MSc Management: Professional Development & Practice Portfolio

This professional development portfolio reflects on critical learning events and experiences during an 18-month academic program, focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on employees' work-life balance and the increasing role of HR in addressing employee issues during the pandemic. It emphasizes the importance of continuous professional development for individuals to enhance their skills, knowledge, and productivity in a dynamic business environment. The portfolio highlights the benefits of professional development, including increased earning potential, confidence, and career opportunities, and discusses various learning events and experiences that contribute to employability skills development. It concludes that professional development is a necessity for employees to overcome challenges and achieve personal and organizational goals, supported by references to relevant books and journals.

Professional
development portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Critical learning events and experiences.....................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
Books & Journals:........................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In employees' life, it becomes very necessary for them that they need to maintain their
professional life. That means employees need to focus on professional development enhance
their skills and knowledge (Ring and et. al., 2017). Professional development is defined as a
process of learning in which an employee is obtaining and maintaining their professional
credentials which include skills and academic degrees for completing their responsibility and
job. It is an effective tool which used by employees in order to achieve identified situations. This
can be possible only with the help of formal course work. It includes consultation, coaching, and
lesson study, communities of practice, mentoring, and technical assistant and reflective
supervision. Professional development is necessary for achieving the desired result of
organisation as well as of employees. It will benefit to organisation as it assist in improving their
skills and knowledge. Employees get higher opportunities due to professional development in
their career growth. This report will be discussing some learning events and experiences that
show how 18 months academic program have been helping to expand knowledge in the skills.
This report will be used reflection in which learners shows their experienced in a meaningful
manner.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Critical learning events and experiences
After examining the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ work life, it is found that of life
of employees get disturbed due to this pandemic situation. It found that role of HR get increased
as they have to review of the issues that faced by employees during pandemic (Yurkofsky, Blum-
Smith and Brennan, 2019). This was not an easy task for them as there are many challenges
faced. For resolving and overcoming with issues of employees, some strategies were adopted by
human resource department of organisation. This report will be discussing some important
learning events and experiences where employees getting trouble in many situations. In the
analysis of impact on work life balance employees by pandemic situation, I learnt about that

professional development practice is very important every individual as it's just not improve the
skills and knowledge of employees but also increase their productivity which results in better
efficiency. This will benefited to organisation as they get higher productivity which results in
achievement of goals and objectives of organisation.
In my experience I learnt that professional development is a continuous process that
means it can never be end up. This is necessary for every individual to regularly analyse their
present skills and knowledge and make a action plan in order to build some new skills and
knowledge. The reason behind this is dynamic nature of business environment. It is found that
not only business environment is dynamic but also natural calamities are giving a serious impact
on work life of employees (Mamlok-Naaman and et. al., 2018). That’s why it is very important
for every employee to keep updated themselves in order to overcome with the challenges. The
current challenge which they are suffering in present time is pandemic situation. COVID-19
gives a severe impact on work life balance of employees. Adverse and negative impact of
pandemic situation can be overcome by employees with the help of professional development.
Professional development is a practice in which an individual is continuously focusing on their
skills and knowledge. It refers to developing and improving skills of employees and students so
that they can meet with their needs. For that purpose, they have to approach towards some tools
and techniques of professional development that include consultation, coaching, case study,
technical assistance and mentoring. The choosing of approaches depends on the situation.
Currently every one is suffering from are huge loss of money as well as health. COVID-19 is just
not affect on employees’ wealth but also it gives a severe impact on their mental and physical
health. Due to this, I analyse a professional development is a way for employees to overcome
with these challenges. Some benefits of professional development are as mentioned below:
 With the help of professional development, a person is able to continue their education
opportunities which enhance their knowledge base. It also expose new ideas, increase
expert knowledge, etc. It will be more benefited to those people who actively seeking the
learning opportunities.
 It just not improves their skills and knowledge but also it increase earning potential. An
individual is able to boost their curriculum vitae (Bosch-Sijtsema, Gluch and Sezer,

2019). This can be done with the help of professional certifications, designations and
credentials which are the part of professional development.
 Professional development is very helpful in order to boost confidence and credibility of
employees. This can be better understood the help of personal reflection on learning
events. In my career, I found that professional development is necessary for me as well as
for my colleagues. It improves my confidence as well as my colleagues’ confidence. For
example, in the pandemic situation, it was very difficult for me that how I am able to
work from home. To play HR role from home was not any easy task for me. But still I
did only with the help of professional development in which I enhanced my skills of IT.
 Professional development provides many career opportunities and opens the doors for
better future. An individual objective is always to grow their career in a successful
manner. So that they can achieve their dreams effectively. Professional development
makes this process easy as individual get better growth opportunities.
The above benefits of professional development stated that it is compulsory and necessity
for employees that they need to focus on professional development. Due to many benefits of
professional development, it becomes very important for an individual that they should take a
good step or make an action plan. This would be better understood with the help of analysing
learning experiences and events that are discussed in below section. There are many learning
events and experiences which become importantto understand that show how an individual
increase the employability skills. This is necessary for individual to develop professional
development skills. With the help of learning events and experiences, an individual is able to
understand that how they can develop skills.
CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Bosch-Sijtsema, P.M., Gluch, P. and Sezer, A.A., 2019. Professional development of the BIM
actor role. Automation in construction, 97, pp.44-51.
Mamlok-Naaman, R., and et. al., 2018. Professional development of chemistry teachers: Theory
and practice. Royal Society of Chemistry.
Ring, E.A., and et. al., 2017. The evolution of teacher conceptions of STEM education
throughout an intensive professional development experience. Journal of Science Teacher
Education, 28(5), pp.444-467.
Yurkofsky, M.M., Blum-Smith, S. and Brennan, K., 2019. Expanding outcomes: Exploring
varied conceptions of teacher learning in an online professional development
experience. Teaching and Teacher Education, 82, pp.1-13.