Skills Development: A Report on Professional and Academic Growth

This report explores the critical aspects of professional and academic skills development for business management students. It identifies challenges such as adjusting to new environments, establishing effective communication, managing expenses, and balancing studies with other activities. The report emphasizes the importance of skills like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and time management for capitalizing on opportunities, fostering professionalism, developing leadership, retaining employees, and boosting confidence. It includes a SWOT analysis to pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, along with an action plan to enhance skills and capabilities. The report concludes by highlighting the necessity of continuous improvement in these areas for achieving career growth and success in the business management field.

Professional and
Academic Skills
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Describing the challenges of studying business management and thriving in professional
practice...................................................................................................................................3
Explaining the importance of effective academic and professional skills development........4
Demonstrating effective communication skills to work in the team......................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Professional and academic skills will help the individual to capitalise on various career
oriented opportunities which is been arise in the future. There are multiple skills which includes
decision making, problems solving, time management etc. It helps the individual to achieve
success in the future. Professional skills is the combination of various factors which includes
both soft and hard skills. This report aims to analyse about understanding the importance of the
academic and professional development of the individual. On the other hand, the major focus is
to use the SWOT analysis which is been used in order to identify the strengths and weakness in
an effective manner. There are various barriers which is been arise while studying the business
management. Along with that, the major focus of this report is to make the action plan to
improve the critical areas. This will help them in sequential career growth in the future and make
them more prominent in their activities.
MAIN BODY
Describing the challenges of studying business management and thriving in professional practice
Business management is one of the vast topics in which there are various factors which
needs to be identified in a proper manner. The barriers in the business management is been
described below:
 Adjusting in the new environment – This is the major barriers which the students has to
face while studying the business management. They need to become more flexible
towards the new working environment. Business management individual needs to move
towards the new environment in order to carry out best result in their studies. Wile
indulging in the new environment the individual needs to carry the necessary skills to
become more comfortable.
 Establishing communication with multiple individuals – The business management
student needs to focus on establishing an effective communications with other individual.
They are various individuals which is from different backgrounds and cultures. They
need to build new friendship which could lead them to socialising with different people
an help them to achieve an effective career growth in the future.
 Incurred more Expenses – The business management course is expensive in every
manner. There are multiple course which is been indulged in this subject. On the other

hand, the vital factor is to enhance the skills and capabilities in the business management.
This is the major challenge which can affect the individual performance in a negative
manner.
 Creating a balance between studies and other activities – The business management
student needs to create a balance between the subject and other tasks and activities. They
need to make the schedule of carrying the activities an finishing the assignments prior to
time. With the help of time management skills they are bale to improve these aspects and
achieve success in the market.
Explaining the importance of effective academic and professional skills development
The importance of professional skills is been mentioned below:
Professional skills plays the vital role it helps the individual to build the excellent career
in the business management by improving the key areas and enhancing the overall knowledge.
There are multiple skills which is important for the individual it includes communication,
problem solving, critical thinking, time management etc. These all skills needs to attained
properly and the individual needs to becoming better for the organisation in every manner. Some
of the benefits of these particular skill is been mentioned below:
 Capitalising on new opportunities – The major focus of the students is to grow various
skills which leads to professional development. They could avail to the new opportunities
and become more efficient in every manner.
 Professionalism – Effective professional skills will help the individual to carry out the
best results in the uncertain situations. They could perform the tasks and multiple
activities in a timely manner. They need to become more responsible towards their job
position.
 Leadership – Professional skills will also help the individual to become future leaders.
They need to develop the skill in which they provide the necessary instructions to other
individual in an effective manner.

