UGB160 Essential Study and Employment Skills: Skills Audit Report

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Module code and title: UGB160 Essential Study and Employment Skills Assessment
Assignment title: Skills Audit & Personal Development Planning Report
Module Leader: Joel Arnott
Module Tutor: Sr. Mary E. Owino
Name: MARIAN DOMULETE
Student Number:
Date of Submission:
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Skills Audit & Personal Development Planning Report
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Executive summary
Audit of personal skills has been performed here. This helped in identifying skills, which are
already present and skills, which are necessary to develop. Ways, which these skills had helped
in doing this charity work for brain tumour patients, was found. Reflection was given by using
“Gibb’s reflective cycle”, which helped in identifying contribution and team performance during
this charity work. Some learning opportunities was identified at next section. Some areas were
identifies, where there improvement is required. By taking consideration of these lacking skills, a
PDP was constructed. This PDP was made in such a way, that it was focused on each skill by
choosing appropriate evaluation process.
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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................5
2.0 Audit and Evaluation of Key Skills...........................................................................................5
3.0 Personal Development Research & Planning.......................................................................12
4.0 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................16
Reference list...............................................................................................................................17
Appendix......................................................................................................................................19
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1.0 Introduction
This study is divided in to two sections. The first section will consist of an audit of personal skills
and it will be evaluated. Individual development for this fund raising work for brain tumor charity
will be discussed. Individual contribution during this fund raising activity is a point to consider in
this following study. This will consider contribution towards this team. A reflection will be given
by using a reflective cycle. The second section will focus on personal development by
discussing some areas, which can be developed regarding skills by identifying learning
opportunities. A plan for personal development will be produced. This study is based on charity
work, which was done for the brain tumour charity, which is situated in UK. This is a NGO
organisation, which focuses on curing brain tumour for people (thebraintumourcharity.org,
2019).
2.0 Audit and Evaluation of Key Skills
2.1 Assess and reflect upon your individual development so far
Strengths
 Teamwork skill is very high in
me.
 My communication skill is high.
 I have high problem solving
abilities.
Weaknesses
 My time management skill is poor.
 My research work is poor.
 I have low organisational skills.
 My ability for making plan is low.
 My risk taking ability is low.
Opportunities
 I can learn time management.
 I can work on improving my
research skill.
 My planning skill can be
improved.
 I have to improve risk taking.
Threats
 I may become a late finisher due to low time
management skill.
 Due to poor research, my findings can have
errors.
 Poor organisational skills can make me
ineffective in business.
 Inability in making plan will restrict me from
building strategies.
 Inability in takings risks will not let pursue
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difficult objectives.
Table 1: Personal SWOT analysis
(Source: Created by the learner)
2.2 Examine & evaluate the development of your individual skills through the formative
exercise
Skills Personal rating Evidence Example
Hig
h
mediu
m
Lo
w
Very
low
Teamwork Hig
h
The team
functioned
smoothly over this
period mentors
gave positive
feedback to me
regarding
teamwork.
I worked with my team
members in this fund
raising work by
coordinating with
everyone. This made
my teamwork
effective. My
teamwork skill was
further developed due
to this activity (Haas
and Mortensen, 2016).
Communicatio
n
Hig
h
The mentor
regarding my
verbal and non-
verbal abilities in
communication
praised my in-
group
communication.
I effectively
communicated with
my team members
during our planning,
preparation and
execution phase of
this charity work and
notified them about
problem regarding
pocket calendar. My
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communication skill
was honed by this
activity (Delamain and
Spring, 2017).
Problem
solving
Hig
h
My peers said that
my solution
regarding fund,
food recipes were
helpful.
Some problems
regarding finance,
recipes of fruitcake. I
solved these problems
by giving solutions.
The skill of mine was
further sharpened
(Van et al., 2018).
Time
management
Lo
w
My peers
commented that
my bad time
management skill
delayed our
charity work.
