Importance of Career Development in Skill Enhancement Essay

This reflective essay explores the critical aspects of career development, emphasizing the significance of skill enhancement and strategic career planning. The essay delves into the importance of setting goals and objectives, aligning personal development with organizational needs, and the application of various career development theories such as Parsons' trait and factor theory, Holland's vocational theory, Bandura's social cognitive theory, and Super's self-developmental self-concept theory. The analysis includes a personal reflection on the skills and capabilities required for career advancement, particularly within a company like Trafalgar, highlighting the importance of continuous learning and adaptability to enhance employability. The essay also offers insights into how career development practices and theories can help individuals prepare for future opportunities and achieve their long-term career goals.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This report is based on the skills which is needed for boosting the career and how the
development of skills helps in achieving the goals and objectives for career and how this helps in
the growth of the individual long-term. Career development is important for every individual as
every individual has it's own personal goals and objectives and individual have their own plan
for reaching out to their goals. Career planning and development is possible when individual
focuses on developing the particular skill set and it helps individual in making suitable for the
employability opportunities in the current scenario. This report helps in understanding the skills
which is needed for the development of an individual as whole and what are the different
practices and tools which helps in the career development of the individual and how these tools
helps in boosting the performance of the individual and of the organisation (Arifin and et. al.,
2020).
MAIN BODY
Career development is explained as the achieving the goals and objectives by the
individual which is planned by the individual and put that plan into action to achieve the career
goals. Career development helps individual in order to set it's goals and objectives and where
individual wants to be in the organisation in next five or ten years. Career development is the
process of achieving the goals and objectives by the individual and planning the way to achieve
those goals and objectives. Career development includes the development of individual as
overall and personal development plan helps in achieving the goals and objectives set by the
organisation or the skills individual wants to achieve in the desired time. Career development
and career management works within the organisation and for this in this report Trafalgar is the
company which is being taken in order to understand the importance of career development and
management in the organisation. Managers of Trafalgar focuses on managing the employees
which are capable and skilful and makes sure that organisation retain those employees as they
are considered as asset to the organisation. Trafalgar focuses on enhancing the diversity in the
workplace as it helps employees in interacting with other employees and it also affects the work
culture in the organisation. Trafalgar also makes sure that the employees are satisfied by the
organisation as it motivates employees to work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the
organisation. I have experience in retail and marketing but as the student of human resource
management it helps me in understanding the importance of the development of skills and how

skills development helps in achieving the goals and objectives. I am looking to work in the
company like Trafalgar as it is one of the famous tours and travel services organisation in UK
and I would like to achieve higher place in the organisation by developing my skills and my
knowledge. Trafalgar is one of the top organisation in service industry in UK and as I am looking
to join the organisation I have to make sure that my skills and capabilities are good enough for
the organisation and by continuous development in my knowledge and skills I can achieve higher
growth in the organisation. My skills and capabilities can be developed by making a personal
development plan for myself and by setting up the long-term. Medium-term and short-term goals
within the decided time duration. It is important for me to develop my skill within the decided
time frame as it helps me in boosting my morale and helps me in preparing to grab the
employability opportunities in the market. These days organisation focuses on the employees
which are skilful and also focuses on the individual who are already trained and organisation
have to spend less on their training and development and this personal development plan will
help me in understanding my strengths and weaknesses. There are different career development
theories which helps in understanding the path for achieving the goals and objectives and helps
in setting the goals and objectives. These theories can help me in making my growth effective
and also helps in preparing me for the future opportunities and helps me analysing my goals and
objectives on timely basis and how it can help me in improving my skill set. The first theory that
can be used by me is that Frank parsons trait and factor theory in which it consists of three
different factors first point in this theory includes about the personality traits of me as I am
planning my career second point includes character traits of mine and third point includes about
the personality traits of mine which is being compared by the traits of the job as it helps me in
understanding about my traits and helps me in understanding about the job. The second theory
which can be used by me Holland vocational theory which states that the individual personality
influences the career choice of the individual (Bocciardi and et. al., 2017). This theory can help
me in understanding my personality and it helps me in understanding the job in which I can fit in
and which resembles according to my traits. There are six type of personality traits given by
Holland which can help me in understanding my personality these types are mentioned below:
1. Realistic
2. Investigative
3. Artistic

4. Social
5. Enterprising
6. Social
Third theory which can help me in boosting my career development is Bandura's Social
Cognitive theory as it states that the individual behaviour and thinking is influenced by the past
experience. As this theory states about past experiences it can help me in setting my goals and
objectives on the basis of my past studies and by this I can understand my strengths and
weaknesses and helps me in planning my future goals on the basis of that experience. It can help
me in preparing personal development plan and helps me in setting the goals and objectives or
helps in acquiring the skill which is planned by me accordingly. This theory also helps in
understanding the factors which can affect the output of the individual such as Personal traits,
Behaviour and motive etc. The next theory which can be used by me in my career development
is Super's self- developmental self-concept theory which states that idea which helps in changing
the view of individual in terms of own personality. This theory is affected by the experience of
the individual which shapes the thinking about own personality. This theory can help me in
understanding my motive and behaviour and helps me in analysing myself as a whole and helps
me in understanding my goals and objectives according to my need and wants. This theory helps
me in understanding my career goals and also helps me in understanding how career can helps
me in bringing the stability to my development. This theory consists of five stages:
Growth
In this part development of individual is included and it sets the attitude of individual towards
life (Bridgstock, 2019).
Exploration
In this part individual follows the path and the careers and explore different careers as it helps in
understanding the employability opportunities for the individual.
Establishment
In this part individual chooses the correct path and develops and understand the market and gets
work experience by working in the organisation.
Maintenance
In this part individual focuses on improving skills and develop it's skill in order to be effective
and efficient.

Decline
This stage focuses on the retirement of the individual from the job and on the basis of
satisfaction individual evaluates work of own (Burnette and et. al., 2020).
These above theories which are explained helps me in developing my career and helps me in
developing my skills and planning my development plan in order to garb the opportunities in the
currents scenario of employability and helps in understanding the strengths and weaknesses and
to focus on boosting my growth for long-term.
CONCLUSION
This report concludes about how career development practices and theories helps
individual in preparing the course of action and setting the goals and objectives for the future to
gain employability opportunities and develop overall knowledge and skills. Career development
helps individual in boosting it's growth and helps in developing the skills which can help
individual in grow it's designation and place in the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Employee Performance: A Mediating Role Of Competence. Journal of Talent
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Bocciardi, F., and et. al., 2017. Career adaptability as a strategic competence for career
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Bridgstock, R., 2019. Employability and career development learning through social media:
Exploring the potential of LinkedIn. In Challenging future practice possibilities (pp. 143-
152). Brill Sense.
Burnette, J. L., and et. al., 2020. A growth mindset intervention: Enhancing students’
entrepreneurial self-efficacy and career development. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice.44(5). pp.878-908.
Heffernan, T. A., 2018. Approaches to career development and support for sessional academics
in higher education. International Journal for Academic Development.23(4). pp.312-323.
Katic, I., and et. al., 2018. Effects of Sociodemographic Characteristics and Personality Traits on
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Schutt Jr, D. A., 2018. A Strengths-Based Approach to Career Development Using Appreciative
Inquiry. National Career Development Association. 305 North Beech Circle, Broken
Arrow, OK 74012.
Wehmeyer, M. L., and et. al., 2019. A crisis in career development: Life designing and
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Zacher, H., and et. al., 2019. Academic career development: A review and research agenda.
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