University Team Activity Report: Essential Study and Employment Skills

This report provides a detailed analysis of a team activity conducted to raise funds for children with brain tumors, focusing on the development of essential study and employment skills. It begins with an introduction defining employment skills and outlining the charity fundraising project. The report then audits and evaluates key skills, including communication, teamwork, research planning, problem-solving, decision-making, and time management. It details individual development, contributions, and experiences within the team, highlighting areas of improvement. The report emphasizes the importance of skills like communication, teamwork, and research planning in achieving goals and enhancing professional careers. The experiences in teamwork, challenges faced, and solutions implemented are thoroughly discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of the learning process and skill development. The report also includes a personal development research plan and concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights gained from the activity.

Essential Study and Employment
Skills

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................1
2. Audit And Evaluation of Key Skills............................................................................................1
2.1Individual Development So Far..............................................................................................1
2.2 Evaluation of Skills That are Developed Through Exercise..................................................1
Demonstration of Individual Skills Development.......................................................................3
Individual Contribution and Team Performance.........................................................................4
Experiences in Team Work..........................................................................................................5
Areas of Improvement.................................................................................................................5
3. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH PLANNING.......................................................6
4. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................11

1. INTRODUCTION
Employment skills are defined as transferable skills that are essential in a person to make
themselves capable to perform a job in an organization (Tattum and Tattum, 2017). This skills
includes different personal and professional skills along with technical and academic skills.
Report is providing information of team activity that is used by organization by team members in
charity for people who are suffering from Brain Tumor. An activity was performed to raise fund
for children under 18 suffering from brain tumor. This study is explaining different skills that
learned by team members through activity also personal experiences are also considered to
justify development of skills.. A personal development plan is designed to develop required
skills that are essential for employment.
2. Audit And Evaluation of Key Skills
2.1Individual Development So Far
A team activity is one of the best thing to develop different skills which are important for
getting an employment in an organization. It was good experience to work with different team
members in a team. I have learned a lot form this activity so far. I have learned that in a team
operation it is important to perform skill evaluation of self to improve participation in team and
perform better to gain better output at end. After being a part of this team I found that my
personal and team working skills are improving. Team operation help me a lot to learn about the
skills where I was lacking and also help me to understand different things about how to develop
required skills for better team operation and meeting targets pre decided targets & goals. Team
working helps me to develop various skills like team working, communication, research
planning, decision making skills, problem solving skills time management and work
organization skills. All these skills are essential for team working and goal achievement (Rose,
2018). Other team members also had provided their support and encouragement to develop
certain skills in me. Work of team leader inspired me to work according to plant to achieve goal
effectively. Team work also help me to analyse required skills that can improve my further
professional carrier.
2.2 Evaluation of Skills That are Developed Through Exercise
There are various skills which are important for professional carrier can be considered for
further development and evaluation. This evaluation and examination can help me to develop a
development plan. Form this exercise some of personal and professional skills are considered for
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examination and evaluation procedure. Here are some skills that are considered for evaluation
process- Communication Skills, Team Working Skills, Research Planning Skills, Problem
Solving Skills, decision making skills , organization and time management skills. These all skills
are important for professional carrier and employment in an organization.
Communication Skills
Communication skills are most important for individual to work in a team.
Communication is basic thing that is required for individual person to make information transfer
more effective for team goals. It is not only the process to make information transfer possible, it
also includes other things that are part of communication skills. Active learning is most
important to make communication and goal transfer more effective (Lancer and Eatough, 2018).
It is important to listen other people before answering them. Adaptive communication style is
also required to full fill requirement that only can be made by communication. Other required
things for effective communication are confidence, clarity, empathy and respect. So this
requirement can be considered as performance development goal because my introvert behaviour
is making me ineffective with face to face communication.
Team Working Skills
This is basic requirement for employment of individual in company. Through the team
working in fund raising practice I have evaluated that I need some improvement in team working
skills. As my experience I have faced different issues while working in a team . Team working is
more about coordination and cooperation with in group. Main issue I have faced in team working
is I was not comfortable in working with other people (Chen and Huang, 2017). Usually in a
team, role of each person is fixed but it is really difficult to find responsibility of individual in
team. This is the part where I a have faced trouble in team which was working for charity
fundraising. For efficient working in team individual should be aware of their own task and
operation they are responsible for. Here I examined that I need to improve my team working skill
to enhance professional carrier.
