Project/Placement Design & Implementation: Learning Contract & Report

This document comprises a student's learning contract and project report undertaken for the PPDI5039 module at GSM University, focusing on professional development through a work-based simulation. The learning contract outlines the student's aims, including career growth and skill development in areas such as time management, communication, leadership, and decision-making. The project utilizes the Cesim Project Management Simulation platform to gain practical experience and enhance employability. The report details the project's context, methods, and phases, reflecting on the skills acquired and the student's learning journey. It includes a timetable, evidence of accomplishment, references, and appendices, such as a Gantt chart and weekly logbooks. The student aims to build a portfolio demonstrating skills relevant to a Human Resource career, addressing topics like project management, conflict resolution, and the evolving demands of the job market. The report also highlights the importance of continuous learning and the development of critical thinking abilities.

TASK1
Learning Contract Level 5 Project
Section 1: Student and course details
Name: Avila Cristy Barreto
Tutor:
Project/Placement name:
Section 2: Focus
Aim/Problem Statement
This project is focused on design and development of professional development plan
for future success and career growth of each individual. In other words, for individual
career development skills and knowledge gaining are the crucial elements rather
factors. The skills and knowledge of any person is measured based on certain
Performance Measurement Metrics (PMM) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Work based simulation always helps to attract more numbers of employers than the
traditional approaches. The aim of this project is to develop and obtain skills that will
help each individual to make their chosen career pathway smoother and complex
free. The skills which are important for accomplishing this project are as follows:
Time management skills: the time management plan will help the employers to
learn how to become punctual by meeting deadlines and attending lecture classes.
Communication: Through open communication the employers become capable to
interact with the rest of the members efficiently
Leadership: The virtual teams should be lead by the employers. Being a leader the
employers will be able to become much skilled and experienced as well.
Team collaboration: Collaborative team work enables the students to become
stronger and provide high opportunities to develop their skills and performance.
Decision making: Negotiating based on change and additional needs is an
important part for project success. Thus, each student should have a decision
making power.
Continuous planning: Each student should focus on continuous planning. With the
help of continuous improvement program the students will be able to meet the
project goals and objectives at the project initiation phase.

Learning Outcomes
As a result of this project I am able:
1. Build a portfolio of evidence using a range of methodologies and activities (log
books; critical incident diaries; employer or supervisor feedback).
2. Identify and articulate the development of work related skills mapped to
evidence drawn from either the project or placement.
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the background and context
relative to the chosen project or placement opportunity.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of preparation and planning undertaken prior to the
placement or project implementation.
Section 3: Justification
Aimless personality can never give a bright career to any individual therefore;
students should always become focused to their career pathway regarding whet
designation they want to hold in the upcoming future. In order to reach success in
career any person should first set a goal and motive in their life. The person who
does not have an aim cannot take any decision about his or her life easily. Career
goal can help a student to take decision throughout the life phases. Hopefully Human
Resource career is referred to as an aim which involves different requirements. For
becoming an employability material I think I have to develop myself a lot in diverse
sectors. Directly a large goal cannot be achieved, through taking steps final goals
can be accessed by individuals. For instance, if I want to become a human resource
manager then I have to obtain all the skills that a human resource manager needs to
possess.
In order to become a high level expertise skills and knowledge are identified as the
vital abilities. The employers always show much interest if they recognizes that one
particular student is really willing to learn new skills for career development.
Advanced skills always increase the confidence level of an applicant. Besides
confidence look the other things that also attracts the interviewer are attractive and
prominent Resume/CV, cover letters etc. However, for different disciplines different
skills like functional, operational and occupational skills are required. The other skills
for which always the employers search for include critical thinking ability, out of box
thinking, teamwork, legal and ethical responsible personality, communication skills,
interpersonal skills, problem solving capabilities etc.
In each of the phases of this project I think I will be able to discover myself or unfold
myself as a professional long with my skills and experiences. This project will also
help me to determine the learning pathway or directions much clearly. I think that
with the successful end of the project I will become a critical thinker and an

