Enhancing Skills: Academic Development and Professional Practice

This essay explores the challenges of studying business management and thriving in professional practice, emphasizing the importance of effective academic and professional skills development. It identifies time management, multitasking, and pressure to perform as key challenges that students face, which are also critical skills in the professional world. The essay highlights the significance of academic skills such as time management, communication, and research skills in preparing students for corporate jobs and fostering academic integrity. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of professional skills like problem-solving, organization, planning, and management skills in achieving career goals and enhancing productivity. Through a SWOT analysis, the essay identifies oral communication as a particularly important skill to develop and proposes actions to improve both oral and presentation skills, such as seeking feedback, practicing in front of a mirror, and actively participating in listening activities. The essay concludes that developing these skills is essential for overcoming challenges and achieving success in both academic and professional endeavors.

DEVELOPING ACADEMIC
AND PROFESSIONAL
SKILLS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Challenges of studying business management and thriving in professional practice......................1
The importance of effective academic skills development..............................................................1
The importance of effective professional skills development.........................................................2
Identification of one skill that is particularly important through SWOT Analysis.........................3
Detailed example of the actions that would be taken to develop skills identified as weakness in
SWOT analysis................................................................................................................................4
Summary..........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

Challenges of studying business management and thriving in professional
practice
There are various kinds of challenges of studying business management that are thriving
in professional practice (Van Rooij, Jansen and van de Grift, 2018). Time management is one of
the main challenges of studying business management is time management. In when we are
studying business management a student need to participate in various kinds of activities,
seminars along with their studies. This makes management of time one of the main and big
challenge of studying business management. This challenge is thriving in professional practice
because time management is one of the most important skill which is required to be an important
skill to be present within employees. Many times, while studying business management of
studies and participation within extra or additional activities requires a student to be multi-
tasking which is another one of the main challenge which is faced by students while studying
business management. But this, multitasking skill requirement is thriving in professional practice
and is one of the main skills demanded by most of the organizations today.
Pressure to perform is another one of the main challenges which is faced by most of the
students studying business management is pressure of constant upgraded performance (Wade
and et. al., 2018). Most of the students studying business management face this challenge as they
are expected to perform in an excellent manner both academically as well as in extra-curricular
activities. But pressure to perform is one of the most desirable skill which is required to be
present within employees in professional practice so that regardless of the pressure, overall
performance of employees is not impacted. In fact, even under high perform pressure employees
are expected to perform in excellent manner so that desired goals and objectives can be achieved.
The importance of effective academic skills development
There are many different kinds of academic skills that are required to be present within
students or are required to be developed by the students in order to achieve success. It is
extremely important to develop different types of effective academic skills by students. First of
all, it encourages students to become more efficient learners (Bosman and Fernhaber, 2021).
These academic skills directly help in preparing students for professional corporate jobs. Such as
time management is one of the main types of academic skill which is required to be developed as
it directly helps students in learning ways in which they need to manage their work, prioritise
their task so that work can be completed on time and in effective manner. Communication is
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another important academic skill which is extremely important to be developed. For achieving
success in professional life, it becomes extremely important for students to develop effective
written and oral communication skills. Professionally written communication skill is important
for submitting reports etc. whereas oral skills are important presenting one’s own ideas, giving
presentations etc.
In other manner academic skill development is important because it helps in development
of academic integrity and morale among students (Snowdon and et. al., 2020). It helps in
teaching students’ seriousness of plagiarism, citing other work properly, seriousness of using
others works one’s own. It further helps in development of confidence among students, provides
them within a brief overview of ways in which they need to enhance their knowledge and
achieve success in their academic life. It further helps in development of research skills among
students that helps them in learning ways in which new information is researched.
The importance of effective professional skills development
It is extremely important to develop effective professional skills to be developed in
proper and effective mane rans it directly helps an individual in achieving success in their
professional life as well achieve desired career- oriented goals in an appropriate manner (Skoura-
Kirk, Brown and Mikelyte, 2021). Effective professional skill development directly help an
individual in increasing confidence within themselves, handle all the work, pressure and stress of
work in an effective manner. Not only this professional skills development can further help in
