MG408 Graduate Challenge Portfolio: Skills Development and Reflection

This document presents a student's Graduate Challenge Portfolio, created for the MG408 module. The portfolio details participation in three key challenges: the T-shirt challenge, the presentation challenge, and the apprentice challenge. Each challenge is analyzed from a business perspective, examining aspects like branding, marketing, and SWOT analysis for TESCO and LSST. The portfolio includes reflections on the skills developed, such as teamwork and communication, and identifies areas for improvement like presentation and time management. An action plan is provided to address skill gaps, outlining resources and success criteria for enhancing presentation and time management skills. The student references relevant literature to support the analysis and reflections, offering a comprehensive overview of their learning and development journey throughout the module.

GRADUATE CHALLENGE
PORTFOLIO

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Challenges...................................................................................................................................4
Skills............................................................................................................................................5
Action plan..................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Professional skills are basically the core competencies as well as abilities which needs to
be present in an individual in order to gain success and overcome various roadblocks. The main
aim of this report is to understand the different challenges which are normally encountered by
people and study that what skills are needed for overcoming these challenges. This report gives a
brief overview of challenges, skills and action plan.
MAIN BODY
Challenges
T-shirt challenge
This is the challenge in which an innovative T-shirt needs to be designed for taking brand
message to wider audience. In this challenge, the difficulty which I faced was relating to STP,
logo designing and branding strategy. In this challenge, we were tasked to design an innovative
T-shirt which will attract the customers as well as clients in large number. In this challenge, a
well-though branding strategy as well as logo design was to be made which will capture the
attention of customers. The main problem here was how to effectively design the T-shirt and
which branding strategy to use (Clarke, 2016).
Presentation challenges
Presentation challenge is basically the challenge in which people are requited to
effectively display and present the product along with its features and characteristics in order to
attract the customers. This challenge was primarily about creating a presentation about TESCO
and LSST as what this organization does, an overview of this organization. Basically, in this
challenge an effective presentation was to be made on both the organizations and comparing
their various products, services, turnover ratio etc (Taylor and Mesco, 2017). This was a difficult
challenge as we cannot misinterpret the company information and presentation needs to be
highly attractive to impress viewer.
Apprentice challenge
The apprentice challenge is basically learning as well as development event along with
the competitive edge and thus provides good opportunity for the apprentices to build their skills
and abilities. In this challenge, we were divided in two groups for working on the presentation.
The major challenge here was to perform the SWOT analysis of TESCO and LSST and to
analyze new product development strategy of LSST. The main thing which I learned in this

challenge was that performing SWOT analysis of any organization is highly essential in order to
know their competitive position as well as areas where they lack behind. Basically, we were to
conduct a thorough analysis of these two organizations as what are their different strength as
well as weakness (Schwarze and Wosnitza, 2018).
Skills
T-shirt challenge
The T-shirt challenge helped me to analyze my skills as well as abilities to a great extent.
As in this challenge, it was required to identify the branding strategy and effectively design logo
thus I analyzed that teamwork and communication are highly developed as I was able to
effectively communicate with my team members (Clarke, 2016). Due to remaining in touch with
them, I assess that I can easily work in a team as I am able to step in to the shoes of others.
Besides this, my time management and presentation skills were weak as demonstrated in this
challenge because I was not able to analyze that which activity will require more time and how
to properly arrange the tasks.
Presentations challenges
In this challenge, I analyzed that my communication skills and teamwork skills are highly
developed because during making the presentation, I constantly asked my tutor and other
students that what are the essentials of presentation and this also helped me to recognize my
teamwork skills. Besides this, My presentation skills as well as time management skills were not
well-developed (Van Emden and Becker, 2016). I was unaware as to how to make an effective
presentation and didn't know much about the essentials of presentation which needs to be kept in
mind while delivering presentation. Along with this, I am not able to decide that how much
needs to be given on which slide or on which topic.
Apprentice challenge
In this challenge, I came across the various skills which are developed within me and in
which I lack behind. Talking of the communication skills and teamwork skills, these skills are
highly developed in me. In this challenge, during working in the group, effectively interacted
with my team members regarding various problems which I was facing and also asked for
solution (Schwarze and Wosnitza, 2018). Thus, this effective communication assisted me to
work in a team and understand the opinions of others. On the other hand, due to bad presentation

and time management skills I was not able to effectively design the budget for new product as
well as not able to effectively present financial information of the company efficiently.
Action plan
Skills Resources required Success criteria Review date
Presentation skills Attended various
presentations,
Attended seminars and
different networking
events, Watched
online videos and
made use of online
applications like
Mindtools etc (Van
Emden and Becker,
2016).
I was able to
effectively deliver
various kinds of
presentations and was
able to make attractive
presentations.
20/01/20
Time management Started creating
schedules and
timetables for variety
of work, Set multiple
deadlines, various
online applications
like timebuzz etc,
advice from my
superiors and peers.
I was able to finish my
work on time and that
too with higher
efficiency (Sainz,
Ferrero and Ugidos,
2019). Besides this, I
was able to prioritize
my tasks according to
their importance and
completion date.
14/02/20
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that the individual encounters various challenges and thus comes
across different types of challenges like T-shirt challenge, apprentice challenge, presentation
challenge etc. Each and every challenge helps the students to analyze their skills as in which

skills they lack behind and which are highly developed. Based on this, an action plan is designed
which helps them to improve their skills by using various resources.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Clarke, V., 2016. Wearing a gay slogan t-shirt in the higher education classroom: A cautionary
tale. Feminism & Psychology.26(1). pp.3-10.
Sainz, M.A., Ferrero, A.M. and Ugidos, A., 2019. Time management: skills to learn and put into
practice. Education+ Training.
Schwarze, J. and Wosnitza, M., 2018. How does apprentice resilience work?. In Resilience in
Education (pp. 35-51). Springer, Cham.
Taylor, R.W. and Mesco, J., 2017. Differentiating Instruction: Challenges of the Secondary
Classroom.
Van Emden, J. and Becker, L., 2016. Presentation skills for students. Macmillan International
Higher Education.