Report: Personal and Professional Development - Skill Audit and Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of personal and professional development, focusing on self-managed learning, skill audits, and career planning. It begins by evaluating different approaches to self-managed learning, such as conferences, coaching, social networking, and the internet, and proposes ways to encourage lifelong learning. The report then includes a skill audit, SWOT analysis, and a personal and career development plan. Furthermore, it addresses work-based problems and suggests solutions, including a formal letter and PowerPoint slides. The report concludes with an evaluation of time management strategies used to communicate solutions and a critical reflective statement, demonstrating the student's understanding of the subject matter.

Personal and Professional Development
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
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Personal and Professional Development
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 I am the author of this assignment and that any assistance I received in its preparation is
fully disclosed and acknowledged in this assignment
 I also certify that this assignment was prepared by me specifically for this course
 I certify that I have taken all reasonable precautions to make sure that my work has not
been copied by other students
 I confirm that I have understood the College’s regulations on plagiarism
 I confirm that research resources are fully acknowledged
Date: 02/08/16
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................6
AC 1.1 Evaluate different approaches to self-managed learning.................................................6
AC 1.2 Propose different ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional context
could be encouraged.....................................................................................................................9
AC 1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to yourself and organisation you work
for currently or the one you wish to work for in the future.......................................................10
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................11
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Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. It includes: copying information
directly from the Web or books without referencing the material; submitting joint coursework
as an individual effort; copying another student’s coursework; stealing coursework from
another student and submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be investigated
and if found to have occurred will be dealt with according to the procedures set down by the

Personal and Professional Development
AC 2.1 A Skill audit by identifying the key knowledge/skills which you consider to be
important for your current studies and for your future career. Provide an explanation for the
rationale behind your decision...................................................................................................11
AC 2.2 For each type of knowledge/skill you have listed, rates your current ability using the
five-point rating scale.................................................................................................................13
AC 2.3 A personal SWOT analysis listing your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your
current skills. Also evaluate opportunities that might arise from your strengths and evaluate
threats/challenges that might arise from your weaknesses........................................................15
AC 3.1 Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan......16
AC 2.4; 3.2 Develop personal and career development plan.....................................................17
AC 3.3; 3.4 Prepare a critical reflective statement, resetting at least one of the original
objectives of your personal development plan after critical reflection on your learning
experience..................................................................................................................................18
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................19
AC 4.1 Select appropriate solutions to the above work-based problems...................................19
AC 4.2 a. Write a formal letter to the CEO of Global link UK to organise meeting for all staff
members and management team in order to communicate solutions to the identified work
based problems at Global link....................................................................................................20
b. Prepare power point slides to effectively communicate the solutions to the identified work
based...........................................................................................................................................21
AC 4.3 Evaluate how you have effectively used time management strategies to communicate
solutions to the work based problems........................................................................................22
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
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Personal and Professional Development
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Personal and Professional Development
INTRODUCTION
Analysing the understanding related with the growth of an individual this report is developed in
concentration with the development of personal and professional skills of an individual. Report
will help in providing the information how an individual can develop its personal as well as
professional skills, and how it could manage its career growth with the help of these skills.
Report will avail the information related with development plan that an individual should have
with the effect of which he could ensure to enhance its skills and groom according the
requirement. Report will also include information regarding work based problems and solution to
resolve the issues will be provided with the effect of which organisation will be able to manage
its internal functioning in an effective and efficient manner.
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Personal and Professional Development
TASK 1
AC 1.1 Evaluate different approaches to self-managed learning.
The learning process with the help of which management process is mirrored is known as self-
managed learning. There are various approaches that are attached with a self-managed learning:
Conference and Seminars: Conference and seminars are the means with the effect of which a
person could get motivated to learn new things and could groom its skills. Relevant knowledge
can be acquired with the help of seminars, workshops and conferences. There are various
essential topics that are covered in seminars which help in running a successful organisation. It
gives a wide variety of learning to the individuals present in organisation. Seminars involve
information regarding financial reporting, marketing, human resource guidelines and software
use and management skills.
Coaching and mentoring – Through this development technique, individuals do one to one
discussion with an aim to increase the proficiencies and knowledge with respect to work which
they are required to perform. Both these concepts are very slightly different from each other and
this is the reason; both the terms are often used interchangeably.
Benefits of coaching and mentoring:
 Helps in making individual understand the concepts in a clear and detailed manner.
 Increases knowledge and rise in the transfer of skills form on person to another.
 Increases productivity of employees as enhanced knowledge increases their confidence
and leads to make them motivated.
Limitations of coaching and mentoring:
 If supervisor are not trained, it may lead to transfer of inadequate knowledge to the
learner.
 Communication gap and low quality feedback may be there if coach is not having
required skills and knowledge.
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Personal and Professional Development
 Heavy reliance of employees is there on the abilities that mentor possesses.
Social Networking: Lifelong learning could be developed in a life of an individual with the help
of social networking sites. Internet avails various social networking sites that serve effective set
of knowledge. Gaining that knowledge a person could ensure to learn various new things and
could manage his personal as well as professional life in an effective and efficient manner.
Several social networking sites are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YoutTube, etc (Umberson, et.
al., 2010).
