Professional Development Report: Skills Audit and Interview Prep

This report delves into the realm of professional development, focusing on the tourism and hospitality sectors. It highlights the significance of professional growth for both employees and employers, emphasizing the acquisition of essential skills and competencies. The report analyzes the benefits of professional development, including enhanced brand reputation, improved employee performance, and increased innovation. It also explores the skills required for a tour operator role, such as strong planning abilities, interpersonal skills, and the ability to create innovative travel itineraries. Furthermore, the report examines various learning theories, including Honey and Mumford's learning styles and transformational learning theory, and their application in professional development. It includes a skills audit, a professional development plan, and an analysis of interview preparation, offering a comprehensive overview of professional identity and practice. The report concludes with a discussion of the importance of continuous professional development and the ethical standards expected within the industry.

Professional Identity
and Practice

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
LO1.............................................................................................................................................................3
Importance of Professional Development................................................................................................3
Scenario 2....................................................................................................................................................6
Individual Skills Audit NAME.....................................................................................................8
SKILLS I HAVE...............................................................................................................................................8
EXAMPLE.....................................................................................................................................................8
Scenario 3..................................................................................................................................................12
Professional Development Plan.............................................................................................................12
Scenario 4..................................................................................................................................................14
Job Interview.........................................................................................................................................14
Interview Questions...............................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practice implements development of academic learning skills
and enhancement in professional careers for achieving higher growth targets set within time
periods. It defines parameters of attitude, motives and experiences through which individuals
seek further growth opportunities in their professional careers. This report explains the
importance of professional development within tourism and hospitality industry sectors and
various benefits employers and employees have by gaining practical knowledge. Thomas Cook
is on of the biggest travel company operating tours and business services around the world,
where customers have high expectations from the brand as it offers high quality services. The
report investigates the necessary skills and competencies employers seek in management for
reaching high end benchmarks within specific roles, and the various theories which explains
learning process. This report explains importance of constructing professional development plan
and how it helps in evaluation of various skills and performance within tourism sector jobs
through which various parameters of knowledge gets enhanced. It further analyses benefits and
challenges of taking interviews, the large procedure which helps employers to select the best
candidate for specified job role in company. This report has in detailed evaluated all elements of
professional development process, how functionally it enables to become person more efficient
in diversified careers and promotes business values and ethics through various paradigms
(Bennett-Levy,2019).
LO1
P1 Importance and benefits of Professional Development for stakeholders
Professional development is an extremely necessary element for gaining advanced skills
and competencies relevant with the changing business scenario which explains how it has
benefited employees and employers within company environment. There are various
professional development elements which provides further career opportunities to excel in
practical field of functional efficiency and enlarges the view of understanding diversity within
company culture. Thomas cook company provides various professional development platforms

to all employees working in organization, where there is high focus in building their
interpersonal skills, leveraging the best quality services for gaining high goodwill among
customers round the world. The professional development has various benefits in context of
employers and employees both which can be analyzed as follows:
Benefits for Employers: Brand reputation is developed, overall functional abilities within
employees is improved which keeps them motivated and impacts turnover rates positively by
keeping it at least percentage. Through professional development methods company gains large
efficient performance scenario as functionally more clients are attracted towards services and
productivity of output is relatively high. Professional development builds the quest within
company management on all levels as it enlarges vision, mission and overall brand image in
comparative with brands on world levels (Béteille, Tognatta, and horpade, 2020).
Benefits for Employees: Through professional development employees sharpen their knowledge,
practical skills of creativity and innovation is built with experiences of working in industry and
there is high focus by leaders to bring out their best performances from within employees. It
motivates their inner worth to learn more and enhances their satisfaction levels, as they gain
opportunistic outlook in career and professional fields. Employees are relevant updated to the
new working standards and gather high innovation through these parameters enlargement.
Importance skills required in Tour Operator job role:
 Tour operators have the role of operating tourist programmes, travel destinations and
accommodation facilities for all customers who opt for various travel activities. Thomas Cook,
is one of the biggest travel and hospitality company operating various tour travels to customers
around world and the tour operators are expected to posses strong planning ability, quick
decision taking potentiality and working under dynamic working scenario. Tour operators need
to have strong interpersonal skills for effective communication with clients, practical ability to
make all efficient arrangements while tour activities.
 Tour operators have the responsibility to formulate innovative travel itineraries as comfort and
preferences of clients, making sure all expectations are efficiently met for for reaching the brand
goodwill levels. Thomas cook tour operators need to be have paradigm of creativity to provide
customers with strong transport and accommodation facilities and the loyalty factor is aimed to