Research Planning skill
To complete objective or project or team effectively information gathering is so
important. But it is not as simple as it looks. To gather information form different sources and
develop a specific plan is important for team. Working with George help me to know the
importance of research planning. Without research planning it is difficult for team to complete
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their target. A planned and well organized research can provide way more better information to
team. From this I found requirement of developing my team working skill as team leader and
facilitator beacause I am lacking in team working.
Problem Solving Skill
In professional carrier problem skill is most important for a person. There are different
challenges and issues I had to face in organization in task of raising fund for charity and it was
trouble for me to solve different problems in team (Godward, Dale and Smith, 2019) That's why
I need to improve this skill. Problem solving skill can provide advantage to individual to boost
carrier growth. To improve problem solving skills I need to develop situation analysis skills,
improve creativity and reduce dependability to increase the self productiveness.
Decision Making skill
To improve team operation and goal conversion rate decision making skills are most
important. This ability help the individual person to take right decision for team and self. This
skills can help team member a lot in professional carrier. This is important for individual make
right decision for team to full fill requirement for goal completion. This is much wider process
form problem solving issue. Beause in problem solving person have to consider current condition
to find particular solution but in case of decision person have to think about possible cases that
can affect the team in future. As per my evaluation I am not good at problem solving skills and I
can further improve this by performance development plan.
Organization and time Management Skills
Organization and time management skills are important to work as employee in
organization. In companies employees are provided with certain tasks to complete it with in time.
To complete work with in time limit can improve the performance of employee in team and it
can also provide opportunity to a person to gain carrier growth. Work organization skill is also
important part of professional skill (Koole and et. al., 2016). After working with team in charity
raising practice I have evaluated that I need to improve my time management and organization
skills to deliver output at time with higher efficiency. I have faced issue of time management in
research work so I need to develop this skill in future.
Demonstration of Individual Skills Development
The purpose of the team activity was to develop professional and employment skills in
students for their professional carrier. Through this activity we have a lot of things that can
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improve our employment skills to enhance and increase the chances to get entry in well known
organization as an employee. There were different experiences we have gain through this activity
some of them are as follows. First thing I have learned from our team leader George that is about
making and discussing plan before plan implementation. There is condition we have faced in
practice is about collecting information about the patients who are suffering form Brain Tumor.
We have no plan how to collect information to collect information of patient and their personal
detail to provide support them by raising fund for them. Here George come with one solution
which is about making a proper plan to perform specific research of these patients on different
platforms which are according to him online and offline sources. This is how he taught me to
make action plan before taking any action.
Other thing I have learned in team working is to be creative and good at communication
to make the team work effective. My team Mate Aliane help me to be more extrovert and
creative in working and planning (Pais and dos Santos, 2015). She gave us solution to improve
direction of work by providing an alternative to perform this activity out side the university to
improve the level of interaction with people. Here she encourage me to be more creative in work
and stay confident while making conversation with strangers to influence them positively. This is
how I have learned the skill of planning and communicating to improve working experience and
professional behaviour in team.
Individual Contribution and Team Performance
My role was in team is to perform research work of patient below 18 age who are
suffering and diagnosed with Brain Tumor. It was not an easy operation for me but I have
managed to collect data from different sources. I have used the data from different non profitable
organization that are working for people and children who are facing medical condition. In this
research work team leader George provided me support to make research plan to improve
effectiveness of data collection with maximum reliability (Osgerby, Marriott and Gee, 2018).
That is how I have conducted the research work to make further decision for activity to gain high
success rate.
The over all team performance was up to the mark and completed as we have planed
before. Before the action we have planed our all actions that are required to full fill goals of
activity. All the risks and procedure were discussed to make whole procedure of fund rising
calculated to minimise the chances of failure fund Raising process.
