Reflective Report on Graduate Challenges: Skills and Business Insights

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's experiences navigating graduate challenges, focusing on the apprentice, presentation, and t-shirt challenges. The report details the skills developed, including communication, teamwork, time management, and business acumen, gained through coursework at the London School of Science and Technology (LSST) and professional experiences at Tesco and in a T-shirt design project. Each challenge is examined from a business perspective, highlighting branding, finance, and operations. The report also applies Tuckman's theory on teamwork to these experiences. Finally, a SMART action plan is presented to guide future professional development, outlining specific, measurable, achievable, reliable, and time-bound goals for skill enhancement and resource utilization.

Graduate Challenge

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Apprentice Challenge.............................................................................................................3
Presentation Challenge...........................................................................................................4
T-Shirt Challenge...................................................................................................................5
ANALYSIS OF EACH CHALLENGE FROM A BUSINESS ANGLE AND KNOWLEDGE
GAINED FROM ABOUT HOW BUSINESSES ACTUALLY WORK........................................6
Branding.................................................................................................................................6
Finance...................................................................................................................................6
Operations...............................................................................................................................6
Tuckman’s Theory on Teamwork..........................................................................................6
ACTION PLAN...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
An individual leading to their professional lives and entering first stages of their career do
face numerous challenges in order to attain number of skills which are helpful and value adding
for focusing on career and development (Yao and Collins, 2019). The present report is a
reflective assignment which will be showcasing the three challenges as an individual I faced
while going through the professional journey. The challenges discussed are apprentice,
presentation and t-shirt. Moving along each challenges are examined with business angles.
Lastly, a SMART action plan is developed.
MAIN BODY
Apprentice Challenge
The initial challenge of the three is apprentice challenge, I have gone through it as a
student when I was studying in the London school of science and technology and perusing my
coursework studies. The college is also addressed as LSST. Meanwhile when apprentice
challenge began I was studying my course work and certain skills are developed while doing so.
These skills I developed through it are useful for me and my future career goal. These skills are
as discussed:
 Communication Skills- As a student this is an essential for me to have effective
communication skills in order to express my opinion and valuable views to my peer
group as well as my tutors or professors and the professional members. The effective
communication skills helps me in communicating with others in the best manner
possible and also to share my views which are needed to be examined and judged for
understanding the change is required.
 Team Working Skills- Through effective team working abilities I made sure that every
member of the team is involved with the tasks assigned and working for attaining the
common objective. This skill helped me in working with my peer and gain better results
by combined efforts of all.
 Time Management- The skill of managing time assisted me in conducting better
scheduling of all the different tasks which are assigned to us in regards to our curriculum
practice.

 Business Skills- The capabilities in regards to business and related approaches helps me
in leading my path towards better career in future with better career opportunities. This
helps in taking more practical and tactical approaches for decision making and help in
becoming competent individual.
Presentation Challenge
This challenge was faced by me or was part of my learnings and experiences when I was
working Tesco. It is a lading retail house of United Kingdom which runs its operation worldwide
and offers the best services and consumable products through its supermarkets. At the time of
working in or with Tesco I improvised my skills that I learnt in my course work in London
School of Science and Technology.
 Communication Skills- While I was working with Tesco I learnt and developed better
and more critical communication skills as I was working in a highly professional
environment with experts and skilled individuals as my superiors and team members.
This is a critical ability for a professional to hold which help them in their career and
grabbing better opportunities (Girmay and et. al., 2019).
 Team Working Skills- The next competency of discussion is my team working skills.
While I was in college I learnt about the basic concept of team working skills and its
importance for me to hold as a professional and as an individual. While I started working
in Tesco I received many opportunity to use my team working skills and showcase my
talents in regards to the same. In the area I developed and enhanced my skill by polishing
it as I was able to gain more critical idea about the area of expertise and also offered me
great value.
 Time Management- Working in a team is a critical task to perform with number of
members and peer it is not an easy task as everyone are interdependent on one another
which makes the skill more critical and concerning. In my opinion it is critical because
when we work together in a team for a common agenda, scheduling and completing all
the assigned duties and tasks in time is a very necessary notion to keep it considerate.
Other people are now dependent on me for completion of my tasks which will be their
base for their tasks to achieve. Hence, I improved my time management skills when I was
working in a professional environment with Tesco with gaining more value adding
competencies.

