Academic Skills and PDP: A Report on Personal Development Plan

This report defines personal and professional development, emphasizing the importance of academic skills, goal setting, and personal development plans (PDP). It discusses the value of short, medium, and long-term goals, providing personal examples for each. The report highlights the significance ...Read More

Academic Skills and
PDP

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Define the concept of personal and professional development.......................................................1
Describe and discuss the value of short term goals along with the three personal examples..........2
Describe and define the value of medium term goals along with the three personal goals.............3
Describe and define the value of long term goals along with the three personal goals...................3
Define and describe the value of personal development plan and construction of an example
using my personal goals...................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................6
Appendix 1: Personal development Plan.........................................................................................7

Introduction
Study Skills or most commonly known as the academic skills are the collection of approaches,
learning strategies, study habits and time management tools which helps the learner in acquiring
and absorbing lessons taught by the mentors at educational institute. These skills are taught by
teachers often to obtain good grades and success in the academics as well as useful during the
entire course of life of a learner. Whereas, personal development plan, also recognised by several
names such as individual development plan (IDP), personal enterprise plan (PEP) is the written
documented plan prepared within the context of career, relationship, education and for the self-
improvement based on reflection, goal setting, values and self awareness (Budur, 2020). It is an
action plan which highlights the goals to be achieved classified on the basis of duration, strengths
in the specified areas, areas of improvements and what actions needs to be taken or need to take
changed way towards the realisation of sated goals and objectives. The further report outlines the
value of short, medium and long term gaols along with the value for the development of personal
development plan and its importance in the personal and professional development.
Define the concept of personal and professional development
Personal and professional development is concerned with identifying the skills needed to
accomplish the desired goals and objectives both in the job role and life in general. Personal and
professional development is aimed at improving the talents and capabilities of a person both in
and out the workplace. With the help of through understanding what a person wants to achieve in
near future and how to achieve it, personal and professional developments allows to develop
necessary skills as a best way solution. For instance, there are two persons working in a
marketing department, both of whom are expertise in making effective marketing strategies and
realisation of goals. They both have good communication skills, interpersonal skills and
decisions making powers to make appropriate decisions. However, one of them does not possess
these skills and requires extensive training for the personal development (Purcell, Henriksen and
Spengler, 2019).
On the other hand, professional development is regarded as the developing myself entirely in the
job role which I am performing and finding out the ways to improve them. Professional
development will allow me to enhance necessary skills to perform my job role effectively as
much as possible and is something which will continue throughout my entire course of working
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life and will open up a new ways of opportunities and career growth. In order to remain
competent and productive at workplace it is imperative to develop necessary skills with the aim
of keeping up the constant pace with rapid changes taking place in the environment, be it a
economic, technological or environmental. The prime objective of effective professional
development is to ensure that knowledge and understanding of the area of expertise is always at
the highest possible level (Lim and et. al., 2020).
Describe and discuss the value of short term goals along with the three
personal examples
Short term goals are those goals which are attainable in a short span of time juts say within a few
days, week, month or sometimes couples of months. These are the goals which I would like to
achieve in a near future which forms a basis of my long term vision and goals. Establishing ling
term goals seems to be unattainable because of ambiguous direction or path that is why these
goals are breakable into short term goals which act as a milestone towards the long term vision.
Short term goals should be made on the basis of SMART (Specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and timely) criteria which allows the goals to be realised in an accurately and in a
precise manner. Being their nature of measureable, short term goals helps in evaluating the path
to be taken and helps in staying on right path towards the ultimate vision. In fact, short term
goals are the stepping stones towards short term goals which make me aware of the where I am
and where I want to be in near future (Mittelstadt, 2019).
My personal short term goals are:
 Time management skills: With the enhancement of time management skills I will be able
to organise work in a timely manner and avoid procrastination. Time management skills
make the person responsible, organised and disciplined both in personal and professional
life.
