Professional Identity and Practice Report - Module Assessment

This report delves into the concept of professional identity, exploring how individuals perceive themselves in relation to others, using Thomas Cook travel agency as a case study. It emphasizes the importance of self-directed learning and ongoing professional development in building confidence and improving efficiency within the workplace. The report includes an assessment of the author's skills, identifying strengths and areas needing improvement, and outlines a professional development plan with actionable steps and timeframes. Furthermore, it examines transferable skills essential for job applications, specifically for an HR assistant role, and highlights challenges faced during the interview process. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and emphasizing the significance of transferable skills in the travel and tourism industry.

Professional identity and
practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Importance of on going professional development & self directed learning to enhance
professional identity.....................................................................................................................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................1
Assess of own skills, different learning & development approaches .........................................1
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................2
Professional development plan....................................................................................................2
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................3
Transferable skills for a job application.......................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity can be defined as a concept that describes that how an individual
perceive themselves with others. This study is based on Thomas Cook that is a famous travel
agency. It will show about the importance of self directed learning and assessment of own and an
individual skills for knowing the strengths and weaknesses (Zepeda, 2019). For analysing areas
which needs to be improved it will also show about professional development plan.
LO 1
Importance of on going professional development & self directed learning to enhance
professional identity
Self directed learning and on going professional development plays an important role as
it allows an individual and employees of Thomas Cook travel agency to direct their own learning
according to themselves as they see fit. With the help of behaviourist approach to learning an
individual make themselves able to develop professional skill through constant repetition of task.
Some importance are described as below:
Build confidence: On going professional development and self directed learning allows
employees and individuals to build confidence. When they focus on continuous practice of tasks
by using their skills then they become more confident (Asah, Fatoki and Rungani, 2015).
Improves efficiency: Professional development & Self directed learning offers
employees new skills sets and also provide them opportunity to learn new things on own and
from others in the training of professional development. It increases their working efficiency.
LO 2
Assess of own skills, different learning & development approaches
As a learning and development officer it is important to have some skills for performing
all the activities in an effective manner. Self assessment help an individual to find out their
strengths and weaknesses by which they can take corrective actions (Fu, Carson and Simnett,
2015).
Organisational skills
Time management Average
1

Critical thinking Good
Problem solving Good
Public speaking skill Need to be improved
Management skills
Delegating works Average
Motivating others Need to be improved
Financial skills
Cash handling Good
Accounts Average
LO 3
Professional development plan
Professional development plan shows some areas that need to be improves. Individuals
and employees in an organisation have some weakness and they lack in some skills so they
require to improve that skill. PDP help them in identifying those skills and also tell them about
required actions (Perry, 2017).
Skills Required action Importance Time frame
Public speaking skill It is very important for
learning and
development officer to
provide better services
to employees and
customers. For
achieving this goal it is
important to have
public speaking skill.
There are some tools
& activities that can
Public speaking plays
an important role as it
shows listener about
confidence level of an
individual and a
learning officer.
Employees and people
believe and obey all
the rules when an
individual have a
public speaking and
Within 30 days
2

help them in
improving this skill
such as hive brain
public speaking app
and speaker tool. For
removing the fear of
public speaking they
can also practice of
speaking in front of
the mirror.
they can easily
influence others.
Motivating others It is also important for
learning and
development officer to
motivate others for
achieving their
determined goals. For
improving this skill
they can provide
rewards to employees
after identifying the
needs of employees.
Motivation and
motivating skills can
make various changes
in the other skills of
employees and others.
It makes employees
and people able to
work more
productively.
Within 20 days
LO 4
Transferable skills for a job application
There are various skills required for applying and getting a suitable job in travel and
tourism sector. For getting the best candidate it is important to follow all the steps of job
interview. For the position of HR assistant it is required to have some skills like an effective
communication skill, problem solving skill, technical skill, team working skills etc.
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I asked various question in mock interview from candidates for filling the post of HR
assistant related to job specification. As an interviewer I faced some challenges like it was time
consuming process and some candidates did not reach on the time which wasted my time
(Nägele and Stalder, 2017).
CV
Education:
Bachelor's of science: Business management
Bachelor's of arts: English communication
Experience:
HR assistant at Hilton hotel
 Planned and managed special events.
 Assisted in executing marketing
Co-ordinator at Marriott hotel
 Coordinate around 250 volunteers.
 Organise events for international student community,
Skills:
Proficient in excel, Communication skills, proficient in English, problem solving skills.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that transferable skills played an important
role in travels and tourism industry. Assessment of own skills helped an individual in knowing
their strengths and weaknesses. It has also shown the importance of professional development
plan and different process of interview.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Asah, F., Fatoki, O.O. and Rungani, E., 2015. The impact of motivations, personal values and
management skills on the performance of SMEs in South Africa. African Journal of
Economic and Management Studies. 6(3). pp.308-322.
Fu, Y., Carson, E. and Simnett, R., 2015. Transparency report disclosure by Australian audit
firms and opportunities for research. Managerial Auditing Journal. 30(8/9). pp.870-910.
Nägele, C. and Stalder, B.E., 2017. Competence and the need for transferable skills.
In Competence-based Vocational and Professional Education (pp. 739-753). Springer,
Cham.
Perry, M., 2017. Personal Professional Development Plans. Canadian Journal of Medical
Laboratory Science. 79(1). p.8.
Zepeda, S.J., 2019. Professional development: What works. Routledge.
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