TLH346: Professional Development and Employability in Service Sector

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of professional development within the service sector, particularly focusing on the hospitality industry. It includes a self-reflective evaluation of personal and professional skills, referencing current research on graduate employability. The essay elaborates on essential skills for graduate success, analyzes existing skill gaps, and proposes strategies to overcome these gaps. It also reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of using professional blogs, websites, and social media for career development. The report emphasizes the importance of training and education for future success, and includes a PEST analysis to examine the external environment of the hospitality industry. Key skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and creative thinking are highlighted, alongside the need for developing interpersonal and data analytics skills. The essay also discusses the Big Five personality assessment model and its role in identifying working preferences and learning styles.

TLH346 ASSESSMENT
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT FOR THE
SERVICE SECTOR

Table of Contents
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................3
Essay................................................................................................................................................3
ASSESSMENT 2...........................................................................................................................12
Introduction....................................................................................................................................12
Advantages and disadvantages......................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

ASSESSMENT 1
Essay
Professional development’s is the process of increasing and improving the capabilities in the
service sector workplace through training and education opportunities. It is the process to
identify the objectives and learning skills to helps students to grow and succeed at work.
Professional developments are referred as doing better in the current position in the business and
corporate life. Professional developments in services sector with the help of training and
education to meet the goals and objectives and become successful in business life. This report
will discuss the self-reflective essay, evaluate the personal and professional developments of
myself (Sarkar, 2020). This report will also elaborate the current research on the graduate
employability within the hospitality industry as well as elaborate the various types of skills
which are required for graduate success and also analysis the current skills. Furthermore, this
report will also elaborate the skills gap and plan to overcome with the skill's gap. This report will
also reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing the professional blog, website and
social media for career development as well as evaluate the various skills and consider the
importance of training and education in the professional developments for future succeed. My
chosen career is to become the marketing manager in the hospitality industry.
Employability is a capability of individual to secure employments and it is based on the
skills, knowledge, personal characteristics and reaction of employees. The attributes towards the
changes in the location and vocations of employees as well as planning career and trends. This
helps in provide the security, independence, self-image and social status. When I graduate
college and went to join the workforce and my days of studying are over. However, the
professional developments are necessity and keep up to date with trends. In the service industry,
knowledge and job well are specially matter. In the current situation, there are requirements of
the current knowledge about the marketing and trends marketing in the competitive marketplace.
Service sector is the primary drive of economy (Bhagra and Sharma, 2018). For the professional
developments there are not only maintain to my job after the graduate but also need to build
knowledge and skills regarding the job. I also need to take my job experience so far. In the
hospitality industry the marketing team are always looking for ways to inspire, engage and
develop workforce and it is not my company responsibilities to increase my skills. My
professional development will base on that how I take my responsibilities. I become honest and

assess my own strength and weakness and trying to improve my knowledge and skills for
professional developments. I will take my own initiates to improve my professional skills. My
personal attributes that make graduates make to gain the employment’s and helps in become
successful in my marketing manager occupations and that will benefit my community, workforce
and the economy. I can improve my professional developments with the help of training and
certification course after the graduate employability. In the graduate employability, training and
certification courses helps in improve the professional development’s in service sectors.
Certificate holders have the options of attending the conference, webinars’, writing in service
sector about customer’s services.
Social media also helps in keep up to date is to follow experts, join group’s and organization
that are important and relevant to hospitality industry (Pang, 2019). On the social media
platform, there are various leaders and quality writers who share their knowledge and wisdom
for free. Subscribe with the blog, email list and professional membership helps in keep up to date
with current trends. I can also be searching about information and improve my skills and gain
knowledge. I can take benefits of knowledge and guide my juniors to work in coordinate and
corporations in appropriate manner. I can get helps from my senior leaders because they guide
me, encourage and helps in become success in professional sector.
There are various types of skills and attributes lead to graduate success. There are attributes
which must be in graduate to become success and I have this attributes for my professional
developments such as graduate must have the comprehensive knowledge and understanding of
subject as well as have the deep discipline knowledge. Graduate also require the critical thinking,
problem solving skills because it helps in innovative response to the future challenges. Graduate
also have the team work and communication skills because it helps in contribute to corporate life
and collaborate in manner to achieve the common goals and objectives (Obi, Hampton and
Awuzie, 2020). Graduate must be engaged in the professionalism behaviours because it is most
important in future career as well as take leadership roles in chosen careers and occupations.
Graduate must be responsible and effective for the intercultural and ethical competency that can
be faced by them in corporate life. Graduate must have the self-awareness and emotional
intelligence attributes because they have to take responsibilities for their actions in career. I have
this all graduate attributes to become success in professional life and that also helps in my
professional developments in service sectors.

