FY001 Preparing for Success: Reflective Account of Learning & Dev

This reflective account documents a student's learning and development journey, highlighting improvements in problem-solving, decision-making, group work, and communication skills. The student identifies weaknesses in networking and time management, outlining opportunities for growth and potential threats to overcome. The essay reflects on academic skills acquired at level 4, emphasizing the culture and expectations of higher education. The student concludes with recommendations for further development in conflict resolution and decision-making competencies, aiming to enhance their preparedness for future employment opportunities. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar solved assignments and past papers.

REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT 1
REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT ACHIEVED
Student’s Name
Instructor
Institutional Affiliation
Course
City
Date

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Introduction
Personal learning and development plan essay is meant to help evaluate the progress
acquired throughout the course and identify various skills that require improvement.
Consequently, this essay is a detailed evaluation of my personal skills development and some of
the concepts that have been learned throughout the lectures. I, therefore, analyze my strengths as
well as weaknesses, programs for future skills development, and the most effective way to
achieve it. I finally provide a portfolio of relevant evidence regarding some of the works and
exercises are done in the class.
Reflection on learning and development
Throughout the entire lectures and the studies I have had, I have been able to register
remarkable improvements. On the other hand, there are specific areas that I still believe there is a
need for further development. The most effective way to determine areas of improvement and
areas that need to be worked on is to perform SWOT analysis. This tool helps in identifying
personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and finally Threats (SWOT) during the entire
period of learning.
Strengths
Some of my strengths are problem-solving and decision-making skills, a group working,
excellent communication skills.
Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills
Based on the studies that I have had and various activities I have been able to perform, I
have been able to significantly develop my problem solving and decision-making skills (Hesse,
Care, Buder, Sassenberg, & Griffin 2015. In every decision-making situation, there will always

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be the need for problem-solving. It became clear from the beginning of the study that decision
making is an essential skill for leadership and management. My focus has always been to
improve the quality of decisions I make more so from the business point of view. Since it is not
easy to separate problem-solving from decision-making, I became interested in building on the
two as a single package. It is evident that being a good decision maker requires a couple of skills,
which include firmness of decision, being able to identify options, and effective implementation
(Kallet & Kallet 2014). Through my engagement with tutors and students, it has been interesting
how I have developed most of these skills that have eventually made me one of the best problem
solvers and decision makers in class.
Group Working Skills
In the entire course period, I have gotten the opportunity to build my grow work skills in
every study we have had in class. In the business sector and many other industries around the
world require graduates who have group work skills as organizations are majorly compromised
of various units with different workforce (Brandler & Roman 2015). People are considered to be
one of the most valuable assets that organizations have, but that can only be true when an
employee is capable of working together towards the achievement of the organizational goal. In
the course, I have had the opportunity to work with various students both at personal levels and
in different task provided in class. I have managed to have an active group work with a group of
students where we were able to complete our work within the set deadline. To be able to
strengthen my group work skills, I opted for different group members in every case to be able to
gain diverse experience from different people (Cohen & Lotan 2014). Through group work, I
was able to improve on skills such as communication skills as we had to share on various issues

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regarding the course and personal matters. It involves listening to other group members at the
same time expressing my views.
Communication skills
Everything around the world requires some element of communication. It is through
communication that some of the activities in the business can be coordinated. Employers in the
business sector always look for those who have effective communication and writing skills
(DesJardins, 2014). Effective communication is essential in ensuring continuous workflow in
business, and it is regarded as critical interpersonal skills that any graduate needs to possess.
Through different presentations throughout the term, I have been able to develop my
communication skills. Presentations and communication among the students was a crucial tool
behind my remarkable improvement in communication (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi 2017). The
course content equally provided various ways through which one can become a good listener and
a good speaker. I learned to be slow in speaking but more in listening to what others say. That
way I have been able to reply to various issues raised without any challenge.
Weaknesses
Some of the weaknesses that I can identify within the course period are poor networking
skills. I tend to believe that I have not done well concerning networking with the group members.
Besides working in-group with class members, I was not able to keep connections with the
individual group members (Van der Wagen & White 2018). Additionally, I would occasionally
come to class and the group meetings late, which demonstrates that I have not improved in time
management.
Opportunities

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Opportunities that I have to improve on areas of weaknesses include working on my poor
time management. I firmly believe in working towards managing my time and having my
schedule drawn before the actual meeting to help improve in being punctual in meetings
(Whetten & Cameron 2014). Additionally, there is still an opportunity to work on my social life
to help develop my networking skills. Despite being an introvert, I firmly believe there is an
opportunity for me to work on my networking challenges.
Threats
I have a feeling that I have a challenge in dealing with conflicts that result in groups. This
is a threat that can make it difficult for me to handle disagreements when operating my
businesses or when employed (Breen et al., 2016). Besides, those who are not good at
networking are less likely to know of opportunities that may arise in the area of interest. As such,
it will be difficult for me to connect with prominent people who can help me build my business.
Through the SWOT analysis, I have realized that I have learned so much from the course
and my interactions with students and tutors. Through my strengths, I can be able to work on the
weaknesses that I have already identified to be able to turn them into strengths. Additionally, I
intend to work hard to take advantage of the opportunities that I have specified as a way of
addressing the challenges of threat. However, I believe that I have learned so much and have
registered significant improvement from what I was before the term.
Academic skills and techniques for level 4
Some of the academic skills and techniques necessary for the student at level 4 include
having a strong grasp in communication and more particularly proper understanding of the
English language. It requires one to articulate issues through writing and to argue a point.
Secondly, level 4 students are expected to have presentation skills as at one given time students

