Professional Identity and Practices Report for Brightsun Travel

This report provides a detailed analysis of professional identity and practices, using Brightsun Travel as a case study. It begins with an introduction to professional identity, its importance, and a brief overview of Brightsun Travel's organizational structure and services. The report then delves into the key benefits of ongoing professional development for various stakeholders, including employers and employees, highlighting how it enhances skills, knowledge, and overall organizational performance. The report also investigates the skills and competencies expected by employers in the travel industry, particularly within Brightsun Travel, covering business skills, professional skills, soft skills, and hard skills. A self-assessment of skills and competencies for a specific job role (assistant manager) is included, along with an analysis of learning theories and approaches applicable to personal and professional development. Furthermore, the report outlines a development plan, using the SMART target approach, to enhance chosen skills and competencies. Finally, the report covers the job interview process, exploring its strengths and weaknesses within the service industry context.

Professional identity and
Practices

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key benefits of ongoing professional development for different stakeholders......................1
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in
the context of organization...........................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role..................................4
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development process........4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P5 Development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within the specific work......5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Job interview for service industry for a suitable role............................................................8
P7 Strengths and weakness of job interview process...................................................................9
CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity develop attitude, beliefs, motivation, experience, value etc. where it
helps in anticipating current professional life. It include various conditions where individual have
to enhance their skills which provide them professional identify. It include various practices
which is important for the individual in order to develop their personal or professional identity
(Bodman, Taylor and Morris, 2012). Brightsun Travel company selected for the better
understanding of this concepts. It is UK based Travel company which provide their services
across the world and it was founded in 1986. this report include the various topics such as key
benefits of on going professional development and assess their own skills which make them
capable to identify the area where they required improvement. In addition, it include
development plan and strength & weakness of the job interview process.
TASK 1
P1 Key benefits of ongoing professional development for different stakeholders
Organizational Overview:
Brightsun Travel Company is UK based which provide traveling services across the
world. This company founded in 1986 and they handle approx 380000 passengers every year and
provide attractive destination point where around 1500 passengers travel every day. Brightsun
offer three different platform which include customers as per their preferences such as
Brightsun.co.uk provide leisure products, Traveasy.com provide flight booking services and last
one is Premier (Brightsun Travel, 2019).
Key benefits of on professional development:
On going professional development is the process of tracking or documenting all the
relevant skills. It also include the various training which help the employees to enhance their
skills, knowledge, experience etc. It also recorded that what actually individual learn through this
development process.
Professional development is the learning process where individual have to maintain their
credential such as informal learning opportunity, conferences, academic degrees etc.
Development will be maintain with the help of on going professional development which
enhance the individuals skills, knowledge, experience etc. This development process provide
various benefits to their stakeholders which is discussed below:
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Benefits to the employer:
 Skilled workforce: With the help of on going professional development, employer is
able to get skilled workforce in the organization who helps in maintain internal
operations and provide helps in increasing productivity or profitability. In the Brightsun
Travel, professional development help the manager to get skilled workforce to achieve
their goals & objectives (Clarke, Hyde and Drennan, 2013).
 Up to date knowledge: Professional development plan help the employer to get up to
date information or knowledge which increase the efficiency. For example: Due to
professional development employer of the Brightsun Travel able to have all information
and updated their knowledge which helps in achieving organizational goals & targets.
 Organizational brand image: With the help of on going professional development,
workers are skilled which provide quality services which satisfy the consumer's need &
desires. It will increase the brand value of the organization which automatically increase
the productivity or profitability. In the Brightsun Travel, skilled employees perform well
which helps in increase brand value through satisfying large number of clients or when
customers are satisfy then it will increase the market share as well as goodwill of the
company.
Benefits to the employee:
 Intrinsic motivation: On going professional development help the employees to get
motivated and able to perform well with full of efficiency. This process provide various
training to enhance their skills which build a confidence in the employees. For example
in the Brightsun company, employees get the on going development which enhance their
skills, knowledge, experience etc. they feel motivated and perform effectively or
efficiently.
 Personal satisfaction: It is very important for the organization to satisfy their employees
or staff members also personally have to satisfy because it will enhance individual
performance. So on going professional development helps in enhancing skills which
satisfy them and then they will satisfy the customers through their work. This
development is useful for the Brightsun travel company where all the employees are
personally satisfied.
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 Increased employability: With the help of on going professional development,
organization increase the employability where employees become loyal for the company.
Because skills and capabilities required to fulfill the job responsibility. In the Brightsun
Travel, employees are loyal and they give their 100 percentage to achieve business goals
& objectives. Which further increase the productivity as well as profitability. By using on
going professional development help to make employee loyal towards the organization.
