Reflective Report on Graduate Challenge: Skill Development

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's experience with the Graduate Challenge, a program designed to enhance various skills crucial for professional development. The report explores the development of communication, teamwork, time management, presentation, and business skills through participation in challenges like the Apprentice, Presentation, and T-shirt challenges. The Apprentice challenge highlighted the importance of teamwork and problem-solving, while the Presentation challenge focused on effective communication and time management. The T-shirt challenge offered opportunities to apply business concepts, including marketing, finance, and operational strategies, enhancing the student's understanding of business environments. The report also includes an action plan for continued skill development and concludes with a reflection on the overall impact of the Graduate Challenge on the student's personal and professional growth, referencing key theories like Tuckman's stages of team development and various academic sources.

THE GRADUATE
CHALLENGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Apprentice challenges..................................................................................................................3
Presentation Challenges...............................................................................................................3
T-shirt challenge..........................................................................................................................5
Action plan...................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The report is the reflective report which helped in analysing the experiences of one’s own
and using them to present one’s own feelings and thoughts. This reflective report is totally based
on developing and enhancing the skills such as communication skills, teamwork skills, time
management skills, meeting skills and the business skills and competencies through presentation
and excel skills through some challenges like apprentice challenge, presentation challenge and
the t-shirt challenge. Action plan will eb made in order to develop these skills.
MAIN BODY
Apprentice challenges
A good teamwork is going to get higher creativity and experience in the organisation
further working of the company to be higher. that are a lot of issues and problems which all the
employees are going to face since they all belong from a different background which would
affect the innovation and inspiration of the organisation overall. problem solving and issues have
to be solved on time so that in the future there would be higher communication which is going to
be present and the company will be able to have overall development which is a very important
factor to be having a competitive advantage (Oguro and Mueller, 2020). There are a lot of risk
which in organisation is taking therefore having a clear direction to be able to work in is going to
be the best method for the organisation to be having in the market. There are a lot of tasks as
well which the organisation stake and the employees need to match that factor which a good
team would be able to do effectively.
Presentation Challenges
Good presentation is always required which is within the framework end time
management is effective according to the allotment which the teachers have done. In that time
frame which is allotted the members have to make sure that they are giving out the most
important information and the communication with the class is high in order to make sure that
their point of view is being able to reach the audience. There has to be a good connection which
is required with the audience In order to be able to communicate an make them understand as
well (Abie and Serpa, 2019). They have to be right techniques which have to be taken up to
make sure that the presentation is very attractive and is taking everyone’s attention which
requires a good skill in order to be able to achieve this factor. There has to be a good
3

understanding of the audience which is present to make sure that they are being able to have a
good environment and being able to understand the colleagues which are present so that they
would be able to communicate and present that ideas forward.
Tuckman theory of teamwork
There are four stages which are given by Bruce Tuckman so that there is going to be a
health environment which would be present in the company and the relationship between the
employees is going to be higher.
 Forming
The team members get time in this stage to get along and get to know all the employees for the
task to be having a common ground. There has to be good understanding so that the achievement
is going to be higher.
 Storming
The company will have to give the teams to discuss the task effectively so that there are
going to be more understanding which is going to be present of the task. There has to be good
communication in order to make sure that there is good direction which the employees are
working in (Thornton, Schooner and Speidel, 2020). Time is going to be consumed in this
process but the problems have to be solved effectively so that the tasks can be achieved by the
company.
 Norming
The tasks in hand are going to have higher clarity which is going to be present when they are
in action. It is important that all the employees know what they have to do for the task to be
completed on time which is a very important factor.
 Performing
This is when the task is got into action so that the performance of the task can be matched
with the standards of the company. It is important to monitor and control the employees of the
company to make sure that all the employees are working effectively and efficiently.
4

