Professional Discussion on Employability Skills and Reflection

This report reflects on various employability skills, including ICT, research, communication, teamwork, problem-solving, time management, and numeracy, based on an individual's experience during a group presentation. The introduction defines employability skills and outlines the report's key areas. The main body delves into the importance of these skills, detailing the student's experiences and challenges, particularly concerning communication and team interaction. The report highlights the development of skills like research and teamwork while acknowledging weaknesses in areas like communication and ICT. The conclusion emphasizes the necessity of continuous self-assessment and skill improvement for professional success. References include books and journals supporting the analysis of employability skills and their impact on personal and professional growth.

Professional Discussion and
individual supporting notes

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Employability skills are referred as the transferable skills required by a person or an
individual to be employable. A set of skills are often outlined by employers that they want in an
employee to possess, along with the good subject knowledge and technical understanding
(Johnston, Highfield and Hadley, 2018). This report intents to reflect upon different
employability skills including ICT, research, communication, team work, problem solving, time
management and numeracy skills based on an individual's own experience while undertaking
group presentation exercise. This report covers a brief introduction on the key areas to be
covered in project, reflection on some employability skills and a brief conclusion on important
personal strengths and development areas.
MAIN BODY
Employability skills are also sometimes known as job readiness skills and foundational
skills which are required by each and every individual for getting good employment. They are
soft skills that enables an individual to work in well manner with others, implement knowledge
to resolve issues and fit in any kind of work environment. Employability skills also includes
some professional skills that allows a person to be successful at workplace (Gamrat,
Zimmerman, Dudek and Peck, 2014). There are some skills like ICT, team work, research,
communication, problem solving, numeracy and time management skills which are required by
me in order to attain success in both, my personal as well as professional life. These skills helps
in my development and future career growth. At the time when I was undertaken foundation
degree in business and management, I was asked by my tutor to work in group with six
individuals and take participation in professional discussion on the topic “Analyse the
relationship and impact that internal and external stakeholders have on practices of business”. At
that time, I was very nervous and hesitate to interact with others in my group. My
communication skills was not so good which restricts me to present my views and opinions
regarding the topic in group. But, I have good research skills which helped me in gathering large
amount of data and information on the topic.
My numeracy skill is also good which helped me in understanding and analysing the
numerical data or information on the topic (Simatele, 2015). This skill provided me with an
ability to express situations and ideas by utilizing mathematical or numerical information. Apart

from this, my team working skills are also good which helped me in working in coordination
and cooperation with all the team members. This is the only thing which helped me a lot to work
collectively in team, in spite of my ineffective communication skills. Initially, I was not so
familiar with all the members of my team, but when I started working with them, I felt happy and
liked to work with them. My time management skills was not so effective, but when I started
working in the team I learned to manage my time in proper way and completing all the activities
and work assigned to me on time. By group working, my knowledge and abilities were enhanced
and enabled me to deal with various situations in an effective and efficient way (Cottrell, 2017).
In addition to these, my problem solving skill is average which helped me in resolving
the general issues that takes place while working in group or at the time of group discussion.
Initially, I faced many problems due to some of my ineffective skills, but later on I learnt many
new things. My good research skills helped me in gathering valuable and relevant information
over the topic which in turn assisted in improving my knowledge not only on the topic, but in
other areas also which are associated with it. For preparing notes and presentation, it requires
good ICT skills. My information and communication technology skills are average due to which
I was not able to use elementary functions of communication and information technology
efficiently to assess, store, develop, present and exchange data or information and to
communicate and take part in collaborative networks through internet. At the time of group
discussion, my these weak skills restricts me to work efficiently within team and present my
views and opinions clearly.
My ineffective communication skills creates various hurdles for me while studying and
performing the activities and tasks assigned to me by my tutor. However, some of my strong
skills helped me in overcoming various issues or challenges that I faced. From the overall
experience of group discussion, I felt that an individual must have good communication skills as
these helps in communicating all the information to others in proper and effective manner and
expressing own opinions and views effectively (Scott, 2014). Good communication skills also
helps in improving confidence level of an individual which helps him/ her in performing in better
manner. By conducting the group discussion, I realised that I possess some skills which are my
strong areas that helped me in attaining success, but there are some weak areas also on which I
need to work upon. I need to work on my communication skills so as to improve my oral as well
as verbal communication skills. I realised that communication skills are very necessary in day to

day life of an individual, so working upon my oral and verbal communication skills helps me in
attaining success in my personal as well as professional life. Apart from this, I also need to work
on my problem solving and time management skills (de Schepper and Sotiriadou, 2018).
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that employability skills are
very necessary for an individual in attaining growth and success in life. By conducting reflection
on employability skills, I get to know about my strong and weak areas. This helps me in
determining what I need to do to improve my skills which are weak and undertaking various
measures accordingly. By team working, I learnt to work effectively in team and manage time in
proper way so as to ensure timely completion of tasks.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Johnston, K., Highfield, K. and Hadley, F., 2018. Supporting young children as digital citizens:
The importance of shared understandings of technology to support integration in play‐
based learning. British journal of educational technology, 49(5), pp.896-910.
Gamrat, C., Zimmerman, H.T., Dudek, J. and Peck, K., 2014. Personalized workplace learning:
An exploratory study on digital badging within a teacher professional development
program. British journal of educational technology, 45(6), pp.1136-1148.
Simatele, M., 2015. Enhancing the portability of employability skills using e-portfolios. Journal
of Further and Higher Education, 39(6), pp.862-874.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Scott, B., 2014. Graduate attributes and talent perceptions: Reflections on the first year of
graduate employment. International Journal of Employment Studies, 22(1), p.39.
de Schepper, J. and Sotiriadou, P., 2018. A framework for critical reflection in sport management
education and graduate employability. Annals of Leisure Research, 21(2), pp.227-245.