I took more time than
required during
shaping and
completing tasks for
this charity activity. It
points out my
opportunity for
developing this skill
(Oettingen et al.,
2015).
Research skill Very
low
My peers
commented that
my research lacks
proper
techniques.
I was unable to find
creative ways to
interact with brain
tumour patients for
improper research.
This was enough for
me to understand
necessity for
developing research
skill (Sekaran and
Bougie, 2016).
Planning skill Lo Group members I was unable to form a
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w said that my plan
lacks structure.
plan regarding setting
up our charity work. It
highlights requirement
for me to learn more
about planning (De
Bruecker et al., 2015).
Organisational
skill
Lo
w
Peers brought my
notice into some
calculation
mistakes I have
done for preparing
income statement.
I could not manage
finance properly. This
shows that I have to
learn mathematics
related to accounting
(Collis et al., 2017).
Risk taking Lo
w
My inability in
taking risks was
pointed out by my
peers.
I was unsure about
choosing alternative
ways for presenting
our food items (Mishra
et al., 2017).
Decision
making
Lo
w
My peers
complained that I
am very poor at
taking critical
decisions.
I could not decide my
role in cooking section
for this charity work
(Anderson et al.,
2015).
Table 2: Personal skill audit
(Source: Created by the learner)
2.3 Reflect upon your individual contribution and the overall team performance
My individual contribution towards this team and its overall performance will be reflected upon
by using “Gibb’s reflective cycle”. I worked inside this team as a shaper and complete finisher.
The reflection is given below –
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Figure 1: Gibb's reflective cycle
(Source: Bassot, 2016)
Description
We faced some challenges regarding setting the menu of food items we were going to offer. We
had confusion regarding roles in cooking. We were unsure about assigning roles to person, who
will cook and person responsible for buying items for it. A child designed our pocket calendars,
which were not as per out expectation. This was a huge problem, which we faced at initial stage
and it created some ambiguities between me and other group members at first. My
communication skill within the group made our problems clear to others. I wanted to solve this
problem quickly and get back to our charity work for brain tumour charity. Food items for this
charity work were decided to be something else at first and it was not enough. This is an
example of this problem we faced initially. The pocket calendar was quite big for carrying in
pockets, which added to our problem. Feedback from peers suggested that we could not
continue with these problems in later stages (Bassot, 2016).
Feelings
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I felt that our coordination lacked at initial stage. We were not motivated enough to push our
boundaries. I felt that this pocket calendar was not good enough and should be modified to
make it affordable. My limitations in research, planning skill was holding me back from
developing a proper solution for this. I was confused regarding the kind of food items we will be
offering, as I was unsure about ways to make it affordable yet delicious. I was thinking that my
low skill in taking risks might not let me find alternative solutions to this problem. I thought that
my abilities, which are decision-making, time management, risk-taking could delay my decisions
regarding any task related to this charity work. This feeling of mine was overpowering and I was
unsure about my effectiveness inside this team. My confidence was low, as I was feeling that
these inabilities might limit my contribution for this team. I thought that my poor research skill
might not let me find about interesting methods to conduct this charity work.
Evaluation
My role as a shaper motivated the team to overcome from this situation; I pushed them to think
about creative ideas and told them to divide roles properly. Main skills, which helped me to
contribute towards this team is teamwork and communication skill. Some skill sets of mine
helped me to contribute to my team at huge context. Communication skill helped me to give
momentum to this team and I ensured that team members do not lose focus at any stage. This
way I was able to contribute to this team. I was able to make them understand faults in this
calendar. I pointed out that this calendar made by the child is not suitable for using, as it is too
large. This was a good experience for me, as I was able to contribute to this team
successfully. My contribution at finishing stage of preparing this plan and executing it was the
role of a complete finisher. I was able to scrutinise our methods and made it reliable (Pullman,
2018).
