Reflective Essay on Preparing for Success: University CW1

This reflective essay, titled "Preparing for Success," delves into the author's personal and professional development within a university setting. The essay begins with an introduction defining the importance of preparing for success by acquiring employability skills and understanding future requirements. The main body explores the author's development as a learner, highlighting the importance of communication skills and identifying areas for improvement such as listening skills. It also addresses future challenges, particularly in teamwork and innovation, and outlines strategies for overcoming these hurdles, including seeking guidance from tutors and utilizing online training modules. The essay concludes by emphasizing the necessity of both soft and hard skills for professional employability and continuous growth, as well as providing a list of references used in the essay.

Preparing for Success
(CW1 – Reflective Essay)

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
How you have developed as a learner during this module.....................................................3
Future challenges and meeting the expectations of a university course.................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Preparing for success is an ongoing process for individuals in order to gain required skills
and capabilities for being employable. In simple words preparing for success means that the
individual is well aware and careful enough about the respected area on which they are working
as well as thinking ahead in detail about the requirements as well as skills required by them in
future for becoming successful. A student always goes through number of activities and practices
to develop employability skills and being able to perform which their best potentials and
abilities. In regards to the same the present essay is a reflective account there I will be
representing about my personal development and future challenges as well as approaches I will
be adopting in order to mitigate them.
MAIN BODY
How you have developed as a learner during this module
I am a student learning and pursuing my career through studying at a University and
understanding and exploring different areas and aspects which are helpful for me to become
enjoyable and procure employability skills. These are defined as the set of transferable skills
needed by an individual to make themselves employable. Employability of an individual totally
depends upon their knowledge, capabilities, attitude towards their career, utilisation of available
resources as well as skills sets how an individual represent himself or herself in front of a
potential employer. There are bundle of employability skills that are important for an individual
before entering their professional life and while deciding as well as developing their career path.
These employability skills involves various abilities such as effective communication, teamwork,
problem solving, planning and organising, self management, Technology, taking initiatives when
necessary and innovation & creativity.
These are some of the employability skills which were highlighted and presented in front
of me as a student which are essential for me to enhance my personal abilities in some of these
respective areas as mentioned in order to perform well and to continuously succeed in my career
and professional platform. Communication is a very important and valuable resource for a
professional as well as for a General human being. This is a tool which enable people to interact
with one another and share their point of views with each other. Having effective communication
abilities does not mean that the individual can effectively interact with others but it also involves

strong listening and observing capabilities. The reason behind the same is is it is determined that
an individual only becomes an effective communicator when he or she has enough understanding
about what the other person is speaking and what is the surrounding in which they are being
present.
Therefore in simple words it was essential for me to become an effective communicator
that I gain appropriate listening and observing skills as well because it is important that I
understand properly about what the other person is trying to communicate as well as provide my
replies by looking over the surroundings in which we are present. During the course work while I
was gaining several different professional as well as personal knowledge for growth I determined
that I have appropriate communication skills but in order to become an effective communicator
there are certain areas in which I need to work. It is necessary that developed potential listening
skills before replying to the Messenger that is the other person who is interacting with me and
trying to you send me a respective message. An effective communicator needs to develop
potential listening skills because it supports the individual in making when informed
conversation by providing clear replies to the other party.
Future challenges and meeting the expectations of a university course
During my course work and continuing my professional and personal growth at the
University there are certain challenges which I will be encountering in the entire path. The very
first challenge which I made phrase while continuing my further studies at the University is to
work in a team in the most productive manner. I have always study about the importance of team
working as well as the need for individual to work with others in order to bring up appropriate
results and necessary outcomes of the project.
But I have also determined that I am not a team worker and it is very difficult for me to
work within a group with other students and learners on respective projects and to attain a
common goal. I have identified during the course work and the learning that I am a effective
communicator but it is very difficult for me to work among other individuals as I lack self
confidence which somehow affect my performance within a group. There are different practices
that I can use in order to mitigate the issues and challenges related to my teamwork abilities. The
very first approach which is useful for me to use is to take guidance from my tutors in respect to
the particular challenge that I am facing.

Tutors and professors are the experienced individuals who have appropriate knowledge
and guidance for every individual and student who are surrounded to them. Professor can easily
help me in in learning and identifying the importance of team working as well as provide a
correct direction through which I can make use of my abilities to become a team worker. Moving
along another challenging aspect which identified and can affect my future development in the
university is innovation and creative abilities. In the present world innovation and creativity is a
key resource which makes an individual unique as well as employable. I am an effective learner
but at the same time it is very important and necessary for me to change my learning into
innovative ideas and creative approaches. In order to overcome this challenge I will be using
several online training modulus which are separately developed for people to go through
different areas which can help them to become creative and think out of the box.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is easily determined and concluded that it is important for people
to capture several soft and hard employability skills in order to be professionally employable and
keep their growth continuous. A reflective essay above showcased the potential skill and
individual has and certain skills he or she need to develop for overcoming future challenges.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bearman, M. and Luckin, R., 2020. Preparing university assessment for a world with AI: tasks
for human intelligence. In Re-imagining University Assessment in a Digital World (pp.
49-63). Springer, Cham.
Irlbeck, S. A. and Dunn, S., 2020. Emotional Intelligence: a Missing Link in Preparing
Instructional Design Students for Workplace Success. Performance Improvement.
59(9). pp.15-23.
Leasure, D. and et. al., 2020. Not So Suddenly Online: Preparing UMGC's Students and Faculty
for Online Success. Journal of Literacy & Technology. 21(2).
Shan, L., 2021. Preparing for Success. European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular
Surgery. 61(5). p.766.
Williams, S. C. and et. al., 2020. Preparing Students for Success: Differential Outcomes by
Preschool Experience in Baltimore City, Maryland. Prevention Science. 21(4). pp.467-
476.