Reflective Portfolio: Analysis of Skills Gained During Workshop

This reflective portfolio analyzes five key skills developed during a workshop experience, utilizing the STAR-LP method. The skills examined include communication, teamwork, personal effectiveness, management and organizational abilities, and problem-solving. The portfolio provides detailed examples of how the student applied these skills in various situations, such as tutoring, leading a team, managing personal finances for a trip, organizing training schedules, and resolving customer service issues. Each skill is discussed in depth, with specific scenarios illustrating the student's approach, challenges faced, and outcomes achieved. The portfolio highlights the importance of communication, collaboration, and adaptability in professional settings, emphasizing how these skills contribute to achieving organizational goals and enhancing individual performance. The student reflects on the importance of these skills in the professional sector and concludes with a discussion on the value of continuous self-assessment and skill development.

Running Head: PORTFOLIO
Reflective Portfolio
[Name of the Researcher]
[Name of the Tutor]
[Institute]
[Date]

Portfolio 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Communication Skills..................................................................................................................4
Team Working.............................................................................................................................5
Personal Effectiveness Skills.......................................................................................................6
Management and Organisational.................................................................................................7
Problem Solving...........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Portfolio 3
Reflective Portfolio
Introduction
For this reflective portfolio, I will analyse and explain my five skills by using STAR-LP
method that I gained during workshop. These skills include communication skills, analytical
skills, problem-solving skills, organisational and teamworking. At all times of life,
communication is fundamental and can be the secret to becoming a joint professional or to being
distinguished from the competition (Alsina et al., 2017). As good a communicator as it may be, it
means that he is a good listener. Listening helps us to understand more, encourages us to put
ourselves in the shoes of the other and to develop relationships.
All professionals obviously want to have an opportunity to stand out and conquer space,
but they can only benefit from the community cohesion when they realise that an organisation’s
results are the combination of all its members’ efforts (Fullana et al., 2016). Amongst the
countless skills that a person needs to have in order to stand out in his / her area of expertise, one
of the main ones is the ability to work as a team. Despite being students, the fact demonstrates
that this skill is not taught in schools, despite being essential for adult life. Working as a team
can be challenging, mainly due to the fact that we are dealing with different types of people,
which can lead to conflicts and disagreements (Er et al., 2018).
Discussion
The following described skills are my skills that I gained during workshop. I will use the
STAR-LP method to structure my reflective portfolio.

Portfolio 4
Communication Skills
Communication refers to the willingness of a specialist to clearly communicate ideas in
order to understand the messages without any rumour or discord (Brundiers and Wiek, 2017).
I tutored many students privately during my workshop placement. When it came to
helping students understand complex concepts, I showed outstanding communication skills by
simplifying them and describing them in a variety of ways.
I had to help a student understand the relation between a diagram and its algebraic
equation at one time.
I listened carefully to him for the first time to explain it in a way he might understand. I
found that after spending time determining the previous experience and learning strengths, the
student had a strong spatial awareness but mediocre numerical skill. Then, I decided to first look
at the visual aspects and illustrate how changes in the equation induced changes in the shape of
the graph (Alsina et al., 2017). To see if my communication came through, I still asked
questions. At one point I realised the subject was a little dry, so I tried to sound more exciting
and engaging for this student. I was excited to see that almost instantly my new approach
produced results.
The student gradually began seeing the relation between the intersection graph points and
solutions for equations and he could predict how the equation changes would affect the plot
(Ahmed and Ward, 2016). The student was very grateful for my efforts which was very
rewarding. He also made me think about the importance of knowing with whom you speak so
that contact barriers can be resolved, and the style changed.

