Professional Development Report: Holiday Inn and Career Development

This report delves into the significance of professional development within the tourism and hospitality sector, using Holiday Inn as a case study. It explores the benefits of professional development for both employers and employees, emphasizing the importance of skills like communication and planning for tour operators. The report examines learning theories such as Honey and Mumford's styles and transformative learning theory, and discusses the assessment of skills and competencies, including goal-based, process-based, and outcome-based evaluations. It also includes a professional development plan, a job interview analysis with strengths and weaknesses, and a SWOT analysis of the author's skills, aiming to enhance career prospects and promote business ethics. The report highlights the need for continuous professional development (CPD) to maintain industry standards and improve performance metrics.

Professional Identity
and Practice

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
LO1..............................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Importance and benefits of Professional Development for stakeholders...........................................3
Professional employer and expectations of skills and competencies......................................................5
LO2..............................................................................................................................................................6
P4 Learning theories and approaches used for PDP................................................................................7
Individual Skills Audit NAME.............................................................................................................9
SKILLS I HAVE...............................................................................................................................................9
JUSTIFICATION ............................................................................................................................................9
LO3............................................................................................................................................................12
P5 Professional Development Plan........................................................................................................12
LO4............................................................................................................................................................15
P6 Job Interview....................................................................................................................................16
Interview Questions...............................................................................................................................16
P7 Strengths and Weaknesses of interview procedure..........................................................................17
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practice implements development of academic learning skills
and enhancement in professional careers for achieving higher growth targets set within time
periods. It defines parameters of attitude, motives and experiences through which individuals
seek further growth opportunities in their professional careers. This report explains the
importance of professional development within tourism and hospitality industry sectors and
various benefits employers and employees have by gaining practical knowledge.
Holiday Inn is one of the biggest travel company operating tours and business services
around the world, where customers have high expectations from the brand as it offers high
quality services. The report investigates the necessary skills and competencies employers seek in
management for reaching high end benchmarks within specific roles, and the various theories
which explains learning process. This report explains importance of constructing professional
development plan and how it helps in evaluation of various skills and performance within
tourism sector jobs through which various parameters of knowledge gets enhanced. It further
analyses benefits and challenges of taking interviews, the large procedure which helps employers
to select the best candidate for specified job role in company. This report has in detailed
evaluated all elements of professional development process, how functionally it enables to
become person more efficient in diversified careers and promotes business values and ethics
through various paradigms (Bennett-Levy,2019).
LO1
P1 Importance and benefits of Professional Development for stakeholders
Professional development is an extremely necessary element for gaining advanced skills
and competencies relevant with the changing business scenario which explains how it has
benefited employees and employers within company environment. There are various
professional development elements which provides further career opportunities to excel in
practical field of functional efficiency and enlarges the view of understanding diversity within

company culture. Holiday Inn company provides various professional development platforms to
all employees working in organization, where there is high focus in building their interpersonal
skills, leveraging the best quality services for gaining high goodwill among customers round the
world. The professional development has various benefits in context of employers and
employees both which can be analyzed as follows:
Benefits for Employers: Brand reputation is developed, overall functional abilities within
employees is improved which keeps them motivated and impacts turnover rates positively by
keeping it at least percentage. Through professional development methods company gains large
efficient performance scenario as functionally more clients are attracted towards services and
productivity of output is relatively high. Professional development builds the quest within
company management on all levels as it enlarges vision, mission and overall brand image in
comparative with brands on world levels (Béteille, Tognatta, and horpade, 2020).
Benefits for Employees: Through professional development employees sharpen their knowledge,
practical skills of creativity and innovation is built with experiences of working in industry and
there is high focus by leaders to bring out their best performances from within employees. It
motivates their inner worth to learn more and enhances their satisfaction levels, as they gain
opportunistic outlook in career and professional fields. Employees are relevant updated to the
new working standards and gather high innovation through these parameters enlargement.
Importance skills required in Tour Operator job role:
 Tour operators have the role of operating tourist programmes, travel destinations and
accommodation facilities for all customers who opt for various travel activities. Holiday Inn, is
one of the biggest travel and hospitality company operating various tour travels to customers
around world and the tour operators are expected to posses strong planning ability, quick
decision taking potentiality and working under dynamic working scenario. Tour operators need
to have strong interpersonal skills for effective communication with clients, practical ability to
make all efficient arrangements while tour activities.
 Tour operators have the responsibility to formulate innovative travel itineraries as
comfort and preferences of clients, making sure all expectations are efficiently met for for
reaching the brand goodwill levels. Holiday Inn tour operators need to be have paradigm of

