Personal and Professional Development Report - BTEC HND Unit 23

This report delves into the realm of personal and professional development, focusing on self-managed learning techniques, skill evaluation, and the creation of effective development plans. It examines the importance of lifelong learning, evaluating current skills against professional standards, and identifying areas for improvement. The report showcases practical applications within the Travelodge hotel context, including time management strategies and the implementation of development plans through mentoring and training. It emphasizes the significance of continuous improvement, feedback, and the alignment of personal and professional goals. The report provides a detailed analysis of various approaches, documents, and objectives to enhance individual and organizational performance, ultimately contributing to the overall success of the Travel and Tourism sector, particularly within the framework of the BTEC HND Unit 23 curriculum.

Personal and Professional
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Evaluating approaches to self-managed learning.............................................................1
1.2 Lifelong learning encourage personal and professional development of individual........1
1.3 Evaluating benefits of self-managed learning..................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Evaluating current skills and competencies against professional standards....................2
2.2 Identifying own development needs and activities required to meet them......................2
2.3 Development opportunities to meet future and current needs..........................................3
2.4 Plans for personal and professional development............................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Process that help in implementing development plans.....................................................4
3.2 Required documents to implement activities for personal and professional development4
3.3 Aim and objectives of plans related to development........................................................5
3.4 Development plans on the basis of feedback and evaluation...........................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
4.1 & 4.2.................................................................................................................................5
4.3 Time management strategies and policies........................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This project discusses about various development skills. Mangers implement different
skills to influence behaviour of employees. Further this project discuss about approaches to self-
managed learning (Avalos, 2011). Lifelong learning encourage personal and professional
development of an individual. Evaluating benefits of self-managed learning, evaluating current
skills and competencies against professional standards, identifying own development needs and
activities is required in order to explore development opportunities to meet future and current
needs. Plans for personal and professional development, process that help in implementing
development plans, required documents to implement activities for personal and professional
development, aim and objectives of plans related to development, development plans on the
basis of feedback and evaluation, solutions to work based organisation, communication of
variety styles in various level of management and time management strategies and policies.
TASK 1
1.1 Evaluating approaches to self-managed learning
Individual can learn and develop themselves using various approaches known as self-
managed learning. Some of them are as follows.
Seminars and conferences: this is considered to be as effective tool, which give people
opportunity to express their ideas and knowledge. Seminar help people in learning new things
and developing their presentation skills (Casanave and Schecter, 2012).
Social networks: this networking site help people to stay connected with each other. They form
groups according to mutual understanding. Using social networking site people can learn and
chat with their friend.
Internet: there are special search site like google scholar, which provide academic related
journals and articles. Individuals can learn self-management techniques using internet.
1.2 Lifelong learning encourage personal and professional development of individual
Lifelong learning techniques is a continuous process, this contributes in personal and
professional development of an individual. Swot analysis help individual to identify their own
strength, weakness, opportunity and threats. I am working as manager in Travelodge hotel. My
strengths are good communication skills and learning skills. My weakness is sometimes I get
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tired and stressed during difficult situations. As a mangers I got an opportunity to continue my
further educations. My threats are fall in real value of money during recession. Self-reflective
learning techniques assists an individual in developing new skills at workplace. This technique
has helped me to develop my personal skills.
1.3 Evaluating benefits of self-managed learning
Self-managed learning techniques allows an individual to grow and develop. This
technique motivate people to manage their learning. As a manager I have developed team work
skills. I have learnt that working in teams will help organisation to complete work on time. I
have improved my presentation skills. In self-managed learning individuals prepare presentation
and they are given opportunity to speak about specific topic. Managers are representative of
company they have to present policy of organisation in front of stakeholders. Self-managed
learning has also helped me to improve my communication skills (Dowson, 2015). This abilities
has helped me in facing difficult situation of organisation. I have developed other skills like
leadership and self- management.
TASK 2
2.1 Evaluating current skills and competencies against professional standards
An individual must have specific skills and knowledge to perform any task or work. In
order to perform activities, business managers are required to have enough skills. I am working
as manager in travelogue hotel. With help of self-managed learning I have developed significant
skills and knowledge to improve my performance at workplace. I have improved my
communication skills, this ability has allowed me to control and monitor performance of my
staff. I have developed competencies skills in order to deliver quality services to my customers. I
lack in certain skills like leadership and management. I need to be more careful in allocating
resources of organisation. People from different countries visit Travelodge hotel. As a manager it
is important to have knowledge of different languages.
2.2 Identifying own development needs and activities required to meet them
Self-evaluation: this process help to systematic analyse own professional work. With the
help of SWOT analysis, I have identified my strength, weakness, opportunities and strength. This
activity lays a major role in improving my management. I have good interpersonal and
communication skills. I can easily interact with employees and influence them to enhance their
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performance. My weakness is that I get stressed in difficult situation, due to this I behave rudely
with my employees. I have identified opportunity of higher study, which will help employees to
grow and develop their knowledge. Swot analysis help me to identify that organisation has threat
from recession. Mangers implement strategies to deal with threat and difficult situation. I will
organise seminars and conferences to overcome weakness of employees.
2.3 Development opportunities to meet future and current needs.
Personal and professional skills play major role in fulfilling future and current need of
travelogue. There are various techniques that has helped me in analysing my key area of
development. I have identified qualities that I need to improve for better performance.
