Work-Based Learning Report: Professional Development at Bkleen

This report analyzes work-based learning, focusing on a student's experience at Bkleen Detailing, a car service provider. The introduction defines work-based learning and its benefits. Task 1 identifies the student's desired career as a maintenance engineer and outlines required personal and professional training, including staff manuals, customer surveys, and online resources. Task 2 reflects on learning experiences, addressing underperformance and poor communication within the company, and proposes solutions like revised leadership skills and improved communication systems. Task 3 presents a professional development plan to enhance employee motivation, covering a positive working environment, effective communication, and teamwork, with specific targets, proficiency levels, and development opportunities. The report emphasizes the importance of these strategies for individual career growth and organizational success.

Work-Based Learning

Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1........................................................................................................................................................3
Task 2........................................................................................................................................................4
Task 3........................................................................................................................................................6
Task 4......................................................................................................................................................10
Task 5......................................................................................................................................................11
Task 6......................................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Work-based learning can be defined as a strategy that in which the students are
provided with real-life working experiences wherein, they can apply the different
technical as well as academic skills which can further help in developing their
employability (Atkinson, 2016). It involves a series of educational courses that combine
the curriculum of school or university in the workplace. Work-based learning is an
important approach as it can help individuals in developing necessary employability
skills and thus build a positive and strong working experience. They also get a chance
to build network with the peers as well employers who can help them in finding a job by
connecting them with potential employers. Organization chosen for this report is Bkleen
Detailing, which is a car service provider company in the UK that provides different
services relating to car washing, servicing and maintenance etc. The report is a
reflective report that explains what are professional and personal training an individual
requires for a desired job role. A plan is also proposed in order to evaluate how can
employee motivation be improved.
Task 1
Desired future career role and personal as well as professional training required
For a person to gain a job in his/her desired future career role, he/she requires
both personal as well as professional training. The individual should have a clear
understanding of the skills and knowledge that are required for that particular job role.
My desired future career role is to work as the maintenance engineer at Bkleen
Detailing, which is a car service provider company in the United Kingdom and provides
services like car washing, servicing and maintenance etc. The company has a skilled
staff trained to use the best tools in the industries along with the safest procedures in
order to enhance the appearance of customers’ cars (Baker, Peach and Cathcart,
2017). This job will help me in enhancing my employability skills as well as my
knowledge about different subjects. In order to get this job, I will require both personal
and professional training.

I have planned to take responsibility of my own learning at my current workplace.
One of the foremost things will be to arrange a staff manual and study the same
thoroughly. The staff manual will help me in gaining an understanding of the different
systems in the company as well as prepare me for the interview as well. I can conduct
surveys of the customers which will improve my skills of dealing with them,
understanding their needs etc. which can be useful for my future job role. I can also
seek feedback from my senior managers which will help me in identifying my strengths
as well as weaknesses. Seeking feedback from colleagues can also prove out to be
useful as they will provide an accurate feedback of my performance as well as the
areas, I need to improve in.
I can go through the online website of the company so get a better understanding
of what is the skill set and knowledge that is required for the job role of maintenance
engineer. Speaking with the current employees of the company will also help in
developing a better understanding of what are the other ways that I can opt for in order
to enhance my skills (Battistelli, and et. al., 2019). Professional magazines and other
relevant websites are also ways to train myself. All these different ways will assist me in
levelling up my chances to get my desired job role. Not only this, they will also improve
my personal skills that will be useful in my future endeavors. I will take the responsibility
of practicing and working on my verbal as well as written communication skills.
I can also attend different training programs which will help me in improving
different skills. Also, I can ask one of my peers to take my mock interview and provide
me with the feedback of how I performed during the same. Other skills that I should
focus on developing is the ability to work under pressure and also being able to work as
a part of a team. One of the most important responsibilities that I can take is studying
the staff manual of the company in which I want to work as a maintenance engineer.
Therefore, all the methods that are described above can prove out to be very helpful if
they are used in a proper way.
Task 2
Identification of personal and professional learning, development techniques