creativity to provide customers with strong transport and accommodation facilities and the
loyalty factor is aimed to be developed with continuous revolution of time periods. Evaluation
of current skills and talent will help in progressive learning and the parameter which needs to be
developed further will promote higher futuristic growth among employee which is seeking for
professional development in career. Self evaluation will assist in keenly gaining how the quest
of learning can be inbuilt through various theories and techniques which will enable him to
build higher efficiency (Choy and Chua,2019).
Professional employer and expectations of skills and competencies
Continuous Professional development can be understood as one of the best innovative method
to bring before best innovative learning opportunities, keenly function onto best paradigms and
to pertain onto company goals for gaining stronger working paradigms for larger advancement
within performance metrics. The importance of CPD for Holiday Inn company can be analyzed
with the various factor of skilful training the employees are able to bring forward, potentially
not only develop larger effective performance metrics for gaining goodwill among consumers
but also proclaim onto more relative paradigms.
Benefits of CPD for employers Benefits of CPD for employees
Motivation to work more skillfully Effective performance parameters
Training parameters Technology advancement and innovation
friendly
New skills to work more effectively New skills worked on among employees
Higher working motivation to scale their
skills to new heights
Higher goodwill and profitability for
company
Strong learning opportunities under leaders Large retaining potentialities among
employees
Professional standards which must be adhered by employers at Holiday Inn for gaining
higher developed working profits and goodwill among consumers relate to strong
communication skills, higher technical advancement and larger viable positional metrics

through which customers are given best services. There is high demand of numeracy and
analytical skills among consumers market share where the employees should be highly
effective and experienced to bring before stronger viable metrics.
LO2
P3 Assessing skills and competencies for job role
Assessing skills for reaching high performance standards in a particular job role helps to
evaluate the various parameters which needs to evolved and practiced with efficiency for further
progressive actions. The evaluation methods are goal based, process based and outcomes based
which will define the learning parameters of individual, how the abilities are dynamically
functional to bring large scale improvement.
 Goal based: This method of evaluation explains if objectives are achieved within the set time
frames and efficiency with which the goals are completed in given job role. Through these
techniques a person can analyse the present skills and what parameters need to be developed for
becoming tour operator at Holiday Inn.
 Process based: This method of evaluation analyze strengths and weaknesses in person, necessary
in context of qualitative aspects which will enable people to being productively active and
relatively being ethical in performance levels. Through these process based evaluation a person
opting for the position of Tour Operator in Holiday Inn will be able to analyse his interpersonal
skills, research knowledge.
 Outcomes based : This method of evaluation will bring the last outcomes learned throughout the
procedures which will help to get detailed view on the positive impacts on learning methods,
through which productivity is built. Outcome based evaluation will bring various lessons and
key areas in front which have formulated capacities within person throughout the whole
procedure (Hunzicker, 2019).


P4 Learning theories and approaches used for PDP
Honey and Mumford learning styles are innovative learning styles developed in year of 1986
which produced their own learning styles questioners to gain analysis how an individual is able
to develop rational new skills and where present skills are lacking.
 Activist learning theory are focused to get analysis where individuals learn practically
while working where they have repetitive way to deal with learning, including
themselves completely which enables to bring on wide innovation among working
practices.
 Theorists: They ate understood as leaders who get new working experience and ideas to
chance where they require models, new ideas and specific end goals for participating on
innovative learning procedures
Transformational learning theory:
Learning theories enable professional development process among individuals to enlarge
their vision towards their responsibilities, highly being practical with the set production targets
and bring innovation in all prospects. Transformative learning theory explains the process of
perspective transformation has three dimensions : psychological (changes in understanding of the
self), convictional (revision of belief systems) and behavioral (changes in lifestyles). This theory
gives detailed explanation of basic worldview and specific capacities on self, transformative
learning which enables to learn various innovative methods and procedures of functional
efficiency. Transformative learning theory transforms the overall productivity of person by
giving an enlarged vision of futuristic growth parameters, produce ethical standards
understanding towards dynamic conditions.
The transformational theory will be most effective for learning new skills for longer
business frameworks, where practical dynamic learning potentialities will be explored for
individual working at Holiday Inn company at the post of tour operator manager.
Professional skills and development skills

