Creating a PDP: Academic Skills for Professional Development

This report provides an overview of personal and professional development, emphasizing the significance of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) in achieving career, educational, and personal goals. It explains the importance of setting short-term, medium-term, and long-term objectives, providing examples for each category. The report further elaborates on the value of a PDP in identifying strengths, weaknesses, and necessary steps for personal growth. It highlights how a well-structured PDP can facilitate skill development, improve productivity, and guide individuals towards making informed decisions, while also cautioning against over-reliance on plans to avoid missed opportunities. The report concludes by underscoring the role of PDPs in fostering personal and professional success, offering a framework for individuals and organizations to enhance skills and achieve desired outcomes. Desklib is a platform where students can find similar solved assignments and study resources.

Academic Skills and
PDP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
An explanation about personal and professional development...................................................3
The importance of short-term objectives with three examples...................................................4
The importance of medium-term objectives with three examples..............................................4
The importance of long-term objectives with three examples....................................................5
The importance of Personal development plan and construct a PDP with at least three goals...5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................7
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
To achieve success in the career, education and personal life, it is very important for a
person to improve his skills, knowledge and experience throughout his life cycle. Personal
Development Plan is pivotal for an individual, corporations and society as well. If one is making
the best of his skills and abilities, then it will deliver positive impact on the personal life and
people around (Alioon and Delialioğlu, 2019). A simple and easiest way to keep eye on the
personal development is by completing a personal development plan. The present report is based
on the facts of PDP which is very essential for the development and improvement of a person.
PDP is involving three types of goals (short-term, medium-term and long-term goals). In the end
of this report, there is a PDP which helps a person to fulfil his aspirations with certain time-limit.
TASK
An explanation about personal and professional development.
A personal and professional development plan or PDP refers to an action plan that can be
used by an individual to find the personal goals that he want to achieve in his life. He will also be
able to know his strong and weak areas, he will be able to know the path through he can achieve
his goals and aspirations of life (Winell, 2019). Also, able to know that hinder his growth and
progress. Hence, it states as an self-evaluation and self-reflection that is hardly used in the
academies or higher education or the organisation. This can be beneficial practice to achieve
personal life goals. PDP explains as the process of developing an action plan dependent on the
values, awareness, goal-setting, reflection and planning for personal development or
improvement within the context of relationship, career, education or self-improvement. It is
recognized with many names such as personal enterprise plan (PEP) or individual development
plan (IDP) which involves the information of one's goals, strengths, competencies, career,
education and steps to indicate how the plan is to be initiated (Blayone and et.al., 2020). This
works and used by both individual and organisation. It helps to improve the current performance
of an individual at his workplace or academy. It is a never-ending process which lasts life long in
order to improve the skills and knowledge of a person. Generally, this plan consist with three life
aspirations of a person that are short-term, medium-term and long-term aspirations. All such
types of aspirations are required to complete with a particular time-limit. PDP makes an
individual different and better. In a workplace setting, it is used to improve the individual and

overall productivity of the business. Therefore, the whole concept of the PDP is based on the
improvement of skills and abilities of a person to do work in a productive way.
The importance of short-term objectives with three examples.
A short-term goal is that type of goal which one want something in the near future. This
may be today, this week, this month or a year. A short-term objective is something that an
individual want to do very soon. These goals are short in nature but have significant value as it
delivers a bigger change in the individual life. It helps a person to grow in the professional
career. It makes a person to think what he can do right now. It helps him to manage his time and
complete work on time to meet the deadlines. It can help a person to achieve bigger
accomplishments in the life and career (Enakrire, 2019). In the workplace setting, it helps a
person in his career to better achieve professional objectives, help to become more productive in
the workplace and enhance the overall job satisfaction. In order to attain short-term aspirations,
one must know how to successfully establish them and then perpetrate to seeing them through.
Examples of short-term objectives:
 Arrive on time for work.
 Communicate more with other individuals in the office.
 Obtain a new certification.
The importance of medium-term objectives with three examples.
Medium-term goals are the goals that are established between short-term and long-term
aspirations. This sort of goal take bit longer time than short-term aspirations. Since the long-term
objectives of a person takes longer time for the accomplishment, medium-term aspirations
possesses role to motivate and influence the person to take small steps towards objectives. This
sort of goals can be attained within few months or few years but not longer than three years for
the achievement. There are various goals that can be satisfied within short-term time. Such goals
can be taken in this segment which needs more attention, patience and dedication for the
attainments (Menz, 2020). Both short-term and medium-term goals can be exploited as the
stepping stone towards the long-term goals. It is fundamental for the company to focus on the
short-term and medium-term goals as it leads a greater success towards business. It is also
impactful for an individual to consider the SMART goals which offer him encouragement and
satisfaction with an aim to further attain his long-term goals with a particular set of time.
Examples of medium-term goals:

 Repaying an educational loan.
 Travelling
 Getting another educational degree.
The importance of long-term objectives with three examples.
A long-term goal denotes something that one want to attain in his future. These are very
important for a successful career. It requires planning and time as it cannot attained this weak or
in few months or few years. It takes usually many years for the achievements. Also, it needs
many steps to attain long term goals of a person. Theses small steps are short-term and medium-
term aspirations (Tseng, Yi and Yeh, 2019). These are also explain as an ultimate goal of an
individual which he plans for the future, which reflects a person can view his future and what
steps he take to fulfil his dreams. It develops a common thought of what options an individual is
required to move forward in his life. By acknowledging a long-term goal of a person, he can
think about his education that is essential to achieve them (Miano, 2021). He will work hard to
get the right job where he can fulfil his aspirations. This goal adds a true meaning to an
individual's life. Furthermore, it is vital to note that failures of few goals does not mean that a
person is not able to get success or other objectives of life. A person must be ready to accept
failures and challenges in order to work over them, which in turn helps to create a successful and
bright future.
Examples of long-term objectives:
 Master a job specific skill
 Get promoted to a managerial position at work.
 Learn a foreign language.
The importance of Personal development plan and construct a PDP with at least three goals.
A personal development plan denotes a plan that is used as a document of the goals of a
person. This document involves the strengths that a person may already have, what he require to
change or learn with a purpose to attain goals and what what weak points that he think he have
that blocks the route to the achievements (Patelia, Fraser-Thomas and Baker, 2021). It supports a
person in order to learn and overcome weaknesses that he need working on. Hence, a
documented journey to achieve various goals of life will help the person to get where he want to
see in his future. This action plan is generally created in a educational or workplace setting
which allows an individual to set goals for career. It consists priorities of a person, opportunities

