Professional Identity and Practices Report: Skills and Competencies

This report delves into the realm of professional identity and practices, providing a comprehensive analysis of key aspects essential for career development. The report begins by highlighting the benefits of ongoing professional development for various stakeholders, including employers and employees, emphasizing its role in skill enhancement and organizational growth. It then explores employer expectations regarding skills and competencies, referencing examples such as the Michelin-star restaurant. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to self-assessment, where the author evaluates their abilities, skills, and competencies using a SWOT analysis, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Furthermore, the report reviews a range of learning theories and approaches, including behaviorist and humanist approaches, as well as learning models like Gagne's theory and Kolb's learning cycle. Finally, the report touches on the construction of a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies and concludes with a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the job interview process. The report provides a well-rounded overview of professional development, with practical insights and theoretical underpinnings.

Professional Identity and
Practices.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key benefit of on — going professional development for different stakeholders.(384).......1
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies.........................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P3 Assess own abilities , skills and competences for a specific job role....................................3
P4 Review a range of learning theories and approaches.............................................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
P5 Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies..........................6
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................8
P6 Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role..............................................8
P7 Review key strength and weaknesses of an applied interview process. ...............................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This report is based on the professional identity practices. As it is very important to
know the professional skills which help an individual in the future. As this report will cover all
the key on- going professional development for different stakeholders within a specific
organization as the stakeholders are basically employer and the employees. Further, in this
report it will discuss all the expectation which the employer has ad both professional skills and
common skills. It will also assess own abilities skills and competence for a specific role. In this
report it will review the learning approaches as well as learning theories which are used for
personal and professional development process. It will also develop the plan to enhance chosen
skills and competencies within a specific work context. It will also undertake a job interview
for suitable services industry and at last it will review the strength and weakness of an applied
interview process.
LO 1
P1 Key benefit of on — going professional development for different stakeholders.(384)
On — going professional development basically a continues program of processing,
maintaining and documenting the professional skills. As it is widely recognized as the
fundamental to the improvement of standards and skills of individual. It helps to build and
enhance the skills of individual and develop their personality. Also, it ensures the further
learning progressed in a structured, practical and applicable way to guarantee that there are
applied efficiencies in learning (Hsieh, 2015). Also, there is key benefit of on – going
professional development for different stakeholders which has mentioned below-
Importance for on- going professional for Employers are as it helps to increase the
knowledge as it update the employers and also enhance its skills and improve the knowledge of
the employers. The second importance is that employer has skills workforce as when the
employees learn new skills or knowledge then they are more equipped to train new strategies
and techniques. As it will make the work easy for the employers as in an investment in future
leaders who can smoothly transition into higher ranking roles as individual retire or seek other
career opportunities. Also, the next benefit is that it will help to increase the productivity as
every employers wants higher productivity from their employees as when professional
development opportunity are encouraged it will help to gain knowledge and skills that will
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directly impact to higher productivity. The other benefit from on – going professional
development help to increase the organizational brand image as it will increase the reputation
of the company as profit increases (Currie, Burgess and Hayton, 2015).
Importance for on – going professional for employees are it increases the morale of the
employees. As when employed feel valued as they will also motivate to work in the best
desired manner. And also the productivity of the company also increases. Also, it will help to
reduce the conflict in the organization. It will also benefit the employees by giving personal
satisfaction as by enhancing their creative skills and knowledge it will directly impact their
performance and hence there satisfaction increases. The next benefit is that it will increase the
employability as more and more employees will engage with the organization and hence it will
increase retention. It will also help to increase the efficiency of the employees as professional
development help to offer the new skills which help the employees to a large extent in
increases their working and efficiencies.
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
There are many expectations of employers in an organization which need to be satisfied
accordingly. For example the employer Michelin-star restaurant has the expectation that there
must be proper dress code in the restaurant as every one will look professional and work in the
systematic manner. As dress code will imply unity ion the organization. As employers expect
that every one in the restaurant appear in the good manner as it will help to grab numerous
customers. The second expectation is that the employer desire for higher brand reputation and
image as it motivate all other employees to work harder in order to increase the reputation of
the restaurant. The third expectation of the employers is that organization follow all the ethical
consideration and follow all the rules and regulation in systematic manner so that the business
run in proper way. Also, it is important to maintain the professional standards in appropriate
manner. The employers also has the expectation to have a committed and enthusiasm team
which work harder to achieve the goals and objective of the business. Also, the employers'
expectation is to have employees who willingly learn everything and accept the feedback in
positive manner.