I used these two skills, which helped me to maintain flow of communication properly in this
team. In planning phase, I was not involved in making strategy for solving these problems, as I
do not have planning skill. Therefore, my contribution regarding planning was nil. I contributed to
this team in other ways. This was a bad experience for me during this charity work. My
incapability in managing time was the reason behind delaying of some tasks inside this tea. My
accounting mistakes were a problem for us. This was a negative experience for me during this
charity work.
Analysis
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The team was able to indulge in brainstorming from first days of meeting to the day of
fundraising. We finally started working together as a team and split jobs equally. This helped in
improvement of everyone and we were able to express our feelings. My role as a shaper and
finisher helped me to contribute. This resulted in high performance of this team. I was able to
manage problems regarding out food items. Our charity was a major success, as we started this
project at 20 pounds only. Out final sales resulted in generating an amount of 220 pounds,
which gives evidence of good overall team performance.
My peers said that our plan was a major success and it exceeded our expectations. They
praised problem solving ability of mine for finding solution of problems related to menu and
calendar. Therefore, this experience was quite good for me. This went well in my opinion. This
was a bad experience for me. Then eventually, I communicated with my peers and solved this
problem using my problem solving ability. On the other hand, I was unable to manage time,
which resulted in complaint from my peers, as I delayed the work. My financial calculation
mistake created some problems regarding accounting. These were reasons behind problems,
which we faced (Pullman, 2018).
Conclusion
I was able to learn that I have some exceptional skills for working inside a team. This
experience was helpful in finding out my limitations. I can use my communication, teamwork,
problem-solving skills in future for projects like this to yield maximum success. This will not be
enough, as I will have to develop some skills to make me more effective inside a team. This let
me contribute to the team more in future. I found that my inability in managing time properly had
limited my team’s efficiency in many times. The whole team has suffered from extreme level of
delay from my end. I found that it is necessary for me to develop skills such as decision-making,
time management, planning and risk taking in future. These skills will be necessary for me to
function properly in future and contribute to team more (Bassot, 2016).
Action plan
I have decided to make some changes in my approach by developing some skills, which I lack. I
have decided to learn methods to make my decision-making faster and efficient. I will develop
time management abilities in future by making plans for every work I do. I will try to finish these
works within a time limit to ensure that I am fast in my work. I have decided to learn about
accounting mathematics to make my calculations better. I will develop every skill I lack by taking
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some courses and self-learning methods. I will use these skills in future to tackle these critical
situations in future (Johnston, 2017).
3.0 Personal Development Research & Planning
Consider the key study and employment skills for business students referring to suitable
sources
Communication skills, including both non-verbal and verbal are essential in study and
employment. Another important skill is decision making, as it helps in studying and taking
decisions related to business. Teamwork is an essential skill, as it helps for group study and lets
a person work in team during his or her employment in a company. Time management is vital
for managing study and task schedules during both professional as well as academic career.
Research is an essential study skill and it is required for employment too. Problem solving,
organisational skills are necessary for academic life and it helps in betterment of professional
career (Yoke et al., 2018).
Determine the areas that you need to develop with regard to these skills
 There is an opportunity to develop my ability to manage time.
 I will have to improve my ability for conducting both secondary and primary research
(Johnston, 2017).
 I need to work on financial mathematics to develop this set of organisational skill.
 It is necessary for me to learn various approaches for making a plan.
 My abilities in taking risks should be honed.
Explore and consider the opportunities to learn and develop whilst at University
Communication can be improved at university by communicating with peers and students. By
working inside project groups, teamwork can be developed. University assignments will allow for
doing project works, which will let me develop my researching abilities. I will have to plan my
study schedules, which is a great method for improving both time management and planning
skill. Critical situations during study, such as exam pressure, difficult assignments can develop
my problem solving capability. Some organisational skill such as financial mathematics can be
learned from university. These are some opportunities to develop skills at University (Miller,
2018).
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