 Communication skills: Communication skills will enable me to communicate effectively
with my superiors and subordinates which lays the foundation of positive and healthy
relationship at workplace and in real life. Problem solving skills: Problem solving skills will allow me to know the root cause of an
issue or problem and make justified judgements after evaluating the consequences of
each decisions made by me.
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Describe and define the value of medium term goals along with the three
personal goals
As compared to short term goals, medium term goals take a bit longer time to attain these goals,
for instance, within a month, quarter or in a couple of years. Medium term goals falls in mid of
short term and long term goals as it is defined as the medium point of the journey that has been
travelled so far and left to be travelled further (Ilyashenko and et. al., 2019). Since, long term
goals takes a much longer time to achieve, medium term goals keeps the person motivated,
focused and helps the person to keep up on the right track towards the long term vision and
goals. Medium term goals helps in evaluating the progress towards the long term goals and takes
necessary steps in making necessary changes if any deviation found in the way towards long
term goals. Medium term goals are attained only after a series of short term goals and
collectively make up the long term goals of personal and professional life.
My personal medium term goals are: Productivity and organisation skills: Having developed organisation skills will allow me
to make use of resources efficiently and effectively while working in any organisation.
These skills will allow me to manage my time well and workspace for the realisation of
assigned tasks and goals. Critical thinking skills: Critical thinking is a much sought after skills in the modern
workplace which concerned with making decisions through understanding the problem or
issue and make decisions based on facts, figures and information available (Silva and et.
al., 2020) (Gösslin and et. al., 2019). Adaptability skills: Constant and rapid changes taking place in an environment have
made it necessary to develop the ability change the actions, course or approaches to do
things in a certain way as per the demand and recent trends.
Describe and define the value of long term goals along with the three personal
goals
`Long term goals are the ultimate vision or future course of position which a person wants to
achieve or be in a definite period of time, for instance, couple of years like 3 or 5 years and
more. Like starting a journey one needs to determine its final destination, in the similar way it is
essential to have a predefined long term goals before any further plans and actions. Setting a long
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term goals paves a path for short and medium term goals and provides a right direction to refrain
from heading aimlessly. Long term goals need extensive planning, time and efforts as these are
the crucial for the success and growth in a career path and should be made wisely (He and et. al.,
2019).
My long term personal goals are: Software skills: With integration of information technology into business operations, it is
becoming necessary for me to have a good command and knowledge of some softwares
such as CRM, DBMS, etc. Improvement of use of tools: Right use of tools and techniques will assist me in dealing
with complex problems in a fraction of seconds and producing effective results. Improvement in the use of accounting and book keeping: Improving these skills will
help me in meeting the financial needs and objectives of an organisation for which I will
be working (Murray and Ward, 2019).
Define and describe the value of personal development plan and construction
of an example using my personal goals
Personal development plan refers to the written action plan which is prepared on account of self-
improvement and reflection which is aimed at helping in achieving personal, academic and
professional goals. This plan encompasses series of activities which enhances my potential,
capabilities, talents, employability, consciousness and developing skills to realise my dreams and
generating wealth (Zhang and et. al., 2020). There are many benefits associated with creating a
personal development plan as it will help me in planning for changes in career or building
necessary skills. Apart from this, this plan will also allow me to stay focused, motivated and
develop an ability for effective planning and learning as I will be evaluating my strengths and
weakness. Below mentioned are the reasons for the development of this plan:
 Gives clarity to personal vision: Having developed personal development plan will allow
me to have a clear vision of future where I want to be or what I want to become over a
future course of time. Having clear vision helps in setting clear defined goals and
effective strategies to realise those set goals and objectives. Sharpen existing skills: personal development plan is developed on the basis of self
reflection and awareness with the aim of developing an ideal of what skills do I possess
and what skills do i need to develop which will enhance my career and personal life. By
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evaluating my areas of expertise and areas of improvement, I can become aware of my
skills and take necessary steps of develop or improve those skills (Ronen, 2020).
Therefore, it is clear that developing an effective and well planned personal development plan
will add more value to my personal and professional life as with the help of this detailed plan I
could identify the areas of improvement and prepares goals to develop those skills and
competencies.
