Graduate Challenge Report: Skills, Challenges, and Action Plan

This report provides an in-depth analysis of various graduate challenges designed to enhance students' professional skills. It details challenges such as the T-shirt design, presentation, hotel, and debate challenges, highlighting how these activities foster communication, teamwork, time management, and business acumen. The report examines the skills acquired through each challenge, including communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork, and business-related competencies. Furthermore, it outlines an action plan for continued skill development, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and practical application of knowledge in a real-world context. The conclusion underscores the value of these challenges in preparing students for future professional endeavors, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, innovation, and strategic thinking in the business environment.

Graduate Challenge

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CHALLENGES ..............................................................................................................................3
T-Shirt Challenge ..................................................................................................................3
Presentation Challenge ..........................................................................................................4
Hotel Challenge......................................................................................................................4
Debate Challenge....................................................................................................................4
SKILLS............................................................................................................................................5
Communication Skills/ Emotional Intelligence......................................................................5
Teamwork Skills ....................................................................................................................5
Time Management Skills .......................................................................................................5
Business Skills........................................................................................................................5
ACTION PLAN...............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journal..................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Graduate challenge is a program designed by various colleges and universities in order to
promote the students to participate in extra curricular activities (Benson and Morgan, 2016).
These challenges and competitions helps the students to enhance their communication as well as
social skills. It provides a platform to the students to showcase their learning and knowledge
about how businesses actually work in the market environment (Evansand Richardson, 2017).
This report encompasses the various challenges given by the universities during graduation
period such as presentation challenge, hotel challenge, T-shirt challenge, debate challenge etc. in
order to promote the skills and capabilities of the students. These challenges allows the students
to identify the areas where they excel and the areas they need to work upon in the future. These
graduate challenges can be termed as hurdles that a student needs to overcome in order achieve
good grades from their respective departments of specialisation and gain appreciation among
their peers.
MAIN BODY
CHALLENGES
T-Shirt Challenge
It was a challenge wherein the students were supposed to design and develop an
innovative and creative logo for the t shirts in order to promote and advertise the same in the
market place. In order to market the t shirt among the target consumers, we had to analyse and
examine the current market trends and situations. We had to consider the choices and preferences
of the target consumers in order to capture their interest and attention towards our offerings. A
predetermined budget i.e. £200 was allotted to us and its was task for us to give a proper
projection of how we incorporated the same in our operations. Our team was able to do the
challenge effectively and within the limited time and budget. This challenge helped me to better
my team building skills and learn how to work effectively within the teams. It enhanced by
communication skills and also helped me to showcase my creativity. This challenge has to taught
me about how to create demand for the products and services in the marketplace and how to
carry out the business operations within a limited budget.

Presentation Challenge
A good presentation requires a lot of hard work and team work. We were given a
challenge to prepare an effective and informative presentation and present the same in front of
our peers. Preparing a presentation is not as easy as it may sound especially in groups. In order to
prepare a good presentation it is very essential to coordinate with the group members and take
their ideas, thoughts and opinions into consideration. Effective communication needs to be
carried out within the group members so as to reduce and eliminate misunderstanding and
unnecessary conflicts and differences among the same (Qiu and Tong, 2017). This challenge
helped me to overcome my fear of speaking in front of audience and increased by confidence
while voicing out my thoughts and opinions . It enhanced by speaking skills as well as my
listening skills. It improved my interaction capabilities and made me more comfortable while
working in teams and groups.
Hotel Challenge
Hotel Challenge was one of the most interesting and exciting challenge given by our
university as it provided us a brief about how to deliver the organisation services productively as
well as encourage and enhance the customer experience. In this challenge, students were
supposed to enhance the customer's experience for good similarly as what hotel organisations
do. This challenge helped us to gain perspective about how to identify the consumers
needs,wants and preferences and provide efficient services in order to cater to the same. This
challenge taught me that it is not as easy job to please the customers and it requires a lot of time
and effort to convince them in order to invest in the offerings provided by the business
organisation (Gurukkal, 2019).
Debate Challenge
Debate challenge is a challenge developed by universities wherein the students are
expected to express their viewpoints and engage in the debate sessions with other students in
order to win the argument. This challenge gave me an opportunity to gain knowledge and
experience in my respective field and learn new skills that can help me to carry out my business
operations in the future . This challenge helped to understand the opinions of others and listen to
them carefully in order to identify what they want to express.It was one of my favourite
challenges and I gave my best in order to accomplish the same with my best potential.

