp.570-589.
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