There are many expectations of employers in terms of common skills as skills are
basically divided into hard skills and soft skills. As soft skills include communication as
employers has the expectation to have excellent communication skills which help him to
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communicate the task in the effective manner and also convey the goals in the proper manner
as every employee have faith in the goal of the employers. The next soft skills is confidence as
employers has the expectation to have self-confidence as if he has the expectation in the
particular goals then only he will motivate the other employees to work hard towards the
objective (Lalonde and Castro, 2015). The third soft skills is creative thinking as the employers
always except that to think in creative manner and bring new techniques and method in the
business and also to improve the decision-making process so that it will help the business to
run in effective manner. Also, it is important for the employer to always take the imitative in
every project so that it will motivate the other employees to participate in the goal of the
business. On the other hand hard skills include that the employers has the expectation to have
proper knowledge of technology and should have known how to access the advance
technologies. Hard skills also includes proper knowledge of statistic and accounting which help
the employer in many ways (Molyneux and Holton, 2015).
LO 2
P3 Assess own abilities , skills and competences for a specific job role.
Not entirely
sure — I could
still improve.
I am really
confidence I
can do this.
Basis Strength Weakness
Time management
Critical thinking
Communication skills
Problem solving
Technical skills
Initiative
Creative and innovative skills
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Personal SWOT Analysis.
Strength
Time management — One of my foremost
strength is that I have excellent time
management skills as I always manage my
work according to the tome which helps me to
achieve the desired goals and objective and
make me more dedicated towards the work.
Communication skills — the second
strength is I have effective communication
skills as I can convey my objective easily to
other and influence them accordingly which
helps me work in a better manner (Villanueva,
Nadelson and Bouwma-Gearhart, 2018).
Creative and innovative skills – the third
strength is I have the skills to generate many
creative and innovative ideas which helps me
to improve my decision and bring positivity.
Weakness -
Critical thinking – The first weakness that I
can not think in critical manner as I get panic
and don't have enough solution also I can not
easily analyse the situation in effective
manner.
Problem solving — The second weakness is
that I can not solve the problem in easy
manner as I have to overcome this weakness.
Initiative — The third weakness is that I lack
behind is that I don't have the ability to take
initiate and start my work first. I have to
develop this quality to take initiative
(Kluijtmans and et.al, 2017).
Opportunity
New career direction – The first and
foremost opportunity is that I will have new
career which give me new direction to
experience in the effective manner.
New challenges- the second opportunity is
that I experience new challenges which help
my career to build in positive way also help to
learn many new things.
Wider career prospectus – the third
opportunity is that it will give wider career
prospectus which help by career to have
Threat
Competition from other people – as other
people will give a tough competition to me as
they are qualified with same degree, so I will
face a tough competition.
Problem in decision-making – The second
threat is in decision-making as I can not take
the decision in proper and adequate manner
(Hedman, 2015).
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proper direction.
Experience in a different environment – the
last and forth opportunity is that I will
experience in different environment as I have
the opportunity to work with different culture
of people and help me to respect other view
point .
Comparison sheet.
Skills Essential Desired
Communication skills
Critical thinking -------------
Time management -------------
Problem solving ---------------
P4 Review a range of learning theories and approaches
Learning approaches – As basically there are three type of approaches such as behaviourist
and humanist which are discussed below -
Behaviourist approach –
This is the learning approach to -psychology that explains the changes in the behaviour of
people working in organization due to their experience with external factors of environment.
The approach considers the stimuli and ignore other types of factors of the environment. The
approach is based on the fact that, the behaviour of individual changes according to the changes
that happens in the surroundings (Colliander, 2018).
Humanist approach -
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The aim of Humanist approach is to replace the Behaviourist approach of behaviour. This
approach mainly focuses on the experience of people, their freedom etc. According to Abraham
Maslow, the behaviour of people is not dependent upon external surroundings. The behaviour
of individuals is self-determined. For example – The behaviour of employees working in
Michelin-star restaurant can be influenced by satisfying their needs such as self-actualization
etc.
Learning Models – There are various learning models such as Kolb's learning model, Gagne's
theory etc.
Gagne's theory – Gagne's Theory is a detail approach that contains different stages in which
Managers, facilitators can provide training to the employees of the company so that, team
members will get various opportunities to learn something new. Gagne has provided nine levels
of learning. Gagne has suggested different types of learning such as intellectual skills etc.
Learning for acquiring different skills can be organized on the basis of difficulty such as
recognizing stimulus, giving response, formation of concepts etc.
VAK learning – Visual-Auditory and Kinesthetic model has described different styles of
learning. The model is based on different sensory receivers for evaluating the learning style of
an individual. Some individual have a combination of three different styles. One or more styles
of learning are generally dominant.