autonomous learner. I have realized that project management simulation will help me
to keep myself engaged with the useful management skills. I would be definitely able
to apply my knowledge and skills while leading any project and guiding the project
team members being a project lead. My decision making power and problem solving
ability will also help me to resolve the intra organizational conflicts including cultural
and language barrier issues. I think that, conflict resolution is the most important
awareness program which should be conducted throughout the project design,
development and implementation phases. I think that being a professional I would
also be able to identify the work discrimination between a project manager and
project leader.
It is found that the business models are frequently changing due to financial, static,
mechanical interruptions. In fact for some of the job designations also it is changing
the required knowledge and skills as well. For instance, if a box manufacturing
company replaces the human resources of their factory by robots then the skills of
the working factory labours will be no longer required. As employee turnover will not
be easy thus they will be appointed to some other jobs where they are not even
having any skills or knowledge. Therefore, in such cases they will have to learn from
the very beginning which is just not costly for the employees but for the factory also.
Dye to the simultaneously changing eco system employees will have to gain
knowledge in different sectors. For this reason the employee will face issues like
shelf life shortening.
These days it is also determined that there are some companies which are not
happy by hiring new graduates as they all are may be having degrees but not
professional skills of communication, decision making, leadership, consumers
awareness, self management, punctuality etc. The new generations are somewhere
found to have lesser committed and loyal to their assigned roles. The new
generation required to possess enough of skills such as how to protect themselves in
their career pathway.
Section 4: Methods
I have chosen the project on personal development in terms simulation as the
method direction. The GSM University from which currently I am pursuing my degree
does not provide any placement but it gives opportunity to work with the Cesim
Project Management Simulation platform. On the other hand, GSM is the only
University which has the module in the semester. Through the help of this system I
will be able to learn much both in terms of skills and knowledge. It will help me to
posses work based experiences about how to become a good leader, decision
maker, problem solver etc. I will be able to challenge myself through this project
moreover I think I can increase my employability changes through this project.

Section 5: Timetable
WBS List of activities Duration Start Finish
0 Project Schedule 111 days Tue 6/12/18 Tue 11/13/18
1 Introduction on the project/
project overview 14 days Tue 6/12/18 Fri 6/29/18
2 Project scope 10 days Mon 7/2/18 Fri 7/13/18
3 Details of the learning
contract 18 days Mon 7/16/18 Wed 8/8/18
4 Project group formation 7 days Thu 8/9/18 Fri 8/17/18
5 Project practice round 7 days Mon 8/20/18 Tue 8/28/18
6 First round 7 days Wed 8/29/18 Thu 9/6/18
7 Second round 7 days Fri 9/7/18 Mon 9/17/18
8 Third round 7 days Tue 9/18/18 Wed 9/26/18
9 Fourth round 7 days Thu 9/27/18 Fri 10/5/18
10 Draft copy submission 20 days Mon 10/8/18 Fri 11/2/18
11 Final project draft
submission 7 days Mon 11/5/18 Tue 11/13/18
Section 6: Evidence of accomplishment
With the successful completion of this project I will develop a portfolio comprises of
the below elements:
 Weekly logbook
 Gantt chart
 Incident logbook
 Project progress report
 Evidence of communication
 Ethical review form

Section 7: References
De los Ríos-Carmenado, I.G.N.A.C.I.O., Lopez, F.R. and Garcia, C.P., 2015.
Promoting professional project management skills in engineering higher education:
Project-based learning (PBL) strategy. International journal of engineering
education, 31(1), pp.184-198.
Kendellen, K. and Camiré, M., 2017. Examining the life skill development and
transfer experiences of former high school athletes. International Journal of Sport
and Exercise Psychology, 15(4), pp.395-408.
Liaw, S.N., Sullivan, A., Joselow, M., Duncan, J. and Wolfe, J., 2016. Impact of an
Interprofessional Training Program in Pediatric Palliative Care on Interprofessional
Competencies and Career Development of Former Fellows (S780). Journal of Pain
and Symptom Management, 51(2), pp.451-452.
Mackay, M., 2017. Identity formation: professional development in practice
strengthens a sense of self. Studies in Higher Education, 42(6), pp.1056-1070.
Nicholson, J., Capitelli, S., Richert, A.E., Bauer, A. and Bonetti, S., 2016. The
Affordances of Using a Teacher Leadership Network to Support Leadership
Development: Creating Collaborative Thinking Spaces to Strengthen Teachers' Skills
in Facilitating Productive Evidence-Informed Conversations. Teacher Education
Quarterly, 43(1), pp.29-50.
Sangster, C., 2017. Planning and organizing personal and professional
development. Routledge.
Sheldon, L.K. and Hilaire, D.M., 2015. Development of communication skills in
healthcare: Perspectives of new graduates of undergraduate nursing
education. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 5(7), p.30.
Tan, L.M. and Laswad, F., 2018. Professional skills required of accountants: what do
job advertisements tell us?. Accounting Education, 27(4), pp.403-432.
Section 8: List of appendices to this learning contract
 Gantt Chart (Refer to Appendix 1)
What is a Learning Contract/Agreement/Plan?
It is a formal document that defines what is expected from you while working on the
work based project. The learning contract sets out the parameters for the task that
you are expected to undertake so as to meet the assessment criteria (learning
outcomes). You would need to focus on the elements given in the above proforma

