Academic Skills and PDP: Achieving Goals and Development

This report examines the significance of academic skills and personal development plans (PDP) in achieving personal and professional growth. It highlights the importance of setting short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals, such as improving communication skills, managing time effectively, identifying suitable job opportunities, and starting a business. The report emphasizes the value of a PDP in enhancing self-esteem, confidence, and focus, ultimately leading to improved performance and reduced stress. It concludes that developing academic and professional skills is crucial for students to become efficient learners, critical thinkers, and successful individuals in their chosen careers. This document is available on Desklib, where students can find a wealth of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments.

Academic Skills and PDP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Concept of Personal and Professional Development.......................................................................3
Value of Short term goals................................................................................................................4
Value of Medium term goals...........................................................................................................5
Value of Long term goals................................................................................................................6
Value of Personal Development Plan..............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
APPENDIX: Personal Development Plan.......................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills is a combination of learning strategies, time management tools and study
habits that helps individual to absorb and learn in effective and efficient manner. It generally
includes academic writing, referencing and presentation skills (Slater and Beckett, 2019). The
few academic skills are time management, cooperative learning, research, prioritization and
analysis. Academic skills helps in improving the confidence, self esteem and competence of
students so that they can achieve their career goals. It also helps in reducing anxiety and stress of
individual due to which they can meet the tests and deadlines. Through effective study skills,
students can cut down the number of hours they spend on studying and also they leave more time
for other things too (Cotronei-Baird, 2020). PDP stands for personal development plan which
helps in identifying and developing the skills and also focus on professional study, personal
development options and career goals of students. The personal development plan helps in
gaining clear focus on individual learning, keep motivated, improve the performance and reduce
the stress of students. Through personal development plan, students can identify their strengths
and weakness and focus on their existing skills and capabilities. The main purpose of personal
development plan is to facilitate ongoing employability by increasing the skills and knowledge
of individual (Stott and et. al., 2015). The report is based on academic skills and personal
development plan in which long term, medium term and short term goals of individual are
determined including the value of personal development plan.
Concept of Personal and Professional Development
Personal development is a process of developing individual's capabilities and potential,
enhancing quality of life, facilitating employability and building human capital. Through
personal development, individual can assess their life goals and build skills and qualities in order
to reach their potential. Student must have personal development skills as it helps to grow
professionally as well as personally (Bennett-Levy and Finlay-Jones, 2018). Personal
development skills are important as it enable student to create tactical and strategic plans for
achieving personal and professional goals. Personal development skills helps in improving
strength and talents of individual and also advance their career. The few personal development
skills are communication, interpersonal, integrity, work ethic, problem solving and many others.
In order to improve the personal development skills it is important to overcome the fears, learn

something new, ask for feedback, observe others and build strong networking. It also helps in
improving the skills and knowledge of students due to which they give productive outcomes in
achieving their goals and objectives (Gladden and et. al., 2018). Personal development also
increases the productivity and maximise the value of students in corporate sector.
Professional development generally includes resources, tools and training which is
provided by teachers in order to improve the performance and efficiency of students. The main
purpose of professional development is to enhance the skills and knowledge of individual so that
they can meet their career objectives. Few examples of professional development are continuing
education, research, improve job performance, skill based training, approaches to professional
development and increase job responsibilities. Through professional development, individual can
expand their knowledge base in different areas of subject. Professional development helps in
developing the skills and knowledge so that they can address the challenges faced by students
while learning (Cooc, 2019). There are various types of professional development such as online
training programs, consultation, college studies, coaching, industry certification and mentoring.
Value of Short term goals
Short term goals generally mean something individual want to achieve it soon. It can be
accomplished within a days, weeks and months. The few examples of short term goals are:
Improving Communication Skills:
Communication skills plays an important role in improving the personal as well as
professional development skills of individual. It is a major goals which must be accomplished in
order to communicate with people in effective and efficient manner. The effective
communication not only exchange information but also modifies attitudes, stimulates thinking
and encourages efforts. In order to improve the communication it is necessary to pay attention
and listen to other people carefully and ask question if any doubts occurs (Slater and Beckett,
2019). By improving communication skills an individual can maintain workplace harmony,
encourage innovation, increases interdepartmental cooperation, boosts productivity and manage
diversified workplace. Communication skills is important for students as they can easily transfer
the information from one person to another.
Managing time:
It is another short term goals which helps in managing the time and accomplishing work
within appropriate time period by meeting deadlines. The poor time management can make