T-shirt challenge
This is one of the most trending challenge on the internet in today’s time. I have also
accepted this challenge and got to know many opportunities for including various business
angles in this challenge. The various departments were considered during this business such as
business environment, marketing, HR operations, finance etc. many things were learnt about the
business (Mohibulla, Takebiraand Jannat, 2018). I realised that this idea of business was a
unique one as it involved offering a T-shirt and designing by my own and offering it to the
customers. All the management functions and the business angles were included in this. I also
went through the processes of marketing of the business by using various marketing strategies. It
not only included the physical as well as mental efforts but also included sufficient capital and
the financial part because the financial analysis was required to be done and valid costing was
done. The operational and the HR departments were also analysed and evaluated through many
strategies. The business environment including the SWOT and the PESTLE analysis was also
done in order to analyse the impact of the internal and external factors. In SWOT analysis, the
internal analysis of the business was done which helped in analysing the internal factors such as
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and through the PESTLE analysis the
external factors and their impact were examined such as Political, Economic, Social,
Technological, Legal and the environmental (Pedersen, Earle and Andersen, 2019). This helped
me in enhancing my communication skills as the challenge can eb done through group efforts
and communication skills must be effective as I realized that it was necessary to transfer the
ideas and knowledge to others which helped me in improving my communication skills as well
as emotional intelligence skills. I also got many opportunities to develop my team working skills
as I could meet up the challenge just by being in group and work in collaboration with my team
members who supported me in meeting up the challenge. Time management skills were also
enhanced as every function needs to be performed in the decide time frames and deadline
otherwise its credibility could be lost. I also got to gain the business skills as I interacted with the
other businesses for becoming aware of the emerging market and the knowledge gained was
presented through some presentations and making use of excel to present the statistical and the
numerical data which also enhanced my presentation, excel and IT skills (Uluskan and Godfrey,
2018.). Therefore, this is how I got many opportunities to enhance my skills through this T-shirt
challenge and I made use of it.
5

Action plan
There are a lot of improvements which have to be done in me so that there is going to be
higher achievement which would be present. The following report is going to discuss these
factors in detail.
Skills Time
period
Measures Evaluation
Time
management
3 weeks There are going to be a lot of
activities and tasks I would be
participating in so that there is
going to be higher experience of
me dealing with situations. The
tasks have to be completed on
time and make sure that there is
good distribution of work for the
tasks as well (Drouin and et.al.,
2017). There are a lot of activities
as well which I would have to
participate in and will have to give
in my best so that there is going to
be right achievement which is
going to be present.
Online assessments and
evaluation by the teachers
is going to be very helpful
for me to be able to
achieve the targets and
goals which I have for
myself. This is a very long
term goal and
improvement which I have
been looking forward for.
Communication 5 weeks There are a lot of lectures and
offline courses I would be
attending in order to be able to
improve this skill. I will also be
participating in a lot of classroom
activities to make sure that there
is good achievement and
The people I trust like
friends, teachers and
family would be very
helpful for me to be able to
make sure that there is an
effective improvement in
me from time (Lima
6

understanding which I can
develop for this skill.
Fogaca, Koppang and Zizzi,
2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that there is a requirement of good skills which
have to be present in all the individuals so that there would be higher functioning. Businesses in
the market are looking for competitive advantage and to be able to gain this factor the individuals
have to make sure that they are taking the right measures and methods to develop themselves
accordingly. To be able to have higher performance and operation level in the market the
individuals will have to improve themselves accordingly so that they would be able to control the
working of the company.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abie, A. and Serpa, S., 2019. Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT) Pre-service Teacher
Development Policy Reform Initiative: Its Practices, Outcomes and Challenges in Bahr
Dar University (BDU). Cogent Education. 6(1). p.1696503.
Drouin, R.A and et.al., 2017. Overcoming Challenges at the Start of Graduate Study.
Lima Fogaca, J., Koppang, R.M. and Zizzi, S.J., 2018. Three pathways to supervision in applied
sport psychology: Challenges and strategies to deliver effective supervision in graduate
programs. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action. 9(3). pp.172-181.
Mohibullah, A.T.M., Takebira, U.M. and Jannat, F., 2018. Improvement of forward linkage to
sustain the global apparel market of Bangladesh. J Textile Eng Fashion Technol. 4(3).
pp.192-197.
Oguro, S. and Mueller, B., 2020. Learning abroad and graduate employability: challenges
articulating international learning outcomes. Research and Development in Higher
Education: Next generation, Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and Opportunities.
Pedersen, E.R.G., Earley, R. and Andersen, K.R., 2019. From singular to plural: exploring
organisational complexities and circular business model design. Journal of Fashion
Marketing and Management: An International Journal.
Thornton, K., Schooner, S.L. and Speidel, M., 2020. Graduate Level Distance Learning:
Enhanced Student Experience, Significant Scalability Challenges: A Multiyear Case
Study. Journal of Legal Education (forthcoming 2020). pp.2020-34.
Uluskan, M. and Godfrey, A.B., 2018. Business environment-supply chain framework and
benchmarking supply chain structures. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
8

9