for learning and delineate the details in the learning contract/plan and focus on the
following key generic components:
 What are you going to learn?
 How are you going to learn it?
 What objectives are you going to set?
 What are the target date(s) for each activity and completion?
 How are you going to know that you have learned and achieved the set
objectives?
 What evidence are you going to generate to prove that you have learned it?
This is your responsibility to tailor the above learning contract to the case study. You
are required to explicitly articulate what objectives you are going to set, what
activities would be undertaken, which sources of information or data need to be
collected to ensure that the learning outcomes are achieved. You would need to
discuss and seek guidelines from Tutors/supervisors. You would need to agree
/negotiate the learning contract with your Tutor/supervisor, include the signed copy
of the learning contract in final submission and submit it along with the portfolio. It is
to ensure that transparent, feasible and verifiable set of activities are established in
the learning contract which enables you to meet the learning outcomes of the
Module and achieves the assessment criteria.
Signed: Tutor/Supervisor
Signed: Student
Date:
(Insert ethics form as well)

TASK2
Project Report Level 5 Project
1. Context/Background
The following report will hold the accumulated experiences as well as the learning
that has been resented in the Project or Placement Design and Implementation of
PPDI module. The entire report would uncover the specific areas consisting of the
different theories as well as the models which are utilised for helping the leadership.
As for example, the same help that is provided by Tuckman's Team and Group
Development Model in the Project Phases.
The Cesim simulation is taken due to its potential of holding a platform that has been
created to carry forward the knowledge of different skills. The skills would be easier
to get transformed into the real life works (Majeed et al. 2018). The individual goal
setup refers to the completion of a virtual project which is assigned to an individual
and the rest of the members present within the group. Every member would be a
part of the virtual team in which they would have to assign task for completion as
well as starting the simulation of the project. This would enable the skills that would
be merging valuable for every employer. These skills can be the stakeholder
management, teamwork, communication, commitment, leadership, business
etiquette, planning and decision making. Mental process of simulation it consists of
one round for practice 14 actual rounds that would keep a track of every progress
that the group has been making and this would be compared to every other team
after every round has been completed. The entire process for this would require
internet but it would not make use of any application to download or any payment to
make (Kokcharov 2015). The entire task could be programmed in such a way that no
person would be able to cheat within the program or overcome any task. It may also
require that some of the task should be done before they can be assigned to the
others. Therefore, the entire coordination as well as organisation would be needed
for the team members to complete the simulation themselves.
2. Literature Review (models and theories)
The word 'trans disciplinary' has gained the status of being a famous world within the
academic field. It can be defined as two or more disciplines combining together to
create a completely new result from both the perspectives of the disciplines but they
are completely different from either of the two disciplines used. Raes et al. (2015),
provides the clear explanation for this section in which the author is able to break
down the different disciplinarities for them to be understood by people in a better
way.
Intra-disciplinary: this word puts forward the meaning of working within only one
discipline.

Cross-disciplinary: this is defined as a perspective of a discipline from the
perspective of another discipline.
Multidisciplinary: this world is defined as the people from various disciplinary
backgrounds but working together and sharing all the knowledge that they have
gathered so far.
Interdisciplinary: this word defines the combination of the knowledge as well as the
methods for the various disciplines (Brulin and Svensson 2016).
Trans-disciplinary: this particular word can be defined as the combination or the
unified intellectual structures which makes out the lookout for the various disciplinary
points of views.
Figure 1: Different type of disciplinarities
(Source: Karatas and Baki 2017, pp.257)
There are various numbers of transmissibility models as well as theories. They can
be listed as follows:
 Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development
 Stakeholder Management
 Covey Time Management Matrix
 Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
 Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid
 Operation Planning Model
However for this report it would be effective that the Tuckman's Stages of Group be
applied.
Development: Bruce Tuckman's Stages of Group Development
Bruce Tuckman was a psychology professor who had discovered the stages of
group development and had declared that there are four steps for a successful group
development. These were, forming, storming, norming and performing. According to

him every team have to experience all the stages at any point of development
(Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Every group has to go through an unproductive stage
before it has reached its self-sustaining stage or its feasible state. But he also
described that all the teams would develop to take other forms over time. The level
of performance can be measured by the content, feelings and process. The contents
I refer to the activities that a team performs, process is such a phase that describes
the performance of the team and feelings is the phase where it is described how
team members can easily get along with each other.
Forming
This is the very first step in our team where everybody gets to know each other. In
this very strange the team members display politeness and summit of independency
since there is not much introduction going on between them and they are not used to
work within the team environment. This requires the team members to follow the
leader and only agree to what is told to them. Generally there is no conflict occurring
at this stage.
In the very first week of Cesim, it can be seen that the writer and the group members
were introduced within themselves to the team and each of them had shared their
own knowledge about the process of simulation. The leader has been set up a
WhatsApp group and added everybody in the list. There was no conflict noticed at
the beginning.
Storming
This is the stage where the team members would start exhibiting the disagreement
with the positions of the groups are the rules established. It is the same stage where
they happened to disagree on the goals of the way of work of every other people
they do not find similarity of work environment with. Some of the employees or team
members me when we found overstepping the leadership of the authority. It is stated
that there are two types of conflict found, one is the functional conflict and other is
dysfunctional conflict (Kokcharov 2015). Functional conflict can be considered as a
benefit to the growth of a group as it can be regarded as a healthy conflict. In the
same way dysfunctional conflict can reduce the performance of a group and even
has the potential to fail an entire group. It is the responsibility of the leaders to
smooth the things down but they might be able to all might not be able to.
This is where the right ahead express the desire to be as a leader for the team
members. The author has asked for the team to have a fair debate about choosing
the proper leadership however the author did not express that thought to the team
members in a conflicting manner. Whether it was build up in a match triangle way as
the voice of the author was heard and not been ordered. This resulted to the author
been chosen as the new leader.
Norming

