Work Based Learning Report: Front Office Manager at Dorchester Hotel

This report delves into the realm of work-based learning, specifically examining the role of a front office manager at the Dorchester Hotel. It begins with an introduction to work-based learning and its significance in bridging academic knowledge with real-world experience. The report then undertakes a comprehensive skill audit, documenting the skills required for the front office manager position and formulating a personal development plan to address skill gaps. Progress in planning for and undertaking the work role is evaluated, highlighting the importance of skills like creative problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal abilities. The report further discusses the essential skills and knowledge for the role, including communication, personality, interpersonal relationships, and management expertise. Learning and progress are assessed through reflective logs and journals, providing insights into the student's experiences and areas for improvement. Finally, the report concludes with a short analysis of planning for a future career role, emphasizing the skills needed for continued growth and success in hospitality management. The report underscores the significance of work-based learning in enhancing both academic and practical skills, offering a comprehensive analysis of the front office manager's responsibilities and the strategies for effective management.

Work Based Learning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN TASK ..................................................................................................................................1
Discuss and document a skill audit and produce a personal development plan.....................1
Short report on progress in planning for and undertaking the work role...............................4
Discuss the skills and knowledge required for the work role.................................................5
Evaluate learning and progress with reflective logs and journals..........................................6
Short report for planning for a future career role...................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Work based learning is defined as the educational technique which allows students to
apply for both academic and technical skills and get real life work experience and improve their
employability. Work based learning is a growing method which helps students to prepare for the
workplace learning experience with their their academic learning. In this report Dorchester hotel
is taken as the base hotel. Dorchester hotel is a 1930s luxury landmark hotel in Mayfair, United
kingdom. It was opened on 18 April 1931, owned by Brunei Investment Agency. This report
covers the role of being the front office manger undertaking a skill audit and analysing a personal
development plan. In addition top this highlighting on progress in planning for work role, also
highlighting various skills and knowledge required for the role of front office manager. Further
more evaluating and including short report of learning (Amir, 2016).
MAIN TASK
Discuss and document a skill audit and produce a personal development plan.
Skill audit is defined as careful analyses of skills required by an individual and the
organisation and then carefully providing training as per the requirement. The main purpose of
skill audit is to improve skills and knowledge of an individual by analysing the current skills they
have and also required in the future. In context to the front office manager of Dorchester hotel,
documentation of a skill audit program which is required and personal development program is
highlighted below:
Skills Current performance Target Performance Resources required
Creative problem
solving
5 9 This skills is important
as it allows to find
innovative solutions
and helps to develop a
plan overcome the
difficult problems and
achieve goals and
objectives (Billett,
2020).
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Communication skill 7 10 This skill is required to
smooth flow of
communication
between both the
parties, it allows both
the parties to
understand
information more
effectively and
accurately(Bradley
and Rustin, 2018)
(Chatterjee and
Mukherjee, 2016).
Interpersonal skills 4 8 This skills is necessary
as it allows to work
with group and
individuals effectively
and smoothly in
personal as well as
professional life. It
allows individual to
build strong
relationship with
others at the
workplace with is very
important for the
growth of the business.
Leadership skill 6 9 This skill is required in
order to effectively
lead the team towards
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achieving their goods
and objectives, it also
help in motivating
individual and
influencing them
positively.
Personal development plan: It is defined the process of developing a action plan which is
required in order to develop the required skills by an individual. It is mainly base on the proper
analysis and reflective study of skills of an individual. Personal development plan helps
individual in developing skills as per the requirement (Daniel, 2016). In context to the front
office manager of Dorchester hotel, the personal development plan is highlighted below:
Skills I would
like to
acquire
The value of
the skill in my
position of
job
What
measures do I
need to
implement
Resources
required to
acquire the
skill
Measurement
of success
Date of
accomplishm
ent
Creative
problem
solving
The creative
problem
solving skill is
one of the
important skill
required for an
front office
manage, this
skill is needed
to be
improved in
order to
effectively
The important
measures that
can be
implemented
in order to
improve this
skills can be
proper use of
strategic
framework,
also regularly
practising
continuity and
Resource that
can be taken
into
consideration
in order to
improve the
creative
decision
making skills
can be using
mind map to
help to picture
the problem
In order to
measure the
success of the
skills, I can
apply those
skills in
practice at
Dorchester
hotel as the
success can be
measured by
the outcomes
it provides.