There are various skills which are also required for the graduate employability such as
commercial awareness, communication skills, team work, problem solving, leadership,
motivations, confidence, etc. that all skills are most important for graduate to become
employment’s in professional career (Osmani, 2019). These skills and attributes are required in
hospitality industry to become marketing manager because they are responsible advertising and
promotional programs, increase profitability, increase customers base and also responsible for
maximize the hotel revenues. However, communication skill helps in communicate to customers
and other employees of organization and team work skills helps in manage and collaborate the
team together for marketing about the hotel industry. Leadership and motivation skills are also
required in the hospitality industry because there is requirement of motivation to marketing
teams and also need to monitor them. Discipline attributes are also important to seeking
employment in hospitality industry as well as problem solving attributes are requiring for solving
marketing related issues in hospitality industry. Teamwork involves in every job of hospitality
industry. If become marketing manager in industry than I have to work with my whole team and
manage them with coordination’s. Marketing manager must be multi-tasking in order to deal
with the various job in one day (Oliver and Jorre de St Jorre, 2018). As well as flexibility are
also required in the hospitality industry because staff may work long and difficult shifts in day as
well as remain flexible with the personal plans to ensure that they can work for long time.
For the industry analysis, the pest analysis is used and it stands for political, economic
social and technological. It is the useful framework to analysis the external environments of
industry. In the context of political factors, the government’s influence to industry for the growth
and developments in the skills and provide the better facilities to customers as well as take
initiatives development’s for the business and employees (Heimerl, 2020). In the context of
economics, the skills and knowledge also helps in develop the economic so, the economic factors
influence to hospitality industry for spend money I the training and education of employees. In
the context of social factors, cultural are most important in the professional career so, the social
factors consider the cultural and create opportunities for company and customers because the
social factors can badly affect the hospitality industry. It can create the skill shortage and do not
seek the employments opportunities (Odey, 2021). Technological factors I hospitality industry
also helps in employees to serve customers and it is the biggest development’s in hospitality
industry that are helpful to employees and organization both.

In the context of self-analysis, my current skills and attributes are various such as
communication skills, team work, problem solving skills, creative thinking skills, motivation
skills and multitasking skills. These are skills and attributes are found with the help of self-
analysis tools such as big five assessments and strength finder tools. The strength finder
analysis tools are an online assessment tools that helps in determine the greatest potential for
building strengths. It helps in outlines my five talents and that helps in desired to my chosen
career and also make what good or me. It helps in self-analysis that I have various skills such as
creative skills, motivational skills, problem solving skills and multi-tasking skills but is also
highlights the weakness which are required in the marketing manager professional such as
interpersonal skills, data analytics skills the interpersonal skills helps will help in develop the
capabilities and abilities of active listening, empathy and emotional intelligence because these
skills are also required in seeking the marketing manager in hospitality industry (Tantry, 2021).
Interpersonal skills are most important for doing the job in proper and effective ways as well as it
will also help in the professional developments. If I will do my job in proper ways and
accomplish the business goals then I can get the rewards and promotion for my honesty and work
and that is the professional developments in career so, I have to improve my interpersonal skills
Team work skills will help in hospitality as marketing manager to manage the whole
team work together and also prepare customers services on time and correct standards.
Multitasking skills will also help in hospitality industry to deal with the various job roles,
problem solving skills will help in solve the complex problems in marketing and manage
effectively and efficiently. In moreover, Motivational skills will help in motivate employees in
organization and marketing team as well as creative skills will also help in provide the various
ideas which are required in marketing the products and services of organization to customers.
Communication skills are most important for the marketing manager (Savchenko, 2020). I will
be ensuring that customers are happy or not with the communication skills and also encourage
them to interact about the hospitality. Problem solving skills are most essential to handle the
customers queries as marketing manager in hospitality industry and have to deal with the
multiple questions of customers and solving problems every day. It is very important to have a
strong skill set which can help in building a great career prospect. For the job role of a marketing