Personal development plan which will be used by me in order to realise my dreams and
ambitions are as follows:
Goals Duration for achieving these goals
Short-term goals 6 months
Medium-term goals 12 months
Long-term goals 24 months
Conclusion
From the above mentioned report it has been concluded that personal and professional
development is a crucial and ongoing part of the individual’s life as it helps in developing and
acquiring necessary skills and competencies to flourish and grow in personal and professional
career. These skills are useful during the entire course of life, both in an actual job role and in
real life too. Furthermore, it has also been observed that personal development plan helps the
person in evaluating its areas of strengths and weakness along with setting realistic goals to
enhance the skills within a limited period of time and build action plan to realise those goals.
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References:
Books and Journals
Budur, T., 2020. Effectiveness of transformational leadership among different
cultures. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 7(3),
pp.119-129.
Gössling, S., and et. al., 2019. Can we fly less? Evaluating the ‘necessity’of air travel. Journal of
Air Transport Management, 81, p.101722.
He, J., and et. al., 2019. The practical implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in
medicine. Nature medicine, 25(1), pp.30-36.
Ilyashenko, L.K., and et. al., 2019. Educational environment as a development resource for the
learning process. Amazonia investiga, 8(18), pp.303-312.
Lim, X.J., and et. al., 2020. Compulsive buying of branded apparel, its antecedents, and the
mediating role of brand attachment. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
Mittelstadt, B., 2019. Principles alone cannot guarantee ethical AI. Nature Machine
Intelligence, 1(11), pp.501-507.
Murray, K. and Ward, K., 2019. Attitudes to social media use as a platform for Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) within occupational therapy. Journal of Further
and Higher Education, 43(4), pp.545-559.
Purcell, W.M., Henriksen, H. and Spengler, J.D., 2019. Universities as the engine of
transformational sustainability toward delivering the sustainable development
goals:“Living labs” for sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education.
Ronen, I.K., 2020. Action research as a methodology for professional development in leading an
educational process. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 64, p.100826.
Silva, A.L.P., and et. al., 2020. Rethinking and optimising plastic waste management under
COVID-19 pandemic: Policy solutions based on redesign and reduction of single-use
plastics and personal protective equipment. Science of the Total Environment, 742,
p.140565.
Zhang, W.R., and et. al., 2020. Mental health and psychosocial problems of medical health
workers during the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Psychotherapy and
psychosomatics, 89(4), pp.242-250.
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Appendix 1: Personal development Plan
Skills Reason to attain
these skills
Manners to
achieve these
Expected time
duration
Results to be
obtained
Communication
skills
Presently, I am
dealing with
complexity of
writing formal
letter, notice,
and email to
clients,
customers, and
superiors due to
which my
message is not
clear and does
not reveal my
clear intention
and message.
Reading articles,
newspapers,
industry related
news and
listening to the
podcast will help
me in making
right use of
formal words
and structure to
create a letter,
email and notice.
6 months My ability to
communicate
effectively in
written form
with clients,
superiors and
subordinates will
determine my
ability to
enhance this
skill.
Organisation
skills
Lacking
organisation
skills have made
delay in meeting
deadlines and
leading to the
inefficiency at
workplace.
By actively
observing and
participating in
the business
activities and
working under a
great scholar
will help me in
develop some of
the most
prominent skills
such as, time
management,
12 months Being organised,
work with
minimal stress,
and working
effectively
within
organisation
along with
maintain
positive
relationships
with employees.
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delegation,
working under
pressure etc.
Software skills Presently, I am
not aware of the
softwares used
in the
organisation for
effectively
managing the
business
operations and
other activities
such as data
management,
customer
support, and
maintain payroll
of workforce.
Attaining a
workshop and
getting enrolled
in some of the
best institutions
will help me in
getting
knowledge of
relevant
softwares and
tools.
24 months Good command
and in depth
knowledge of
over CRM and
DBMS
softwares along
with their proper
use within the
organisation will
determine my
ability to learn
and enhance
knowledge.
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