individual feel stressed and overwhelmed due to which they make poor decision. For improving
the time management skills it is important to make schedule and stick on it, stay away from bad
distractions and meet the deadlines. Through managing time an individual can achieve their
goals in effective manner, prioritise their work, improve career opportunities and break down
task into smaller parts in proper way.
Explore something new everyday:
For getting success in personal and professional career it is important to explore
something new and learn things from different people in order to improve knowledge and skills.
It also helps in unleashing the inner capabilities of individual by trying out something new and
different everyday (Salminen and et. al., 2018). Through exploring new things an individual can
expand their mind and learning abilities. It also encourages the creativity and create a sense of
adventure grows.
Value of Medium term goals
Medium term goals takes a bit longer time it could be weeks, months and years. It helps
in changing the life of individual and also plan ahead for the future.
Identify suitable job:
For getting successful in career it is important to identify the suitable job according to
their qualification and experience. An individual must find out the job by analysing the skills,
contact companies directly, leverage social media, ask networks for referral and inquire at
staffing agencies. Though identifying the right job helps in increasing the morale and motivation
level of individual due to which they achieve greater satisfaction and enjoyment of work.
Expand skills through studying:
It is another goals which must be accomplished as it helps in providing better career
objectives. Through expanding skills an individual can avail better job opportunities. In order to
expand the skills through studying it is important to understand the learning style and follow
strict learning plan. Through effective learning skills, student can set clear learning goals and
also focus on one specific task.
Improve analytical skills:
Improving analytical skills is one of the medium term goals through which individual can
find solution to several problems and make effective decision (Muis and et. al., 2015).
Analytical skills helps in improving the academic life of student due to which they can analyse

and manipulate the information. It also helps to solve the complex problems and look out the
situations from different points of view. Through analytical skills, an individual can evaluate the
problems and reach the solution.
Value of Long term goals
Long term goals means something which individual wants to achieve in future. It requires
proper time and planning for accomplishing the goals. For achieving the long term goals it
requires several years.
Start own business:
Start own business is one of the long term goals which should be achieved in future. In
order to start business it is necessary to conduct market research, develop a business plan, raise
fund, choose business structure and set the business. By owning their own business, an
individual can control their own destiny, find own work life balance, get more freedom and and
independence working for themselves. But it have also disadvantage which must be addressed by
individual in order to run the business in effective and efficient manner (Gill and et. al., 2021).
By running the business owner has to faces many issues regarding the financial, health, time and
stress.
Improve professional career:
Improve professional career is another long term goals which must be ascertained and
fulfilled in order to gain better working life (Cottrell, 2015). By improving professional career,
individual can improve their efficiency and growth due to which they get succeed in their life. It
is important to improve professional career it is important to set small goals regularly, get
feedback, find a good mentor, enroll in online degree program and take continuing education
courses in different career related fields.
Gain management experience:
Gain management experience is also a long term goal which must be accomplished in
order to become excellent manager or leader. Through gaining management experience, an
individual can lead the team and also handle conflicts and issues within workplace. The
management experience can be gained by leading a project, train the employees, develop
interviewing skills, learn to manage conflicts and develop budget. It is important to gain
management experience by acting as a leader and problem solver. The management experience