manager in the hospitality industry I have few skills which will be really helpful and further I
need to develop skills which will help me secure a better career. Communication skills are
already strong as over the years in the university and personal life also these skills have been
practised really well, yet I feel there is need to develop a strong personality related skills as
having a professional personality will make a really good impression in the professional life and
interviews.
Further there is enough bookish knowledge and know hoe of the marketing job role
which has been gained by the degree and courses at the University yet there is a strong need for
the experience. As in the current times experience plays a very big role, when a person has
experience of working, he has the knowledge of the practicality of the job role and such
experience can be acquired via joining the internships at the various hotels, and other segments
in the hospitality industry. It will develop a true sense of practical knowledge and how the actual
work, what are the roles and responsibilities that are required in the job role. As such experience
in the resume can turn out to be a powerful edge in the industry.
The big five personality assessment are also known as the five factor model helps in
divide the people into the five personality traits such as conscientiousness, openness,
agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism. These models and self-analysis tolls helps me in
identify my particular working preference and learning styles. The extraversion is helps in found
learning styles in energetic vs. reserved. Agreeableness found the friendly vs. challenging.
Neuroticism found nervous vs. confident. Conscientiousness found organized vs. careless.
Openness found that inventive vs. consistent. This is the five personality traits and it helps in
found my personality that I am neuroticism and openness but there are other personalities traits
which I require improving for seeking my career in hospitality industry. So I need to become
energetic, friendly an organized for seeking my career I hospitality industry as marketing
manager (Hoyer, 2022). My current skills that I am confident and that helps in accomplish my
job in smooth ways I will not be got nervous to do my job and I will able to talk customers and
employees in confident ways as well as coordinate to others as manager in confident ways
because nervousness can affect my job and my personality. I am inventive and it helps in
professional development to achieve the goals and objectives of my personal life. I need to
improve my friendly behaviour because it is most essentials in the professional career to
collaborate with others and I also have to become more energetic to achieve my career for long

term success. Energetic personality traits help in attract others employees and encourage them to
work with energy or accomplish the goals and objectives to hospitality industry. I also have to
become more organized for seeking the marketing manager because marketing manager meed's
to organize the schedule, advertisements, products and services and customers list so, I have to
learned that how to organize everything in systematic way to avoid the mess up and
misunderstanding in task.
The skill gaps are disconnection between the skills which are required by the employees to
perform the particular job. The workforce is the major expenditure of the hospitality industry.
Skill gap in the hospitality industry is essentials because it quickly involves in the environments.
The biggest challenges in the United Kingdom hospitality industry is lack of soft skills in
employees. There are various skills which I require learning for marketing manager career
because soft skills are most important in the hospitality industry. These skills are time
management, people management. Listening skills, negotiation, Cultural competence and social
and ethical awareness skill are most important for me to accomplish my career goals (Jackman,
2021). Skills are most important for hospitality to manage the customer’s services and service
sectors. My all skills gap can be overcome with the help of developments activities.
Time management skills are most important for the marketing manager in hospitality
industry because every task need to be done in the accurate and timely manner are
responsibilities of manager so, I need to improve my time management skills. If I am able to
complete my task at the time, then I should able to accomplish my task at appropriate time. I can
overcome my time management skill gap with the help of ion the job training because it can be
overcome with the practice in actual job. In other words, this is basically learning by doing. I
should learn how to use time and how to save timing as well as how many times require
accomplishing specific task so; I should overcome my time management skill gap through on the
job training. This development's activity helps in save my time and also my assignment’s task
should also complete with the training or developments activities.
Every manager requires the people management skills. People management are skill gap
and I need to improve my people management skills because it is mots important for the manager
in the hospitality industry, people can be employees and customers so, I need to improve my
skills gap because hospitality industry consist the different age group people with different ideas
and background so people management are need to ensure that every member are reach their

