Professional Development Plan for Tourism Officer Role at Topdeck

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Professional Identity and Practices
4/23/2019
Topdeck tours and travels

Contents
Introduction
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Lo1...................................................................................................................................................2
Explain the importance of on-going professional development and self-directed learning to
enhance professional identity and career opportunities...............................................................2
Importance of on-going professional development in maintaining professional identity and
career opportunities at Topdeck organisation..............................................................................3
Investigation of skills and competencies expected by Topdeck tour and travel organisation for
the job role of tourism officer......................................................................................................7
Lo2...................................................................................................................................................8
Assessment of own skills and competencies for the job role of tourism officer.........................8
Different learning theories and approaches.................................................................................9
Appropriate development approaches to improve skills and knowledge for the job role of
tourism officer...........................................................................................................................10
Lo3.................................................................................................................................................11
Construction of a development plan to enhance skills and competencies.....................................11
Lo4.................................................................................................................................................13
Demonstration of range of service industry and transferable skills for a job application.............13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................18
1

Introduction
Topdeck is a tour and travel organisation started by a bunch of friends in the year 1973 and set in
London England. Topdeck is offering services like adventure journey and journey with fun for
the age group of 18 to 30 and providing amazing experience of travelling to the customers. And
it covers hottest and unique areas of travelling in Europe, New Zealand, Africa, Asia, and North
America. The services provided by Topdeck made it the most popular tour and travel agency at
the global level.
The employee of the tour and travels organisation requires specific skills and knowledge to
perform the various job and to expand the business in a great manner. In this assignment report,
the discussion will be done on the importance of on-going professional development and self-
directed learning in the development of career opportunities. Different type of learning theory
and approaches will be included in that report to understand their role in personal or professional
development. Further, a professional development plan will be designed after assessing the self-
skills and knowledge to make the improvements in own self along with this an effective
interview process will be conducted to understand the transferable skills for a job application.
Topdeck develops professional development plans to enhancing the skills and ability of the
people working with the organisation (Mackay, 2017).
Lo1
Explain the importance of on-going professional development and self-
directed learning to enhance professional identity and career opportunities.
Professional development
Professional development is the process of improving the skills, ability, knowledge and
competencies of an individual to support the business functions throughout his working life
(Mackay, 2017). It is a continuous development process which includes a well-defined plan to
execute for developing the skills of an employee to perform different job tasks at the workplace
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and this prepares him to perform future job roles so that he can fit the career opportunities he is
going to earn in the future (Moon, 2013).
On-going professional development defines the skills and knowledge of individual gains from
his experiences and applies in his job role (Bolton, 2010). Basically, it relates with own
development on an on-going basis in his working life. On-going professional development
includes the continuous development of an individual in the organisation (Michaels and
O’Connor, 2015). Changes in the technology and changes in the work process of an organisation
encourage an individual to perform in a more effective and different way and this enables an
individual to develop his skills and competencies to meet with these changes.
Self-directed learning is the process in which an employee of Topdeck company is responsible to
learn from the situation and he is the only person who takes his learning decision in a particular
situation without depending on others and improves his knowledge and skills by self-direction
towards learning (Akgunduz and Akinoglu, 2016). Self-directed learning encourages an
individual to provide his high involvement in the work because he only knows that what he
needs to learn and how he needs to be learned from the situation
Importance of on-going professional development in maintaining professional
identity and career opportunities at Topdeck organisation
Enhancement of knowledge and skills
On-going professional development helps in the development of skills and knowledge of an
employee of Topdeck Company that skills are necessary to deliver services to his clients and
customers. Improved skills and knowledge helps an employee to find out his career path and
develops him to perform future job tasks (Basarab Sr and Root, 2012).
Ensuring knowledge stay relevant and up to date
On-going professional development in Topdeck company ensures that employee's knowledge
stays up to date and relevant it makes aware an employee from new trends and directions which
are useful in his profession. Up to date knowledge helps in maintain a professional identity
(Ellinger and Ellinger, 2014).
Respond to changes in market
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If a company develops continues professional development programs for the employees that they
will be more trained and the result is they will be able to respond to market changes in an
effective way. For example, if the employees have already knowledge about the new technology
they will not hesitate to use in the organisation they will be easily able to use the new technology
at the workplace
To increase career opportunities
On-going professional development helps an employee to find out more career opportunities if
an employee wants to earn more money, great responsibility, or want to get multiple job offers
than focus on on-going professional development program should be given time to time (Abele
and Spurk, 2011). New knowledge and skills differentiate an employee from another and that
opens more opportunities to fulfil the career objectives (Rashid and Asghar, 2016)
Importance of self-directed learning in creating a professional identity and career opportunities
Greater development of knowledge and skills
Self-directed learning allows an employee to choose his own learning paths and to take a
decision on it and helps an employee to learn only those things in which he is genuinely
interested and that improves his knowledge in an effective way (Collin and Hammond, 2013).
Experience of deep learning
If an experienced employee in Topdeck Company teaches something to an employee he may
learn it but if he uses self-direction towards learning he will completely understand it and then
will apply its concept in his work. During the self-learning process, an individual feels deeply
involved in the situation which results in deep learning (Collin and Hammond, 2013).
To achieve professional goals and career opportunities
Professional goals and career opportunities encourage an employee to learn through self-
direction. All Employees wants to achieve career opportunities throughout their working life and
for that purpose, they focus on self-learning to improve their knowledge and skills (Collin and
Hammond, 2013). If employees are self-directed towards the learning it reflects that they are
4