 Professional skills and personal development skills are highly essential for gaining strong
position in market share where there is strong competitive growth in all individuals.
Development approaches enable people to strategize their future growths on all parameters
which will impact their futuristic growth, enlarge their working ethics and functionally become
more active. Tour operator needs to have strategically planning abilities and the potentiality to
establish firm conversation with all clients and plan tours based on their preferences (Kapoor,
and Gardner-McCune, 2019).
 Development approach of going under training sessions and prospective learning where strong
emphasis is built towards acknowledging the various latest trends as demanded by customers
and marinating strong outputs will help in generating cost effective output. Tour operator need
to posses cross cultural management skills which explains the learning towards diversity and
cultural ethics which will help in delivering clients comfortable stay at their travels.
 He should be efficient in collecting, evaluating responding to customers feedbacks and
grievances through internet web services and portals of travelling partners with wihuch
company has collaborated if any. He should be productive in speaking all languages as per
comfort ability factor of customers, as Holiday Inn is one of the biggest world leading travel
agency handling tourist packages from around the world. The tour operator must use market
research information to collect reliable data and statistics for finalizing destinations for
travelers, fixing best accommodations and providing best pricing strategies. He should have
accounting knowledge and use creative working ethics to provide best services to all customers
and also have ability to predict profit margins for maintain strong revenue scale.
Personal SWOT analysis table
STRENGTHS  Communication skills
 Creativity thinking
 Learning potentialities
WEAKNESSES  Less research abilities
 Less technical advancement to work
on projects
OPPORTUNITIES  Leadership skills
 Analytical skills
 Productive learning skills
 New research abilities

THREATS  Stiff competition among employees
 Less confidence to bring before ideas
 High resistance
Individual Skills Audit NAME
SKILLS I HAVE JUSTIFICATION
Communication skills Able to communicate effectively with team
members and consumers who come for
business enquiries.
Interpersonal skills Able to build strong cooperation within teams
and employees working strengths
Quick decision making skills Able to bring before large quick decisions with
less time which will enable me to develop higher
leadership also
Creative thinking skills Innovative working potentialities
Time management skills Quick working avenues to build on higher scale
services
Leadership skills Most important through which I can develop
longer working parameters in my career.
SKILLS I’D LIKE TO
IMPROVE
JUSTIFICATION
Analytical skills By working and training for larger working
avenues for strong analytical performance
metrics
Researching skills By working towards researching more
extensively to get work related new information
and data

Quick programming and numeracy skills Will help me to program out better and more
effectively to bring goodwill and profitability.
TRAFFIC LIGHT SKILLS AUDIT
TIME and SELF
MANAGEMENT
I am able to organise my time so that I comfortably meet all my deadlines
for assignments
X
I know exactly where to go for help and support if I have difficulty
completing a task
X
I keep a diary or calendar so that I always know when I have to attend
lectures, seminars and other key dates
X
I arrive on time for classes, appointments and meetings X
I am aware of the things that cause me to waste time and am able to avoid
them when I have work to complete
X
I have future targets in mind regarding my education (and career) and use
these to help me focus on current tasks
X
CRITICAL THINKING and
PROBLEM SOLVING
I am able to use different methods for exploring a problem (academic and non academic),
such as considering different points of view or options
X
I am able to consider a range of alternative solutions to a problem and predict the best one in
the given circumstances
X
I am able to break down a complex problem (e.g. an assignment, a seminar question or where
to live) into simple parts
X
I am able to work productively with others to solve problems X
I know how to find out what is expected of me in a particular assessment task X

ORAL COMMUNICATION
In group discussions, I listen to others and I value and respond to their contribution even if I do
not agree
X
I am confident that I can contribute ideas and opinions to a group discussion X
I think of relevant follow-up questions as people are speaking and ask them once they have
finished
X
I am confident explaining new concepts to other people X
I would be confident in giving a presentation to my peers X
WRITTEN
COMMUNICATION
I am confident that I can structure an assignment in paragraphs and using signposting
language (however, firstly) in order to communicate my ideas effectively
X
I am confident that I can write in an appropriate academic style for my subject X
I am confident that my written work has no grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors
before I submit it
X
I have an effective method for organising and planning the information that I want to put into
a written assignment such as an outline plan or a ‘mindmap’
X
I understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it by clearly referencing my work X
I can use sources effectively to make my argument convincing and show that I am
wellinformed about the topic
X
I am confident that I know the correct format and style for formal letters and documents, such
as covering letters and CVs
X
I am able to produce useful and meaningful written notes from a lecture, presentation or
demonstration that capture the key points
X
INFORMATION
LITERACY: READING
I am confident in gathering information from a wide variety of sources such as books, journals,
on-line data-bases and the internet.
X