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are required to create a presentation through Keynote or PowerPoint. Another most important
thing is time management (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2017). Effective time
management is crucial in level 4 as there are numerous demands on the students time.
Culture, Behaviour, and Expectations of Study in Higher Education
Higher education demands more from students than a lower learning stage.
Consequently, it is a culture that students are more likely to be busy due to numerous demands
from social, academic, and family issues. It is expected that students in higher education will be
relatively focused on their academics. Such students behave more responsible and show a higher
level of determination as they are getting to understand what they want to be in the future and the
need to work hard to realize such dreams. Most students expect to have more complicated course
contents that require more time for academics and very little for social life. While that may be
true, higher education need more time management and those who are well acquitted with time
management are likely to have adequate time for academics, social life, and family time.
Conclusion
Throughout the term, I have had the opportunity to learn and develop some of the skills
that are essential not only in advancing to higher learning but also in preparation for the
employment opportunities. Employers always want graduates who are equipped with
interpersonal skills, and that is the reason I find it essential to learn, develop, and continuously
practice these skills (Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers 2016). Besides, being equipped
for interpersonal employment skills can be very critical when going through daily activities. For
instance, communication skill is essential in enhancing societal integration. Now that I have
developed strength in communication skills, I will be able to help in promoting cohesion in the
community through activities such as motivational talks or even public speaking in different

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rallies. Having developed my group work skills, I will be able to fit into various groups both in
organizations and in the community. Employees always find themselves in formal and informal
groups where they are required to take part in some issues. With group work skills enhanced
throughout the case, I will be able to work in the group without much difficulty effectively.
As I have already highlighted, I have to work on some of my weaknesses such as
networking issues. I am unable to socialize and make a network of friends despite being an
active group member in various groups I have had. Networking is an essential thing as it is
through such networking that people get their dream jobs or extend their social life. I must
equally work on planning my activities to avoid being a poor time manager. It was more of a
challenge getting to the group work in time. I would occasionally be the very last people to join
the discussion, and that is a significant threat that I must work on to becomes a dependable
employee or employer.
Recommendation
Even though I strengths in problem-solving and decision-making skills, I think I need to
work more in this area to be more competent. The business environment has become very
dynamic, and the problems that organizations face require specific decision-making
competencies. AAs such, I need to continue building on the problem solving and decision-
making skills to be able to understand the current business environment.
The second recommendation is to work on how to address group conflicts. Conflict
resolution is one significant issue that has been threatening the effectiveness of groups in the
organization (Huang, Lu, Zhu, & Gu 2016). The battle is always part of the group, and everyone
is expected to know how best to address the storming stage as part of the group management
process. I have to work extra hard to ensure that I develop the conflict resolution skill.

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References
Brandler, S. and Roman, C.P., 2015. Group work: Skills and strategies for effective
interventions. Routledge.
Breen, L., Roberts, L., Mathew, D., Tariq, Z., Arif, I., Mubin, F. and Aziz, F., 2016. Time for
management training? Investigating the support for the continuous professional
development of critical management skills amongst community and hospital pharmacists.
Chaturvedi, P.D. and Chaturvedi, M., 2017. The art and science of business communication:
skills, concepts, and applications. Pearson India Education Services.
Cohen, E.G. and Lotan, R.A., 2014. Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous
Classroom Third Edition. Teachers College Press.
DesJardins, J.R., 2014. An introduction to business ethics. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Erasmus, B., Strydom, J.W. and Rudansky-Kloppers, S. eds., 2016. Introduction to business
management. Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Hesse, F., Care, E., Buder, J., Sassenberg, K. and Griffin, P., 2015. A framework for teachable
collaborative problem solving skills. In Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills
(pp. 37-56). Springer, Dordrecht.
Huang, W., Lu, T., Zhu, H., Li, G. and Gu, N., 2016, February. Effectiveness of conflict
management strategies in peer review process of online collaboration projects. In
Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work &
Social Computing (pp. 717-728). ACM.
Kallet, M. and Kallet, M., 2014. Think Smarter: Critical thinking to improve problem-solving
and decision-making skills. John Wiley & Sons.

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Van der Wagen, L. and White, L., 2018. Event management: For tourism, cultural, business and
sporting events. Cengage AU.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management
and business policy. pearson.
Whetten, D. and Cameron, K., 2014. Developing Management Skills: Global Edition. Pearson
Higher Ed.