and risks related with it, career goals, sources for the goals achievement. It is vital investment by
an individual that helps to manage his life in the efficient and productive way to get rid off
hurdles and blocks in terms of lacking knowledge and skills. This plan lets a person to be
proactive in his way and do not wait for the things to happen automatically. A person takes
necessary steps towards desired objectives to make things accomplishable. Moreover, it is
fundamental to note that one cannot attain all aspirations of his life at a time, he need to be
patient, dedicated, encouraged and committed to achieve such goals (Rasipuram and Jayagopi,
2020). It is necessary to create an action plan, a person must find the strengths and weaknesses in
a honest way. As sometime, there is a chance the person could fail in his achievements but
nevertheless, it delivers big experience and lesson that helps to not repeat the same mistake in his
future. It facilitates a right direction and path for the accomplishments. It aids the person to
become more useful and productive at his work in the company. Also, it will help to prevent a
person in order to take wrong decisions in his life. A well-set plan of action will assist the person
to stay clam and relaxed in the work life. Moreover, it is essential to note that a person should
not depend too much on the action plans as sometimes it might lost several opportunities for
better career and future.
Value of PDP:
 It helps in maintaining a balance between personal and professional life.
 It allows a person to identify and work on his skills, abilities and talent.
 It helps an individual to accept challenges (Romano, 2020).
 When such goals are completed, it creates a new and better version of a person.
(Remaining part in Appendices)
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that personal and professional development plan plays a fundamental role
for both person and company. It helps the person to develop and enhance such skills which are
required to work on. Developing such skills will create new opportunities to grow in the career
and also help to beat the competition in the life. PDP facilitates paths and time-limit to
accomplish various goals.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Alioon, Y. and Delialioğlu, Ö., 2019. The effect of authentic m‐learning activities on student
engagement and motivation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(2), pp.655-
668.
Blayone, T. J. and et.al., 2020. Exploring technology attitudes and personal–cultural orientations
as student readiness factors for digitalised work. Higher Education, Skills and Work-
Based Learning.
Enakrire, R. T., 2019, December. Knowledge and Skills of Academics: A Critical Success Factor
for Organisational Productivity in Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria. In ICICKM
2019 16th International Conference on Intellectual Capital Knowledge Management &
Organisational Learning (p. 133). Academic Conferences and publishing limited.
Menz, M., 2020. Integrating Academic Skills and Employability-Revisiting the Learning
Journal. Journal of Research in Higher Education, 4(2).
Miano, L. C., 2021, February. An Initial Assessmenton Soft Skills Integration in Emergency
Remote Learning During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Learners Perspective. In Technium
Conference (Vol. 8, pp. 27-03).
Patelia, S., Fraser-Thomas, J. and Baker, J., 2021. Coaching for Psychosocial Assets and Life
Skills in Masters Sport. In Coaching Masters Athletes (pp. 122-136). Routledge.
Rasipuram, S. and Jayagopi, D. B., 2020. Automatic multimodal assessment of soft skills in
social interactions: a review. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 79(19), pp.13037-
13060.
Romano, S. B., 2020. Augmented Reality for Teaching Personal Finance Skills in the
Community (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Alabama).
Tseng, H., Yi, X. and Yeh, H. T., 2019. Learning-related soft skills among online business
students in higher education: Grade level and managerial role differences in self-
regulation, motivation, and social skill. Computers in Human Behavior, 95, pp.179-186.
Winell, M., 2019. Personal goals: The key to self-direction in adulthood. In Humans as self-
constructing living systems (pp. 261-288). Routledge.

APPENDICES
Skills Goals Importance Actions Time-duration
Communication
skills
Short-term goals It is very
important to have
a communication
skills whether it is
personal or
professional life.
It helps a person
to speak up his
ideas in front of
others and
understand their
perspectives as
well. Especially,
in an
organisational
setting, it is
important for me
to have good
communication
skills to
communicate
frankly and
confidently with
my colleagues,
mentors and
seniors in order to
put my words
upfront.
I will take
participation in
the group
activities,
discussed more
about things and
topics, put my my
words
confidently, make
them able to
understand my
words. Also, I
looked for couple
of sessions
outside the office
in which can
improve my this
skills and try to
communicate
more with others.
3 months

Time-
management
skills
Medium-term
goals
Managing time is
important in
every section and
part of the life.
Developing this
skill within me
helps me to work
on time and meet
the deadlines
given by my
mentors.
I will make to-do
list, prioritise my
work which
requires more
attention for the
accomplishments.
I will try to do my
work before by
making schedule
of daily activities.
1.5 years
Managerial skills Long-term
aspirations
Having
managerial skill is
very essential in
order to get
qualified for the
job of manager in
my company. I
realised that it
needs time to
develop this skills
as it involves
knowledge and
experience.
I need to patient,
dedicated and
committed to
develop this skill
within me. I am
looking for
challenging
activities and try
to put
contribution in
the decision-
making with my
colleagues that
help me to grow
in this field.
5 years