Personal Development Report: Skills, Barriers, and Support Mechanisms

This report delves into the realm of personal development, beginning with an exploration of self-learning styles using models like the Classical Conditioning Theory and the VARK model, ultimately identifying the author as a visual learner. The report then details the process of identifying personal development needs through a SWOT analysis, converting weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities. It identifies potential barriers to learning, including socioeconomic, financial, geographical, work-life balance, and childcare issues, and suggests strategies to overcome them. The report analyzes learning and development options, such as job descriptions, performance reviews, team observation, and self-evaluation, to meet identified needs. It highlights support mechanisms like mentorship and feedback, and outlines a detailed development plan with specific targets, actions, evidence of completion, and target dates. The plan includes goals like staying current with assignments, improving AI knowledge, gaining tech company experience, and increasing motivation. The report emphasizes the importance of continuous self-assessment and strategic planning for effective personal and professional growth.

PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Section 1: Know how to identify development needs.....................................................................1
1.1 Identification of own learning style (s)..................................................................................1
1.2 Use a simple technique for identifying own development needs..........................................3
1.3 Identify potential barriers to learning....................................................................................5
1.4 Explain how barriers to learning can be overcome................................................................5
Section 2: Know how to develop yourself to achieve organisational objectives.............................6
2.1 Briefly analyse learning/development options to meet your needs.......................................6
2.2 Identify support mechanisms for your development.............................................................7
2.3 Prepare a development plan to achieve a learning objective for yourself.............................7
2.4 Describe a method that could be used to monitor your development....................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
Appendix A PDP Learning Log.....................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Personal development is the development of own skill and knowledge which is needef
to work in any organisation. It also contributes to the realisation of dreams and aspirations
(Bell, 2017). Personal development is a continuous process that takes place over the course of
a person's entire life. Through improving the life it become easy for an individual to improve
quality of life and become successful . There are different type of skill which need to improve
in such as communication skill, interpersonal skill, decision making skill.
Section 1: Recognizing the way in which the developmental needs can be
identified
1.1 Determination of self-learning style (s)
There are many different ways to learn. Apparently, most of us have a dominant
learning style that impacts the way how we absorb and retain any sort of information. There
are a lot of benefits if we identify our own learning style, like, we can take measures to
improve that style not only to quickly learn but also to know how enjoyable the process is for
us (Baldwin and et.al., 2014). Many of us have struggled to learn for our entire lives not
because we are incapable of learning or stupid, but because we have been using a wrong
learning style which is not compatible with our intellect system.
Now, I will demonstrate two models and based on them I will identify my own
learning style:
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Classical Conditioning Theory Model: - This model was developed by
Pavlov in the year 1902 (Brandenberger and et.al., 2013). Classical
conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in a which a
stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally
evoked by another stimulus. This theory defines the way in which the
regular practices make changes in the behaviour.
Figure 1 Condition theory of learning
(Source: Classical Conditioning, 2017)
1. VARK learning model: Fleming has developed an inventory that is planned to help
students and other leaners about their personal learning preference. This model was
developed in 1987 by Neil Fleming. This model suggests that there are four main kind
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of learners, they are: auditoriy learnier, reading, Reading/Writing learners,Visual
learners and Kinaesthetic learners
After analysing both the models, I can say that I prefer VARK model for my learning
ability (Chou and et.al., 2014). According to VARK model for learning information, I am a
Visual learner. I can easily absorb and retain information by visual learning. After knowing
my own learning style, I can improve it and I can also enjoy the process of learning because
now I can learn quickly and efficiently.
1.2 Usage of simple tools and method for the identification of self-developmental needs
Identifying my own developmental needs and wants can be difficult. I often found
myself finding out different type of training sessions that are accessible and will be the most
effective one for the improvement of my skills. It is referred to be one of the most effective
measure that firstly helps me to identify my developmental need and then assist in findings
out ways in which it can be met where it mostly includes training courses or coaching, etc.
First of all, I would identify my own development need by conducting a SWOT
analysis on myself. SWOT analysis is a very special and powerful method for self-
assessment. This is mainly due to its huge assistance in exploring opportunities that I
have not realized otherwise. And by the identification of my weak points, I can tend to
handle the identified threats of mine that may negatively influence my knowledge and
skills while moving ahead towards development.
SWOT analysis will help in me in finding out my own weakness and strength which are as
follows
Strengths:
What benefit you posses as compare to others (for example, ability, demonstrate,
educational activity, or relation)?
Answer- I have a Post- Graduation degree in Marketing as my educational
qualification and I also have technical skills because I did my graduation in
Engineering and Technology.
My skill as compare to other
Answer- I am a very good thinker and very efficient problem solver.
Weaknesses:
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 Which task is difficult for you
Answer- I avert giving presentations on stage.
 What are your weakness find by other people.?
Answer- People around me sees my laziness as my biggest weakness.
Opportunities:
 Which type of technology you know very well or familiar with it
Answer-I can really use the new soft-wares for my designing skills on
computers.
 Is your industry growing? If so, how can you take advantage of the present
market?
