Personal & Professional Development Plan: Academic Skills & Goals

This report provides an overview of a personal and professional development plan (PDP) designed to enhance academic skills. It begins by defining the concept and roles of a PDP, emphasizing its importance in identifying and achieving goals. The report then details the value of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals, specifically focusing on skills such as communication, listening, interpersonal skills, decision-making, problem-solving, information technology, leadership, time management, and conflict management. The PDP outlines actions and timelines for improving these skills, aiming to facilitate personal and professional growth. Desklib offers a wealth of resources, including similar documents and solved assignments, to support students in their academic and professional journeys.

Academic Skills and
PDP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Concept and the roles of personal development plan ...............................................................4
Value of short term goals............................................................................................................5
Value of medium term goals.......................................................................................................6
Value of long term skills.............................................................................................................7
Personal development Plan.........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
An individual gains the skills in the department or the sector where it wants to pursue his
career further. He acquired the required skills and knowledge which has helped him in obtaining
the objective which he has with his life. There can be various skills which an individual wants to
acquire in his career. The skills may include both academic and non academic. The personal
development refers the inculcating the activities which can bring the necessary development in
the personality of a person. Whereas professional skills is the process in which those skills are
developed which would add into the professional work of an individual. This report discusses
about the personal and professional development plan which are undertaken by an individual in
his career. In this the short term, medium- term and the long term goals are identified and then a
PDP has been developed so to attain these term goals.
MAIN BODY
Concept and the roles of personal development plan
The personal development plan is a plan in which an individual insert the actions which
he needs to undertaken to acquire a particular goal or objective. In that plan the person first
identify the skill which he believes it is important to his career or academics, then he introspect
himself upon that skill so that he can allot himself with some score or points. These score or
points would be based upon the degree the person has gained excel in that skill. After providing
the score, an improvement plan is made which consists of the actions which will help the
individual in gaining the command in that skill along with the time period within which that
skills need to attain. The PDP is also formed with a view to cope up with the skills which needs
to get develop in an individual. An individual divided all this goals and objectives according to
the period in which they need to get attain by him. He generally divided the in short term,
medium term and the long term goals and objectives (ENACHE and et. al., 2019). The PDP is a
great tool through which an individual can fully analysed himself in an effective manner and can
also make the plans in a manner which helps him in attaining all these skills which he believes he
left behind. Also the actions or the methods through which an individual can attain all these

goals and his objectives can also get mentioned in the plan which the person has to follow to
attain his objectives or skills. Also, the personal development plan forms the path for the
individuals in such a way that it helps in developing the skills so that he can attain the goals
which he has planned with respect to his career. It is an action plan which is used by the
individual in bringing the necessary developments and improvements. It is also called as a self
reflection in which a person analyse himself and then he uses the necessary strategies and plans
to accomplish that necessary improvements. PDP is a tool to know about the strengths and the
weakness a person has in himself and the ways how to cope up with these weaknesses and the
ways to strengthen more the strengths (Hajisoteriou, Maniatis and Angelides, 2019.).
Value of short term goals
The short term goals are those goals which are undertaken by an individual for a short
period of time, say for the 1-3 months. The short term goals or the objectives need to get
accomplish within 3 months. These includes those goals which needs to attain in the near future
and they have the aim to get attain within shorter period of time. According to my personal and
professional planning, the short term goals which I have set for myself includes the following:
Communication Skills: Communication is the process in which a person transfers the
message to another person. A person work at his communication skills in such a way that he
effectively transfers his message to another party or to the receiver in an effective and efficient
way. Bringing an effective communication is an art. This skill will help me in communicating all
the messages in a proper way to another party. I have planned to bring the necessary
improvements both in the verbal and non verbal communication. In the verbal communication
both the written and oral communication gets include. Whereas in non verbal communication the
para language, signs and etc. get included (Lambirth, Cabral and McDonald, 2019). My aim is to
develop the both verbal and non verbal communication.
Listening skills: It is the skill related with the ability to effective listen to another person.
When the listening skill of a person is good, he undertakes more information and develops the
ability to understand the situation more clearly. Listening to a particular situation requires
patience which is a hard task to inculcate in a person like me.
Interpersonal skills: It is the skill in which the interaction among the people becomes
effective. The interpersonal skill is the ability to communicate or interact with people in a proper
manner. This skill is very much necessary to inculcate in oneself as it helps in attracting or

influencing the people with whom I encounter. This skill is very necessary when a person gives
interview for job or when the sales person is pitching the customers for selling his products and
much more (Lightfoot, 2019).
Value of medium term goals
The medium term goals are that goals and objectives which needs to be undertaken
within the period 3- 9 months. There are more skills which a person believes to complete within
this specified period of time. The medium-term goals aims to accomplish the goals which will
take more time than short period of time. The medium term goals which I have planned for
myself includes the following:
Decision making skills: It is one of the effective skill for the individual and which helps
in individual in making the decisions in order to be effective and to make sure that the decision
should be made after analysing all the aspects. Decision making skills is important in my opinion
because it would help me in managing the team in the organisation and it is very important skill
in the management (Lockyer and et. al., 2017). It would help me in analysing the facts and
insights about the topic and according to that analysis it can help me in making the better and
effective decisions. Decision making skill is also important as it helps me in preparing me my
skills for the future employability opportunities as decision making skills helps in developing the
leadership skills and it can help me in achieving my goals and objectives and it helps in getting
the recognition in the organisation. This skill is important for development of my skill set as it
prepares me for the future opportunities and helps me in making the decisions regarding my
career after carefully analysing the environment. In the organisation decision making skill will
help me in making the decisions regarding the problems in the organisation and helps in
proposing the solution for the problem. Decision making skills is important for me as it helps me
in making the decision in my daily life as it would helps me in solving the my daily problems
and prepares me to make the effective decisions in the future.
Problem solving skills: The problem solving skills is the ability to analyse the situation
properly and then to make the proper decision about the situation. The decision should be such
that it solution provides the best answer for that particular situation. To take out the effective
solution, the skills for effective analyses about the situation is a must (Richman, Haines, and
Fello, 2019). Developing this skill will help the person in making the right choice so that right
outcome can come in that situation.

