Flight Centre Professional Development and Personal Plan Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of professional development within Flight Centre, a travel and tourism company. It begins by outlining the benefits of professional development for both employees and the company, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and skill enhancement in the industry. The report then details employer expectations for various roles, including Business Development Manager, Commercial Air Manager, and Travel Consultant. It also includes a self-assessment of skills and competencies, utilizing SWOT analysis, skill audits, and personality trait assessments to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The report further explores learning approaches and theories, such as cognitive approaches and self-efficacy theory, and proposes development options, including training, to enhance skills like decision-making and sales abilities, particularly for a Travel Consultant role. The report highlights the importance of aligning personal development with career goals and industry demands.

Professional Identity and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Benefits of professional development ........................................................................................3
Employer's expectations of skills and knowledge for specific roles...........................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
Assessment of own skills and competencies...............................................................................6
Theories and Approaches for personal and professional development ......................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN...........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Professional is a term associated with the level of skills and knowledge for performing an
specific operation or activity (Chan, 2019). Application of knowledge while performing such
specific operations is a part of mental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in
how understanding, or a world view, professionalism.
This report is based on the case study of Flight Centre. Company was established in the
year 1982. Company operates its business operations in travel and tourism sector. The
organisation serve its services in many countries like India, Australia, New Zealand and other
countries across the globe. Headquarter of the Flight Centre company is located in Brisbane,
Australia.
Henceforth, this report will emphasis over various benefits associated with the
professional development related to different stakeholders of the company. This report will also
project about the expectations of the employer from the professionals in the organisation. One
specific job role will also be discussed in this report. Furthermore, in this report a development
plan will also be discussed to enhance the professional skills. Job interview will also project
based on an specific job role in company.
Benefits of professional development
Professional development is used to refer to a wide range of methods used to aid an
individual improve his or her professional skills, knowledge, efficiency and effectiveness. These
methods include specialised trainings, advanced study, coaching, mentoring, supervising,
conducting research, assignments etc. It is the process through which individuals continue their
training and education in an effort to constantly improve their skills and knowledge in relation to
furthering respective professional career. The primary goal of professional development is to
keep the employee updated on the current trends and aware of any frequent changes in addition
to developing new skills and knowledge to advance professional career (Desimone and Pak,
2017). There are some particular professions which mandate undergoing professional
development periodically for the purposes of ensuring employee effectiveness and efficiency or
to renew license or certification etc.

Employees of Flight Centre undertaking professional development courses offer various
advantages both to themselves and to their employers as well. Some of these benefits are
discussed below:
Employee Benefits:
Taking professional development courses can provide employees of Flight Centre with
various advantages, both in terms of personal and professional growth. Employees undertaking
professional development course are more up to date with the current industry trends and do not
have to conduct research upon the ever changing industry trends. Also learning new and relevant
skills and gaining knowledge is extremely beneficial for employers looking to grow their
professional career and effectively increases their employability within the industry. Undergoing
professional development also adds greatly to Flight Centre's employee's resume and any
certifications he might have received upon completion of the course are also quite valuable both
in terms of employee's job profile and in regard to his future in industry. During professional
development training Flight Centre employees also can break away from their regular job routine
and interact with new people and place which can help energize them when they get back to their
original position. Professional development courses also raise employee motivation measures as
they become better at performing their roles and responsibilities within the company (Bush and
et.al., 2018). Flight Centre employees also feel more satisfied in relation to their jobs as they feel
more valued by the organisation or business and appreciate their superiors for pushing them on
towards improving their skills and knowledge base in regard to their job responsibilities.
Employer's Benefits:
Employees undertaking professional development courses also provide multiple benefits
to Flight Centre as well. When Flight Centre's employees undergo professional development
courses, it increases their experience and efficiency in relation to their specific roles and
responsibilities within the company. This is really beneficial for Flight Centre in general as an
increase in the performance and efficiency of an employee directly results in more productivity
and profitability for Flight Centre. Workforce of Flight Centre undergoing professional
developing training also gives the parent organisation added benefit of employing a skilled,
flexible and knowledgable workforce and enables them to expand their business into new
territories knowing their workforce will be able to keep up with the changing demands. Having a
constantly developing and growing skilled workforce also gives Flight Centre major advantage