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Experiences in Team Work
Description
There were two major experiences we have faced in the process of charity raised. The
first experience was related to fund raising process outside the university where we have faced
an issue to communicate our goal with the target people in local place (Kraiger and Cavanagh,
2015). And other condition was related to ensure the people that the money collected from them
will directly goes to right place. Without and misconduct.
Feeling
It was really difficult for us to ask people and convince them to support us to make
practice complete and it was also big issue to ensure them about the goal of team. This was very
uncomfortable condition for us to make communication with strangers.
Evaluation
We have evaluated that the problems we are facing is due to weak foundation and weak
communication skills (Tasker, 2015). This both things were the barrier in procedure. This both
problems need to be solved with in time.
Analysis
After finding issue we have discussed them together to get effective solution for problem.
In this process we have analysed the strength and weaknesses of team members to make a strong
working plan to get better result in operation. All the task in team were reshuffled to improve the
productivity of each team member.
Conclusion
This is how we have solved the problem by making discussion with team members and
by considering solution provided by them we have resolved both this problem.
Action Plan
Our action plan for both problem is related to task re allocation and we have done it in
effective way to achieve the goal of team activity.
Areas of Improvement
According the activity we have performed there are various skill which I need to develop
or improve. According to feed back of tutor, feedback and review of people I have evaluated that
in need to improve some of individual skill to get better performance in further professional
carrier in organization. As per the data received from tutor and people I need to develop and
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improve my communication skill, decision making skill, problem solving skill, operation
management skill, time management and research planning skill.
3. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH PLANNING
Personal development refers to the process of developing a plan on the basis of reflection
or personal development in respect of self-improvement, career, education etc.
Short term objective
 To improve the essential skills for effectively participating in team exercise.
Long term objective
 To develop skills for raising funds for individuals that are suffering from Brain Tumour.
Skills to be
develop
Action to be taken Resources required Time period
Communication
skills -
These skills help
the individual to
effectively
communicate
with other group
members. It
includes both
that is writing
and speaking
skills (Holland,
2019).
I will attend English
speaking classes after my
regular classes that I attend
in my college. This will help
to improve my current skills
of communicating in a team.
Further, I should undertake
case studies that will help to
develop skills.
Further, I have to participate
in group presentations in
college.
I will require learning materials
to improve my writing skills. I
have to read different types of
books like Personality
development and soft skills,
Skills with people etc. for
developing communication
skills.
3-4 months
Team working
skills -
It is a skill that
I will have to participate in
different types of activities in
University such as
I should watch programmes,
read newspaper and magazines
to improve current team
4-5 months
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helps the person
to work
effectively in a
team. It helps to
share ideas and
views regarding
a particular
project with
group members.
participating in group
activities that will help to
improve my skill and ability
of working with other group
members. Further, I will
receive feedback from my
teacher that will help me to
evaluate my performance.
working skills. Moreover, I will
read books from Library in
University such as Team
turnarounds, Leading project
teams etc.
Decision
making skills -
Decision-
making skills
plays an
important role in
taking decisions
regarding
different type of
situations.
I will join classes for few
months so that, it will help to
improve my current level of
decision-making skill.
Further, it will help to
develop new skills. I will
also take support of my class
teacher.
I will make efforts to find
different types of websites and
online learning sources to gain
knowledge for developing skills
for taking decisions. I have to
read English newspaper like
Business Standard etc. and also
require to read different types of
books and articles. Example of
books such as The art of
problem solving, The
intelligence trap etc.
2-3 months
Problem solving
skills -
Skills of solving
problems is very
important for
solving complex
I will approach various
faculties of my University
for taking their help to guide
me in developing problem
solving skills. Moreover, I
will join practical course for
I will read the books written by
different authors such as The
analytical mind, Thinking fast
and slow etc.
I will arrange learning material
from seniors and other friends.
3-4 months
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problems that
can emerge
while working
in a team
(Maguire and
Blaylock,
2017).
few months so that, I can
improve my ability to solve
complex problems. I will
also attend classes in
University that will help to
improve my problem solving
skills.
So that, I can improve and
develop skills and abilities to
solve different types of
problems.
I will also solve different types
of case studies related with team
working. This will help to solve
problems in real life situations.
