Academic Skills and PDP Report: Goals, Values, and Planning

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Personal Development Planning (PDP). It begins by defining the concept of PDP and its importance in education, career, and self-improvement. The report then explores the value of short, mid, and long-term goals, providing personal examples for each, such as time management, career advancement, and skill development. The discussion includes the significance of long-term goals in professional and personal growth. Finally, the report emphasizes the value of a PDP as a roadmap for assessing current and future growth, and it demonstrates how to construct a PDP using identified goals, offering guidance for students seeking to improve their academic and professional prospects. The report is intended for students to understand the importance of PDP and how to create and implement it.

Academic skills and PDP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1- Concept of personal and professional plan..............................................................................3
2- Describing the values of short-term goals...............................................................................4
3- Describing the value of mid term goals...................................................................................5
4- Describe and discuss the value of long-term goals, identifying at least three personal
examples......................................................................................................................................5
5. Describe and discuss the value of a Personal Development Plan and construct an example
using your identified goals...........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
PDP is a short form of personal development planning, which refers to the process of
creating up an action plan by emphasizing on the values, goal setting, reflection, awareness and
planning for the personal development in context to the education, career and self-improvement
(Shaheen and Hameed, 2020). The personal development plans involves determining the area of
improvement, planning on what to develop in that area, taking an action according to the plan
made, recording the achievements made by the self and then lastly, reviewing the overall
learnings of the self. This report will comprise the concept of professional and personal
development plan and describe the importance of short and long term goals by identifying the
personal examples. Further the report presents a personal development plan which discuss the
actual value of the plan.
MAIN BODY
1- Concept of personal and professional plan
The PPD is a plan which enable people to identify their personal abilities and skills,
concentrate on the aims of their lives and helps to set the goals in order to recognize and
maximize the true potential of the self. It documents the personal career goals and include both
short term and long term goals (Ragan, 2018). Before this plan, career development plan comes
in, which documents the qualifications and skills needed by one person to reach these eventual
goals. PPD can be used in various ways for example, education, coaching, training and for
changing mindsets. In the personal lives of people there is always an area which requires
improvements and but taking the benefit from PPD and improving the areas, a person can make
the feel the joy of fulfilling existence. The personal professional development plan works by
identifying the following issues and planing accordingly.
1. Identification of the current position- The professional and personal lives of the people
are directly or indirectly linked. PPD helps in identifying the current position or a state of
a person in the present. The stress, frustration, anger etc. are all a part of personal lives
which affect the working of professional life (Wegner, 2018). PPD is a plan which gives
a person an understanding of the present scenario and what are the areas on which the
person has to work on.

2. Determination of the place where a person wants to be- After identifying the current
position and having a clear view of the areas of improvement, the person is finally able to
see the place where that person wants to be and can start preparing for that.
3. Planning on how to reach to the destination- With the clear vision, a person can start
making the plans in order to reach to the desired destination (Grit, 2019). Planning is very
important and making a right plan can lead to near future success whereas, making a
wrong plan can easily misguide the person.
4. Identification of right things which can help in achieving the goals- Identification
involves a lot of work. This step should be done wisely in order to avoid the risks of
wrong choices. This step helps in gaining the right tools and a knowledge of right path in
order to meet the desired goals.
5. Determining the obstacles standing in between the goal- After everything, the
determination of obstacles is a crucial step, in order to eliminate the following obstacle
from the path and meet the goals smoothly without any hindrances.
2- Describing the values of short-term goals
Short-term goals are referred to the goals which helps in reaching to the big goals. Short
term goals are usually the part of long term goals, which are broken into pieces in order to make
the achievement of long term goals easier. These provide a path to the eventual goal and helps
the one to gain a realization of what the one can accomplish today, and helps in taking action
ahead of the journey. Here are three personal goal examples.
1. Efficient time management- Time management plays a crucial role in every person's
life (Etkin, 2019). My personal goal of time management is to make myself productive at
the workplace and become more organized for the future events.
2. To turn into a better listener- Listening becomes very important in communication. My
personal goal of better listening has a purpose of making others feel a sense of belonging
to me at the workplace, and to make them feel free to come and discuss out problems
with me.
3. To become respectful- For any matter, holding a respect for the superiors or elders is a
very important thing. I personally believe that this goal can help me keep up with the
authorities and superiors at the workplace in the future.