I think about what I need to find out before I start reading (am I reading to verify facts, to
understand a subject in general or to analyse a particular argument?)
X
I make useful, easy to follow notes while I am finding information for an assignment or project X
I can identify the points in a text which convey the author’s main arguments and distinguish
these from supporting examples and references
X
NUMERACY
I am confident that I have the numerical and statistical skills needed to succeed on my course X
I am able to interpret information presented in graphs, charts, tables and diagrams. X
LO3
P5 Professional Development Plan
A professional development plan is list of all actionable steps by an individual for
achieving higher career goals, with specific insights on parameters which needs to be developed
and are currently weak .A strong professional development plan essentially showcase all key
areas important for an individual in specified career to examine the strategies formulation along
with evaluation for effective log term implementation (Kuehnert,Cason, Young and Pratt, 2019).
Short term goals 3 – 6 months
 Will be focusing to gain new research abilities and higher creativity along with numeracy
skills to pertain on longer working abilities to bring before developed functional
paradigms to pertain stronger vision and developed metrics for gaining higher
performance within Holiday Inn.
 To improve communication skills
 To improve learning skills with innovation
 To improve my consumer communication abilities

 To improve new working opportunities with high professionalism
Medium terms goals 6 - 1 year
 The year for 1-6 years will be focusing onto more rational working paradigms to develop
higher effective functional strength, keenly bring on more rational focus fort gaining
stringer control onto more quested synergy.
 To improve research and analytical skills
 To improve new functional ethics with high professionalism which will cater goodwill
 To work with wide new goals of developed stronger vision.
 To improve my capabilities of consumer awareness
Long term goals 3 years and plus
 To look upon new post within my professional career
 To develop best working professionalism into my career
 To work on new paradigms and research with best services
 To potentially enhance my working potentialities competitively .
The long year goals are based on lifelong working metrics for being one of the
most rational working metrics which will also develop onto more keen functions.
Development
objectives
Priority Activities to
be
undertaken
Resources Start Date End Date Criteria for
success
Presentation
skills
Medium To be an
effective
presenter in
professional
environment
and speak to
public
without fear
Watch
presentation
clips videos,
enrol on
presentation
classes
FEB 2020 DEC 2020 Evaluate
myself
regularly. Get
feedback
from peers
and
managers

Conflict
Management
Medium By taking
part in
various
projects
GD ,
brainstorming
sessions
MARCH
2020
DEC2020 Evaluate
myself
regularly. Get
feedback
from peers
and
managers
Time
management
High Work in
various
projects
Take part in
various
projects
April 2020 Dec 2020 Evaluate by
checking
time
deadline of
my projects
Communication
skills
High By working
with various
colleagues
Take part in
Group
discussions
and projects
FEB 2020 DEC 2020 Evaluate
myself
regularly. Get
feedback
from peers
and
managers
Leadership
skills
High By working
with various
colleagues
Focus to
supervise my
subordinates
MARCH
2020
DEC 2020 Evaluate by
listening to
feedback
from my
peers and
subordiantes
Through this professional development plan I will be able to get advanced
communicative skills, research better at my job role and converse better with all clients who seek

to travel programs and opt for customized preferences at various destinations. The various skills
discussed above are appropriate and targeted on various parameters as per eligibility of Tour
Operator. This plan will leverage me more insights on the arenas where I am currently weak and
various strategies which will assist me in gaining more productivity (Parsons,Parsons,Ives and
Leggett, 2019).
LO4
Cover Letter
I, David Thomas would like to give interview on the position of Tour Operator for the vacant
position in Holiday Inn Company. Here is my attached CV will all details of my qualifications
and skills I have possessed within my 2 years experience of working with Travel Company.
Kindly read it and I look forward for the interview call from company management soon.
Thank you.
P6 Job Interview
Interview Questions
 Hello, give a brief introduction about yourself?
 What qualifications do you posses ?
 Do you have experience of working before as Tour Operator in any other company
 What are your key strengths and skills through which you will be able to gain large
clients goodwill?
 What are your future plans in working with Holiday Inn and at what position you see
yourself in future?