I got a chance to work as an engineer in the maintenance department of Bkleen
Detailing, which is a company that provides various car services to the customers.
Having been working in the company for quite some time, I observed that the company
had been facing a difficult time due to the underperformance of the staff and a poor
communication throughout (Henderson and Trede, 2017). Such situations can lead to
an increase in the number of employees switching the company as well as a loss of
customers who have been loyal to its competitors. Over the time I have learned many
new skills that can help the organization in either reducing or completely eliminating
these problems that are identified. If the company fails to address these problems in
due time, it will have to face adverse consequences.
Employees who are not performing well should be dealt with in an effective way
so that the reason behind the same can be identified. The company had been facing
both these problems relating to poor communication as well as the staff not performing
well for some time due to which there was a compromise in the overall quality of the
services that were provided. During my time of working at Bkleen Detailing, I had to
report to my team leader in order to assist during the process of decision making. In
order to resolve the above stated problems, meetings were held wherein I was also
involved and asked to provide inputs. I suggested that the problem-solving and
leadership skills should’ve been revised. Improved leadership skills helped the
managers as well as team leaders to lead their teams effectively.
The company worked on its communication system and implemented a new one
so that important messages could be received by all employees in the company. The
other problem that the company was facing was that the employees were not
performing well in their jobs. The management of the identified the reasons behind the
same and found that some employees did not possess adequate skills that were
required for their jobs while some of them were distracted easily. As a result of this, they
were not able to focus on their work and their involvement in jobs was also less. Thus,
training and coaching sessions were conducted to help the employees acquire new
skills and also improve the ones they already possessed. This was one of the ways that

the company adopted in order to eliminate the problem of underperformance of
employees.
On the other hand, to resolve the problem of poor communication within the
system, the management of Bkleen Detailing leveraged the communication resources
within the company. An automated answering system was also installed within the
system wherein employees of one department could interact with the employees of the
other department. These kinds of different methods helped the company in overcoming
both the challenges (Kemp and et. al., 2016). Otherwise, it would have lost its loyal
customers as well as the level of employees leaving the company would also have gone
up which could’ve impacted the goodwill and overall performance of the same
adversely.
Task 3
Plan for the Work-based Project
A professional development plan can be defined as a list of steps that can help
an individual in achieving his/her career goals. The plan can help in getting an insight
about how can the person reach his targets (Morley, 2018). The plan is an important
tool as it helps the person in identifying the skills that he/she needs to develop in order
to enhance his career. Employee motivation is an important aspect for any company
and thus efforts should be made constantly to maintain their levels of motivation. A
Professional Development Plan in order to evaluate how employee motivation can be
improved in Bkleen Detailing is explained below –
Plan for Improving Employee Motivation
S.
No.
Learning target Present
Proficiency
Target
Proficienc
y
Development
Opportunities
Criteria for
Judging
Attainment
Time
Duration
1. Positive
Working
Environment
Present
proficiency
of creating a
positive
working
Target
proficiency
for the
same is 10.
Creating a
positive working
environment is
one of the most
effective ways in
Managers
and Team
Leaders
within the
organization
Time
duration
required to
achieve
the same

environment
is 8.
which motivation
levels of the
employees can
be improved
(Mumford,
2016). For this,
the foremost
thing is to
identify the
amount of
efforts that
employees put
in getting tasks
completed.
Various
opportunities to
develop healthy
relations with
each other will
be provided so
that there are
less chances of
conflicts/dispute
s between the
employers and
employees
(Nevalainen,
Lunkka and
Suhonen, 2018).
Also, the
company should
trust its
employees and
provide them
various
opportunities to
put forward their
ideas and
thoughts. This
will help in
enhancing their
motivation.
will judge
that the
learning
target is
achieved in
an effective
manner.
is 50 days.

2. Effective
communication
My present
proficiency
of
communicat
ing
effectively,
out of 10 is
7.
My target
proficiency
of being
able to
communica
te in an
effective
manner is
9.
Another way in
which the
motivation of
employees can
be improved is
communicating
the information
effectively to
them
(Nottingham,
2016). Good
communication
not only
increases the
level of
motivation of the
staff but also
sets the
company aside
from
competitors.
They should be
encouraged by
the managers
as well as team
leaders to share
their ideas and
should be
monitored if they
need assistance
regarding
anything. Bkleen
Detailing should
have an open-
door policy,
wherein the
employees do
not feel
hesitated for
sharing their
feedbacks.
Lastly, the
company should
Management
of the
company will
be
responsible
for judging
that the
target
proficiency is
achieved.
The
estimated
time
duration to
achieve
this
particular
learning
target is
30 days.

be honest with
its employees at
all times and
trust them (Five
ways to improve
employee
motivation,
2020). This will
make them feel
valued and thus
more motivated.
3. Encouraging
Teamwork
My present
proficiency
to
encourage
teamwork
and work as
part of a
team out of
10, currently
is 9.
My target
proficiency
is 10
because I
want to
convert this
into a
strength.
For the
company to
have employees
whose
motivation levels
are high, it
should
encourage
teamwork
among them.
This way they
will get a chance
to interact with
each other and
also, when he
motivation or
confidence of
one of the
members will go
down, the other
members will be
there to help
and provide
support (Raelin,
2016). Thus, the
company should
form small
groups or teams
of employees
and encourage
them to work
Team
Members,
Leaders and
Managers
within the
organization
will be
responsible
for judging
the criteria
and making
sure that a
complete
proficiency of
10 is
achieved.
Required
time frame
for the
same will
be 15
days. It
will be
made sure
that within
this time
duration,
the target
is
achieved.