maximum potentials, boost staff morale, improve productivity and people management also
helps in reduce stress and offer support in the hotel industry. I need to develop my skill with the
help of online training development activities (Restuccia and Taska, 2018). I should learn about
that how to manage people as become the marketing manager in hotel company. Online training
based on the informal learning with the help of watching YouTube videos, educational blogs and
post, etc. the online training throughout their carer to enhance the skill's consultancy with the
managers and supervisors. Hospitality industry also support the worker’s skill development for
future responsibilities that company hopes with marketing manager. Training of employees is the
ideals development methods and activities when it comes to both hard and soft skills.
Active listening skill are also most important for become successful in hospitality.
Marketing manager also need to hear actively what customers want and issues arises by
customer’s regarding the products and services in hotel industry, So I need to develop my active
listening skill because I am not good listener. Listening for solve problems of customers, make
them happy, win praise and cultivate loyalty. Listening skill helps in enhance my ability to
understand as well as helps in make me better communicator. I should prefer the conference
development activities for develop the listening skills. Conference workshop helps in improve
listening skill as well as increase the awareness, knowledge of relevant topics. This also helps in
additionally assist with communication skill.
Stress management skill are also having to develop because working as a marketing
manager in industry is more hectic and tired for me so, I have to develop my stress management
skill with the help of mentor, they will help me that how to develop stress management which are
most important because there may various types of stress and difficulties such as tiredness, so I
should develop my stress management with the help of mentor because they enhance experience
to manage stress. Stress can affect the personal health and strength (Adepoju and Aigbavboa,
2021). So, I require doing regular exercise as well as adopt healthy life styles for managing work
in proper manner. Mentoring developments activity are also used to develop the high level skills,
strategic management and long term vision skills. Coaching are also the best method to develop
the skills gap and it is effective in developing skills.
Negotiation skills are also requiring in the hospitality industry as marketing manager.
Negotiation is the art and skill that are required in the hospitality sectors for handle and manage
the conflicts and negotiation effectively with the various people such as clients, customers,

employees and business employees. I should develop this skill with helps of patience and
simulation. I should avoid to informal communication and words. Negotiation helps in avoid the
conflicts and it is manager responsibilities to maintain the good environments and cultures in
business.
Cultural competence skills are also most important in the hospitality industry to attract
the more customers and employees within the organization as well as it helps in retain the more
customers and employee’s because the cultural competence attract more employees
(Goryushkina, 2019). Cultural competence is also having to improve in me according to the
business culture and it is essential to adopt the culture such as language, antiquates, etc. this can
improve with the help of mentorship because they have lot of experience regarding the cultural
competence of business and it is the easiest ways to develop the cultural competence skills.
Cultural awareness is most important for marketing manager so, I should aware about culture
and have the ability to understand and interact with people in company culture. I should respect
to all the diversity of culture which present in the wider community.
Social and ethical awareness are also important for the hospitality industry because
various customers which interact on the daily basis so, caring for environment’s, people and
communities are essential that helps in attract the more customers and employees (Tran, 2018). It
is responsibilities of marketing manager, so I should learn about the social and ethical awareness.
The hospitality skills are transferable skill that can be use in the other areas and job because it
consists the varieties of knowledge, skills, emotional intelligence and customers service
knowledge that all types of skill are useful in the other departments and other professional. In
other words, it helps in my professional development’s and helps in successful in the future.
However, I should improve my all weakness and skills gap because all are essential for become
marketing manager in hospitality industry. I should learn my all skills and improve with the
developments activities that helps in achieve all the skill's gap which are important for hospitality
industry.
In this essay, I learnt about that there are various skills which are I require improving and
develop for the market managers career in the hospitality industry. In the conclusion, I elaborated
self-analysis with the various tools such as strength finer and big five personality assessment to
identify the weakness and strength of myself. I learnt that I have various graduate employment
skills and soft skills which are required in the occupation and professional developments such as

team work, communication skills, problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, etc. but I also
realized that there are various skills which I should improve for my chosen career such as social
and ethical awareness, cultural competence, time management, people management, etc. and
analysis that how to overcome with the various developments activities such as coaching,
mentorship, online training, simulation and on the job training.