3- Describing the value of mid term goals
The mid term goals are a little longer than the short term goals, as these are generally
made for 2 weeks, 2 months or 6 months. These kinds of goals hold a good value in the lives of
people as they are long enough to form a significant process whereas, short enough that the
people are not able to change their mind by the time of attainment of that particular goal. There
are many other benefits of the medium-term goals, one of these is that a person can make number
of these goals in the entire course of life. Here are three personal examples of medium-term
goals.
1. Settling the car loan- The very first goal of mine is to first complete my car instalments
and get relieved by the stress that comes along with each instalment.
2. To get a promotion- To get a promotion is the goal of every employee who is working
in an organization. My personal goal of getting a promotion and getting a raise is driven
by the urge of growth that I want to see in the near future and great accomplishments that
I want to make in my life.
3. Saving salary for the Home down payment- After a secured job and good remuneration
everybody dreams of a new place of living and believe in enhancing the current lifestyle.
Another medium term goal that I want to accomplish is to save my salary and get ready
with a down payment for my home, in the next 6 months.
4- Describe and discuss the value of long-term goals, identifying at least three personal examples
Long term goals can be defined as future aims and objectives that are extremely essential for an
adequate and holistic growth of personal and professional self. These goals are long-term in
nature and consume more time in their achievement as they need constant building up. In the
context of drafting and following my personal and professional development plan one needs to
adhere to the long-term goals in conjunction with the short and medium term counterparts (Ford
and Nichols, 2019). For instance, if an individual aims ta becoming a managing director of some
firm of personal choice then she/he must strive for achieving it on a daily basis.
Description of long-term goals
Long term goals are usually tracked and measured in terms of months and more
commonly years as it requires a step by step completion of secondary and intermediary goals.
This can be exemplified by a layman's goal of becoming economically and socially stable so in

order to achieve the same one must first get a good educational degree followed by job hunting.
After that the person must invest for future house, plan a wedding, and carry on life with stable
finances. This can be considered as a classic or basic example of setting a long term goal. But if I
consider long term goals that will also help in my future endeavours then I need to set relevant
personal future goals to that will assist me in achieving them.
The long-term goals require time, energy, and consistency in order for them to be met. A
person needs to be accountable of his or her actions in the following up of daily routine failing
which the vice of procrastination might occur. Procrastinating the objective tasks means that
efforts are being delayed thereby hampering the incidences of achievable future goals. That's
why it is significant to be persistent enough with the set goals (Romanovskiy and et.al., 2020).
These lifelong goals are categorized into three main types which are described as follows:
4. Career goals – Career goals refer to the dynamic mindsets of meeting career
requirements which are directly connected with an individual's line of professional field.
This might even include setting up a professional goal of getting a new job at the age of
40 or 60.
5. Financial goals – The long term financial goals consist of purchasing a new house, car or
any other material thing, making long-term investments, savings planning, educational
and old age funding, etc.
6. Personal goals – Personal goals comprise setting aims for own self such as developing a
new habit, learning a new language, taking solo trips, finding passion and purpose in life,
etc.
Value of long-term goals
Long term goals play a vital role in the life of eac and every person be it a child,
adolescent or adult. Its key importance lies in the need for self-improvement that helps us in our
daily decision-making processes, problem solving, and enhances our interpersonal relationships
both at home and workplace. Setting future goals in the areas of personal and professional
developments help us stay focused with a keen and sharp judgement which assist us in taking the
right path in our lives and occupations. It is also important to keep in mind that the valuable
long-term goals will be properly achieved only if we proportionately combine the short-term and
medium-term objectives (Mangalam and et.al., 2021). The latter goals are provisional and
foundational in nature and is essential for the capstone and lifetime goals.