This is the stage within the group where most of the issues resolved and every
member where aware of the fact that each of the team members have certain
strengths and responsibility that can be utilised in favour of the group (Karatas and
Baki 2017). Most of the team members had no relied on their leadership figure and
started to have a social relationship even outside the working hours. This is where
the group members started feeling attached to each other has now the team has
finally formed. This is the stage where the theme of the author has created a bond of
friendship with in the group. All the members have started to have lunch together as
well as started sharing their personal thoughts. In addition to that the team but also
delayed on the leader, which in this case is the writer, for the first two weeks. The
author also makes sure that as a leader, all the knowledge about the project should
be shared with the entire team.
Performing
This is the stage where the team has ultimately reached its motivation to understand
the fact behind the forming of the entire group. They are motivated enough to
achieve their overall goals as well as the objectives. All the members of the group
had now become much more independent since they understand that the team has
as a collective purpose. Every leader has started working on each of the qualities
that the other team member has and this and help them develop the team much
more and become stronger in achieving the objectives.
In addition to that, the team of the writer has now developed the motivation to work
and as well as achieve the main goal of the project. All the team members
understand why the team has been found and what is required from them for
reaching the particular objective.
All of these four stages were identified in the year 1960 but there was an addition of
a fifth stage later in 1977 by Mary Ann Jensen.
Adjourning
This final stage of a group all team happens when the goal has been reached. The
team finally gets dismantled and mostly it forms the morning stage.
3. Project Phases
Every project, be it a big project or small project, has to go through a process
containing certain amount of stages to be able to get from A to B. These stages can
be termed as project phases and this helps in breaking down of the pieces of the
project to be organised for assessing the success of the objectives. Project
management has five phases; namely, initiating, planning, executing, controlling and
closeout (Heldman 2018). All these phases need constant monitoring as well as
reporting. For the Cesim project the management simulation students are supposed
to have a track of the progress via weekly logs, incident logs and project logs.

Initiating
This is the phase where project is introduced and their aims and objectives are
clarified. The value and difficulty of the project is also determined through this stage
(Lock 2017).
The first and second week of Cesim simulation was introduction face to do students
where project aims were explained. The introduction and decision making brief when
uploaded in the learning platform utilising the GSM to make sure that the students
read them. Most of the students were not motivated right at the beginning for reading
the entire thing and it was due to the lack of understanding for what they are going to
deal with in future. it is pretty normal to feel this way in the initial stages but some
students were found to be intrigued about the entire process and went ahead to read
the briefs. The students were informed that in the third week they are going to great
group and where asked to appear for a DISC test for analysing their personality.
Planning
This phase is entirely about making the teams for starting the planning of a project. It
is done for managing the objectives to be achieved and it is formed keeping in mind
about the budget and time constraints that have been predestined (Stretton 2018).
One third week the students were assembled within a group and the students having
a dominant personality was chosen as the leader of the teams. All the groups had 4
members. On the fourth week their Cesim account was setup and the students were
explain everything with the idea that now they would require a plan to get ahead in
the project. In addition, WhatsApp groups were also created for easy communication
and group meetings were organised for those team members who were about to
face further difficulties.
Execution
This phase refers to executing the activities that are required for completion of a
project and it includes follow up of the plan being created during planning phase. For
this particular project, the students are supposed to execute the actual rounds of the
CESIM simulator from week 5 to week 8 by following the plan that was developed in
Week 4. A Gantt chart was prepared to demonstrate the plan. The tutor will be
responsible for evaluation which will be carried out after the completion of each
round. The results will compared after Week 8 to determine which group has
achieved the desired goals and completed the job efficiently.
Monitoring and controlling
This phase of a project ensures that it is being actualized and if there is any need for
changes then those should be incorporated going back to the previous stages (Alam
and Guhl 2016). The progress and effectiveness of the project was being monitored
as well as controlled by the students on a regular basis. The results were taken into