Answer-Yes, and I can use my skills for better opportunities in the current
market.
Threats:
Different barrier you faced at the time of working in an organisation.?

Answer- I do not face any obstacles at my work place.
Is any competitors of your?
Answer- Yes.
Now, I will apply Conversion strategy to convert my weakness into strength and threats into
opportunities.
1. I can remove my stage phobia and my laziness so I can grab new opportunities to
move forward in my career.
2. I can also start developing new skills, so as to eliminate competition at my work
place.
Now, I will apply Matching strategy to match my strength to opportunities.
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1. I can utilise my thinking ability to study the current market requirements and improve
my personality development plan.
2. I can also use my educational qualification to learn new tools and techniques and can
improve my worth in my company.
1.3 Identify potential barriers to learning
Barriers to learning refers to any difficulty or situation that may prevent a person.
◦ Socio-Economic Barriers: Discrimination is increase at every place and in the
organisation which need to avoid so that an individual can easily achieve its goal
(Driessen and van Tartwijk, 2013). Due to discrimination and in equalities there
are many people who are unable to get success who are talented and capable to
work hard
◦ Financial Barriers: Issues such as lack of access to education, inadequate
availability of learning resources and not being able to afford training courses.
◦ Geographical Barriers: These barriers may include challenging physical
geographic areas, for instance it is not easy to travel from one place to another as it
consume time. (Fletcher, 2016). It also include climatic condition and time which
become barrier. These barriers also include the availability of vehicles or if a person
is working and then going for educational institutes.
◦ Work-Life-Balance: If there is no systematic schedule to balance work and
personal life, then there will be issues in spending time for learning. Without a
proper schedule, no one can concentrate on learning essential information. It’s a big
barrier if a person has overcrowded schedule.
◦ Child-care: It there is no proper arrangement to look after children of the person
who is going to attend classes or going to study at home, then it is not possible to
completely concentrate on learning (Hill and et.al., 2016). And a backup strategy is
must needed for any emergency situation.
1.4 Different types of barrier.
 Build relationships: Build a strong bond with the teacher. Because without
proper bonding a learner may never get the proper idea of what he/she is learning.
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 Master time management: By keeping a calendar of deadlines, it is very
important if you are a learning while also working somewhere. A learner or
student should database the day of the month of his/her test and program good
study time in the years preceding to exams (Molouki, Bartels and Urminsky,
2016).
 Avoid social distractions: Social distractions can be relatives, friends, and most
importantly cell phones (online social distractions). By making a proper schedule
for learning and giving little time to social interactions after completing each
target sections of reading.
Section 2
2.1 Analysing learning/development for meeting the needs
The most important reason for assessing self-learning needs is that after successfully
assessing self-learning needs we will be able to change our practise of learning than to
impose on ourselves.
 Job description: It is a written statement of job requirements and a description of
what qualifications are required for a particular job (Oreglia, 2014). The criteria in
a job description has helped me in establishing the level of performance required
for that particular position.
 Performance review: Sessions must be conducted between managers and
employees to discuss performance and professional development needs.
Performance review has helped me to determine gaps between my desired and
actual performance and based on that gaps I have analysed my development
needs.
 Observing the team: Observing the team on a regular basis gave me the
knowledge to identify my development needs (Schwarzer, 2014). By watching
how individual team members handle their tasks and deal with others, or the
quality of material or service they provide.
 Self-Evaluation: By self-evaluating my own work performance, I have identified
areas in which I need improvements and require extra training. This method states
that every individual is taking responsibility of their own learning and personal
development.
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2.2 Identify support mechanisms for your improvement
I need to take help from my senior and team member so that I can learn more and
develop my skills (Spry and Marchant, 2014). Apart from this, feedback and testing are two
another mechanism which suits my learning style.
By regularly testing my new skill sets against the changing environmental conditions
and obtaining feedback on my work. These are the two support mechanisms I am very much
comfortable for my development.
2.3 Development plan
Target Action to achieve Evidence of
completion
Target date
Being up to date with
my college
assignments and not
fall behind.
 Completing
my task on
time with
enough time
to evaluate it
before
submission.
 Being well
planned with
my activities
(Bell, 2017).
 Being
motivated all
the time.
 Regularly
brushing-up
on skills that I
Assignments were
completed and
submitted on time.
Throughout this
academic year.
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have learned
through these
assignments.
Improve knowledge
of Artificial
Intelligence.
 Reading
books and
blogs
regarding A. I.
 Conducting
research on
my own.
My knowledge in
Artificial Intelligence
have been improved
as well as my grades.
Until I get a job.
Gain experience in a
Tech. Company.
 Developing
necessary
contacts. For
gaining the
experience.
 Understanding
areas of
development
in Artificial
Intelligence
where I desire
to move into
(Fletcher,
2016).
 Achieve a
good
placement
within the
industry
(Oreglia,
2014).
2017 (year of
placement).
Become more
motivated to achieve
success in my job.
 Being
punctual on
job.
 Being
innovative.
 Being self-
disciplined.