against its competitors in order to maximise its productivity and profitability and increase its
market share (DiPaola and Wagner, 2018). Flight Centre's brand image in the market also
increases due to the professional development their employees go through. Employees also are
more innovative and creative after undergoing professional development and quit jobs less often
resulting in low turnover rates for Flight Centre.
Employer's expectations of skills and knowledge for specific roles
Flight Centre's administration has its own standards and expectations when it comes to
evaluating a candidate's ability to perform delegated duties. Here we evaluate the standards and
expectation for 3 different job profiles: Business Development Manager, Commercial Air
Manager and Travel Consultant.
Business Development Manager: For the role of business development manager, Flight Centre
prescribes to industry standards and requires a candidate who is an entry level professional,
possessing a high internal drive to succeed. Flight Centre is willing to provide the necessary
training, but only to deserving candidates who are enthusiastic about their job duties and
responsibilities. For this particular role Flight Centre requires candidates with great sales
prowess and experience, while knowledge of the travel industry would be advantageous but not a
priority amongst interested candidates. The candidate also is mandated to have more than six
months of prior relevant experience in a sales job and posses the necessary skills to not just cover
but also exceed his sales targets set (Blau and et.al., 2017). Finally as the manager would have to
travel a lot, a passion for travelling amongst candidates is also preferred .
Commercial Air Manager: For this particular role, Flight Centre is looking for candidates who
are skilled in negotiations, prioritisation and sales disciplines in order to achieve maximum air
income for Flight Centre. As the manager will head a core team within Flight Centre he should
excel teamwork and have good communication skills in order to lead team efficiently. Flight
Centre requires candidates who possess good understanding of the airline and travel industry and
is able to build long and fruitful relationships between the business and various clients and
customers. Additionally the candidate needs to be able to perform within limited supervision and
be disciplined with regards to deadlines.
Travel Consultant: For this job role, Flight Centre is looking for candidates who are passionate
about travelling to new locales and are enthusiastic about succeeding in sales. Flight Centre is

willing to provide the necessary training to deserving candidates who are willing to improve their
sales skills, knowledge of global travelling and of airline industry and travelling fares. As the
primary job responsibility is the sales of travel packages Flight Centre requires candidates who
possess relevant prior sales experience and good IT skills and acumen (Ermasova, Wagner and
Nguyen, 2017). The candidate also needs to be able to communicate and articulate effectively to
customers in order to close sales deals. Finally the candidate must be highly motivated not just to
achieve but also to exceed his set sales targets.
LO2
Assessment of own skills and competencies.
With the support of self evaluation techniques I identified my skills and abilities that will
support me in building my professional career in corporate sector. I conducted SWOT analysis
and skill audit over my personality to assess and evaluate my skills and abilities. I also assessed
myself on the basis of personality trait assessment (Cortes, DeSalvo and Mohri, 2016). Based on
the outcomes from all the above mentioned techniques used for self assessment I could identify
my skills and capabilities. I have recognized that I carry the good communication skills which
enables me to interact with anyone. Effective communication play crucial role in building both
personal and professional relationship with colleagues and other staff members. Self confidence
is also a good reflector of soft communication skills that also indicate about my confidence level.
Based on the SWOT analysis on my personality I got to know about my effective time
management skills. To assess my skills I also utilized Henry Mumford model. This model has
guided me about my characteristics of the personality. I have a reflective personality which resist
me in making decisions spontaneously. Analysis also enabled me to identify about my
ineffective sales skills. I prefer a job role of travel consultant and being spontaneous is among
the major characteristics travel consultant should possess. Decision making is an effective tool
that guides towards achieving success in corporate sector specifically for the job role of travel
consultant. I must focus over developing my decision-making skills and selling abilities as it will
ensure success of being in the position of travel consultant in Flight Centre. It will also save
enough time of clients as well because I will be able to guide customers in right direction in
order to provide benefits from my services. I also followed questionnaires to assess about my