Kolb's learning cycle – The model was developed by David Kolb in year 1984. It is one of
the common model of learning new things. This model is also known as experiential learning
because, experience of the person plays a major role in the process of learning. Kolb's learning
cycle is a process that contains four different stages. An individual gains effective leaning when
they move through the different stages of Kolb's cycle. Every individual prefers a different
style of learning. First stage in the cycle is acquiring experience then observation of the person
on that reflection. There are various factors that may affect the choice of learning style such as
educational experience, social environment etc. In third stage of the cycle person will form
concepts and conclusions that are being tested in next stage. Therefore, in this way Kolb's
learning cycle will help the employees of the firm to gain new experience of learning. There are
different activities that supports the cycle like case study, observations, reading, simulations
etc.
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LO 3
P5 Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies.
Personal development plan
Current Skills and
Competencies used
in personal and
professional plan
Goals Personal /
Professional
Development Plan
ACTIVITY (Use
SMART targets)
Indicate how you
have monitored your
progress,
underpinning
Learning and
Development theory
Evaluate the
effectiveness of your
personal
development plan
Time management It will be short term
goal which can be
accomplished in 3
months.
The time management
skills can be achieved
by the help of gagne's
learning theory as it
will help to manage
the time in an
effective manner.
Also, help to do the
work as soon as
possible.
The time management
skills will be
beneficial as it helps
me to work in
effective manner and
help to work in more
manageable manner.
And helps to work in
effective way.
Communication It can be long termed
goal which can be
accomplished in 1
year as it required
attentive study .
Communication skills
can be monitored with
the help of kolb's
learning theory as it
will help enhance the
communication skills
and help to convey the
things in an
appropriate manner.
Communication skills
helps to give my
career a different
direction which help
to enhance my
personality and help
me to convey my self
in an effective
manner.
Inter personal skills It can be achieved by
2 months as it is short
term goals.
The interpersonal
skills can be
developed by the help
of taking the training
These skills will have
the limitation as this
does not give that start
to my career as e was
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session which will
help to enhance my
personality and
knowledge.
expecting .
Decision making
skills
It can be achieved by
6 months hence it is a
short term goals.
The decision-making
skills can be improved
by reading the books
and also it can be
improved by VAK
learning theory which
will help to take
decision in efficient
manner.
Decision making
skills help my career
in many ways as it
help to make decision
in an improve manner.
Technical skills It is a long term goals
which can be achieved
by more than one
year.
As technical skills are
very important skills
in which keen
knowledge is required
it will be achieved by
taking proper training
which will help to
known that how to
operate the advance
technologies.
As nowadays, it is
very essential for an
individual to have
technical skills which
help me in the future.
LO 4
P6 Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role
There are many ways -
Presentation formats of a CV – the first and foremost step is that the CV must be in
presentation format as it must be in effective manner hence easily understandable and with the
effective format which give an excellent impression. Also, the format of CV are very specified
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which help the individual in many ways. As it is very important to follow a particular format of
CV as it will help to attract the interviewer as there will be chances of selection. Also in CV
there should include point-to-point things and also the realistic things.
Key information to include in a CV – the second feature is that it is necessary in the CV
to involve the particular point which are necessary in the CV. As it is very important to
have the particular information that is important such as qualification as it is very crucial to
involve the qualification and also it is important to mention all the certificate which help to
make the CV more accurate. It is also important to involve the personal information which
helps to make the CV more realistic. And also it is very important to mention the address and
phone number correctly.
Tailoring the CV the specific job role – the third crucial factor is that it is important to
tailor the CV in effective manner. As by the help of tailoring the individual will get his or her
desired job role. For example if the individual want a job position of manager then he must
mention so that there will be more chances of it (Kluijtmans and et.al, 2017).
P7 Review key strength and weaknesses of an applied interview process.
Strength
1. The first strength is that effective
communication skills as it will help to
build the communication of the
individual. As it will help to enhance
the personality .
2. The second strength is that it help to
build the self -confidence of the
individual as in the group discussion it
will help to gain confidence.
3. It will also help to take initiate in every
perceptive both in professional and
personal. Also help to present the
individual in effective manner.
Weakness
1. the first weakness is that in the group
discussion it may eliminate the
deserving candidate and thus sometime
chose another one which is not
deserving.
2. The second weakness is that it is very
time-consuming process which might
take a long procedure .
3. The third weakness is that this
interview process is very expensive
which might be cost more for the
company . As by conducting all the
process sometime one might choose
the wrong candidates.
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