increasing productivity of employees that can help them in achieving main organizational goals
and objectives as well as helps in moving forward successfully in career pathway.
There are various kinds of professional skills required to be developed and each of them
have their own importance. Problem solving skills are important for individuals so that they can
work effectively within teams, resolve any kind of problem in an appropriate and effective
manner (Skoura-Kirk, Brown and Mikelyte, 2021). Effective development of this skill can
directly help a person in dealing appropriately in difficult and impossible situation and work
everything well despite of any kind of difficulties. Organization and planning skills are further
important to be developed by an individual as it directly helps them in maximizing their
productivity, complete desired task or activities in an appropriate manner. Not only this, it
further helps employees or individuals in planning their workplace, other activities as well as
helps them in becoming good team players. Management skills are another one of the most
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important type of professional skills that are important to be developed because when an
individual moves to a leadership position or to a managerial position it becomes important for
them to manage people, work in such a manner that desired goals can be achieved in an
appropriate and effective manner.
Identification of one skill that is particularly important through SWOT
Analysis
Strengths:
There are various kinds of skills that are one of
my main strengths, such as:
 Written communication skills are one of
my main strengths that helps me in
communicating my work in an effective
manner.
 Research skills are one of my main
strengths that helps me in searching and
collecting new and desirable information
 Time management skills are another one of
the main strengths as I have that skill of
managing and prioritizing work in an
effective manner.
Weaknesses:
Some of my main weakness that are required to
be focused upon are as follows:
 Oral communication skills are one of my
main weakness or weak skill which is
required to be improved as professionally it
is important to communicate, share one’s
own ideas with others in an effective
manner.
 Presentation skills are another one of my
main weaknesses which is required to be
improved as it is one of the most important
and desirable skill required professionally.
Opportunities:
 Bringing improvement within oral
communication skills as well as in
presentation skills development can
directly help in moving forward
successfully in one’s own career pathway.
Threats:
Lack of effective communication and
presentation skills is a threat and not
developing these skills can make it extremely
difficult for individual to achieve success.
One skill that is particularly important, but I am weak at:
Out of all the skills oral communication skill is particularly important to be developed but I am
weak at this particular skill and is required to be improved as well as developed.
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Detailed example of the actions that would be taken to develop skills identified
as weakness in SWOT analysis
Two skills that I am weak at are oral skills and presentation skills. Both of these skills were
identified with the help of SWOT analysis. Both of these skills are required to be developed and
for this, following actions will be taken
 Oral skills: I will focus upon asking for guidance from metros and ask their feedback and
reviews for bringing improvement within oral communication skills. I will further focus upon
bringing improvement within my body language while having a conversation with others so
that my message or idea is communicated correctly orally. It will further focus upon
participating within some important active listening activities as these activities can help me
in bringing improvement within my oral communication skills and will further help me in
identifying ways in which further improvement can be brought within my skills of oral skills.
 Presentation skills: in order to bring improvement within my presentation skills, I will be
focusing upon presenting presentation in front of mirror so that I can confidently identify and
pin point improvement that are required to be brought. I will further ask for guidance from
mentors and lecturers so that further improvement within my presentation skills can be
brought. I will ask questions while giving presentation so that my presentation doesn’t seem
to be one sided.
Summary
From the above presentation it has been summarized that there are various kinds of
academic skills as well as professional skills that are important to be developed in order to
achieve success and overcome challenges of studying business management. Development of
business and academic skills can directly help achieving desired academic and professional goals
and objectives. In order to achieve success it is further important to identify skills that one is
weak at with the help of SWOT analysis so that those skills can be focused upon and improved
for achieving success. SWOT analysis not only helps in identifying one’s own weakness but it
also helps in identifying strengths, opportunities and threats as well so that proper actions can be
defined and focused upon for bringing improvement within one’s own skills and weak areas.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bosman, L. and Fernhaber, S., 2021. Design Essential# 2: Professional Skill Development.
In Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset Across the University (pp. 55-63). Springer,
Cham.
Skoura-Kirk, E., Brown, S. and Mikelyte, R., 2021. Playing its part: An evaluation of
professional skill development through service user-led role-plays for social work
students. Social Work Education, 40(8), pp.977-993.
Snowdon, D.A., and et. al., 2020. Physiotherapists prefer clinical supervision to focus on
professional skill development: a qualitative study. Physiotherapy Canada, 72(3),
pp.249-257.
Van Rooij, E.C., Jansen, E.P. and van de Grift, W.J., 2018. First-year university students’
academic success: the importance of academic adjustment. European Journal of
Psychology of Education, 33(4), pp.749-767.
Wade, M., and et. al., 2018. The role of maternal responsiveness and linguistic input in pre-
academic skill development: A longitudinal analysis of pathways. Cognitive
Development, 45, pp.125-140.
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