Portfolio 5
Team Working
Teamwork is a spirit of cooperation, responsible for jointly carrying out the tasks (Ahmed
and Ward, 2016). It is a competence that needs respect, patience, and commitment in a number
of respects.
I was selected as the leader of a small group (about 40 people) with low attendance on the
second day of the workshop. The Committee had three additional members.
Our goal was to organise a highly professional event programme with influential speakers
such as authors, poets, and scholars over three terms, and increase membership of the company
and participation in the event (Yielder and Moir, 2016).
I asked people to say if they preferred what tasks at our first meeting they wanted to do.
This established a respectful, open working relationship from the beginning and showed an
appreciation of the strengths of each team member. Another individual wished to be a treasurer,
an advertiser, and a third was interested in event design. Including future speakers, organising
meetings and planning events, my particular duties (Alsina et al., 2017). I have made proposals
for possible speakers and have listened carefully to the work of the team. This encouraged the
team to bring together their talents and led to a wonderful list of speakers. I then stayed in
contact with the team throughout the process to make sure that we all went to the same page on
items such as who was going, when advertisements came out and how we cancelled issues. I also
encouraged the community to remind each other of any relevant problems.
The team put together a series of highly popular and well-attended events featuring
renowned speakers. The team’s membership grew to about 100 people, and academic staff
expressed their appreciation for the speakers’ content and contribution to university life. I
contributed to this by taking a collective approach from the beginning.

Portfolio 6
Personal Effectiveness Skills
In the months leading up to the end of our senior year of high school and the start of our
college careers, I and three friends debated taking a summer trip around Europe. We all thought
we would have enough money and time to complete it (Brundiers and Wiek, 2017). The plan was
jeopardised, however, when two friends learned of an unexpected expense that would redirect
some of their financial funds and another learned of an additional demand on their time in quick
succession.
I took it upon myself to do some data-driven research in order to determine if the trip was
still feasible. I set out to do a cost-benefit analysis as well as a time-based analysis of possible
paths. The professional with this expertise may handle adverse circumstances without hindering
or causing demotivation. It is the ability that people can conquer and get back to the top.
To begin, I listed four possible round trips, each slightly longer in distance than the
previous one. I calculated the various travel costs for each journey, including any group travel
discounts. In light of the current exchange rate between the pound and the euro, I devised a
rational daily food budget. I looked at three different types of lodging by averaging the prices of
four different hostels, bed and breakfasts, and hotels from each country (Er et al., 2018). I
compiled all of this data into a single spreadsheet worksheet. I then presented this to my future
travel companions, beginning with a specific scenario that I thought fulfilled all of our
requirements.
We were able to go over my example option and other scenarios involving road, lodging,
and time by systematically laying out this detail. We were able to find another alternative that
integrated various aspects of accommodation and met all of our needs. It included taking

Portfolio 7
advantage of a community travel discount for four or more individuals, which meant we could all
afford it, whilst only three of us could.
Management and Organisational
During my time at Workshop, I was responsible for organising my department’s
customer training schedule as well as putting together and editing a publication for an impromptu
meeting.
The customer training schedule had to be finalised before Christmas, which coincided
with the time it took to compile and edit the conference publication. In reality, my boss was
surprised to learn that the conference had been arranged at such short notice. As a result, there
had been no time to plan for this unexpected workload.
I first set the deadlines for both events and then put my date back by three days so that I
can consider any unforeseen events in order to organise and match both activities (i.e., the
Conference publishers and the training scheduling). Then I broke each activity in small parts,
working backwards from my time limit (Fullana et al., 2016). When I did so, it took me 1 to 12
days to finalise the individual parts of each operation and was practical with the time (since I had
other daily administrative tasks to do). Before starting these activities, I built up an idea where I
wanted to be on and activity in terms of specific dates. During every activity I followed up my
progress and prioritised myself where needed to make sure I met my goals to get where I wanted
to be at a given date.
My tutor was impressed by how well I managed both tasks at the same time. She also
complimented me on how professionally I embraced and handled the extra work. Delegates also

