Integrating Employability Skills with Career Development Theory

This essay explores the author's employment development profile (EDP) and examines employability scenarios related to cross-cultural competency, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. The author reflects on their strengths and weaknesses, particularly highlighting the need to improve problem-solving abilities. The essay also delves into career development theory, using a personal workplace experience to illustrate the application of these theories. Feedback from colleagues revealed areas for improvement, reinforcing the importance of developing problem-solving skills for career advancement. The essay integrates personal reflection with career theory to provide a comprehensive analysis of individual career planning and management.

Future Work Skills

Table of content
Part 1: Employment Development Profile...................................................................................3
Part 2: Examination of employability scenarios for the skills.....................................................3
Part 3: Exploring Career Development Theory and Reflective Thinking...................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

Part 1: Employment Development Profile
EDP is a tool which is used for conducting self-awareness among individuals. This
profile makes a person to collect information about his or her employment interests and
objectives (Jackson, 2015). I used EDP for knowing my strengths and weaknesses in the area of
employment. I also collected information from the people around me like my family, friends,
teachers, etc who knows me very well and on whose opinions I can trust. According to the
profile, I am good at cross cultural competency and team work but needs to work more on my
problem solving skills. The profile informs me that I get confused while handling any problem
and this makes me nervous and tensed. Along with this, I usually seek for other’s help in
resolving my problems or guiding me to resolve the issues properly. According to this, I need to
work on my problem solving skills for employment development.
Part 2: Examination of employability scenarios for the skills
Cross cultural competency skills helps me in understanding the beliefs, thoughts,
perceptions, etc of the others properly. In the working environment, I ensure that I respect the
social, culture and religious backgrounds of my co-workers. I also help workers facing issues
related to their diversified background by communicating with them and understanding their
views. It helps me in developing and maintaining relations at workplace.
On the other hand, problem solving skills are important part of a well-repudiated job
profile (Cottrell, 015). I am trying to enhance my problem solving skills by understanding the
issue and identifying the most appropriate solution through brainstorming. Problems usually
arise in work and it is necessary to handle them effectively for delivering high quality work and
performance. I try to analyze the issue by going into the roots for identifying the solutions. Along
with this, I also take guidance of the manager or leader for resolving the issues. While working

in a team I developed my teamwork skills. I like to discuss and share information with my team
members as it enhances my knowledge. Along with this, my cross cultural competency skills
help me in cooperating and coordinating with my co-workers.
Part 3: Exploring Career Development Theory and Reflective Thinking
The continuous and lifelong process of developing experiences by paying attention on
seeking, obtaining and processing information in both personal and professional aspects is called
as career development (McMahon and Patton, 2018).
Once at my workplace, my manager had to take leave from office due to some emergency
at home. There was a meeting scheduled on that day which was important to be conducted for
starting the project. My leader provided me an opportunity to conduct meeting, explain team
members about the project and handle their queries. I do the same and finished the meeting
which worked as a great experience for me. Later, I obtained feedbacks from my co-workers.
According to them, I was good at team management and cross-cultural competency but while
problem solving I was nervous, less confident and restless. This shows that I need to work on my
problem solving skills properly for developing my career.

REFERENCES
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.350-367.
McMahon, M. and Patton, W., 2018. Systemic thinking in career development theory:
contributions of the Systems Theory Framework. British Journal of Guidance &
Counselling, 46(2), pp.229-240.