Professional Identity and Practice Report: Skills Development Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of professional identity and practice within the context of The Ledbury restaurant. It begins with an introduction to professional identity and its importance, followed by an examination of the benefits of ongoing professional development for various stakeholders, including employees and employers. The report investigates professional expectations, assesses personal skills and competencies for a food and beverage manager role, and explores various learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development, such as Gange's theory and VAK learning styles. A SWOT analysis of the student's skills is presented, and a professional development plan is constructed to enhance identified areas. The report concludes with a review of a job interview process, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. The assignment covers topics such as importance of on going professional development, self directed learning, assessment of own skills and professional identity and career opportunities and formulation of professional development plan. Along with this, demonstration of range of service industry and transferable skills for a job application is also covered under this report.

Professional Identity
and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key benefits of ongoing professional development for different stakeholders within a
specific organisation....................................................................................................................1
P2 Investigation of professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a
specific organisational context.....................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Assessment of own skills, abilities and competences for a specific job role.........................3
P4 Range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
......................................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Construction of development plan to enhance skills and competencies within the
organisation .................................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P6 Job interview for a suitable service industry role...................................................................7
Job specification ..........................................................................................................................8
P7 Reviewing key strengths and weaknesses of applied interview process..............................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is created by individuals for themselves with the help of their belief,
values, motives, experiences and attitudes. It helps them to define themselves at professional
level by demonstrating their skills in front of others. In order to attain career goals, it is very
important for all the individuals to develop professional qualities (Cruess, Cruess and Steinert,
2016). The organisation which is selected for this report is The Ledbury which is one of the
largest restaurant established in London, UK. This assignment covers various topics such as
importance of on going professional development, self directed learning, assessment of own
skills and professional identity and career opportunities and formulation of professional
development plan. Along with this, demonstration of range of service industry and transferable
skills for a job application is also covered under this report.
TASK 1
P1 Key benefits of ongoing professional development for different stakeholders within a specific
organisation
Overview of organisation: Ledbury Restaurant is one of the biggest organisation which
is a part of hospitality industry of United Kingdom. It is mainly established in London, UK and
providing food and beverage services to the clients. It was founded by Nigel Platts Martin. Main
purpose of the business entity is to deliver best food items to the customers who are visiting the
restaurant.
Continuous or on going professional development is a tool which helps to keep track
record of all the skills, experience and knowledge of staff members which could help
organisations to attain all their long as well as short term goals (Edwards, 2015).Professional
development is very beneficial for all the business entities as it results in enhanced employees
productivity which helps to attain organisational goals such as profit maximisation and customer
satisfaction. There are various benefits of it to the stakeholders of Ledbury which are as follows:
Benefits to employees: For staff members of Ledbury there are various benefits of on
going professional development. All of them are as follows:
 Personal satisfaction: Continuous professional development provides personal
satisfaction to workforce as all the staff members get good career opportunities which can
help them to attain career goals. In Ledbury, employees get motivated due to it as they
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get highly satisfied with the opportunities which are provided to them within the
organisation.
 Increased employability: Due to on going professional development, employee get
employability opportunities at their workplace which helps them to grow in their career.
It is one of the major benefit which is acquired by staff members of Ledbury where
employees are provided with development opportunities so that they can grow and reach
to their career goals (Hoeve, Jansen and Roodbol, 2014).
Benefits to employers: When on going professional development is conducted within
the organisation, then it provides various benefits to employers. All of them for Ledbury are as
follows:
 Skilled workforce: As professional development helps staff members to enhance their
skill, so it can result in skilled workforce for an organisation who can contribute in
attainment of organisational goals. In Ledbury, top management make sure that
employees take part in on going professional development so that their skills can be
enhanced in order to increase their productivity.
 Employee engagement through development opportunities: Professional development
helps to satisfy employees which is beneficial for the organisation to enhance their
engagement in the operational activities. In Ledbury, employees take part in continuous
development programs which results in enhanced employee engagement due to high level
of motivation, inspiration and satisfaction from the employer. It is beneficial for
employer because highly engaged employees contribute in achievement of long term
business goals (Karkouti, 2014).