Portfolio 8
gave positive feedback on the publication. In addition, I created a training schedule that
effectively reduced delivery time by a third.
Problem Solving
I served part-time as a waitress in a very busy family-run restaurant during my time at
workshop. I had shown my ability to take on several tasks after just three months on the job
(Rade, 2019). The front-of-house manager revealed that she would be leaving in two weeks at
this stage. The front-of-house manager and the restaurant owner asked if I would like to take
over as front-of-house manager on weekends before a permanent member of staff could be
found. This included managing reservations, serving as a hostess, and handling customer
concerns. I agreed to accept the role because I saw it as a good opportunity for me.
It was a really busy Saturday on my first weekend. The kitchen had a staffing shortage.
As a result, customers faced long wait times for food, seated customers complained, and a line
formed outside the restaurant for customers with reservations. I had to ensure that we were able
to satisfy both existing and prospective customers.
I was immediately made aware of my desire to keep our customers updated about waiting
times, so I met the chef and spoke with each customer, informed him of waiting times and
offered him a free drink as a sign of goodwill Tsingos et al., 2017). As I communicated with
sitting customers, I gave one of the waitresses a chance to speak with the waiting customers,
telling them about the situation and giving a 25% discount later on any food and beverage they
might buy if they did not wait any longer.
This relaxed customers and improved customer loyalty. It also increased the chance that
customers would return to the restaurant on a regular basis Tsingos et al., 2017).

Portfolio 9
Conclusion
As I keep observing the environment and myself, where I find myself to recognise
patterns and observe the way people conduct themselves, I have been able to recognise the needs
of the organisations and those professionals who take the lead. Hearing and respecting the views
of those different from yours, preferring to collaborate in order to accomplish a shared objective,
instead of working alone to achieve individual goals, are all positive things. This is the mindset
of people with such brilliant team-building skills. Learn to take critique; learn to delegate tasks;
seek other viewpoints and remove structured obstacles in routine circumstances would improve
our ability further.
It is commonly held that the student is only trained through academic experience in
comparison to the materials taught at graduation, which is to say that college learning is far more
theoretical than realistic. However, in this time we have acquired various academic skills which
are important to any professional irrespective of the field of expertise. These skills in the
professional sector can be used fairly. The demand for professionals who know how to work as a
team is increasing in the employment market. In daily operations of businesses, people from
different sectors must be handled, simultaneously work on various initiatives, and know how to
use teamwork as a way of achieving the organisation’s core objectives.

Portfolio 10
References
Ahmed, E. and Ward, R., 2016. A comparison of competing technology acceptance models to
explore personal, academic, and professional portfolio acceptance behaviour. Journal of
Computers in Education, 3(2), pp.169-191.
Alsina, Á., Ayllón, S., Colomer, J., Fernández-Peña, R., Fullana, J., Pallisera, M., Pérez-Burriel,
M. and Serra, L., 2017. Improving and evaluating reflective narratives: A rubric for
higher education students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, pp.148-158.
Brundiers, K. and Wiek, A., 2017. Beyond interpersonal competence: Teaching and learning
professional skills in sustainability. Education Sciences, 7(1), p.39.
Er, H.M., Ming, M.K.J., Keng, P.S. and Nadarajah, V.D., 2018. Pharmacy students’ perceptions
of reflective portfolios, and the effect of the portfolio on students’ deep information-
processing skills. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
Fullana, J., Pallisera, M., Colomer, J., Fernández Peña, R. and Pérez-Burriel, M., 2016.
Reflective learning in higher education: A qualitative study on students’
perceptions. Studies in Higher Education, 41(6), pp.1008-1022.
Råde, A., 2019. Professional formation and the final thesis in European teacher education: a
fusion of academic and professional orientation. Education Inquiry, 10(3), pp.226-242.
Tsingos-Lucas, C., Bosnic-Anticevich, S., Schneider, C.R. and Smith, L., 2017. Using reflective
writing as a predictor of academic success in different assessment formats. American
journal of pharmaceutical education, 81(1).

Portfolio 11
Yielder, J. and Moir, F., 2016. Assessing the development of medical students’ personal and
professional skills by portfolio. Journal of medical education and curricular
development, 3, pp.JMECD-S30110.