06/05/21
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find creative
solutions for
the problems
and enhance
the
productivity
(Ebbeck and
Waniganayake
, 2017).
becoming
expert in the
field and
before solving
any problem
always taking
past
experience
into
consideration .
before solving
it, playing
some logic
puzzles helps
in brain work
out, further
more
individual can
keep a journal.
Interpersonal
skills
Another skill
that plays an
important role
an front office
manager is
Interpersonal
skills,
improving this
skills help in
enhancing
smooth flow
of work in
personal and
professional
life.
The measures
that can be
taken to
improve
interpersonal
skills can be
acknowledgin
g others
expertness,
trying to be a
good listener
also important
measure that is
need to to be
developed is
the positive
outlook.
The resource
that are
required to
acquire
interpersonal
skills are
attending
various
interpersonal
development
seminars,
learning
various
managing
practices also
developing
easy methods
to solve
problems.
In order to
measure the
effectiveness
of this method,
it can be
applied in real
life and
workplace life
as success can
be evaluated
on the basis of
the outcomes.
15/05/21
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Short report on progress in planning for and undertaking the work role
The personal development plan plays an important role in improving the skills required
by an individual in an workplace (Gee, 2018). The important skills required as being front office
manager as they are responsible for smooth functioning of front office work by assigning right
people at the eight place. In context to Dorchester Hotel, the main responsibility as a front office
manager I need to perform is to properly manage the room allocation, regular management of
front desk and also encouraging the front of house manager in maintaining administrative system
effectively and efficiently. As analysed, required skills to perform above task are creative
problem solving, communication skills and interpersonal skills (Gould and Taylor, 2017). My
communication skill is quite strong which will help in effective flow of information between
both the parties but in order to improve my creative problem solving and interpersonal skills. In
case of improving my creative skills measure like before solving any problem, past experiences
needs to be carefully evaluated and also effective strategic framework needs to constructed.
Another skill which is required to be improved is interpersonal skills through having positive
outlook and trying to be good listener. These skills plays an important role in developing a good
personality and enhance productivity and profitability of the company (Important Hotel Front
Desk/Guest Services Job Skills, (2020).
Discuss the skills and knowledge required for the work role.
There are various skills required to perform the role of front office manger effectively. In
context to the Dorchester Hotel the main role of front office manager is to ensure proper training
to all the employees working at front office, evaluate job performance of each employees also
maintaining proper working relationship. In order to carry out all the above activities, certain
skills and knowledge is required by the manger of the hotel which are discussed below:
 One of most important skill required by front office manager is excellent communication
skill, as a front manager is required to effectively transfer the required information among
its employees, also it is important to maintain a positive tone and can speak the required
goals and objective needed to be attained clearly and effectively.
 Another skill that is required by an front office manager is pleasant personality, a front
office manager needs to have a good personality in order to create positive attitude in the
overall organisation and build a strong relationship with other members.
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 Front office manager needs to have good interpersonal relationship to build strong and
positive relationship with others members of front desk.
 Front office manager needs to have good knowledge of management and leadership inj
order to effectively manage the team and the front desk. And also enhance productivity
and profitability (Harden and Laidlaw, 2020).
Evaluate learning and progress with reflective logs and journals.
Reflective logs and Journals are defined as the individual records of their learning
experience, it is basically systematic record of what ever things learned by an individual. The
evaluation of learning and progress with reflective logs and journals in context to front office
manager is highlighted below:
What Did I
Learn?
What went well? What could I
Have done
better?
What did I gain
from the
experience
Learning and
progress
In the first week I
have learned
about skill audit
and evaluation of
personal
development plan
in order to
understand what
all skills are
required to be
improved by me.
The skill audit
helped me to
evaluate my
strong skills and
weak skill, and
personal
development
helped me to
understand how
theses skills can
be improved
effectively.
The things which
I should have
done better is
focusing more on
my creative
problem solving
skills and
interpersonal
skills (Monson,
2017).
The experience
which I gained is
that skill audit
plays an very
important role in
understanding
skill which are
needed to be
improved in order
to enhance their
productivity.