P2 Investigation of professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a
specific organisational context
While hiring new employees for the organisation, employers expect various skills and
competencies from employees in order to make sure that they will be able to attain their goals
related to job roles. In Ledbury, employers also make some expectations from staff members and
set standards for them while they take participation in business execution processes. All of them
are described below:
Standards set by employer:
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 Personal presentation and appearance: In Ledbury, employers set standard for all the
staff members to follow a proper dress code and make their appearance general so that
customers can communicate and interact with them generally. It helps to bring
seriousness in the process of performing jobs and fulfilling requirements of job role.
 Importance of projecting the brand image: It is another standard which is set by
employers for the staff members in which they are required to understand importance of
projecting the brand image in front of customers. In order to meet this standard, they are
responsible to represent the restaurant appropriately in front of them (Marañón and Pera,
2015).
Expected skills at work place: All the employers expect various skills from the staff
members such as hard and soft. All such types of qualities are as follows:
 Soft skills: These are basic requirements of a job role which are required to be fulfilled
by employees. Different types of soft skills such as self confidence, communication,
delegation, creative thinking and networking are major requirements of all the
employees and these qualities are expected by employers. Main reason behind it is that, it
helps workforce to fulfil all the needs of their job role.
 Hard skills: These are also known as technical skills as it may change according to job
roles. Some of them are knowledge of accounting, programming, statistical analysis,
application of technology, maths, foreign languages, cooking etc. All these qualities
changes with the job role according to their requirements. For example, for food and
beverage manager it is very important to have cooking skills so that all the staff members
can work under professional guidance.
All the above described soft and hard skills are required by employers in their employees
so that they can work productively within the organisation.
TASK 2
P3 Assessment of own skills, abilities and competences for a specific job role
For all the individuals it is very important to assess own skills so that it can be analysed
that they are able to meet expectations of employer or not. I am willing to work on the profile of
food and beverage manager and for this purpose various qualities are required by me. All of
them will be analysed by me with the help of skills audit. My skill audit is as follows:
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Skills Good Average Bad
Communication skills ✔
Coordination skills ✔
Management abilities ✔
Cooking ✔
Innovative thinking ✔
Decision making ✔
Problem solving ✔
As a food and beverage manager I am required to have various skills such as
communication, coordination, decision making, problem solving, management, cooking,
innovative thinking etc. all of them are analysed by me with the help of personal skill audit in
above table (Pihl-Thingvad, 2015). It has helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. A
SWOT analysis of mine is as follows:
Strengths Weaknesses
 I have good communication skills
which can help me to interact with all
the staff members appropriately.
 Innovative thinking guide me to present
food items with innovative styles so
that guests can be satisfied.
 My weak management abilities may
create problems for me to manage all
the tasks at workplace.
 Bad decision making and problem
solving skills are also a negative point
for me because it can create problems
for me in future.
Opportunities Threats
 In order to enhance my skills I can take
proper guidance from my superiors in
the organisation.
 Professional training is a technique
which would be beneficial for me to
enhance my weak skills.
 Weak skills may affect my ability to
handle pressure at my place.
 Due to some of the weak skills I may
loose growth in may career.
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P4 Range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development
There are various types of learning theories which are used by business entities for the
purpose of conducting personal and professional development programs. One of them is Gange's
theory of improvement which could be used in Ledbury for the purpose of development of staff
members. In this theory Gange has proposed a series of different types of events which are
following systematic instructional design process which share the behaviourist approach of
learning. It is mainly concerned with training and providing instructions for development. It is
concerned with improvement of different elements such as verbal communication, intellectual
skills, cognitive strategies, motor qualities and attitudes. According to Gange all these categories
of theory lead to different performance of employees. It could be used in Ledbury for the
purpose of formulating personal and professional development plan (Sabanciogullari and Dogan,
2015).
VAK learning style is another learning theory which could be used by business entities
such as Ledbury for the purpose of conducting personal and professional development plans.
There are seven different elements of this theory which includes Visual, Aural, Verbal, Physical,
Logical, Social and Solitary.
 In Visual learning style pictures, image and spatial understanding tools are used by
individuals to learn something.
 In Aural medium of learning audio or videos are used to learn things which are required
to fulfil requirements of job.
 In Verbal element of VAK theory people use words in writing and speaking activities in
order to enhance skills of others.
 Physical factors includes body, hand and sense of touch for the purpose of learning.
 Logical and mathematical tools are mainly used for the purpose of enhancing hard skills
with the help of reasoning and logics.