Information and technological skills: The Information and technological skill which is
related with the computers and information technology. This skill is very much necessary to
inculcate as now a days majority of work is performed through the technology and computers.
The computers are used to store all the informations and data and through these information a
person takes the necessary decisions. Therefore inculcating this skill is very much necessary for
any individual. Skills related with this is in demand and as the companies look out for the
employees who are sophisticated with the use of technologies. For inculcating this skill a regular
practice is required. Also I can take some course or classes which can help in achieving these
skills.
Value of long term skills
The long term skills are those skills which would attain in the period for a whole year in
more than a year. Acquiring these skills require more time as they are very much time taking and
requires much time in getting the command. These long term skills may include the following:
Leadership skills: Leadership is the ability of a person to influence the people to follow
a particular direction or path so that they can attain the standard goals. A good leadership skill
can be attain through more reading and analysing about the situation in a more deep and effective
manner so that they the right kind of leadership style can inculcate in that situation. Inculcating
the skills of a leadership is a long term process (Szeto, 2020). Regular practising and regular
observation about the leadership quality will help the individual in inserting the effective
leadership quality in a human.
Time management skills: Activities need to get managed in a proper manner. It is very
essential for a person to manage the activities in a proper and effective way. Managing the
activities or inculcating the time management skills is very important. Therefore, it is very
necessary to develop the time for activities in such a way that they all get managed in a certain
manner.
Conflict management skills: The conflict management skills are the skills which is
related with managing the conflicts among the people. This skill is very essential in managing all
the conflicts so that the work can be performed in a more effective manner.
Personal development Plan
The personal development plan can be as follows:

Skills Rating Actions Plan Period
Communication
skills
2.5 out of 5 The communication skills can be
developed through regular practice
of speaking and writing skills.
These can be gained through
speaking English before mirror and
also regular writing the necessary
documents like applications, memo
and the like
10 jan – 22 March,
2020
Listening skills 2 out of 5 The listening skills can be
developed through concentrating
upon the things or to the listeners.
Meditation is also one of the
practice which can help in gaining
this skill
15 jan- 30 jan, 2020
Interpersonal
skills
2 out of 5 This skill can be gained through
getting social with a lot of people.
By talking to more people the
person would be able to develop
more interpersonal skills
15 jan- 30 march,
2020
Decision making
skills
3 out of 5 This skill can be generated through
reading more case studies and the
decisions which the people took in
that situation.
20 jan- 20 july,
2020
Problem solving
skills
3.5 to 5 This skills can be generated through
the reading out more case studies
20 jan – 20 july,
2020
Information
technology skills
2 out of 5 This can be generated through
taking the necessary course or
classes for the same
20 feb- 25 august,
2020

Leadership skills 4 out of 5 By deep analyses of situation 20 Jan 2020 – 20
jan 2021
Time
management
3 out of 5 Through regular practise 20 jan 2020- 15 jan
2021
Conflict
management
skills
2 out of 5 Through regular practise 21/01/2020- 21 01
2021
CONCLUSION
From the report presented above, the PDP has been made. This PDP will help the
individual in gaining the necessary skills. This helps in proper development of skills and
knowledge in a person.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
ENACHE, R. C., and et. al., 2019. Present and Perspectives in the Teachers' Continuous
Professional Training in Romania. Romanian Journal for Multidimensional
Education/Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 11(3).
Hajisoteriou, C., Maniatis, P. and Angelides, P., 2019. Teacher professional development for
improving the intercultural school: an example of a participatory course on
stereotypes. Education Inquiry, 10(2), pp.166-188.
Lambirth, A., Cabral, A. and McDonald, R., 2019. Transformational professional development:
(re) claiming agency and change (in the margins). Teacher development. 23(3). pp.387-
405.
Lightfoot, S. L., 2019. Enhancing the professionality of early years educators: A model of
support for professional development (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge).
Lockyer, J., and et. al., 2017. Competency-based medical education and continuing professional
development: A conceptualization for change. Medical Teacher, 39(6), pp.617-622.
Meyer, S. and Aikenhead, G., Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action: Part I:
Professional Development for Creating Teaching Materials. The Mathematics
Enthusiast. 18(1) pp.100-118.
Richman, L. J., Haines, S. and Fello, S., 2019. Collaborative professional development focused
on promoting effective implementation of the next generation science standards. Science
Education International. 30(3).
Szeto, E., 2020. Influence of professional cultures and principal leadership effects on early-
career teacher leadership development in Hong Kong schools. Professional
Development in Education, pp.1-19.