The Graduate Challenge: Skills Development and Action Plan Report

This report provides an analysis of the Graduate Challenge, focusing on the development of professional skills crucial for career success. It examines challenges faced during academic and professional experiences, including an Apprentice Challenge emphasizing communication and innovation, a Presentation Challenge honing public speaking and client interaction skills, and a T-Shirt Challenge developing marketing and business acumen. The report highlights the development of communication, teamwork, time management, and business skills through these challenges. It also includes an action plan using the SMART framework to further enhance these skills, emphasizing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely goals. The conclusion underscores the significance of professional skills in both personal and professional life, demonstrating how the challenges facilitated growth in various business functions such as marketing, sales, finance, and human resources. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

The Graduate
Challenge

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION : ........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Apprentice Challenge :- .............................................................................................................3
Presentation Challenge................................................................................................................4
T-Shirt Challenge .......................................................................................................................5
Action Plan to help develop professional skills..........................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION :
Professional skills are those skill which facilitate individual's career and helps them to
have a successful career. These skill shows the character and values of the person in and out
the office. It is very essential for a person to develop professional skills in them as it plays a
very significant role in the development of their career. If a Individual want to achieve success in
life then is becomes very important to evaluate professional skills,The evaluation of
professional skill and knowledge helps an individual in creating vision and setting up
objective ,which helps in bring effectively in their work (Shimoji, and Dobata, 2022). In this
report an analysis has been done on the different challenges which have been faced by an
individual during its academic and professional life. This report also cover the skills which help
in overcome from these challenges. After word this report cover an action plan which help in
developing these skills.
TASK
Apprentice Challenge :-
It is the challenge which aims on enhancing communicative skills and inspires teams to come up
with innovative ideas (Davis, and et. al., 2022). The activities performed in this challenge is
generally suitable for all type of staff and the task is designed to meet specific business objective.
When I was studying in London school of science and technology , I faced many challenges and
different complex situation,which helps me in developing various skills and
knowledge,following are some skills I developed while facing these challenges.
 Communication skills :- It is one of the most important skill in one's life because it
enables the person to convey their thoughts and ideas clearly , know matters how much
knowledge one possess if they are not able communicate it effectively ,the knowledge is
of no use. During my college ,A project was assigned to me ,which I have to complete
with the help of my team ,interacting with the team members helps me in developing
confidence level which improves my communication skills.

 Time management skill: Time is the most important resource any individual or
organization can have (Ivanova, and Rimanoczy, 2022). It is very important for a any
student to be disciplined ,with the help of this skill I was able to complete my assignment
on time and become a organised person ,which will help me in managing stress of dead
line given for completing the project .Along with this with the development of this skill
within me I am able to manage my personal as well as professional life in a balanced
manner.
 Team work : it is the process of working collectively with a group of people in order to
achieve a common goal, despite any personal conflicts between the individuals(Crowder,
and et. al., 2022). Every individual comes from different culture ,perception and ideology
which bring diversity of thoughts and ideas in the organisation,respecting each others
opinion while working together is very important for the career development of
individual. When I was working with my team member, one of them was having very
different opinion ,but I considered his opinion and work with him ,which makes me a
very professional team player.
 Business skills : It is the combination of various skills that helps the professional in
understanding consumer behaviour and organizational behaviour in response to any
change in the business environment .Business environment is ever changing and it
involves decision making at every stage while performing this challenge my decision
making and problem solving skills has been evolved which help me to over come this
challenge.
Presentation Challenge
We are in 2022 and business presentations are for the most part, boring and filled with
stale agendas and an army of bullet points. Group communication and public address is all about
making the audience feel prioritized and making them engage with your words. When I was
working in Sainsbury's in the product sales department, I had the opportunity to engage in public
speaking and client interaction to inform them about all the ins and outs of the products available
at our supermarket. It led to the development of various personal skills of mine which are listed
herein. Communication Skills-During my tenure at Sainsbury's, the nature of my profile as a
product salesman helped develop my personal as well as public communication skills to a