The interview procedure will help company Holiday Inn to strike appropriate conversation
with candidates, employees and the format of HR practices play huge role in this factor as
there is large integration of ethical working conditions. Below is the CV of candidate applying
for Tour Operator job at company, which explains all factors of qualifications and experiences
which will enable HR executives to go through it properly and resource the best candidate
appropriate for job role.
CURRICULAUM VITAE
Name: David Thomas
Contact Details: [e-mail]
Qualificions:
 MBA in tourism studies
 Diploma in tourism studies
Experience: Worked as tour operator for 2 years in a local travel company
Hard skills:
 Management skills
 Accounting and computer technology knowledge
 Analytical knowledge and research breakthrough in innovation
Soft skills:
 Interpersonal skills to communicate effectively with colleagues and employees
 Dynamic working skills to work under all conditions

 Learning capabilities
P7 Strengths and Weaknesses of interview procedure
Strengths
 Interview enables candidate and employer to have direct face to face communication with each
other and professionally enable them to strike appropriate functional structure while choosing
the appropriate candidate. Interview procedure will enable both employer and employee to
highly talk towards the job role of Tour Operator, as it face to face contact with each
other ,there is no chance for confusion or any sort of misunderstanding which will smoothen up
whole procedure effectively.
 Interview procedure helps company management to choose the best candidate and check his
communication skills, with large focus on management principles knowledge. Employers will
be able to choose best employee for the role and also at cost effective rate. Employee will be
able to talk and express his opinions effectively while interview as there is no chance for
confusion while talking face to face (Sprott,2019).
 The strength of interview process can be analyzed by the fact that Holiday Inn company will be
able to choose best candidate based on analyzing person latest skills and relevant knowledge
which will productively help company further variably.
Weaknesses
 Interview procedure is bit elaborate and it takes a lot of time for management to take interviews,
also there is chance of not choosing the appropriate candidate as many applicants apply generally
which makes the process difficult for company HR department.
 Interview procedure becomes massively big when there are large number of applicants applying
for job, which makes it difficult for HR to filter and choose the appropriate person. Often there is
sort of confusion among company members if the information referred for applicants is not
reliable and relevant.

 The other weakness of interview procedure can be anlaysed by the fact that many times
employees are not comfortable to communicate effectively with the employer while sitting face
to face. But they are talented and skilled which can be more improved with training and
development procedure ahead.
Reflection of whole procedure
There were many challenges and obstructions I faced while preparing for my interview as
tour operator at Holiday Inn company, as it is one of the biggest company in world and the
eligibility standards for candidates are really high. During my preparation I went through various
tourist models and websites of company to analyse the parameters of business expansion it has
operated under itself. This helped me a lot in preparing myself for interview questions and
gained me insights on various areas (Tucker,2019).I faced difficulty in improving my
interpersonal skills and research skills which I planned out through professional development
plan and evaluated my further progressive steps within time frame of 6 months. Later while
interview procedure, I was comfortable with the interviewer at Holiday Inn, the HR practices
followed in company are very ethical and prominent as per the scenario I overviewed at
company the operations are done with proper training and development platforms given to all
employee. The interview I went under explains the various horizons of human resource
management, the legal ethics followed by company and how emoloyees are satisfied working at
Holiday Inn.
CONCLUSION
This report can be concluded with detailed analysis on various methods and skills
necessary for professional development for strong academic and professional career. It
concludes how it is relevantly important for employees working in Tourism Company to be
productively diverse and posses high interpersonal skills to establish meetings with clients. It
also concludes evaluation process and techniques which helps employee to evolve further in
career, leverage more profits and become largely active. This report concludes the various
elements important for constructing Professional development plan for reaching higher

performance goals and cultivating horizons of creativity and diversity. The report also concludes
the necessary factors of preparing for an interview procedure, how employees can strike the
chord by learning new skills and gaining practical experience (Verma,Singh and Gawande,2019).
Learning theories play an important role in promoting an overall performance in individual life,
professionally on barious levels as today’s dynamic business scenario is highly progressive and
motivating towards employees who posses the quest to learn and are highly evolving with the
potentiality to learn. It concludes how rational thinking and functional capabilities among
employees to function well and resourcing such talented people is of utmost advantage for
company.

REFERENCES
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