interested to learn something new and that helps in the achievement of professional and personal
goals (Collin and Hammond, 2013).
To choose their own learning style
An employee can prefer their own learning style while using the self-directed learning process
they can choose read/write style according to their suitability and this helps an employee to learn
in a more effective manner. In the self-learning, an employee is not bounded by his senior or any
person to learn. He can choose his own learning way to adopt new knowledge and skills (Collin
and Hammond, 2013).
Key benefits to different stakeholders of Topdeck
Employees
Employees of the Topdeck can improve their knowledge, skills and behaviour by taking part in
continuous professional development. They must give their full involvement in the training and
development programs as well as learning through personal observation
Customers
On-going development of the customer is necessary by providing them useful knowledge and
information about the Topdeck so that they can be well informed at the time of purchasing of the
company's product
Suppliers
On-going professional development of supplier of the Topdeck company is necessary because
this will help in bringing more innovation and effectiveness
Shareholders
Knowledge and skills of the shareholders should be developed on an on-going basis so that they
can have sufficient knowledge during the decision making of the organisation.
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6

Investigation of skills and competencies expected by Topdeck tour and travel
organisation for the job role of tourism officer
Tourism officer is responsible for devising tourism development campaigns and promoting
tourism for the purpose of generating and increasing the revenue of the company. Tourism
officer is the in charge of increasing the sales of the tourism products and he must have sufficient
skills, knowledge and competencies to perform his job roles in the organisation. The top deck
organisation is looking for a qualified and talented tourism officer to operate various functions in
the organisation
Skills – skills are the sets of attributes an employee must have to perform specific job roles like
communication skills, psychological skills and decision-making skills. Skills of an employee
encourage him to perform his duties and responsibilities effectively (Martín-Rojas, et.al, 2013).
Competencies- Competencies include abilities of the individual to perform specific job roles like
capability, potential, performance. Competencies of an employee help to gain more career
opportunities and people with effective competencies are always focused on their career goals
(Martín-Rojas, et.al, 2013).
Skills required by a tourism officer Competencies required by a tourism officer
information technology skills Ability to produce quality product and services
in a specific budget (Sisson and Adams, 2013)
Creativity level should be high A great potential towards the work
Willingness to travel in different areas Effective utilization of resources
Good communication and excellent
presentation, interpersonal skills
Tourism officer of topdeck must have
commercial awareness and entrepreneurial
approach to work (Sisson and Adams, 2013)
An eye for design in work Effective performance in work
Flexibility Leadership and teamwork competencies
Good influencing skills Result orientation and problem-solving
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Lo2
Assessment of own skills and competencies for the job role of tourism officer
There are different models can be used to evaluate the skills and competencies of an individual.
These are as follows
1. The EFQM excellence model
This model is used by the different organisation including Topdeck and it is developed by the
European foundation of quality management for assessing the areas of strength and identifying
areas of improvements of an individual (Bloch, Richmond, 2015).
This model is based on different characteristics
 Result orientation – this concept answers or do I have result orientation capability?
 Customer focus- this answers do I have customer handling skills?
 Leadership and constancy of purpose- this defines do I have good leadership and
constancy quality?
 Management by process and fact- this defines I am able to manage the things according
to process and fact?
 People development and involvement – this answers am I able to encourage people for
their development and involvement
 Continuous learning, innovation and improvement- this answers am I able to be
responsible for continuous learning, innovation and improvement of employees?
 Partnership development and public responsibility- this answers am I able for partnership
development and public responsibility?
The ranking model
In this model of self-evaluation, ranks are given to the particular skills of an employee in
between 1 to 5.and this is the best model to assess the skills and competencies of an employee
and improvement areas are identified (Panadero et al., 2017).
Skills and competencies Rank (between 1 to 5) Need for improvement
Good communication skills 4 -
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Decision-making skills 3 Improvement needed
Result orientation capability 2 Improvement needed
Influencing power, creativity
level
3 Improvement needed
Flexibility and IT skills 4 -
Leadership and teamwork 4 -
Assessment of self-skills and competencies
I am a self-learner and motivated person with good communication skills. I am flexible enough
do to work any time and in any shift. I have sufficient knowledge of computer and its tools but
sometimes I lack in decision making and its handling, as well as my result orientation capability,
is low so I need to do improvement in that. I am an innovative person and I am always focused
on my continuous development throughout my work life. So I want to use my strengths to
improve my current skills so that I can perform my future job roles of tourism officer (Panadero
et al., 2017).
Hence, I am a person with great skills and competencies but to perform my future job roles I
need to develop my skills and competencies to get fit in the particular job requirement
Different learning theories and approaches
These are a well-defined set of principles which defines acquisition, retention and recognition of
knowledge during the learning process (Illeris, 2018). There are different types of learning
theory and approach useful in the personal and professional development of the employee
working in Topdeck Company.
Behaviourist approach –
The relation between stimuli and response in a particular situation results in the acquisition of
new behaviour or changes in behaviour. If an employee is present in a particular event he will
gain some knowledge which is good for his personal development (Dochy, et.al, 2012)
Cognitive approach - this approach defines that learning occurs through internal processing of
the information. If an employee makes himself more engaged in work process he will understand
9

