Personal Development Report: Career Planning and Skill Development

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of personal development strategies aimed at achieving career goals in social work, specifically focusing on the role of a key worker for family violence and homelessness at Vincent Care. The report begins with an introduction defining personal develo...Read More

Running head: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Job that I would like to work in five years after graduation............................................................2
The knowledge, abilities and skills and other qualities needed by me to occupy this job position 3
Consideration of the progress made towards the requirements of this role so far...........................4
A human resource development program that can prepare me for this job.....................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Personal development refers to all those activities that can help in improving the
awareness, identity, can help in development of talents, help in building human capital, and
therefore enhance the employability of the people and therefore improve the quality of life if the
people by helping them in fulfillment of their dreams and aspirations. It is a way in which people
access their skills and knowledge and try to improve the same in order to achieve their dreams
and goals in life (Doel & Shardlow, 2017). The main aim of the paper is to develop my personal
skills, knowledge and other qualities such that I can become ready for the job I wish to join. The
company chosen by me for the purpose of this study is Vincent Care and the job role I am
looking forward to is key worker for family violence and homelessness (VincentCare., 2019).
Therefore the paper will discuss about the job that I wish to get into after my graduation, the
knowledge, abilities, the skills, and other qualifications that are needed by me in order to occupy
that job role. The paper will also consider the progress made towards the requirement for the Job
role. The paper will also help in providing a human resource development plan in order to
prepare me for the job role that I wish to occupy.
Discussion
Job that I would like to work in five years after graduation
The job that I wish to work for is that of a key worker in the Vincent Care company for
family violence and homelessness of single women or single women with children. I have an
interest for this job role because I have always wished to help and support women during times
when they are facing disadvantages such as family violence (Duboust & Knight, 2018). Family
violence can have much negative impact in the psychological conditions, social conditions,

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physical conditions and others of those who are victims of such family violence and it can also
be harmful for a child who is growing in such a family. Some of the major impacts on women
who are victims of domestic violence are- depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress
disorder and others (Jacob et al., 2015). I have always wanted to do something good for the
society and when I found out about the company and its activities, I decided that I would join it
after my graduation. The job role for this position includes- identification and selection of an
appropriately qualified person for the position of the key worker of violence and homelessness.
The key workers is required to become a part of the small but effective team of support workers
who are engaged in providing information, referrals, advocacy and support of case management
to the single women and single women with children who have been subjected to some type of
violence and also are homeless or on the verge of homelessness because of such domestic
violence. Moreover the company also provides opportunities for – career development to its
employees, provide various kinds of programs for employee assistance, provides attractive salary
packages, employees are given an opportunity for superannuation fund, there are study leaves
given by the organization and there is the ozanam bursary that is available for this purpose. The
values and beliefs of the company is another reason I selected this company for the purpose of
doing job (Latham & Wexley, 1991). They have the values of social justice and aim at ensuring
that there is equality in treatment of all the employees with dignity, irrespective of their
background culturally, gender, sexual orientation or any other forms of discrimination.
The knowledge, abilities and skills and other qualities needed by me to occupy this
job position
A bachelor’s degree is needed in social work, knowledge about public administration
and diploma can be done for acquiring the necessary knowledge and practical experience for the

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same is also needed in order to improve the knowledge of the subject and the field. Further
understanding of situations of homelessness, domestic violence and housing should be there for
the post. There has to be practical experience in case management especially related to violence
in family because that would make the workers empathetic and also will help them not to panic
in any such situation (Tran, 2016). There needs to be an understanding of family services and
children services and for this matter the legislative requirements are also required to be
understood for this purpose for instance the various laws, policies and other requirements related
to the same. Knowledge about trauma informed practice and experience related to the same is
required. This role also requires the ability to work in teams for achievement of some common
goals such as a client centric approach. A willingness to keep work and service ahead of any
other goals, and therefore be able to pick up calls throughout the day. Communication skills is
one of the most important skills needed for the purpose of this role because without proper
communication skills, the key worker will not be able to understand the problems of the victims
because most of the times they will be hesitant. Further they can be people with psychological
disorder therefore it necessary to behave patiently with them. Further this job role requires
empathetic behavior of the key worker, flexibility is needed such that they can adapt to any
changes such as changes in the working schedules and others.
Consideration of the progress made towards the requirements of this role so far
This role requires an appropriately qualified person for the role of the key worker and I
have some basic knowledge related to this field as I am presently doing bachelors of social
service and I have also obtained certain diploma courses related to the same field (Morgan,
2017). Further this job role requires me to have experience in this field and related to case
management. I have not yet got experience related to case management but I have taken part in