 Business Skills- The last but not the least skill which I improved while facing the
presentation challenge is the ability in regards to business. At the time of presentation
challenge when I was with Tesco my experiences and knowledge helped me in enhancing
and gaining better business skills as I was able to use my theoretical knowledge in
practical world and also to make understanding for the change in require to make
according to the needs and necessity (Korany and Dessouki, 2019).
T-Shirt Challenge
It is consider the third challenge that I experienced is basically known as a small
challenge that I was connect to the working for the specific purpose. I participated in many
activities so that I can socially connect with the people and I also participate in T- shirt
challenges and besides this I designed many T- Shirts and also promoted it. When I was working
in this project the I realised some aspects which help in increase the skills and process which
discussed below-
 Communication Skills – I learnt good communication skills and how to present myself
in front of whole audience when I participate in the T- Shirt challenge.. Some designed
T-shirts spread the need of the communication skills on the way of become creative and
effective. I used many useful pictures are used in T- Shirts so that it affects the
communication and also create a new thought and ideas about it. My communication
skills become more stronger to participate in T- Shirt challenge and Apart from this I
learnt new aspects.
 Team Working Skills – I also learnt team working skills and now I am able to perform
group task. I improved my this ability when I participated in T- Shirt challenge. I was
also a part of the designing team where I also enhance my designing skills and I alos
learnt tattoo design which I used in T- Shirt.
 Time Management- The next competency which I improved and gathered is of time
management. We had a limited time to design and market the t-shirts in the targeted
audiences and public. This lead me to be motivated and completing my tasks and assign
duties with better time management abilities and practices.
 Business Skills- The last skill which was enhanced by me and developed was of business
abilities as I was part of marketing team for the T-Shirts.

ANALYSIS OF EACH CHALLENGE FROM A BUSINESS ANGLE AND
KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM ABOUT HOW BUSINESSES
ACTUALLY WORK.
Branding
The primary function where my skills and competencies that I developed while facing all
the three challenges discussed above is in the branding function by being part of the marketing
team for the T-Shirt. A very essential and critical function which is part of the marketing team is
of branding the product. I effectively used my effective communication skills with keeping focus
on to develop a attractive and catchy tag-line for the t-shirt in order to gain attention of all the
targeted population and the key audiences.
Finance
The operational area where I used my skills and abilities from my past knowledge and
experiences is of Finance function. The role of this function is to manage the budgets, capital
structure and money available for the product and services which is being launched. In this
function I made use of time management and team working abilities for making effective use of
all the resources in which money is involved in case of rendering productive performances and
results.
Operations
The third function was of operation function in which I made use of my business skills
and tactical knowledge for offering my services in the best manner possible to the objective of
the function. While being part of operational function the major role of the member is to develop
plans and strong initiatives in order to implement the determined plans. While working I made
use of my business skills which were developed and derived by me when I was working in Tesco
as well as when I was learning in my college through theoretical and hypothetical practical
situations provided by our tutor (Arifin, Rais and Nurdyansyah, 2018).
Tuckman’s Theory on Teamwork
The Tuckman's team development theory is a specific approach which is followed by
leaders to create a strong efficient team (Martin and Rees, 2018). The team development theory
has 5 stages which I have learnt about while I was gaining professional knowledge and abilities.
These stages are as follows:

 Forming- This is a first stage where employees are formed in a team with no clarity of
tasks and agenda. Here we were appointed as team member for the respective goal.
 Storming- The second stage is the most critical on where employees do not trust one
another and work for their personal agendas. Here the leaders make efforts for making
strong goals for the members and make sure to provide them clarity (Koh, Kim and
McRoy, 2017).
 Norming- Third stage where leaders identifies skills of members and assigned us specific
task accordingly.
 Performing- The team members play their roles and according to the task assigned and
leaders make sure to guide us when required and provide appropriate supervision.
 Adjourning- The last stage is for adjourning where teams are dissolved once the agenda
of the team is achieved.
ACTION PLAN
 Specific- To improve my actions and perform according to the current resources
available by making the best use of resources.
 Measurable- Improve resource utilisation by reducing waste through my actions by 10%.
 Achievable- To develop plans for practising effective better resource utilisation actions
and work with the best time management capabilities.
 Reliable- By acquiring certificates in regards to the targeted objectives and skill sets.
 Time Frame- In coming 6 or 7 months (Corcoran, Exner-Cortens and Wells, 2019).
CONCLUSION
The above report conducts discussion over certain areas and challenges an individual
faces while learning and developing to work for the professional agendas and targets to attain.
According to the discussion conducted three challenges elaborated over understanding the skills
received while going through them such as communication skills, team working and more.
Moreover, a action plan is developed too in the assignment for setting future goals and
developing new targets to improvise and enhance skill sets.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arifin, M. B. U. B., Rais, P. and Nurdyansyah, N., 2018. An Evaluation of Graduate
Competency in Elementary School. Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo, 125, pp.95-
97.
Corcoran, L., Exner-Cortens, D. and Wells, L., 2019. Advancing Healthy and Socially Just
Schools and Communities: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. International
Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 31(2), pp.287-298.
Girmay, M., Singh, G. K., Jones, S. and Wallace, J., 2019. Understanding the Mental and
Physical Health Needs and Acculturation Processes of International Graduate Students
in the United States. Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education, 11,
pp.10-17.
Koh, B. D., Kim, J. and McRoy, R., 2017. Exploring adoption-specific curricula in
undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Adoption Quarterly, 20(3), pp.252-265.
Korany, B. and Dessouki, A. E. D. H., 2019. The foreign policies of Arab states: the challenge of
change. Routledge.
Martin, A. and Rees, M., 2018. Work Integrated Learning: More Than Enhancing Employability
and Graduate Attributes. Ako Aotearoa.
Yao, C. W. and Collins, C., 2019. Perspectives from graduate students on effective teaching
methods: A case study from a Vietnamese transnational university. Journal of Further
and Higher Education, 43(7), pp.959-974.