be developed with continuous revolution of time periods. Evaluation of current skills and talent
will help in progressive learning and the parameter which needs to be developed further will
promote higher futuristic growth among employee which is seeking for professional
development in career. Self evaluation will assist in keenly gaining how the quest of learning
can be inbuilt through various theories and techniques which will enable him to build higher
efficiency (Choy and Chua,2019).
Professional employer and expectations of skills and competencies
Continuous Professional development can be understood as one of the best innovative method
to bring before best innovative learning opportunities, keenly function onto best paradigms and
to pertain onto company goals for gaining stronger working paradigms for larger advancement
within performance metrics. The importance of CPD for Thomas Cook company can be
analyzed with the various factor of skilful training the employees are able to bring forward,
potentially not only develop larger effective performance metrics for gaining goodwill among
consumers but also proclaim onto more relative paradigms.
Benefits of CPD for employers Benefits of CPD for employees
Motivation to work more skillfully Effective performance parameters
Training parameters Technology advancement and innovation
friendly
New skills to work more effectively New skills worked on among employees
Higher working motivation to scale their
skills to new heights
Higher goodwill and profitability for
company
Strong learning opportunities under leaders Large retaining potentialities among
employees
Professional standards which must be adhered by employers at Thomas Cook for gaining
higher developed working profits and goodwill among consumers relate to strong
communication skills, higher technical advancement and larger viable positional metrics
through which customers are given best services. There is high demand of numeracy and

analytical skills among consumers market share where the employees should be highly
effective and experienced to bring before stronger viable metrics.
LO2
P3 Assessing skills and competencies for job role
Assessing skills for reaching high performance standards in a particular job role helps to
evaluate the various parameters which needs to evolved and practiced with efficiency for further
progressive actions. The evaluation methods are goal based, process based and outcomes based
which will define the learning parameters of individual, how the abilities are dynamically
functional to bring large scale improvement.
 Goal based: This method of evaluation explains if objectives are achieved within the set time
frames and efficiency with which the goals are completed in given job role. Through these
techniques a person can analyse the present skills and what parameters need to be developed for
becoming tour operator at Thomas Cook.
 Process based: This method of evaluation analyze strengths and weaknesses in person, necessary
in context of qualitative aspects which will enable people to being productively active and
relatively being ethical in performance levels. Through these process based evaluation a person
opting for the position of Tour Operator in Thomas Cook will be able to analyse his
interpersonal skills, research knowledge.
 Outcomes based : This method of evaluation will bring the last outcomes learned throughout the
procedures which will help to get detailed view on the positive impacts on learning methods,
through which productivity is built. Outcome based evaluation will bring various lessons and
key areas in front which have formulated capacities within person throughout the whole
procedure (Hunzicker, 2019).

P4 Learning theories and approaches used for PDP
Honey and Mumford learning styles are innovative learning styles developed in year of 1986
which produced their own learning styles questioners to gain analysis how an individual is able
to develop rational new skills and where present skills are lacking.

 Activist learning theory are focused to get analysis where individuals learn
practically while working where they have repetitive way to deal with learning,
including themselves completely which enables to bring on wide innovation among
working practices.
 Theorists: They ate understood as leaders who get new working experience and
ideas to chance where they require models, new ideas and specific end goals for
participating on innovative learning procedures
Transformational learning theory:
Learning theories enable professional development process among individuals to enlarge
their vision towards their responsibilities, highly being practical with the set production targets
and bring innovation in all prospects. Transformative learning theory explains the process of
perspective transformation has three dimensions : psychological (changes in understanding of the
self), convictional (revision of belief systems) and behavioral (changes in lifestyles). This theory
gives detailed explanation of basic worldview and specific capacities on self, transformative
learning which enables to learn various innovative methods and procedures of functional
efficiency. Transformative learning theory transforms the overall productity of person by giving
an enlarged vision of futuristic growth parameters, produce ethical standards understanding
towards dynamic conditions.
The transformational theory will be most effective for learning new skills for
longer business frameworks, where practical dynamic learning potentialities will be
explored for individual working at Thomas Cook company at the post of tour operator
manager.
Professional skills and development skills
 Professional skills and personal development skills are highly essential for gaining strong
position in market share where there is strong competitive growth in all individuals.
Development approaches enable people to strategize their future growths on all parameters
which will impact their futuristic growth, enlarge their working ethics and functionally become
more active. Tour operator needs to have strategically planning abilities and the potentiality to

establish firm conversation with all clients and plan tours based on their preferences (Kapoor,
and Gardner-McCune, 2019).
 Development approach of going under training sessions and prospective learning where strong
emphasis is built towards acknowledging the various latest trends as demanded by customers
and marinating strong outputs will help in generating cost effective output. Tour operator need
to posses cross cultural management skills which explains the learning towards diversity and
cultural ethics which will help in delivering clients comfortable stay at their travels.
 He should be efficient in collecting, evaluating responding to customers feedbacks and
grievances through internet web services and portals of travelling partners with wihuch
company has collaborated if any. He should be productive in speaking all languages as per
comfort ability factor of customers, as Thomas Cook is one of the biggest world leading travel
agency handling tourist packages from around the world. The tour operator must use market
research information to collect reliable data and statistics for finalizing destinations for
travelers, fixing best accommodations and providing best pricing strategies. He should have
accounting knowledge and use creative working ethics to provide best services to all customers
and also have ability to predict profit margins for maintain strong revenue scale.
Personal SWOT analysis table
STRENGTHS  Communication skills
 Creativity thinking
 Learning potentialities
WEAKNESSES  Less research abilities
 Less technical advancement to work
on projects
OPPORTUNITIES  Leadership skills
 Analytical skills

