Personal Skills Audit and Professional Development Plan: A Report

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Professional Identity and Practice
Assignment no and Title:
Personal Skills Audit and Professional Development Plan
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
LO1................................................................................................................................................4
P1 Examining the key benefits of on-going professional development for different
stakeholders within a specific organisation................................................................................4
P2 Investigating professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a
specific organisational context...................................................................................................5
LO2................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Assessing own abilities, skills, and competencies for a specific job role..............................7
P4 Reviewing a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development..........................................................................................................9
LO3..............................................................................................................................................13
P5 Constructing a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a
specific work context:...............................................................................................................13
LO4..............................................................................................................................................17
P6: Undertaking a job interview for a suitable service industry role.........................................17
P7 Reviewing the key strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process................19
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................23
Reference list...............................................................................................................................24
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Introduction
The concept of professional development (PD) is very much in vogue in different organisations
due to a wide variety of reasons. PD is a framework originally initiated by the employer, for
people working for them with the objective of recognizing and identifying the obligatory skills and
accumulation to back their career progress and eventually impacting the overall requirements
and long term business goals. PD comprises many stages (Ulvik and Lunenberg 2017), each
with specific characteristics with the intent of continuing steady progress in professional life and
emphasizing on the shortcomings to contribute to personal growth as well. Professional
development is incorporated into a wide range of professional areas and its’ significance has
been prominently observed in a large number of researches and studies. A lot of strategic
management in tourism has been explored on the basis of the implementation of PD is
individual organisations and assessing team performance with the passage of time (Moutinho
and Vargas-Sanchez 2018).
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LO1
P1 Examining the key benefits of on-going professional development for different
stakeholders within a specific organisation
Because of the fact that in many organisations, employees as a part of hospitality profession
lack formal training for their specified roles and responsibilities, their initial induction period is
often extremely pivotal in acquiring knowledge and understanding of the job profile and the
duties they need to perform on a regular basis. There are many different stages of PD globally
(InFo-TED. 2019). Especially in the United Kingdom, the preferences given by employers to
include PD system are crucial for the survival of an employee (Mertler 2017). Due to the
heterogeneous and diversified background of travel and tourism industries, personalised PD
programmes must be developed to tailor the essential requirements, competence and abilities
of individual employees, are often solicited. In order to grow self-confidence professionally, strict
adherence to PD techniques must be conducted (Lawton 2017). This should also include
comprehension, grip and command over the various skills ascertained. However, there are
tremendous benefits and advantages of PD for different stakeholders working within an
organisation and each of them works diligently to develop the same in them to attain
professional upliftment and elevation. There are a plethora of PD benefits experienced by
employees from an organisation (Chris 2019).
To understand the benefits of PD professionally, let us discuss a 4-star hotel namely the Crown
Manor House Hotel, located in New forest national park, in the UK(The Crown Hotel 2019).This
hotel is known to offer some of the best possible facilities to its’ guests at an affordable rate and
has a good amount of positive reviews by their guests. However, there is always a scope of
improvement by allowing the initiation of learning professional skills so that personal, as well as
executive virtuosity, is developed. Despite the reputation it has in the UK, they are constantly
working to improve their overall performance and enhance client satisfaction with utmost
vigilance. In this regard, discussing the key benefits of PD in this hotel deserves special
mention. Improved performance: PD seems to contribute to the competence level, disposition
and aptitude of an individual working for them. In doing so, it is often observed that it
greatly promotes their skills and knowledge towards the organisation architecture and
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the job they are carrying out. Eventually, this leads to improved productivity of the entire
team.
 Confidence: PD management programs strongly influence the confidence of employees
working in any organisation. An unaware employee will deliver poor performance
compared to a confident individual who has clarity on the job he is doing. Hence,
employers must organise PD internally to help their employees achieve the same and
progress their career. Elevates retention rate: In any organisation, an employee gives his best performance if
he feels he is being cared for and his work is recognised and appreciated. An unskilled
individual might get the job but will potentially be unable to contribute much to the
company. PD programmes are capable to make them feel that their company truly cares
for them. This lets them stay back and work for them with enthusiasm and vigour; this, in
turn, reduces the attrition rate thereby increasing the retention rate. Increased reliability: Beginners join a new company to learn and maximise their
experience to improve their career graph. In an organisation, letting them undertake PD
skills and expertise help them in developing not only reliability and dependability but also
establishes potential eminence and credibility.