Secondment
Secondment is another aspect that is necessary for self-managed learning. Secondment is
essential for commercial sectors where companies adapt strategies of making best use of various
skills and interests of their staff. Secondment helps in improving the CV of people working in
the organisation.
Internet: Internet is one of the major sources with the help of which self an individual can
develop and enhance his skills. Internet is a pool of information from which any type of
information could be gathered by an individual which could help in managing his personal as
well as professional life.
Benefits of internet:
 Learners get plenty of knowledge and information related to every subject and field they
want.
 In comparison to traditional methods, e-learning is more cost effective as well as cost-
saving.
 Reduces the time of learning as well as removes problems related to in-classroom
teaching.
Limitations of internet:
 Social contact is missing in this type of learning.
 Discussion and interaction with teachers reduces to a high extent.
 Not effective as that of workbooks, workshops and other practical knowledge.
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There are various styles of learning which can help in getting more information and knowledge
they are:
Activists: According to Honey and Mumford activist activists is a learning style in which an
individual participate on their own without any biasness and gain new experiences to enhance
their learning related with various aspects (Miller, 2014).
Reflector: Reflectors are the people who manage their learning by observing and thinking about
the past experiences. These people avoid leaping and prefer to gain the learning from the
sidelines.
Theorist: Theorists are the people which try to learn things by understanding the theories behind
the action. Theorists require models, concepts and facts so as to engage in the learning process
(Whetten, 2011).
Pragmatist: Pragmatists are the people who need to be able to see how to implement the learning
into practice in real life.
Coaching
With the help of coaching self-managed learning can be done. With the help of coaching an
individual can focus on the future possibilities and can utilise learning from past experiences.
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Personal and Professional Development
With the help of coaching an individual can learn how things are done rather than how things are
done. Coaching can be used to motivate the employees, building team, performance
enhancement, building relationships, resolving personal issues, developing individuals and
accelerating and enhancing learning.
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Personal and Professional Development
AC 1.2 Propose different ways in which lifelong learning in personal and
professional context could be encouraged.
Different ways with the help of which an individual could encourage the lifelong learning in
personal and professional context are:
Personal Goal Setting: Goal setting is one of the ways with the effect of which lifelong learning
of an individual could be managed. To learn new things an individual should set the goals and try
to fulfil them. Trial to attain the set objectives will increase the knowledge and will help in
organising time and resources. It is necessary that the goals and objectives that are set by an
individual should be based on SMART objectives as these will help in out in refining the skills
and abilities and will provide new learning.
Self-Reflection: Self-reflection is the way with the help of which inner block of the mind could
be removed. It is the process in which an individual first identifies the obstacles present in the
mind, then he work on removing those obstacles by finding out the possible solutions of each
and every obstacle (Umberson, et. al., 2010).
Research: Research is another aspect that will help in encouraging the lifelong personal and
professional skills of an individual. With the help of research of various aspects an individual
could ensure that it could gather in depth information related with various aspects with the effect
of which he could groom his knowledge and could experience better things.
Work Experience: Work experience is another aspect that helps in self-managed learning. It is
the way in which a person learns new things with the organisation in which he is working
(Whetten, 2011). An individual can learn many things at workplace and could manage his
lifelong learning.
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Personal and Professional Development
AC 1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to yourself and organisation
you work for currently or the one you wish to work for in the future.
Self-Managed learning is an aspect that provides benefits to both organisations as well as to
individual:
Benefits provided by self-managed learning to an individual:
 Team Work – With the help of self-managed learning, employees learn the way to work
effectually in teams. They understand the importance of coordinating and cooperating
each other for the attainment of objectives.
Benefits to self: Team work lead to increase the productivity through enhanced confidence as a
result of rise in the morale. Also, skills and knowledge gets increased through sharing it with
others working in the team.
Limitations to self: Sometimes, conflicts arise due to different opinions among members which
creates stress. Also, assessing the performance in individual basis is not possible in teamwork.
Benefits for organisation: If there is effective teamwork in the organisation, it leads to attain set
goals and objectives in a fast and effective manner. Also, teamwork enhances the skills and
abilities of employees that prove to helpful for firm to run operations effectually that results in
achieving higher profits and revenues in business.
Limitations for organisation: Major limitation related to teamwork that organisation may have
to face is that when employees work in a team, there is always a risk associated related to
conflicts which may take place among team members if their opinions would not match with
each other.
 Presentation – Along with that, as the confidence of employees increases with self-
managed learning so, their ability to present ideas and opinions gets improved by which
they perform their work effectually.
Benefits to self: Efficiency increases with the enhanced level of confidence which leads render
high quality work within short period of time.
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Personal and Professional Development
Limitations to self: Sometimes, authorities may not get agree with presented ideas and opinions
and thus, if they get disagree, it may lead to reduce in the level of morale.
 Communication – Also, communication skill of employees gets improved to a high
extent by self-managed learning as they become able to effectually interact with others in
a way that will be liked and understood by them.
Benefits to self: Effective communication plays a significant role in making higher authority
understand the issue as well opinions in the same manner it is being communicated to them.
Also, if communication is done in an effectual manner, it helps in resolving various kinds of
conflicts (O'Grady, 2013).
Limitations to self: It is not necessary that every time, listener will understand in the same
manner it is communicated to him/her and if any confusion will occur then attaining desired
outcomes may not be gained (Mumford and et. al., 2011).
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