better. For example – If an employee is present in lecture or training he will automatically gain
some knowledge from it (DomíNguez, et.al, 2013).
Constructivism approach- this approach says that an employee constructs his knowledge of the
world based on his individual experiences. As employee experiences knowledge at the
workplace, it enables an employee to improve his knowledge and skills. Own experience of
employee results in bringing new knowledge in his mind (Brockett and Hiemstra, 2018)
Social learning theory- this theory explains that people can learn, both directly and indirectly by
observing others. In a topdeck organisation, an employee can learn through observing the
behaviour of an experienced employee at the workplace and that helps them to increase their
knowledge. Social learning theory basically says that individuals learn from the people around
them and society as a whole (Malloch, et.al, 2010).
David Kolb (the experimental theory) - this theory explains that learning is a continuous
process in which an employee can learn and develop himself by moving through the following
cycle (Malloch, et.al, 2010).
 Concrete experience (involvement in an experience or activity)
 Reflective observation (reflecting on the activity or experience)
 Active experimentation (trying out and testing new skills and abilities)
 Abstract conceptualization (gaining knowledge or skills from the experience)
Bandura’s self-efficacy theory- this theory defines how an individual perceives himself during
the learning process. An individual with low self-efficacy will face difficulties in the situation
but an individual with high efficacy will take it a challenge rather than a problem and will find
out the improvement area. This theory is helpful for an employee to boost his confidence level
and personal skills (Marsick and Watkins, 2015).
Appropriate development approaches to improve skills and knowledge for the job
role of tourism officer
Development approach Skills and competencies Time duration Implemented by
Observation/feedback To improve performance 3 month Manager
Workshop/program To Improve leadership 1-2 month Manager
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skills
Group interaction To improve
communication and
persuasion
1 month Staff
Inquiry/research Data handling ability 2 month Manager
Lo3
Construction of a development plan to enhance skills and competencies
A development plan is designed to improve the skills and abilities of an employee and it also
prepares him to perform future job roles. Development plan defines all the activities to be used
for the development of an individual to acquire new skills and knowledge. It should be designed
in that way it covers all the essential aspect of training and development (Rubens et al., 2018).
SMART goals will help in designing an effective development plan
Specific
I want to
improve my
skills and
competencies
within 6 month
Measurable
Improved skills
will be measured
with my previous
skills
Attainable
My goal is to
improve my
skills and
competencies can
be easily possible
by developing
necessary
training
programs and
strategies
Realistic
My goals are
realistic as it
does not include
any virtual things
Time-bound
I want to develop
my skills and
knowledge
within 6 months
only
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