Reflective Journal: Employability and Study Skills Enhancement

This reflective journal, submitted by a student, examines the process of personal and professional development within the context of a BA Business Studies module at the University of Suffolk. The journal focuses on how completing assignments and the module in general contributed to the enhancement of employability and study skills. The student utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze experiences and learning, covering stages like description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan. The journal details the skills improved, such as research, communication, and time management, while also identifying areas for future development. The author reflects on the challenges faced, lessons learned, and strategies for future improvement, providing a comprehensive analysis of their learning journey and the impact of the module on their skill set. The document highlights the importance of reflective practice in identifying strengths, weaknesses, and developing effective strategies for personal and professional growth. This is a great example of how a student can reflect on their learning journey.

Reflective Journal

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
A reflective journal that discusses how the completion of the task and the module in general
has contributed to your achievement of the employability and study skills.............................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development can be explained as the process under which
business organisation or an individual try to learn something new for the purpose of
accomplishing the goals on specific time period. It is necessary because it allow to understand
that how an individual can bring positive changes by learning different skills. In context of the
file, there will be discussion that how different learning skills can helped to improve the overall
performance. In addition to it, Kolb’s reflective learning model will be taken in use for
explaining the topic in detail. Various examples will be included in it which will try to clear
doubts about the enhancement of skills and learning.
MAIN BODY
A reflective journal that discusses how the completion of the task and the module in general has
contributed to your achievement of the employability and study skills.
In present scenario, there is the requirement for every individual that they must be
capable of talking some of the important decision which is only possible if employability and
study skills are achieved. Here, it is necessary for all of the individual that they must try to find
the suitable way through which they can improve the overall standard. Whenever there is the
requirement of improvement, it is essential that individual must work on several types of skills
such as communication skills-verbal and written, research skills, team work, time and self-
management and many more.
This types of skills can always be improved with the help of different types of learning
model which helps to decide that what are those decisions through which improvement can be
brought easily. For the purpose of improvement, I had taken the help of Gibbs reflective model
which has helped me to obtain positive result.
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
It is explained as the reflective learning cycle which was introduced by Graham Gibbs in
the year 1988. The major motive of framework is of examining experiences, which also allows to
learn and plan from the past experience that whether it went well or not. There are altogether six
different stages in it. They are Description, feeling, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action
plan.

Description: It was simply the step which was very helpful for me because while I was
required to prepare about the Corporate Social Responsibility, I was not aware about its
requirement and why it is essential for the business organization. Here, I was needed to identify
about the requirement required within the me to conduct the requirement. This was the particular
stage where I found that Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the most essential thing within
the business organization. This is required to be done by organization for the purpose of helping
the society through which positive result can be obtained. Here, different skills are required such
as research skills, communication and verbal written skills and problem solving skills.
Feeling: It is the second stage of the Gibbs model, where it is necessary to understand for
me what are the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility. Collecting the information was
not an easy task for me. Collecting the information was not an easy task because I lack lots of
skills which were important to collect the information about CRS in business organization. At
the time of starting the project I found interesting but as on level of difficulty started I found that
required to work on different skill so that desire result can be obtained.
Evaluation: There were lots of good and bad experience through conducting the project as
it was one of the lengthy project where I have to give my time. When talking about the good
experience, I found that I had improved lots of skills which were helpful for me to attain
effective result. The first skill which I improved was research skill which was the most important
for me to attain the positive result. The second particular which was good for me that I was able
to learn something new which was about Corporate Social Responsibility. For example: I was
needed to work on research skill and for that I started to read different articles, newspaper and
spending my time searching some new through internet source which directly allowed me to
improve my skill. But, there were some of the negative side too which I found during collecting
the report. The primary research was required but I found that I was not as good as other to
collect information through primary source. Also, communication and verbal skills were also
required in it. For example: Communication skill within primary research plays the most
significant role but I was not able to deal with different organization head that why they required
CSR due to which collecting the relevant information plays the most difficult role.
Analysis: After the completion of above three different stages, it was necessary for me to
analysis that what were the positive as well as negative impact. Here, I can to know that

whenever I conduct any of the work, there is the requirement of essential of skills. If in any of
the situation I fails to do, so then it will not be an easy task for me to collect necessary
information related to CSR. Even I easily found that if will have the necessary skills then in any
of the situation I can easily conduct my work without facing any of the problem at any of the
stage. It was also necessary for me to analyze because it simply help me to identify about the
quality of my work and what were those things which didn’t well for me. It was also among the
stage where I had to analyze about the knowledge that I had and what were its benefit so that I
will not have to face any of the problem. Even I can analyze that I was able to collect different
information about CSR that why it is essential for any of the company bring CSR policy within
their business organization.
Conclusion: The most important stage for me I conclusion stage as I was able to determine
about my potential and future steps which I can take to bring positive result. Here, it was
necessary for me to evaluate what went wrong and what are those situations which were not
under control for me. There were number of questions for me in this particular stage as I was
required to answer that how can deal in a desire manner if same types of work are given to me.
There were number skills in which I was not so good and here will try to start to identify them so
that if in any of the situation I will require them to perform any of the task then I can do it in an
easiest way. In this particular stage of the model, it was essential to find the substitute so that
similar form of problem will not be required to face at any of the stage.
Action Plan: This was the first time where I was doing some different kind of project due to
which I had to face several types of difficult. It will be necessary me to prepare action plan for
future period of time so that target can be achieved within the reasonable time period. In order to
deal with similar form of situation, it will be important for me to develop the skills at first
instance. I would like to focus towards research skill because it will be the most important to
collect the useful information. The second thing into which I will focus is time and management
skills. It is necessary as I will have the idea that at what time I must start my work and what is
the suitable time period so that my work can be completed easily. Even there will be
requirement to work on communication skill as it is helpful at the time of collecting the
information. If I will be able to work on all of this requirement, then it will be an easy task for
me to conduct similar form of work from next time with less errors and negative result.

In short, Gibbs Reflective Model can easily help to identify the weakness of a people and
according to that plans and ideas can be developed that how any of the situation is required to be
tackled.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is very clear that whenever any of the project is required to be
conduct, it becomes essential to carry required information. All there is the requirement of
necessary skill because it will allow to perform the task in desire manner through which target
can be accomplished. Also, different self-learning model can play the crucial role through which
decision making process can be easier.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Kroll, J. F. and Dussias, P. E., 2017. The benefits of multilingualism to the personal and
professional development of residents of the US. Foreign language annals. 50(2).
pp.248-259.
Christie, H. and et. al, 2018. ‘University opened up so many doors for me’: the personal and
professional development of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. Studies in
Higher Education, 43(11). pp.1938-1948.
Davies, K., Curtin, M. and Robson, K., 2017. Impact of an international workplace learning
placement on personal and professional development. Australian occupational therapy
journal. 64(2). pp.121-128.
Evers, O. and et. al., 2019. How do personal and professional characteristics influence the
development of psychotherapists in training: Results from a longitudinal
study. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome. 22(3).
Rowe, G., 2017. Personal and professional development. The Handbook for Nursing Associates
and Assistant Practitioners, p.40.
Hopkinson, C., 2016. Personal and professional development through reflective
practice. Becoming a Nurse: Fundamentals of Professional Practice for Nursing, p.430.
Schmidt, M. K., 2017. Personal and professional development through internship engagement.
In Field-based learning in family life education (pp. 39-49). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.