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in the
context of organization
In the Brightsun Travel company, employer required various skills as per the job role
they required (Crigger and Godfrey, 2014). Every employer required various skills in their
employee which help the individual to perform well and achieve their organizational goals &
objectives and it will be mentioned below:
Business skills: It includes those skills which are required to have because it help the
employee to survive in the market with the help of various skills. Such as communication,
influencing, management, leadership, critical thinking etc.
Professional skills: It includes career competencies skills which is not mandatory to have
but it help the business to functioning in effective way and it is not related to the academic
degrees. Such as conflicts resolution, monitoring, project management etc.
Soft skills: These skills include the attributes where it helps in influencing others with the
help of effective communication, personality, confidence, creativity, innovation etc.
Hard skills: It is totally opposite to the soft skills where person required who have
advanced techniques and technology knowledge.
For example: Brightsun Travel required assistant manager who report the marketing
manager, so employer required above mentions skills which are discussed below:
Problem Solving: This skill required for the role of assistant manager where they have to
resolve problems in the organization in order to increase efficiency or effectiveness (Cyrino,
2016). At the time of dealing with customers they have to solve their queries or other problems.
Work Ethics: It is value or belief that individual have to perform according to the rules
and regulation because if organization not following code of best practices then it will affect the
business in various form. Brightsun required this skill under their employee who have strong
ethics.
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Communication: It is the important or required skills for every organization and
communication is the best way to convenience others. In the Brightsun travel company
employees have to deal with customers and it required proper communication so they properly
deal with consumers.
TASK 2
P3 Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role
Each and every individual can assess their own skills through skills audit. Basically it is
used for the analysis of skills weather it is fulfil the requirement or not. With the help of this
audit I am able to measure my strength as well as weakness (Davies, 2013). After self analysis, it
provide the clear picture regarding which skills want improvement and which one is perfect for
the job role. This process include the comparison of skill on the basis of specific job role. So I
am assessing my own skills where I an checking my own ability, capability, skills and
competencies for the role of assistant manager in the Brightsun Travel. With the help of this, I
can analyse that weather I am suitable for this role or not.
Company required some specific skills and I check my status and it can be good, bad or
average and it will be discussed below:
S.NO. Skill Good Average Bad
1 Communication skills ✔ X X
2 Presentation skills ✔ X X
3 Managerial skills X X ✔
4 Time management skills X X ✔
5 Problem solving skills X X ✔
6 Creativity X ✔ X
7 Confidence X ✔ X
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development process
Their are various learning theory which can be follow by the Brightsun Travel company
because it will help the organization to improve their learning methods (Dyer and Taylor, 2012).
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It further helps the employees to enhance their skills which is required for the personal as well as
professional development.
Social learning theory: In this theory, people will learn through observing other's
behaviour, attitude, values and other actions. Social learning theory explain the human behaviour
which help the employees to learn new things and apply in the business for the effective results
where it helps in increasing their efficiency too. In the Brightsun Travel company, employees
learn from their superior or manager which help them to develop personally or professionally.
Behaviourist approach: It is a psychological approach which involve scientific and
objective way to find out the behaviour of an individual. This approach basically focuses on
stimulus response behaviour and it will be done through interaction with the environment
(Eteläpelto and et.al., 2014). So manager of the Brightsun Travel company can adopt this
approach and then build strategies where each employee able to response quickly.
Cognitive approach: This approach conduct a mental process which include the
information and it comes to the force of psychological thought. In this approach individual will
be consider as data processing system. In the Brightsun Travel company, they try to understand
customer's mind which help them to identify their needs and then build strategy according to it. It
help the employees to identify the nature or behaviour of customer and it will further help the
staff member to develop themselves personally or professionally.
Above mention theory and approaches are required to follow by the Brightsun Travel
because it will increase the leaning capacity and it will further helps in personal or professional
development.
TASK 3
P5 Development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within the specific work.
Development plan- The development plan is the combination of strategies to improve the
skills of the individuals. Due to this plan I can improve my skills for the assistant manager.
Herein, the development plan is mentioned below with the use of SMART target approach:
Current skills
and competencies
Development plan
(Using SMART target)
Evaluation of
progress
Evaluation of
effectiveness of personal
development plan
Managerial skills Specific- Main goal of Assistant manger For the evaluation of
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this skill is to improve or
manage the whole
internal functioning area.
Measurable- It can be
measure through
observing others and
manage all the
management activities for
the effective results.
Achievable- Management
skills should be
achievable if they provide
on going professional
development.
Relevant- This skill
required and relevant for
the role of assistant
manager.
Time- It will take almost
2 months to improve this
skills.
have to take
responsibility to
manage all the
actions and other
activities which
required at the time
of handling small
travel expenses
(Guile, 2014).
development plan,
manager required to
follow various practices
which help them to
improve their managerial
skills. It will further helps
in personal as well as
professional development.
Problem solving
skills
Specific- Main goal of
development plan is to
improve problem solving
skills.