 Retaining the Employees – Professional skills will help the person to improve the
retaining skills and makes them more work oriented. They could follow the structure
ethics and values and work towards the benefits for the organisation.
 Boosting the Confidence Level – Professional skills also boost the confidence and
morale of the employees. By acquiring all the professional skills they are able to carry out
the operations in an better way and perform best in every activity.
Importance of Academic skills
Academic skills will help the individual to identify their weak area sand they can develop
multiple skills in order to enhance their strengths and attain the improvements. The benefits of
academic skills are as follows:
 Academic skills provide the necessary direction to the individual which will help them to
achieve success in the future. They could boost their morale and can general confidence
in order to perform best in various activities.
 Academic skills will also help the students to understand various concepts and new
methods of business management effectively. They could achieve new results which is
the major focus for them and leads tp higher production in the future. They can complete
the assignments with the given period of time.
 The academic skills also helps the individual to improve the critical thinking and helps
them to perform better in certain activities. There are various functions which needs to
evaluated properly in order to achieve the desired goals and objectives in the future.
 Academic skills also help the individual to focus on their performance and enhance it
with the comprehensive knowledge. There are multiple growth factors which will help
them to become more work oriented towards their desired targets.
These are the essential components which is important in business management. There
are special benefits which will help them to complete the assignments and they can focus on
achieving the desired targets in an effective manner. They can develop their career and become
more professional towards their job which arise in the future.
Demonstrating effective communication skills to work in the team
Swot analysis – This is the suitable framework which can help the individuals to improve
areas in a significant manner. There are multiple factors in swot analysis which is been described
below:

Strengths
 Learning new things – Being a student the major focus is to learn new things with the
help of course materials and various utilities. They can make the the desired career in
business management.
 Improving the efforts – Being a student I maximise my efforts in order to perform best
in the given tasks and activities. This will certainly help to achieve the necessary targets.
There are new things which can be attained in the professional career.
Weakness
 Overthinking – This is the major aspects which is been affecting the efficiency. I use the
new techniques which is been affecting the assessments in a negative manner.
 Mismanaging the duties and tasks – I cannot schedule my work properly and needs re-
evaluate the schedule in order to complete the work on time.
Opportunities
 Working with coordination in the team – This is the opportunity on which I can
capitalise in need to develop the effective communication skills in order to work best in
the team. The major focus is to use new techniques which will help to work better in the
business management.
 Time management – This is also an opportunity which needs to be capitalised properly.
With the help of proper schedule the management of the activities increase my work
proficiency.
Threats
 Writing skills – There are multiple assignments and projects which is been given in the
area of business management. The writing skills needs to be improved in a proper manner
in order to finish the projects.
 Critical thinking skills – This is the skill which will help to solve the complex problems
with the help of various solutions and multiple ideas and strategies. There are multiple
objectives which can be achieved in the future with the help of this skill.
Action Plan
This is the tool which is been used to overcome the weakness and help the individual to
enhance their overall skills and capabilities. The Action plan is been prepared below:

Skills Importance Action Time taken
Communication
skills
This is the skills which help the
individuals to communicate
effectively with every other
individual. They can asks the
doubts and questions in a better
way and complete the work
duties and responsibilities in a
strategic manner.
To enhance the
communication skill the
major focus is to use the
new techniques and to
communicate with
different people which
have various
backgrounds and culture.
3 to 4 Months.
Coordination
skills
This is the skill which help to
work better in the team. There
are multiple techniques which is
been used in order to perform
best and achieve the targets
which is been set by the
management.
To improve the
coordination skills the
individual needs to select
the team which has the
desired skills and
capabilities in order to
complete the projects in
a uniformed manner.
4 to 6 months
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been analysed that there are various skills which is
necessary for the individual in order to achieve development in an effective manner. On the other
hand, there is discussion about the action plan which is important in order to improve the critical
areas.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Network Learning Community Using an Online Learning Platform. International
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Elliott, and etal 2022. Multi-informant formative and summative assessments of SEL skill
development. In Assessing Competencies for Social and Emotional Learning (pp. 189-
209). Routledge.
Gruzdev, and et.al 2018. University Graduates' Soft Skills: The Employers' Opinion. European
journal of contemporary education, 7(4), pp.690-698.
Kunicina, and et.al 2019, July. Development of entrepreneurship skills for students creative
thinking support in higher education. In 2019 International Conference in Engineering
Applications (ICEA) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Lehnen, C.A., 2021. Skills, support networks, and socialization: Needs of dissertating graduate
students. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(5), p.102430.
Levy, I. and Lemberger-Truelove, M., 2021. Supporting practicing school counselor’s skill
development: A hip hop and spoken word professional development intervention.
Maisiri, W., Darwish, H. and Van Dyk, L., 2019. An investigation of industry 4.0 skills
requirements. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 30(3), pp.90-105.
Sinha, R., 2021. General, technical, and professional education: Employability skill gaps.
In India Higher Education Report 2020 (pp. 132-152). Routledge India.