helps in improving communication skills, understand the role of manager and improve decision
making skills.
Value of Personal Development Plan
Personal development plan is an action plan that helps in identifying the goals which an
individual wants to achieve. It also helps in identifying the areas where an individual needs to
improve and meet their goals. The main purpose of personal development plan is to improve the
skills and knowledge of individual (Woodcock and Hardy, 2017). It is important for the
individual to gain clear focus on learning and improve their performance in order to gain better
results in career. There are few benefits which is gained by individual through creating effective
personal development plan such as they get higher self esteem, enhance confidence level, lowers
down the stress level, provide sense of direction, improve focus and effectiveness and encourage
creativity.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being concluded that for students it is important to
improve the academic skills in order to gain the better professional and personal life. Academic
skills helps to encourage students to become efficient learners. It is important for individual as it
focuses on improving critical thinking ability which leads to great success in career. Academic
skills is a combination of report writing, presentation and learning research. It also helps in
enhancing personal development and professional development of individual. Through personal
development, the personal vision and life goals of individual are stated more clearly. When
individual sets target it becomes more easier to develop a plan and work towards to achieve the
goals and objectives. Personal development helps individual to learn new things, adapt changes,
reach goals, make decision and solve the problems in effective manner. It not only improves the
knowledge but also improves the life and awareness of individual. Personal development also
helps in enhancing quality of life and develop talents among students due to which they remain
focused towards their career goals. Students can develop outgoing and impressive personality
that helps in increasing the quality of learning. For an individual, it is important to develop
professional skills by learning new skills and knowledge. Professional development matters for
students as it sets them for success, expand knowledge base, boost confidence, achieve goals and

become better learner. The professional development leads to workplace success and also build
strong professional reputation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bennett-Levy, J. and Finlay-Jones, A., 2018. The role of personal practice in therapist skill
development: a model to guide therapists, educators, supervisors and
researchers. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. 47(3). pp.185-205.
Cooc, N., 2019. Teaching students with special needs: International trends in school capacity and
the need for teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 83,
pp.27-41.
Cotronei-Baird, V. S., 2020. Academic hindrances in the integration of employability skills
development in teaching and assessment practice. Higher Education. 79(2). pp.203-223.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Gill, N and et. al., 2021. Childhood Obesity Is Associated with Poor Academic Skills and
Coping Mechanisms. The Journal of Pediatrics. 228. pp.278-284.
Gladden, A. A. H and et. al., 2018. A vascular anastomosis simulation can provide a safe and
effective environment for resident skills development. Journal of surgical
education. 75(5). pp.1367-1373.
Muis, K. R and et. al., 2015. The effects of technology-mediated immediate feedback on
kindergarten students' attitudes, emotions, engagement and learning outcomes during
literacy skills development. Learning and Instruction. 38. pp.1-13.
Salminen, J and et. al., 2018. Development of pre-academic skills and motivation in
kindergarten: a subgroup analysis between classroom quality profiles. Research papers
in education. 33(4). pp.515-543.
Slater, T. and Beckett, G. H., 2019. Integrating language, content, technology, and skills
development through project-based language learning: Blending frameworks for
successful unit planning. MexTESOL Journal. 43(1).
Slater, T. and Beckett, G. H., 2019. Integrating language, content, technology, and skills
development through project-based language learning: Blending frameworks for
successful unit planning. MexTESOL Journal. 43(1).
Stott, T and et. al., 2015. Personal development on youth expeditions: A literature review and
thematic analysis. Leisure Studies. 34(2). pp.197-229.
Woodcock, S. and Hardy, I., 2017. Probing and problematizing teacher professional development
for inclusion. International Journal of Educational Research. 83. pp.43-54.

APPENDIX: Personal Development Plan
Skills to be
Developed
Development Plan Resources Target Date
Critical Thinking Have to work on
gathering the
information and
exploring other
points of view. It
can be improved by
taking participation
in group discussion
and conduct the
deep research on
issues and
problems.
Rivers, C. and
Kinchin, I., 2019.
Dynamic Learning:
Designing a Hidden
Pedagogy to Enhance
Critical Thinking
Skills
Development. Manage
ment Teaching
Review. 4(2). pp.148-
156.
2 month
Communication
Skills
My communication
skills is not so
strong due to which
I face difficult to
explain my opinion
and thoughts. It is
important to Pay
attention and listen
to others in order to
improve
communication gap.
Ganguly, S., 2017.
Action research to
improve the
communication skills
of undergraduate
students. IUP Journal
of Soft Skills. 11(3).
pp.62-71.
3 month
Management Skills My management
skills is not so good.
I have to focus on
improving my
management skills
and strengthen my
decision making
skills. It can be
overcome by Taking
more projects,
developing
Summers, N.,
2015. Fundamentals of
case management
practice: Skills for the
human services.
Cengage Learning.
5 month

situational
awareness and
resolving conflicts
in workplace.