great degree as I was to constantly keep the customers interested in buying the products
while keeping them well informed of it's features. Teamwork-The product sales team had various members and we all had to coordinate
together to keep the sales floor running which helped develop my teamwork skills and
made me a team player which is important in an organisation. Time Management Skills-Knowing how to manage your time is an important skill to
have to succeed in any business role. There were many tasks allotted to me at Sainsbury's
which were to be executed within a set time frame and completing these activities on a
daily basis on time led me to get better at time management(Laurie, 2022).
 Business Skills-The job at Sainsbury's made a better business worker overall as it
developed me in all areas that is necessary to succeed in any operation at a basic level
including time management, client servicing and teamwork skills.
T-Shirt Challenge
In this challenge undertaken by me, I was given the task of making my own T-Shirt offering
which included designing the file with a brand logo imprinted on it and presenting it to
customers. It was a worthy challenge to do as it led to development of various professional skills
of mine which are listed below. Communication Skills-Developing a market offering for customers cannot be done
without studying the needs and wants of the people (Lee, and et. al., 2022). I had taken
opinion of people regarding the fabrics and colours they prefer and marketing to them
after my product was finished really developed by client and public communication. Teamwork-Important areas such as material procurement, designing of brand logo and
marketing strategy design were done in tandem by several individuals which helped
establish and develop teamwork skills and team player attitude. Time Management Skills-The entire process of making and presenting the T-Shirt was
subject to strict deadlines at each phase of the task and it was duly completed within the
set time frame which helped me become better at managing my and my team's time.
 Business Skills-Developing a product offering for the market is the building block of any
business and undertaking the T-Shirt challenge helped me understand the entire process
behind a business starting with product design, brand logo implementation all the way to
client communication.

Action Plan to help develop professional skills
The development of these important organisational skills formulated by an action plan is
listed below. It uses the SMART analysis framework to make the action plan specific and
competent. Specific-You must set clear and well defined goal to achieve these skills. Your plan of
action should be as narrow as possible. I wanted to develop my communication skills
because I wanted to be a hardcore salesman in a big company working to sell multiple
product lines. Measurable-The development of skills must be hand in hand with properly installed
milestones and checkpoints to evaluate and measure your growth. Handling better
conversation with customers, managing tasks within the time limit frequently are
achievable milestones. Achievable-The goals that are set should be realistic enough to get achieved in an
efficient manner. To develop professional skills, I made step by step progress towards
gaining customer attention and making entertaining presentations. Relevant and realistic-The plans and set goals along with milestones should be relevant
to the skills that you need to develop and should be grounded in reality. The T-shirt
challenge directly helped me develop my marketing skill and working at Sainsbury's
improved my public speaking.
 Timely-It is important to set a realistic time frame for development of personal skills and
remember to keep additional time on hand to deal with unexpected emergencies. I set out
1 year for my professional development by working at Sainbury's and undertaking
management challenges on the side.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the development of professional skills in
individual plays a significant role in personal and professional life of individual. In this report
three challenges were taken into consideration T-shirt challenge, presentation challenge and
Apprentice Challenge, which help me in developing communication skills, team work, business
and time management skills . With the help of above mentioned skill I was able to perform

many business function like marketing ,sales ,finance and human resource effectively and
efficiently.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Laurie, M.M., 2022. eService-Learning: Bridging Online Graduate Students' Sense of Belonging
With Community Engagement. In Research Anthology on Service Learning and
Community Engagement Teaching Practices (pp. 1302-1322). IGI Global.
Crowder, C., and et. al., 2022. Analysis of histomorphometric variables: Proposal and validation
of osteon definitions. Journal of forensic sciences, 67(1), pp.80-91.
Shimoji, H. and Dobata, S., 2022. The build-up of dominance hierarchies in eusocial insects.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 377(1845), p.20200437.
Davis, A.S., and et. al., 2022. Team Belonging: Integrating Teamwork and Diversity Training
Through Emotions. Small Group Research, 53(1), pp.88-127.
Ivanova, E. and Rimanoczy, I. eds., 2022. Revolutionizing Sustainability Education: Stories and
Tools of Mindset Transformation. Routledge.
Lee, H., and et. al., 2022. Nanoencapsulated Phase-Change Materials: Versatile and Air-Tolerant
Platforms for Triplet–Triplet Annihilation Upconversion. ACS Applied Materials &
Interfaces.