P2 Investigating professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
within a specific organisational context
In any organisation, the Crown Manor House Hotel in this particular case, the business
employers must deem their four most important career skills from their employees to experience
a continuous flow of success within the organisation. These are:
 Problem-solving ability: Problem-solving ability is the chronologic method of discerning
and pinpointing a problem, generating probable and feasible remedies or solution
pathways, and taking the most suitable course of action. Or in other words, problem-
solving capabilities and skills denote our basic abilities to bring effective possible
solutions to any issue or problems in a timely manner without any hindrance. Among
thousands of employees, a few of them can have expertise in this particular skill and the
rest of them can learn the same through PD programmes (Savery 2015). As a matter of
fact, professional problems are encountered every time among which some are more
impenetrable than others. Therefore, acquiring this skill helps a lot in surviving in most
extreme and cumbersome situations in an organisation.
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 Communication: Among the most dominant professional skill, falls communication. Be
it any organisation, good communication is the key to success. A good communicator
must be a good listener in the first place. Communication is that significant skill, the
development of which inevitability benefits an individual you in each and every aspect of
life. In hotel industries, dealing with prospective guests and clients essentially demands
good communication skills (Hargie 2016).
 Work culture and ethics: In any organisation, morals and ethics are referred to the
procedures and custom of pursuing the right and appropriate things in the time of
extreme difficulties and unforeseen controversial events and situations. Ethics and
culture determine the way individuals interact and perform within an organisation. A
professional healthy work culture promotes its’ employees to stay active and prompt and
subsequently trustworthy towards the higher authorities (Ferrell 2016). Since different
workplaces have different work cultures and it builds the ultimate refutation of the
particular organisation. Work culture also brings each and every individual on a common
ground where they can head towards attaining their desired mission.
 Adaptability: Being able to effectively maintain potency while experiencing major
alterations in an assigned task or the overall work environment; adjusting and adapting
to the varied and heterogeneous environment to work with complete new architectures,
methods and requirements is one of the most probable employer expectations.
 Collaboration/ability to perform in a team: The very ability to perform together with
other employees as an effective team is of utmost significance when it comes to the
overall growth and success of an organisation and self as well (Salas et al.
2015).Collegiality and mutualism within a team are extremely critical and essential to
accomplish the target objectives and goals of a company. It also provides individuals
with a sheer opportunity to associate and develop a strong bond with each other. This
helps in improving the relationship among them and they feel valued and successful
upon the completion of their assigned task.
The Crown Manor House Hotel also follows similar expectations of such skills and
competencies. Pertaining to this, there are lists of career competencies that are expected by the
employer from the people working under them: Self-management and personal wellness:
 Effective decision-making ability.
 Project management schemes and strategies.
 True professionalism.
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LO2
P3 Assessing own abilities, skills, and competencies for a specific job role
To focus on this, let me assign myself as the General Manager of the Crown Manor House
Hotel, in the UK. A general manager is known to perform several important duties. Some of my
most important job responsibilities include:
i. Marketing and stimulating business.
ii. Dealing with customer complaints and inquiries.
iii. Maintenance of the statistical database record of the hotel.
iv. Coordinating with foreign clients.
v. Recruiting potential candidates.
A SWOT analysis is a far-fetched yet simple and extremely powerful method to aid in
developing business strategies. SWOT refers to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats (Sarsby 2016). Strengths and weaknesses are known to be the internal determinants of
an organisation and can be modified depending on situations. However, opportunities and
threats fall under the category of external factors that are happening outside the organisation.
It's a remarkable tool which when applied to the hotel, would help me understand as a general a
manager, what I perform the best, where I can improve, and where my biggest threats
pertaining to the hotel stand.
Personal SWOT analysis:
Strengths
 Multi-tasking.
 Approachable.
 Communication.
 Consistent.
 Honesty.
 Task delegation abilities.
 Enthusiasm.
 Leadership skills.
 Organised and determined.
Weaknesses
 Writing skills.
 Hesitant to admit personal mistakes.
 Too lenient sometimes.
 Impatience.
 The poor team developing skills.
 Stagnancy.
 Failing to set concise and well-
defined goals or expectations.
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 Clear command over hygiene issues.
 Self-reflective.
 Dependable.
Opportunities
 Participating in seminars, extempore.
 Putting emphasis on younger people.
 Enhancing job market in hotel
industries.
Threats
 Competitors.
 Many nearby hotels with a similar
reputation.
 Limited fund to establish a new
business strategy.
 The increased cost of raw materials.
 Consumers shopping trends.