SKILLS
Communication Skills/ Emotional Intelligence
Communication is considered to be one of the most prominent skills that needs to be
acquired by individuals as it facilitates in delivering and receiving messages accurately without
any errors and misinterpretations (Sheehan, 2020). While performing various challenges and
tasks, I learned that every function of business management and operations requires an individual
to possess good communication skills. In order to complete the tasks and assignment effectively
and productively, it is important for us to communicate with our teams member in order to
update them with necessary information regarding the same (Loss and Ryan, 2017).These
challenges also helped me to understand the feeling and emotions of other individuals and be
considerate towards the same. It has helped me to become more patient and has also enhanced
my emotional intelligence.
Teamwork Skills
The graduate challenges provided by my organisation helped me to work effectively within the
teams. It enhanced my teamwork skills and enabled team spirit within me. It helped me to
coordinate among the groups and enhance coordination within the same. I practised Tuckman's
theory which enabled me to learn and understand how to group various employees in different
teams and what all can be done in order to direct the teams towards a common goals.
Time Management Skills
In order to complete the given task and assignment within the predetermined time phrase,
I capitalised on Pareto's principle as it taught me to five weightage to the most important and task
and how to become more efficient in completing the same . I used the same concept while
performing the T-shirt challenge as the task had limited time duration. I realised that it is very
essential to acquire these skills in order to respond to the deadlines effectively.
Business Skills
The challenges helped me to gain knowledge and experience about how the market
environment work. It enabled me to identify the strategies that can be formed and the marketing
plans that can be utilised by us in order to promote the products and services in among the target
consumes. I learned how to negotiate, how to enhance the customer experience, how to prepare
and project financial operations etc. All these skills are related to the functioning of business and

I am glad that I have acquired command over the same and can utilize these skills in my future
business goals and aspirations.
ACTION PLAN
SKILLS PURPOSE DEVELOPMENT
PLAN
TIME DURATION
Communication
Skills
I will be working
towards enhancing
my commuication as
it will help to intect
better among teams
and groups.
Participation in
various seminars and
live sessions.
Enrolling in
communication
programs wil also
help me to develop
my communiaction
skills
1-2 months
Teamwork Skills Teamwork is
imporant in order to
sustain in a big
organisation and to
coordinate and
cooperate within
group memebers.
I will be taking part
in various group
activities and
competitions in oodr
to enhance my team
building skills.
2 months
Time Mangement In order to meet the
work deadline
effectively and
efficiently, it is
necassry to manage
the time productively
(Martin, 2018).
I will be engaging my
self in tasks that
needs to be
completed and
accomplished within
a specific time
duration.
2-3 months
Business Skills Business skills are
important so as to
survive in the target
I will be acquiring
business skills by
working in real
3 months

market and compete
with the rival
organisations and
developing startegies
which will help in
acquiring compettive
benefits.
market conditions
and gaining adequate
experience from the
same.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that challenges provided by the universities to the students in their
graduation phase helps the same to prove themselves and utilise their full potential in order to
grow and develop in the future run (Lencina, 2018). Challenges such as T-shirt challenge and
debate challenge helped me to develop new and innovative skills which can be capitalised by me
in the real business environment . It prepared me for the future uncertainties and difficulties and
trained me to combat and overcome the same patently and effectively. Preparation of future
action plan has helped me to focus on my current skills and enhance the same in the future in
order to build my confidence and boost my motivation in the future run.

REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Benson, V. and Morgan, S., 2016. Social university challenge: Constructing pragmatic graduate
competencies for social networking. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(3),
pp.465-473.
Evans, C. and Richardson, M., 2017. Enhancing graduate prospects by recording and reflecting
on part-time work: A challenge to students and universities. Industry and Higher
Education, 31(5), pp.283-288.
Gurukkal, R., 2019. Graduate attributes and the challenge of demand uncertainty.
Lencina, R.G., 2018. Social Responsibility: A New Challenge in Graduate University
Education. Annals of Geophysics, 60.
Loss, C.P. and Ryan, Jr, C.J., 2017. The Dissertation Dilemma and the Challenge of American
Graduate Education. The Good Society, 25(2-3), pp.313-331.
Martin, D., 2018. First Semester: Graduate Students, Teaching Writing, and the Challenge of
Middle Ground by Jessica Restaino. Community Literacy Journal, 12(2), pp.102-105.
Qiu, Z.H. and Tong, M.S., 2017, December. Improvement on education quality of graduate
students facing the challenge of big data era. In 2017 IEEE 6th International
Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 156-
159). IEEE.
Sheehan, M., 2020. Learning by Doing: The Challenge of Aligning Theory and Practice in
School-Based, Post-graduate, Teacher Education Programmes. In Teacher Education in
Globalised Times (pp. 261-272). Springer, Singapore.