ASSESSMENT 2
Introduction
In the modern times, employment is not just about the offline mode of interviews where
just qualifications and score card used to matter rather it is more about overall self of an
individual that matters. Employability of an individual is reflected through various mediums
such as university score cards, skills, co-curricular interests, habits, etc. and social media
platforms and digital platforms help in recognizing the same in a better approach (Vițelar, 2019).
Advantages and disadvantages
Technological advancement such as development of the websites, social media etc. has
helped people and business in so many ways. Yet just like every coin has two sides, use of
websites and social media also has its own advantages and disadvantage. Let's discuss the same
in detail.
Advantages:
Under the context of the career and general use there are several ways in which social
media and websites has benefited the career of the people and businesses. One of such great
advantage is the learning & showcasing of the skill set for the better resume and expertise.
Using social media and websites where profile of the individual shows the qualification, skills
and strengths a person possess (David and et.al., 2018). As many recruiters are present on the
websites and sites such as LinkedIn, indeed etc. where recruiters can directly check the profiles
of the people seeking the employment and this way it gets easy for an individual to have access
to the better jobs in the industry.
Cost effective way is another such advantage, as physically going to each recruiter and
dealing the procedure is a hectic, time-consuming and costly matter, rather choosing the online
modes where you can directly reach to the employer makes it easy. Also, such websites gives a
pool of hiring companies who provide ample of opportunities and help built a strong career. The
visibility on such platforms is very high due to the strong technological support and algorithm
which are not effective in the offline mode.
Ability of the social media platform to keep an individual updated about the need
and requirement of the new skills in the industry is an advantage which benefits the career.
As in the fast changing times it becomes very important to stay updated with the current
technology and skills required in an industry (Zhang and et.al., 2019). As those who lose

relatability in the industry tends to have a weak career prospect. People who learn new things
now and then has the best career prospect in the industry.
Such social media platforms facilitates the connections in the industry which us very
important. It is considered to be growth indicator in one's career span when they have great
connections in the industry. As these connections helps one grow fast and get recognition in the
long term which makes a person secure better job roles in the future. Platforms like linked in and
indeed provides the facility where you can increase your network and build connections with the
people who can help enhance the employability in the future. There is no need to meet the person
physically to build professional relationships rather the virtual relationships are enough in
technological times.
It also helps in creating awareness about a new idea or innovation regarding a job or
business. As it is difficult to reach large number of people in offline mode, as offline there is
limited reach. The websites and social media platforms makes an idea to go viral and reach to
every sector of the society.
Disadvantages:
There are several disadvantages as well regarding the use of the websites and social
media for the career and general use. Let's discuss these drawbacks in detail. Very first is “losing
the physical touch” as no matter how good a person's personality is and how well they carry
themselves, in the online mode the employer will never be able to know such qualities of the
individual. Which is the biggest disadvantage of the websites and social media use for the
employability (Nisar, Prabhakar and Strakova, 2019). Physically present for the interviews
makes a different impression only and allows the employer to know the real self of a person.
Many a times due to poor connection and network issue there arise a gap of
communication between the employer and employee which makes a person form a terrible
impression. Also, such things makes the relationship between the job seeker and hiring personnel
very vague and baseless. As there are no such basis of knowing the individual. It affects the
employability of the person.
Further, it is very difficult to create a serious social media account or account on
websites. As for enhancing the employability it is needed for a person to put forward their best
professional self. Social media platforms makes it difficult to create and retain a professional
account which showcases the skills and expertise in the most effective ways. How mush a person