Table 1: SWOT analysis
Opportunities tend to develop strengths and repair weaknesses. This can be accomplished
either via self-improvement strategies or by hiring new additional team members with
complementary competencies and skills. However, opportunities can be strengthened if
weaknesses and shortcomings are not only identified but also acknowledged.
VARK Analysis:
It is suggested that in any organisation, all employees must undertake VARK analysis to
estimate their desired style of learning. VARK analysis will help to understand the particular
pattern that I prefer to learn with (Fitkov-Norris and Yeghiazarian 2015). This analysis makes
use of a questionnaire that comprises of approximately 16 questions for individuals to answer
according to their preferred choice of answers. Each option quadrates to the sensory
determinants of an individual that are: Visual: Individuals with visual learning preferences, learn best by seeing. People with
this particular pattern of learning style prefer to see information given in the form of
visual representation instead of written manual form.
 Aural/Auditory: Aural learners tend to learn simply by hearing things.
 Read/Write: Such learners prefer to grasp information portrayed as words. Text-based
learning materials are preferred by them.
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 Kinesthetic: People with a kinaesthetic learning style learn on the basis of touching
and doing (Willingham, Hughes and Dobolyi 2015).
.
Figure 1: VARK Analysis Test Results
From the above test results, it is clearly observed that I prefer the Visual pattern of learning. I
prefer learning things by looking at graphical representations, diagrams, charts and so on. I
need to put more emphasis on my audio style of learning where I lack the basic skills. I can
improve the style by engaging myself in talking out loud and also by listening to tutorials.
However, I also seem to be poor in reading/writing and kinaesthetic approach to learning. I can
improvise on the same. Being able to attain expertise in this particular style enables an
individual to read broadly and write in a coordinated and structured manner.
P4 Reviewing a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development
With respect to professional development skills within any organisation, there are certain
proposed learning theories that are taken into consideration. Focusing on the strict adherence
and practice of theories and hypotheses discloses a pre-conceived notion of the inter-
relationship between theory and practice relationship. It also implicates a potential
understanding and subsequent application of the theories to understand many professional
attributes (Roberts 2016).
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Here is the list of a few most popular learning theories that deserves special mention:
Kolb’s learning theory:
Kolb’s learning style discovered by David Kolb includes perception, impression and processing.
It is on the basis of a four-step learning pattern. He was of the opinion that whatever we tend to
learn, we follow a particular pattern that comes through a learning cycle (Illeris 2018). He
suggests that different people by birth tend to prefer different definite learning patterns which
depend on various influencing determinants or factors.
His learning pattern can be divided into experiential learning theory/style and learning style
inventory.
Experiential learning theory/style: The experiential learning theory proposed by Kohl is the
most popular and widely used style of learning that is demonstrated by a learning cycle
consisting of four steps which are experienced by the learner at all times and bases (Batista-
Foguet et al. 2015).
Figure 3: Kolb’s experiential learning pattern
(Source: Smith 2016)
Advantages:
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 It typically promotes an individual’s open-mindedness and critical thinking abilities.
 It ameliorates problem-solving skills.
Disadvantages:
 Experiential learning style has its own shortcomings and loopholes and cannot be
applied in every situation.
 It does not provide a proper description of the wide range of social ways of learning.
Honey Mumford learning model:
There is a specific set of learning styles developed by Peter Honey and Mumford, on the basis
of the propositions given Kolb in 1984 (Willis 2017). They studied and formulated four separate
and distinct styles of learning as preferred by individuals (Yousef 2016).
 Activist.
 Theorist.
 Pragmatist.
 Reflector.
In order to comprehend the particular learning pattern in an individual, Honey and Mumford
prepared a questionnaire consisting of a few questions based to assess the learning style. This
piece of information enables to evaluate a person in different aspects both personally and
professionally.
Learning style Aspects Activities
Activist Individuals whose preferred
way of learning is by doing
things.
 Group discussion.
 Decision-making and
problem-solving.
 Competitions.
Theorist Learners who like to
comprehend the theory
behind any conceptual action.
 Statistical analysis.
 Background
information.
Pragmatist They tend to apply their
learning outcomes into
general practice.
 Problem-solving.
 Group discussion.
 Case studies.
Reflector They learn on the basis of  Questionnaires on
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their observation and analysis
of the present happenings.
self-analysis.
 Tuitions.
 Feedbacks.
 Interviews.
Table 2: Honey Mumford Learning Style
Advantages:
 It successively ameliorates personal concentration of an individual.
 Improves work quality to a great extent.
Disadvantages:
 The questionnaires prepared are of very poor reliability and dependability.
 No proper validity.
 It does not apply to every situation.
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