Leadership play important role in influencing behaviour of employees. As a manger, I can
improve my leadership skill by reading books of leadership management. I cannot manage my
time and work. I am not good at time management. In order to improve my time management
skills, I need to plan my schedule in advance. People from different countries visits travelogue,
being manager of hotel I need to have idea about different languages.
2.4 Plans for personal and professional development
Working in key areas can help managers to enhance and develop their performance. I
have draft plans to develop personal and professional skills.
Table 1: Development Plan
Improvement
areas
Skills Actions for
development
evidences Time scale
Knowledge about
different types of
languages
Communication Seminars and
conferences are
organized which
help individual to
learn different
languages (Johns,
2012).
Maintaining good
interaction with
people of other
countries
1 month
Services are not
delivered to
Management of Advance planning
of activities or
Organizing
business events
2 months
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customers timely. time task and meeting to
render timely
services to
customer's
Influencing
behaviour and
attitude of
employees
Effective
leadership skills
Listening to
suggestion of
superiors
Motivate
employees to
support business
activities.
3 months
2
TASK 3
3.1 Process that help in implementing development plans
To implement personal and professional development plans. I will organise activities that
will help in implementing development plans.
 Mentoring: this technique helps in an effective implementation of development plans.
Mentors provide guideline to employees to perform work in productive manner. HR
manager will provide opportunity of higher education, this will assure continuous flow of
skills and knowledge (Liu, 2015). Mentors suggest employees to effectively use
resources.
 Training: managers analyse important areas that are needed to be improved. The
implement different strategies that are required to establish plan. I will attend language
seminars in order to learn different languages. This will help me to understand
requirement and needs of foreign clients.
3.2 Required documents to implement activities for personal and professional development
It is very significant to maintain coordination between personal and professional
development plans. In order to maintain balance between plans I will undergo various
documentation. This technique will help me in achieving standard set by organisation. Activities
related to development will help an individual in achieving benchmark. It is very important for
me to adopt organisation structure to develop interpersonal relationship with employees
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(McLeod, 2014). I have adopted effective production technique to avoid wastage. Effective
utilisation of resources will reduce wastage thus increasing overall profitability of organisation. I
will collect feedback from seniors that will help me anticipating need of my employees.
3.3 Aim and objectives of plans related to development
Development activities are implemented to improve knowledge and skills. I have worked
hardly to improve my skills. I have attended various seminars to increase my communication
skills. Now I can effectively interact with my staff members. Having knowledge of different
languages has helped me to establish relationship with my customers. Feedback from superiors
has helped to enhance my performance (Stenfors-Hayes and et.al., 2010). Analysation of
feedback helped me to identify certain skills that are not up to expected standard.
Implementation of these development plans has helped me to increase my productivity. I have
got appraisal from top level management.
3.4 Development plans on the basis of feedback and evaluation
Critical analysation of feedback I have identified areas key areas for improvement. I have
realised that some skills are not developed according to bench mark set. New and update
development plans are as follows.
lacking Time scale Updated action skills
I am able to deliver
services to customer's
on time. This is reason
behind dissatisfaction
of customer.
1 months Advance planning of
schedule will help in
delivering services
timely.
Management of time
Cooperation and
division of work.
2 months Implementation of
plans that will in
developing inter
personal relationship
among employees
(Throop and
Castellucci, 2010).
Group work
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TASK 4
4.1 & 4.2
Covered in Poster
4.3 Time management strategies and policies
Time management help in delivering timely services to customers. Travelodge
Company has adopted various strategies to manage time effectively. Some techniques are as
followed.
Set priorities: I draft my schedule according to importance and priory’s task. In my schedule I
always complete important task. As a manager, I will complete important work and balance rest
of the work according to schedule (Hunzicker, 2011).
Prior planning: I make systematic plan schedule. Advance planning help me to complete my
task and work on time.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the project that self-learning help in personal and professional
development of an individual. Travelodge hotel focus on developing skills and knowledge of
employees. Further it describes about all the activities that will help in implementation of
development plans. This report discuss that it is very significant for individual to analyse
strength, weakness, opportunity and threats. Self-managed learning helps in personal and
professional development of individual. It is important to maintain coordination between
activities and plans. Travelogue has adopted different time management strategies to deliver
timely services.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Avalos, B., 2011. Teacher professional development in Teaching and Teacher Education over ten
years. Teaching and teacher education. 27(1). pp. 10-20.
Casanave, C. P. and Schecter, S. R., 2012. On Becoming A Language Educator: Personal Essays
on Professional Development. Routledge.
Dowson, P., 2015. Personal and Professional Development for Business Students. SAGE.
Hunzicker, J., 2011. Effective professional development for teachers: A checklist. Professional
development in education. 37(2). pp. 177-179.
Johns, H., 2012. Personal Development in Counsellor Training. SAGE.
Liu, L. B., 2015. Teacher Educator International Professional Development as Ren. Springer.
McLeod., 2014. Personal and Professional Development for Counsellors, Psychotherapists and
Mental Health Practitioners. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Stenfors-Hayes, T. and et.al., 2010. Being a mentor for undergraduate medical students enhances
personal and professional development. Medical teacher. 32(2). pp. 148-153.
Throop, R. K. and Castellucci, M., 2010. Reaching Your Potential: Personal and Professional
Development. Cengage Learning.
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