Employability Skills: Reflective Journal on Career Development

This document presents a student's reflective journal entries focusing on employability skills. The journal explores the Gallup Strengths Theory, identifying key aspects and reflecting on personal strengths such as being an achiever, a learner, and having a positive attitude. It discusses how these strengths can be applied to achieve career aspirations. The journal also critically appraises the Gallup Strength Theory and Constructivist Learning Theory, examining their potential flaws and how elements of these theories can be applied to future career development. The student reflects on how to 'own' these theories, emphasizing the importance of strength development and continuous learning in navigating career challenges and uncertainties. The journal highlights the development of knowledge through experiences and internal skills, promoting deeper thinking, effective work habits, and enhanced communication and social skills. The journal concludes by showing how these skills help in raising self-awareness and overall team effectiveness.

Employability Skills-Course1
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Contents
Journal Entry1 Know Yourself..................................................................................................3
Identify what you consider to be some of the key aspects of the Gallup Strengths theory....3
Reflect on a minimum of three of your strengths...................................................................3
How can you apply these to achieve your career aspirations?...............................................3
Journal Entry2 Know Yourself..................................................................................................4
Critically appraise two of the theories from this module (are there any flaws?)...................4
Journal Entry3 Know Yourself..................................................................................................5
Reflect on how you can apply elements of these theories to your future career
development? How will you own them?................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6
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Journal Entry1 Know Yourself
Identify what you consider to be some of the key aspects of the Gallup Strengths theory
The Gallup strength theory is basically a method which is based on the aspect where it has
been considered that the psychology is in a positive manner. This is helping one to attain a
healthy as well as a successful life and there will be smooth functioning of the actions of life.
The major concern of this theory is that to converting the ideas and thoughts into the steps
and actions. It is very important and essential factor for an individual as with this the ideas
which n individual like me is having can be able to execute in the real manner (Jones-Smith,
2013).The key aspect of the Gallup strength theory is about transformed ideas into actions.
This is aiming to develop one’s thoughts and understanding process.
Reflect on a minimum of three of your strengths
As per my concern, I am having several strengths which are differentiating me from others as
with the help of these skills I am able to avail better options and opportunities of the market.
My strength is-
 Achiever- I am an achiever as what I have decided to attain I will be making sure that
in the set time I will meet my own set standards.
 Learner- This is one of my best skills that I use to learn and wishes to grasp new
things. I am keen on learning things which is very important and effective in the
professional world (Tymon, 2013).
 Positivity- I am very positive in nature and take everything in a very positive and
optimistic manner. This is a very effective trait which is making me different from
others.
How can you apply these to achieve your career aspirations?
I want to be at a very high and good position it is very important for me to use my trait in the
best possible manner. At my workplace, I will be using these strengths so that the
organisation goal can be able to meet as with the help of this I can also perform well in
several situations (Jones, 2013).
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Journal Entry2 Know Yourself
Critically appraise two of the theories from this module (are there any flaws?)
Gallup strength theory: these theory beliefs that each person has their own strength and it is
a more effective way to empower the people. This theory is based on the Positive
Psychology. This theory of strong beliefs in positive emotions, optimism, spirituality,
happiness, personal development, satisfaction, etc. and focuses on the maintaining and
enhancing the functions successfully. It measures the psychological constructs and designed
to uncover the certain talents. The key talents of this theory are feelings, the pattern of
thoughts and the behaviour that is applied productively. This theory is categorisedinto 34
broad themes such as realtor, achiever, ideation and many other themes which predict the
unique talent.
Constructivist learning theory: This theory believes that new ideas and concepts should be
learned by an individual to learn more experiences. The constructivist theorists generate our
own mental and try to resolve the conflicts between the ideas and theoretical explanation. In
this theory, an individual acquires knowledge throughbehaviour, cognitive and constructivist.
Any change in the behaviors between stimuli and responses could be easily associated with
this theory. Constructivist helps in constructing the knowledge of the world through
experiences on an individual. Cognitive helps in learning the internal information of any
process (Jonassen and Land, 2012).
These theory beliefs that knowledge exists outside the people and the learners are the blank
slate that must learn things by experiences. Behaviour learning helps in establishing rules,
repetitive practice, participation, etc. Cognitive learning focuses on the mental process what
is going on inside the learner’s head and what is stored in the memory. This theory helps in
solving the problem, linking with the concepts and real examples, etc. Constructivism is the
theory which states that we construct the own perspective of the world with the help of
experiences and internal knowledge. So, this technique states that learning is the knowledge
and every person has a different mind and experiences so their perception of things will also
be different.
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Journal Entry3 Know Yourself
Reflect on how you can apply elements of these theories to your future career
development? How will you own them?
These theories help in the future development by developing strength and learning in the
career. These theories help in dealing in every situation with the strength and give the
courage to face the challenges and uncertainties in the life and the career. The Constructivist
learning theory helps in developing the knowledge with the help of experiences and internal
skills so that any questions could respond as the person has the knowledge and the different
perspectives of the world. These theories help in thinking deeply so that mentally also we
think on depth. Strength helps in creating the work effectively. With the help of these
theories, the behaviour talent of an individual can also understand (Al Ariss, et. al., 2014).
This theory helps in solving the problems and it develops the flexibility thinking. The people
can relate to the reality with the experiences so these theories help in relating the subject
matter to the own life experiences. These theories also develop communication and the social
skills which help in interacting with the new people and with the dynamic market. It helps in
raises the self-awareness and raises the team awareness. This theory helps in giving our work
more meaningful.
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References
 Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W.F. and Paauwe, J., 2014. Talent management: Current
theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp.173-179.
 Jonassen, D. and Land, S. eds., 2012. Theoretical foundations of learning
environments. Routledge.
 Jones, E., 2013. Internationalization and employability: the role of intercultural
experiences in the development of transferable skills. Public Money &
Management, 33(2), pp.95-104.
 Jones-Smith, E., 2013. Strengths-based therapy: Connecting theory, practice and
skills. Sage Publications.
 Tymon, A., 2013. The student perspective on employability. Studies in higher
education, 38(6), pp.841-856.
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