 Productive learning skills
 New research abilities
THREATS  Stiff competition among employees
 Less confidence to bring before ideas
 High resistance
Individual Skills Audit
NAME
SKILLS I HAVE JUSTIFICATION
 Communication skills Able to communicate effectively with team
members and consumers who come for
business enquiries.
 Interpersonal skills Able to build strong cooperation within teams
and employees working strengths
 Quick decision making skills Able to bring before large quick decisions with
less time which will enable me to develop higher
leadership also
 Creative thinking skills Innovative working potentialities
 Time management skills Quick working avenues to build on higher scale
services
 Leadership skills Most important through which I can develop
longer working parameters in my career.

SKILLS I’D LIKE TO
IMPROVE
JUSTIFICATION
 Analytical skills By working and training for larger working
avenues for strong analytical performance
metrics
 Researching skills By working towards researching more
extensively to get work related new information
and data
 Quick programming and numeracy skills Will help me to program out better and more
effectively to bring goodwill and profitability.
TRAFFIC LIGHT SKILLS AUDIT
TIME and SELF MANAGEMENT
I am able to organise my time so that I comfortably meet all my deadlines for assignments X
I know exactly where to go for help and support if I have difficulty completing a task X
I keep a diary or calendar so that I always know when I have to attend lectures, seminars and
other key dates
X
I arrive on time for classes, appointments and meetings X
I am aware of the things that cause me to waste time and am able to avoid them when I have
work to complete
X
I have future targets in mind regarding my education (and career) and use these to help me
focus on current tasks
X
CRITICAL THINKING and PROBLEM SOLVING
I am able to use different methods for exploring a problem (academic and non academic),
such as considering different points of view or options
X
I am able to consider a range of alternative solutions to a problem and predict the best one in
the given circumstances
X

I am able to break down a complex problem (e.g. an assignment, a seminar question or where
to live) into simple parts
X
I am able to work productively with others to solve problems X
I know how to find out what is expected of me in a particular assessment task X
ORAL COMMUNICATION
In group discussions, I listen to others and I value and respond to their contribution even if I do
not agree
X
I am confident that I can contribute ideas and opinions to a group discussion X
I think of relevant follow-up questions as people are speaking and ask them once they have
finished
X
I am confident explaining new concepts to other people X
I would be confident in giving a presentation to my peers X
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
I am confident that I can structure an assignment in paragraphs and using signposting
language (however, firstly) in order to communicate my ideas effectively
X
I am confident that I can write in an appropriate academic style for my subject X
I am confident that my written work has no grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors
before I submit it
X
I have an effective method for organising and planning the information that I want to put into
a written assignment such as an outline plan or a ‘mindmap’
X
I understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it by clearly referencing my work X
I can use sources effectively to make my argument convincing and show that I am
wellinformed about the topic
X
I am confident that I know the correct format and style for formal letters and documents, such
as covering letters and CVs
X
I am able to produce useful and meaningful written notes from a lecture, presentation or
demonstration that capture the key points
X

INFORMATION LITERACY: READING
I am confident in gathering information from a wide variety of sources such as books, journals,
on-line data-bases and the internet.
X
I think about what I need to find out before I start reading (am I reading to verify facts, to
understand a subject in general or to analyse a particular argument?)
X
I make useful, easy to follow notes while I am finding information for an assignment or project X
I can identify the points in a text which convey the author’s main arguments and distinguish
these from supporting examples and references
X
NUMERACY
I am confident that I have the numerical and statistical skills needed to succeed on my course X
I am able to interpret information presented in graphs, charts, tables and diagrams. X
LO3
P5 Professional Development Plan
A professional development plan is list of all actionable steps by an individual for
achieving higher career goals, with specific insights on parameters which needs to be developed
and are currently weak .A strong professional development plan essentially showcase all key
areas important for an individual in specified career to examine the strategies formulation along
with evaluation for effective log term implementation (Kuehnert,Cason, Young and Pratt, 2019).
Short term goals 3 – 6 months
 Will be focusing to gain new research abilities and higher creativity along with numeracy
skills to pertain on longer working abilities to bring before developed functional
paradigms to pertain stronger vision and developed metrics for gaining higher
performance within Thomas Cook.
 To improve communication skills