Personal examples
The following are some of my personal and professional aims:
4. Skill development – I think that broadening one's own skillset is as much important as
getting a college degree. It is because in the practical world bookish knowedge is
worthwhile ony if we know how, when and where to use it. This is why one of my
personal objective is to become more tech-oriented by taking up web design or
programming classes.
5. Strengthening people skills – One of my major strengths is that I deem myself to be a
good conversationalist but just being that is not enough in this fast paced world. This is
the reason I have set a long-term goal of developing my social and human skills which
will highly support me in my professional communication. I can do it by taking online
courses, joining a local debate club, etc.
6. Extending executive network – One of my main future-oriented goal is to expand my
professional network in the areas of creative and technical content writing, researching,
and SEO skills. I aim at achieving this through enlarging my professional social media
platforms such as LinkedIn or VolunteerMatch database. Having a wide base of
executive connections will help me in moving towards my long-term goals (Maes and
Wall, 2021).
5. Describe and discuss the value of a Personal Development Plan and construct an example
using your identified goals
A Personal Develoment Plan can be defined as a life roadmap for assessing current and
future growth of self. It effectively serves as a major guideline in the continuous process of the
improved development of a person's daily habits and inner potentials. Furthermore, in order to
succesfully achieve the short, medium, and long-term professional goals, it is necessary to first
create a personal growth plan (Khan).
Personal growth and development is inevitably important for shaping ones's personality
and attitue towards life and career. If an individual is physically and mentally fit then it becomes
easy to identify and achieve set objectives but conversely if someone has a stunted emotional and
cognitive status then meeting personal goals becomes easily enjoyable and also leads to further
professional success. Given below is an example of an instrumental goal identification with the
help of a drafted personal development plan.

Goals Resource strategy Time frame
Communication skills Public speaking events, reading
good literature
A period of 3-4 months will be
required for improvement
Skilled researcher Originality rather than copy-
pasting, primary data collection,
desk searches
Period of 1-2 months for
development
Banking & Investment Online sources, trusted
individuals
Gradual process of monthly
rounds
IT knowledge Training class, books, Internet 6 months of complete training
Extra professional connections Social media platforms Daily updation
CONCLUSION
The above report has accurately demonstrated the definition and description of personal
development planning by discussing its key role in a person's life and work. It has described
major selected short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals along with proper examples
relevant to the context. The report has also discussed various aims and objectives that need to be
outlined for a cohesive professional growth and development. It has further analyzed the key
concepts of personal and professional growth plans and has depicted the value of identified goals
with the help of a concise drafted plan.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Etkin, J., 2019. Time in relation to goals. Current opinion in psychology. 26. pp.32-36.
Ford, M.E. and Nichols, C.W., 2019. A taxonomy of human goals and some possible
applications. In Humans as self-constructing living systems (pp. 289-312). Routledge.
Grit, R., 2019. Managing your competencies: personal development plan. Routledge.
Khan, M.Y., PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
Maes, J.D. and Wall, K.L., 2021. Preston, Joanne C.: Integrating Disciplines, Expanding
Paradigms. Springer Books. pp.1393-1416.
Mangalam, K., and et.al., 2021. From goals, waypoints & paths to long term human trajectory
forecasting. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer
Vision (pp. 15233-15242).
Ragan, D.D., 2018. A Structured Course for Personal and Professional Development. Honors in
Practice. 14. pp.43-57.
Romanovskiy, O.G., and et.al., 2020. Professional should be the leader.
Shaheen, S. and Hameed, M., 2020. Personal Development Plan (PDP). World Family Medicine.
Wegner, J., 2018. Lessons from women leaders: The impact of professional development. The
Vermont Connection. 39(1). p.15.