Measurable- It can be
measured in the specific
situation and then analyse
that this skill required
improvement or not.
Achievable- It will be
Progress will be
evaluating in the
actual condition
where assistant
manager show their
skills to resolve
problems in the
organization.
Evaluation of
development plan can be
done when organization
measure that employees is
sufficient or able to solve
their issues with the help
of their creativity,
efficiency etc.
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achieved when manger
resolve the issues in the
organization.
Relevant- This skill
required by the assistant
manager to solve all the
queries or problems
which further helps in
achieving their goals &
objectives. It further
helps in developing their
personal or professional
behaviour.
Time – It required almost
1 month.
Creativity skills Specific- Goal is to
improve their creativity
which helps in increasing
productivity or
profitability.
Measurable-
Effectiveness will be
measured through
creative ideas which is
required in the decision
making process.
Achievable- Creative
skill can be achieved
through putting creativity
and innovative ideas to
resolve any issue and it
Progress will be
evaluating through
developing effective
ideas and innovation
which required to
attract more
customers (Larson
and et.al., 2013).
Evaluation of creativity
skill will be done through
checking weather it is
helpful in the various
decision.
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will affect the personal or
professional
development.
Relevant- It is required
skill for the role of
assistant manager role.
Time- It required more
then 1 month.
TASK 4
P6. Job interview for service industry for a suitable role.
Interview- It is a formal communication among the two parties where interviewer ask
many questions related to applicant. All the questions can be related to their academics, their
experience and other things which help the interviewer to know more about interviewee.
There are different types of interview processes which conducted by the HR manager and
it can be formal or informal. Interview process will be conducted in formal or informal way and
it is discussed below:
Formal interview- This type of interview process include the face to face meeting
between interviewer or interviewee. Generally this types of interview process include the 5 to 10
questions and it will be asked in a systematic order where time or date already scheduled. At the
end, it's totally depend upon the interviewer to select the candidate or not (Lordly and
MacLellan, 2012).
Informal interview- It is a general or casual sitting interview which will be conducted in
the normal place where both parties having coffee or lunch. It is totally opposite to the formal
interview because there is not structural way to fix their meetings. This interview process does
not have any fix questions to ask.
Here is the interview process for the role of assistant manager in the Brightsun Travel
company. So manager conduct interview process which include some set of questions asked by
the interviewer and it will be demonstrated below:
Formal interview process for the post of “Assistant Manager”
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1.
Interviewer- Tell me something about yourself?
Interviewee- I am ABC from London and I have done my diploma degree in hotel
management. Along with this, I completed my graduation in commerce stream from Oxford
University.
2.
Interviewer- Do you have any previous job experience?
Interviewee- No, I don't have any job experience I am totally fresher.
3.
Interviewer- Why you want this job as a “Assistant Manager” ?
Interviewee- I have capacity to fulfil the requirement of this role and I am trying to give my
hundred percent in order to maximise your business wealth.
4.
Interviewer- Why should I hire you?
Interviewee- You should hire me because of my skills which suits the most as per your
requirement and capabilities. I have a passion to work which help me to provide enthusiasm.
P7 Strengths and weakness of job interview process
Interview process include various activities which have their own strength & weakness
and it will help the individual to gain some experience.
Strength of the Interview process:
Interview process provide the lifetime experience which candidate take as an advantage
and then learn something for the future. When I am entering in the interview room I feel very
nervous because there are lots of candidates who also come for the interview. Their are total 3
rounds which is aptitude test, group discussion and then last one is personal interview. After
clearing two rounds I have to face last one which is face to face interview round. This formal
interview process provide me advantage because interviewer ask almost same questions to the
each candidates and my turn will be after many candidates (Pihl-Thingvad, 2015). So I get this
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advantage and secure this job because mostly questions are from basic fundamentals. Formal
interview process have particular structure which consist fix time of interview with the specific
place.
Weakness of the Interview process:
Interview process also have weakness because one by one interview will take lots of
time, efforts, money etc. Along with this, formal interview process include some common
questions which is asked by the every candidates. So, all the applicants are use to it and they all
become aware about the specific answer which required by the interviewer (Wald, 2015). Most
of the time it happen that, candidates are so closely where manager have to take decision to
chose any one. It also happen that, applicant prepare all the interview questions but actually they
are not suitable for the post because they prepare some specific answers for the questions which
asked in the interview process.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that professional identify and practices
help the organization through providing on going professional development. It helps the
individual to enhance their skills in order to increase their efficiency or effectiveness. With the
help of various training, it will develop the employee personally as well as professional which
further helps in achieving their organizational goals & objectives. Along with this, social
learning theory help the employees to enhance their skill sets through observation other such s
their manager. Development plan required to build for the further requirement of improvement.
In addition, job interview process have their own strength & weakness which is required to
know.
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