together.
Therefore, a professional development plan will help the respective company in
enhancing the motivation levels of its employees. This will further lead to gaining a
competitive edge against competitors as the overall performance of the company on the
whole will improve (Riley, 2017). The plan will assist in measuring the impact or
progress of opportunities that are provided to the employees to level up their motivation.
Any further requirements of opportunities can also be tracked and thus results can be
measured. This will help in improving the confidence as well as motivation levels of the
employees and thus perform better.
Task 4
Recommended appropriate solutions to the identified problems and challenges
From the above tasks, it can be seen that the main problems that the company
was facing were underperformance of the staff as well as poor communication. The
employees were not motivated enough and thus showed a lack of engagement and
commitment to their jobs. On the other hand, due to poor communication, they could not
relate as to what were they supposed to do and as a result were confused. I observed
that these challenges could impact the overall functioning and performance of the
company. They could also impact the position of the same in the market against
competitors (Rouvrais, Remaud and Saveuse, 2020). Lack of motivation among the
staff members was also a serious problem that the company was facing.
Since, I’d been working in the company from sometime, I recommended my
manager that the employees who were not performing effectively should be provided
feedbacks regarding their performance frequently so that they could adjust or change
their way of carrying out tasks. The feedbacks could be provided either weekly or twice
every week. It was also recommended that the managers or team leaders of different
teams actively listened to the problems that these employees were facing and then work
with them to overcome the issue. When an employee is no performing up to the mark,
he/she should be provided with a mentor or a coach who can guide the person

whenever there is a need. Their working space should be changed which will refresh
them and thus enhance their levels of confidence.
To improve poor communication in the company, it is recommended that different
effective ways or systems to communicate are used as well as implemented. Various
opportunities should be provided to the employees and they should be encouraged to
share their ideas and suggestions. There should be an open-door policy wherein
employees are free to communicate and put forward their thoughts. Weekly team
meetings should be conducted wherein the managers can share their goals and get an
insight about what are the team members working on (10 Straightforward Ways to
Improve Communication at Work, 2020). The tasks can be allocated as well as
expectations can be explained by communicating effectively with the team members.
The communication within the organization should be kept consistent so that all
important messages keep getting communicated and are not missed out by any
employee.
The last problem that was identifies was that of a lack of motivation among the
employees and in order to eliminate this problem, the company is recommended to
recognize the efforts of its employees and thus offer them various rewards and benefits.
They should be involved in the process of decision making and thus the company
should trust its employees (Talbot and et. al., 2017). Small weekly goals should be set
so that the employees have a clarity as to what are they doing. Also, instead of
motivating the whole team, the team members should be motivated individually. This
will help in building their morale and overall confidence. Lastly, guest speakers can be
invited to motivate the employees and help them in improving their performance. Thus,
the company should implement these recommendations so that it can overcome these
challenges.
Task 5
Monitoring and evaluation of the project
Monitoring and evaluation is an important component that can be used by the
company to understand and get an insight about the progress of the project. In order to
evaluate the progress of project described above the company can use various tools

like surveys, questionnaires etc. Questionnaires can be distributed among the
employees of the company to monitor if the recommendations that were provided above
were implemented successfully. Responses of the employees in the questionnaires can
then be analyzed and the results can be interpreted (Wareing, 2016). This will help the
company in understanding which approach was successful and which ones should be
revised. Graphs are other effective tools that can be used by the company for the same.
It was observed that the level of motivation of the employees went up from 65%
to 80% by involving them in the decision-making process and encouraging them to put
forward their ideas and thoughts. This can be explained with the help of a bar-chart.
Previous level of Motivation Improved level of Motivation
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Motivation Level
A bar graph can help the managers in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of
the approaches that were implemented. Since it is a graph, it facilitates a better
understanding in terms of numbers. The managers of the company will be able to find
the further improvements within the attitude and confidence levels of the employees like
if they were carrying out the tasks assigned to them effectively or not. The other tool
that the company can use is survey wherein it will ask questions to the employees that if
the different communication tools as well as methods that were used were used
properly or not.
A research can also be conducted regarding how many employees are leaving
the company and switching to competitors. The numbers can be analyzed and an