 Raise in
salary.
 Getting
promotions.
Till retirement.
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2.4 a method for monitoring the plan
The final step in any planning is monitoring and evaluating the progress. It is very
important to check that the development is on the right track.
By keeping a Personal Reflection Diary, we can monitor the progress we are making in our
performance development plan. There are four factors in maintaining Personal Reflection
Diary.
Extract from my diary
1. Physical Taking into account your own
personal reflection in relation
to the physical factor.
My first lecture in college
went well and I feel excited
about going for next.
2. Mental Taking into account your own
personal reflection on how
you felt and react before and
during the performance in
relation to the mental factor
(Dowling, 2014).
During my performance, I felt
very confident about myself.
3. Emotional Taking into account your own
personal reflection on how
you felt during the
performance in relation to the
emotional factor.
During my performance, I felt
very nervous because of my
back pain that would have
affected my performance.
4. Social Taking into account your own
personal reflection on how
you felt before and after the
performance considering to
social factor (Spry and
Marchant, 2014). It may also
include how well do you
perform in team.
During my performance, I
coordinated with my team
very well and I motivated
them to perform well.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that personal development plan is very
important in respect to develop my own skill. This help me in working in the reputed
organisation and also help in become successful. The present report has together defined
some effective measures for the development of one’s own personal skills as a way of further
contributing to the development of his other professional competencies. For this purpose, it
has discoursed upon the use of various learning styles as well.
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Appendix A PDP Learning Log
MODULE TITLE: EMPL 4001 Personal Development for Employment.
date:
PDP Monitoring Learning Log
STUDENT NAME:
 What happened?
I got nervous during my presentation in front of my colleagues and my seniors.
 What did I do?
I did not take proper rest because of lack of time in preparing my presentation.
 How do I think/feel about this?
I feel terrible about this.
 How well (or badly) did it go?
It went very bad and I have to present it again.
 My conclusions/reflections/lessons learned
I have learned to systematically schedule my personal and work life. So that I can
complete my work without any rush.
 What did I learn?
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I have learned to develop myself according to the changing environmental conditions.
 What have I achieved?
I have achieved to learn in a systematic and enjoyable manner.
 How have I put any theory into practice?
Yes, I have applied VARK theory of learning into my day to day routine. I have started using
visual methods for learning information.
 What have I learned about myself?
I have learned that learning is not a difficult process for myself and I actually feel very
confident about learning new things and information.
 How does what I have been doing lead to me becoming better at a skill?
I have improved my learning skill by applying suitable model of learning into practice.
 How can I use this to plan for the future?
I can use Personal Development Plan to systematically prioritise my future work.
 How can I use this to plan new learning experiences?
I can apply new theories of learning to explore new horizons and to test my capabilities in
learning new information.
 My plan to do something better/different by using what I have learned.
I am thinking to plan my future so that I can live and enjoy each and every moment of my
life.
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 What will I do differently next time?
I will definitely start learning differently from now onwards.
 How will I do it differently next time?
I will use visual method from VARK model for learning to gather and retain new
information.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Baldwin, C. and et.al., 2014. Personal development review (PDR) process and engineering
staff motivation: A case study investigation in a manufacturing firm. Journal of
Manufacturing Technology Management. 25(6). pp.827-847.
Bell, B.J.D., 2017. Becoming the Self: Personal Development in the context of
therapeutic/transformational writing. Journal of Integrated Studies. 9(1).
Brandenberger and et.al., 2013. 2.4 Investigating personal development outcomes in service
learning. Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment:
Communities, Institutions, and Partnership. 2. pp.234.
Chou and et.al., 2014. The impact of a faculty learning community on professional and
personal development: the facilitator training program of the American Academy on
Communication in Healthcare. Academic Medicine. 89(7). pp.1051-1056.
Dowling, M., 2014. Young children's personal, social and emotional development. Sage.
Driessen, E. and van Tartwijk, J., 2013. Portfolios in personal and professional development.
Understanding medical education: Evidence, theory and practice. pp.193-200.
Fletcher, L., 2016. How can personal development lead to increased engagement? The roles
of meaningfulness and perceived line manager relations. The International Journal of
Human Resource Management. pp.1-24.
Hill, K. and et.al., 2016. Using the repertory grid technique to examine trainee clinical
psychologists' construal of their personal and professional development. Clinical
psychology & psychotherapy. 23(5). pp.425-437.
Molouki, S., Bartels, D. and Urminsky, O., 2016. Neglecting Decline: Biased Views of
Personal Development Driven By Failure to Recall and Predict Negative Change. ACR
North American Advances.
Oreglia, E., 2014. ICT and (personal) development in rural China. Information Technologies
& International Development. 10(3). pp-19.
Schwarzer, R. ed., 2014. Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Taylor & Francis.
Spry, N. and Marchant, T., 2014. How a personal development program enhances social
connection and mobilises women in the community. Australian Journal of Adult
Learning. 54(2). pp.32.
Online
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Classical Conditioning. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://traininganimalswithbehaviorism.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html>. [Accessed on
2nd August 2017].
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