is proficient in the skills they are mentioning in their accounts is very difficult to be measured.
As two people mentioning the same skill will not allow the employer to decide whom to contact
for the job role and such things can make the process really difficult (Quesenberry, 2020).
Problem of maintaining the uniqueness, as there are many accounts with similar skills
and it becomes difficult for the employer to know who is best among them with the highest
expertise required for the job role. Hackers and scams present on each such platforms can make
it really difficult some times as your personal and professional information is on display and
such sensitive information can get leaked which may result into negative impression. Also, you
can fall prey to such hackers and scams while searching for the job. Therefore, it can be said that
there are serious disadvantages as well (Dumford and Miller, 2018).
Conclusion
The above report has comprehensively stated the advantages and disadvantages of the
websites and social media in the context of the career and general use. It has highlighted several
important points as development of the skill set which is important in modern times for the better
career prospect and how businesses are thriving because of the technological advancements.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adepoju, O.O. and Aigbavboa, C.O., 2021. Assessing knowledge and skills gap for construction
4.0 in a developing economy. Journal of Public Affairs. 21(3). p.e2264.
Bhagra, A. and Sharma, D.K., 2018. Changing paradigm of employability skills in the global
business world: A review. IUP Journal of Soft Skills. 12(2).
David, J. L. and et.al., 2018. College student athletes and social media: The psychological
impacts of Twitter use. International Journal of Sport Communication. 11(2). pp.163-
186.
Dumford, A. D. and Miller, A. L., 2018. Online learning in higher education: exploring
advantages and disadvantages for engagement. Journal of Computing in Higher
Education. 30(3). pp.452-465.
Goryushkina, N.,and et.al., 2019. Theoretical aspects of entrepreneurial education for hospitality
industry. Journal of Environmental Management & Tourism, 10(4 (36)), pp.835-841.
Heimerl, P., and et.al., 2020. Factors influencing job satisfaction in hospitality industry. SAGE
open.10(4). p.2158244020982998.
Hoyer, M., and et.al., 2022. Analysis tools for single-monomer measurements of self-assembly
processes. Scientific reports. 12(1). pp.1-13.
Jackman, J.A., and et.al., 2021. Addressing the digital skills gap for future education. Nature
Human Behaviour.5(5). pp.542-545.
Nisar, T. M., Prabhakar, G. and Strakova, L., 2019. Social media information benefits,
knowledge management and smart organizations. Journal of Business Research. 94.
pp.264-272.
Obi, L., Hampton, P. and Awuzie, B., 2020. Total interpretive structural modelling of graduate
employability skills for the built environment sector. Education Sciences. 10(12). p.369.
Odey, L.D., 2021. An Evaluation of Challenges Affecting New Technology Startups in the
United Kingdom Today: A Pest Analysis.
Oliver, B. and Jorre de St Jorre, T., 2018. Graduate attributes for 2020 and beyond:
Recommendations for Australian higher education providers. Higher Education
Research & Development. 37(4). pp.821-836.
Osmani, M., and et.al., 2019. Graduates employability skills: A review of literature against
market demand. Journal of Education for Business.94(7).pp.423-432.
Pang, E., and et.al., 2019. Competencies for fresh graduates’ success at work: Perspectives of
employers. Industry and Higher Education.33(1).pp.55-65.
Quesenberry, K. A., 2020. Social media strategy: Marketing, advertising, and public relations in
the consumer revolution. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Restuccia, D. and Taska, B., 2018, July. Different skills, different gaps: Measuring and closing
the skills gap. In Developing Skills in a Changing World of Work (pp. 207-226). Rainer
Hampp Verlag.
Sarkar, M., and et.al., 2020. Academics’ perspectives of the teaching and development of generic
employability skills in science curricula. Higher Education Research &
Development.39(2).pp.346-361.
Savchenko, O., 2020. Psychosemantic tools of self-assessing individual reflectivity.
Tantry, T.P., and et.al., 2021. Self-learning software tools for data analysis in meta-
analysis. Korean Journal of Anesthesiology. 74(5).pp.459-461.

Tran, L.H.N., 2018. Game of blames: Higher education stakeholders’ perceptions of causes of
Vietnamese graduates’ skills gap. International Journal of Educational
Development. 62(C). pp.302-312.
Vițelar, A., 2019. Like me: Generation Z and the use of social media for personal branding.
Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy. 7(2). pp.257-268.
Zhang, X. and et.al., 2019. How social media usage affects employees’ job satisfaction and
turnover intention: An empirical study in China. Information & Management. 56(6).
p.103136.

3