 In social learning people prefer to learn with other people in a group.
 In Solitary type of learning individuals giver preference to work alone and use self
assessment models to enhance skills.
All the above described elements of VAK theory could be used in Ledbury for the
purpose of enhancing skills of staff members (VAK theory. 2019).
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There are various types of learning approaches which could also be used for the purpose
of developing professional skills within individuals. All of them are as follows:
Behaviourist approach: It is mainly used to determine changes in the behaviour of
individuals which may take place due to good or bad experiences in working environment. It is a
scientific approach which lies upon analysing non mental processes as all of them are not access-
able and observable. Another reason behind it is that, mental procedures are not easy to study. It
could be used in Ledbury for the purpose of analysing the changes in skills which have taken
place due to changes in working environment.
Cognitive approach: It is a modern approach which is mainly used to determine
behaviour of individuals and focus on the way in which they think to attain career goals. It could
be used by top level executives in Ledbury for the purpose of analysing the psychological factors
which are leaving negative impact upon skills of staff (Salifu and Agbenyega, 2016).
TASK 3
P5 Construction of development plan to enhance skills and competencies within the organisation
PDP (Professional development plan) is a representation in which necessary skills and
competences are described in order to enrich them on continuous basis. By adopting this PDP I
was able to figure out my weak points in certain skills and also investigated various measures
which can be taken by me to improve them (Wald, 2015). The table designed below is of PDP
(Professional development plan)which involves skills I need to upgrade along with the time
duration which is to undertaken in this context:
Skills &
Competencies
Goals Activities for
improving skills
Effectiveness of PDP
Decision making 5 month In order to upgrade my
decision making skills
I will critically
examine the situation
and then results will be
declared. Out of the
various view points
the best will be taken
Gradually as my skills
of decision making
will be raised I will be
able to take quick and
fast decisions towards
the up-gradation of my
managerial skills
which in coming years
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as my decision. will help me to grow
and success in the
market.
Management abilities 3 months For improving my
management skills
like, communication,
delegation, problem
solving etc. I will
watch video and try to
execute them in my
daily routine so that
gradually
improvements can be
done.
As the management
skills will be improved
I will be able to handle
employees more
effectively and
efficiently. As well as
staff members turn out
ratio can be reduced.
Problem solving 6 month I will attend various
seminars and will
watch video regarding
how to resolve
problems effectively.
I will also spend time
with mangers so that I
can examine how they
tackle the problems in
every situations
(Warner, 2014).
By attending all the
this seminars I will be
able to handle the
problems and well as
best suggestions will
be suggested from my
side.
TASK 4
P6 Job interview for a suitable service industry role
The process of job interview can be explained as the process which is used in order to recruit and
hire new employees for an organisation. This includes many steps which are essential for
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company to complete the process of interview. In LEDBRUX there is vacancy of floor manager
which is needed to fulfilled so that they complete their work. For this purpose interview will be
done in which different candidates has opportunities to complete their work.
Job specification
This work as statement that symbolise the summary of the activity or job that is required
by candidate to perform. Job specification requires qualification and responsibilities that are
required by organisation in an candidate.
The following is the structured interview in this the description process for job role of
performance manager is as follow:
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(b): CV
In simple words, it is the past experience that any of the individual prepare with some of
the additional information which is helpful during the process of interview. It is one of the way
through which company is capable of selecting the best member within the organisation. For the
purpose f job role within Hospitality sector, application for floor manager are submitted.
CURICULAM VITAE
Name- Mark
Address- 26, church road, London. UK
Contact no.- 241653433
Job Experience- I do have the experience of three years in Crown Plaza as assistant of floor
manager. I am looking forward to connect with the company like NEDBURX as it provides
better opportunities and platform to me for sharpening up skills and taking my career to new
level. Companies growth along with employee’s success is one of the main motive which can
be easily fulfilled within Premier Inn hotel.
Specialisation-
 Handling team
 Knowledge Technological field
 Solving problem among worker
Qualification-
 MBA
Declaration-All the information which are mentioned above is true and fair.
Date-
Place-
Interviewer- “Tell me about yourself”?
Interviewee- Hello my name is Mark. I am complete my education from Abbott school,
London. My post graduation has done in Masters of business administration in Finance.
According to my perspective NEDBURX provide more opportunities for development and
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