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many community services activities temporarily and so that experience can help me in my work.
I can further take part in different community services activities in order to improve my
experience. The role requires people who can work well in teams in order to be able to achieve
some common goals by overcoming various issues of the group. I am a team player and I have
always participated in team activities, I can communicate properly with other while also
expressing myself, this will help me in going through the views of all the people and working
properly in teams. I can help people understand their roles in the team and therefore avoid
conflicts related to the same (Tattum & Tattum, 2017). This job role requires a person to be
empathetic to understand what the victims of the domestic violence are going through. This job
role requires me to become a good communicator. I feel that it can communicate fairly well as I
am an extrovert. However, I can improve my communication skills through improving my
listening and other skills.
A human resource development program that can prepare me for this job
Human resource development program can help in providing training, career
development, organization and learning activities in order to provide personal development
opportunities to people. The program can include identification of all those skills that is lacking
in me so as to improve the same and that are needed for the purpose of becoming a community
service worker. It helps in developing competencies of the people such that they can achieve
their objectives (Reed et al., 2015). Therefore a human resource development program for
personal development will include- carrying out training program, learning opportunities and
other activities. In order to carry out internal training different activities will be done such as –
group discussions, providing for various field trips for the purpose of providing practical
experience, mentoring can be provided such that there can be development as a whole

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(Lawrence, 2016). There can be a performance development planning process, in order to review
the performance continuously and to measure the changes and others. With the help of group
discussion it team building skills can be incorporated. Different leadership development
programs can be created such that people can be made responsible for their activities, they can be
taught to take initiative and other purposes and the same can also help the people in fulfilling
their dreams through development of skills. Through the leadership program the communication
skills, risk taking skills, empathetic skills can all be incorporate in the people. Learning of the
people can be improved through various readings- books, journals, case studies and others in
order to get information of the cases related to domestic violence and homelessness. These
methods can help in preparing me for my job.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that personal development is very
important for gaining all those required skills, knowledge and other qualities that can help in
achieving the life objectives by human beings. In fact personal development is also needed for
overall growth of an individual. It helps in preparing the individuals for accomplishing their
goals in life and aspirations. The main aim of the paper is to develop my skills, knowledge and
other qualities such that I can achieve my aspirations and get placed in my dream job that is to
become a key worker for the house violence and homelessness. The paper will also discuss about
the human resource development plan that can help in preparing me for my job.

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References
Doel, M., & Shardlow, S. M. (2017). Modern social work practice: Teaching and learning
in practice settings. Routledge.
Duboust, S., & Knight, P. (2018). Group Activities for Personal Development.
Routledge.
Jacob, W. J., Sutin, S. E., Weidman, J. C., & Yeager, J. L. (Eds.). (2015). Community
engagement in higher education: Policy reforms and practice. Springer.
Latham, G. P., & Wexley, K. N. (1991). Developing and training human resources in
organizations. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Lawrence, R. J. (2016). Professional social work in Australia. ANU Press.
Morgan, A. E. (2017). The small community: Foundation of democratic life. Routledge.
Reed, S. C., Rosenberg, H., Statham, A., & Rosing, H. (2015). The effect of community
service learning on undergraduate persistence in three institutional contexts. Michigan Journal of
Community Service Learning, 21(2), 22-36.
Tattum, D., & Tattum, E. (2017). Social education and personal development. Routledge.
Tran, L. T. (2016). Students’ academic, intercultural and personal development in
globalised education mobility. In Reforming learning and teaching in Asia-Pacific
universities (pp. 95-113). Springer, Singapore.
VincentCare. (2019). Homelessness & Housing Services | VincentCare. Retrieved 18
September 2019, from https://vincentcare.org.au/