The learning and
progress was to
understand the
importance of
skill audit for an
individual inj
analysing their
present skills and
they skills
required to be
improved.
In the week two I
have learned
about the progress
in planning for
and undertaking
I got to learned
that what are the
roles and
responsibilities
that are needed to
The things that I
should have done
better is to
formulation of
proper plan in
The experience I
have gained is
that improving
my creative
problem solving
The learning was
to understand the
planning that is
needed to carried
out for
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the role of front
office manager at
Dorchester Hotel
and the skills
required to
perform the work
effectively.
be performed by
me as a front
office manager at
the Dorchester
Hotel (Mueller
and Massaron,
2021).
order to
understand the
role of front
office manager
and how it can
enhance the
productivity.
and interpersonal
skills can help me
to build strong
relationship with
others at the
workplace and
will help in taking
better decision.
undertaking the
role of front
office manager at
Dorchester Hotel.
In the third week,
I learned about
the various skills
and knowledge
required for an
front office
manager of
Dorchester Hotel.
I things that went
well is that I got
to learned about
important skills
required for being
an front office
manager.
The things I
should have done
better is to
improve my
learning skills
effectively.
The experience
gained was
realising the
importance of
skills and
knowledge
required for an
front office
manager (Nurmi
and Hinds,
2016).
Having proper
knowledge and
skills like
communication
skill, problem
solving skills and
interpersonal skill
helps front office
manager to
effectively
manage the
work .
Short report for planning for a future career role.
The future career role of front office manager is to ensure that all the activities of front
desk are performed effectively and properly also the performance of each and every individual is
measured correctly (Smith, 2016). In context to front office manager of the Dorchester hotel,
ensures that all front desk employees are provided with proper training also ensuring that front
desk is providing professional and friendly services to its customers and handling complaints as
required. In order to continue to grow there are various skills like communication skills,
interpersonal skills, creative problem solving skills required by the manager in order to
effectively carry out all the activities of the front desk. Front office manager plays an important
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role in maintaining and effectively controlling all the activities at the hotel and also help in
enhancing the productivity and profitability by carefully managing the front desk of the hotel
(Willcocks, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can conclude that work based learning plays an important
role in enhancing academic and technical skills of individual. In this report, skills audit in
context to front office manager of Dorchester hotel is highlighted which helps in analysing skills
that required to be improved and accordingly personal development plan is developed above.
Short report in planning for the role and skills and knowledge is also highlighted in this report.
Furthermore reflective logs and journals highlighting learning and progress with short report for
future career goal is also highlighted above.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Amir, M.T., 2016. Inovasi pendidikan melalui problem based learning. Prenada Media.
Billett, S., 2020. Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Routledge.
Bradley, J. and Rustin, M., 2018. Work discussion: Learning from reflective practice in work
with children and families. Routledge.
Chatterjee, S. and Mukherjee, V., 2016. PID controller for automatic voltage regulator using
teaching–learning based optimization technique. International Journal of Electrical
Power & Energy Systems, 77. pp.418-429.
Daniel, B.K., 2016. Big data and learning analytics in higher education. New York: Springer.
Ebbeck, M. and Waniganayake, M., 2017. Play in early childhood education: Learning in diverse
contexts. Oxford University Press. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
Gee, J., 2018. The new work order. Routledge.
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Gould, N. and Taylor, I., 2017. Reflective learning for social work: research, theory and practice.
Routledge.
Harden, R.M. and Laidlaw, J.M., 2020. Essential skills for a medical teacher: an introduction to
teaching and learning in medicine. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Monson, R., 2017. Groups that work: student achievement in group research projects and effects
on individual learning. Teaching sociology, 45(3). pp.240-251.
Mueller, J.P. and Massaron, L., 2021. Machine learning for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Nurmi, N. and Hinds, P.J., 2016. Job complexity and learning opportunities: A silver lining in
the design of global virtual work. Journal of International Business Studies, 47(6).
pp.631-654.
Smith, A., 2016. Experiential learning. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Willcocks, L.P. and Lacity, M., 2016. Service automation robots and the future of work. SB
Publishing.
Online
Important Hotel Front Desk/Guest Services Job Skills, (2020) [Online] Available through;
<https://www.cognology.com.au/learning_center/sawhatis/>
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