potential of being a travel consultant. Based on the questionnaires and other analysis I
recognized about my major ability that will be utilized efficiently in order to meet my
responsibilities of being a travel consultant is my research and IT skills.
Theories and Approaches for personal and professional development
Learning Approaches
Tactics followed to acquire specific skill or knowledge is considered as a learning
approach.
Cognitive Approach: Cognitive approach is an effective learning approach use to acquire and
adopt new skills and knowledge. This approach is more like a mental presence of an individual
in a specific situation(David, Banerjee and Ponnam, 2017) This approach involve human
experimental psychology, computer analogies and cognitive neuroscience approach for
implementing learning process. Human experimental psychology is more keen towards utilising
memory attention and problem solving aspects of a human being. Computer analogies emphasis
over utilising technology and search engines for collecting and garbing information related to the
topic. To learn new skills and abilities it is crucial to gather right information. This tool
specifically focuses over channelising right platform to gather information and collect data.
Another aspect of this approach is cognitive neuroscience. This aspect deals with mental
presence of an individual while performing an specific task or project.
Learning Theory
To acquire new skill and knowledge learning theories are also acquired. Self efficacy and
social learning theory is an effective tool utilised under learning theory model.
Self Efficacy and Social Learning Theory: Social efficacy and social learning theory emphasis
over how behavioural, personal and environmental factors impacts over an individual in order to
learn new skills and adopt new knowledge. Environmental factor involve the surrounding of an
individual in order to gain information and skills (Dodescu, Cohut and Chirila, 2017). This
theory also indicates about various elements like self observation, self evaluation, self reaction
and self efficacy of an individual. All such factors drives the learning process of an individual in
order to upgrade and expand the skill.
Development Options
To improve the skills and knowledge off the job development programs can be
implemented so that utmost excellency can be achieved in order to meet the operational

requirements associated with the travel consultant. Following approaches can be utilised to
improve the decision-making and selling skills.
Training: Training can be conducted with the guidance of professionals over decision-making
and sales. Professionals will brief about several tactics that will guide in order to make suitable
decisions. Analysis is also a crucial aspect involved in sales. Sales is all about meeting the
requirements of customers that also involve evaluation of the consumer needs. Professional will
enable learning related to the needs identification and assessment. Situation evaluation also
guides in making decisions. Professional training will improve both the skills.
Work shops: Taking work shops over decision-making and sales is also an effective way to
improve both the skills (Lanza-Kaduce and Capce, 2017). Work shops will involve both
theoretical and practical knowledge about the decision-making approach and selling skills. Just
like training programs work shops also conducts by experienced professionals. This is a good
learning approach as professionals also share real life experiences that actually enable proper
personality development of all the individuals taking work shops.
Social Learning and Networking: Social learning and networking is denoted by utilising social
networking application in order to learn new skills and knowledge. Many experts post daily on
decision-making approach and approaches used to make sales. With the access of internet both
the skills can be improved by watching videos of experts.
All the techniques will enable an individual to improve both the skills in order to achieve
high excellency in decision-making approach and sales.
LO3
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Specific Skills to
be developed
Activities Resources
Required
Time frame to
Develop skill
Criteria of
Success
Customer service
skill
I need to become
more interactive
with people
around me. With
the help of
different feedback
I will need to be
more disciplined
and gain better
knowledge. I also
need to
understand the
2 months Patience and time
management to
give time to each
and every
customer properly
which will help

I will learn the
issues and make
myself more
effective in
influencing
clients to satisfy
them.
needs and wants
to what other
person
effectively.
me to increase my
customer services
skills
successfully.
Communication
skills
I will engage in
different activities
like guess the
emotion which
will help to
understand my
client's feelings. I
will become more
active in listening
to what other are
saying by paying
more attention.
I will use
YouTube to
watch video
lectures in
gaining more
information to be
more practical in
achieving my
activities
effectively.
5 months Better customer
satisfaction and
20% increase in
sales.
Organizing Skills I will make a list
of all the
activities which I
have to perform.
Strategic planning
before taking any
action.
Attending
coaching classes
and learning more
about leadership
skills and
management
skills will helps
me to organize
my activities
more efficiently.
3 Months Effective
management of
all travel log of
customers and
understanding
their
requirementsPER
SONAL
DEVELOPMEN
T PLAN
Specific Skills to

be developed
Customer service
skill
Communication
skills
Organizing Skills

Technical skills
Problem Solving
skills

Interpersonal
skills