Communication skills-
Communication skills plays an important role in personal and professional development
of the individual. This skill helps to influence other people that are working in the team. There
are various areas in which I should improve myself. Firstly, I will have to focus on learning how
to listen others (Boies, Fiset and Gill, 2015). This will help to analyse the ideas of other team
members in respect of collecting funds for individuals that are suffering from brain tumour.
Moreover, skill of understanding non-verbal actions is also essential for improving
communicating skills. It will help to understand the body language of people that will contribute
their funds for team activity.
Team working skills -
Team working skills are very important for the individual to work as a team member to
support the activity of raising funds for children, young population that are suffering from the
disease of brain tumour. There are different areas in which I should focus to improve my skills of
working in a team (Aga, Noorderhaven and Vallejo, 2016). Firstly, I have to focus on
influencing skills for influencing group members, need to improve the ability of facilitation.
Focussing on the above areas will help to improve team working skills.
Decision making skills -
Decision making skills are essential for choosing an option from various alternatives
available. This skill will help to take various decisions while performing team activity for raising
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funds for the people so that, funds will help them to cure their disease of Brain tumour. There are
various areas on which I have to focus for improving current decision-making skills such as
before taking any decision, individual should give adequate time to understand the situation,
analyse the situation from both the perspective that is short and long term (Tasker, 2015).
Problem solving skills -
Problem solving skills are helpful in dividing complex problems into smaller parts. To
improve the skill and ability to solve difficult problems, I have to focus on developing
knowledge regarding the whole process of solving problems. It will also help to get better
employment opportunities in the future (Gibert, Tozer and Westoby, 2017). There are different
areas in which I have to focus for developing problem solving skills such as ability to brainstorm
various alternatives. It requires creativity and thinking in logical manner. While evaluating every
strategy, there must be understanding of resources that will be required like time etc. for solving
the complex problem.
4. CONCLUSION
This report is analysing importance of different employment skills in individual person.
Whole experience that was gain in the given activity has been explained in report. Different
skills that are need to improve in individual person has been evaluated in study. A brief of whole
activity has been explained from perspective of a team member in charity fund raising program.
An analysis has been performed to evaluate different skills that are need to be developed in
person. A performance development plan has been created to improve evaluated skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chen, G. and Huang, S.S., 2017. Toward a theory of backpacker personal development: Cross-
cultural validation of the BPD scale. Tourism Management, 59, pp.630-639.
Godward, J., Dale, H. and Smith, C., 2019. Personal Development Groups for Trainee
Counsellors: An Essential Companion.
Koole, S., Christiaens, V., Cosyn, J. and De Bruyn, H., 2016. Facilitating dental student
reflections: using mentor groups to discuss clinical experiences and personal
development. Journal of dental education, 80(10), pp.1212-1218.
Kraiger, K. and Cavanagh, T.M., 2015. Training and personal development. The Wiley Blackwell
handbook of the psychology of training, development, and performance improvement.
Wiley Blackwell handbooks in organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons,
Chichester, pp.227-246.
Lancer, N. and Eatough, V., 2018. One-to-one coaching as a catalyst for personal development:
An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of coaching undergraduates at a UK
university. International Coaching Psychology Review, 13(1).
Osgerby, J., Marriott, P. and Gee, M., 2018. Accounting students perceptions of using visual
metaphor as part of personal development planning: an exploratory case
study. Accounting Education, 27(6), pp.570-589.
Pais, L. and dos Santos, N.R., 2015. Knowledge-sharing, cooperation and personal
development. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Training,
Development, and Performance Improvement, pp.278-302.
Rose, C., 2018. The personal development group: the student's guide. Routledge.
Tasker, F., 2015. How to prepare a personal development plan. BMJ, 351, p.h4603.
Tattum, D. and Tattum, E., 2017. Social education and personal development. Routledge.
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APPENDICES
CV
Summary -
To apply for the post of Team Leader in NHS.
Skills developed :
 Excellent decision making skills for taking decisions in different situations.
 Good team working skills for working with team members.
 Excellent communication skills to effectively communicate with group members.
Experience :
Having experience of working as a fundraiser in a team that helps to raise funds for people
suffering from disease of Brain tumour.
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