Importance of the Development of Employability - Case Study Example

Executive summary This report provides information on importance of employability skills, personal skills audit and personal development plan as well as a career plan. The goals were to. Show the importance of employability skills. Develop personal development plan for year two. Understand how the employability skills are transferable to the work place. Results from the personal SWOT analysis show that I have strengths in problem solving and decision making and weaknesses in public speaking skills. The personal development plan shows my action plan to enhance the strengths and improve the weakness and time lines set. From the report it’s clearly seen that employability skills are key requirements in the current industrial job market. Introduction A reflective statement detailing your rationale for enrolling on your BA (Hons) course Business enterprises are the drivers of the economy in any country they provide jobs, value to shareholders and taxes to governments. A degree in a business management helps to strike a balance between theoretical and practical work thus students benefit from cutting edge business techniques. Business management degrees are known for having a high level of case-based learning. Universities continuously use real-life examples thus students can apply their learning. If one chooses to follow an alternative path all together like starting a business enterprise after school one is assured that there are transferable skills one develops by undertaking a business management course. The Skills include understanding how organizations operate, communication, decision making, time management, numeracy and presenting. Importance of the development of employability Employability skills are general skills that are vital for success in the modern job market at all levels of employment and careers. These skills have a number of names soft skills, workforce readiness skills, career readiness skills but they all speak to the same set of core skills that employers want. Yorke (2006) describes employability skill as a set of skills and knowledge that makes an individual more likely to secure and be successful in their chosen occupations(s) to the benefit of themselves, the workforce, the community, and the economy. An employability skill are set of skills, knowledge and attributes that likely make individual to gain, maintain and excel in employment; obtain new employment; move between roles within the same organization and to get promotion (Candy and Crebert, 1991; Dunne and Rowlins, 2000; Billing, 2003; Crebert, 2004; Hewitt, 2005; and Rasul et al., 2010). The skills portfolio can be divided into four sections namely people skill, self-reliance skills, generalist skills and specialist skills. People skills refer to qualities such leadership skills which is vital in business operations. Self-reliance skills refer to qualities such networking skills and action planning which help in relating with other professionals in different forums and decision making. Generalist skills refer to qualities such as such information technology skills which are vital in presentation and use of visual aids. Specialist skills refer to the qualities such as technical skills or functional skills e.g. business management In the 21st century, employability skill is the most required skill besides academic knowledge in an attempt to compete for employment and sustain job at the modern global job market. Therefore, to know what skills the employers are looking for it would be important to establish a direction to develop the students with efficiency and necessary skills by involving all relevant stakeholders in the student skill development plan. Focusing on developing student employability skills helps reduce level of unemployment of graduates. Communication skills, problem solving skills and interpersonal skills are three most important employability skills than hard skills in developed countries like UK, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and European Union and developing countries like Singapore and Malaysia (Zaharim et al., 2009a; Zaharim, et al., 2009b and Common Wealth of Australia, 2002). Numbers of studies have shown the importance for graduates from higher education institutions to possess employability skills Candy, and Crebert, (1991); Billing, (2003); Crebert et al.,(2004); Hewitt, 2005; and Dunne and Rowlins, (2000) and able to apply those skills and technical knowledge learned to the workforce (Crebert et al., 2004). Personal development Plan A personal skills audit is a review taken to assess an individual’s existing competencies and skills against skills required in the future so that one can understand of the skills development needs required A personal skill audit is effective when one undertakes a SWOT analysis see table below Strengths Planning and time management skills Communication Skills Problem solving and decision Making skills Analytical and numeracy skills Weakness English language writing skills Poor public speaking skills Poor listening skills Personal traits – shyness Opportunities Open access to e- learning portals Internships and volunteer work placements during vacations Obtain high grades in exam modules Career Fairs and business enterprise expos Threats English is not a first language Distance to the university and transport system cost Financial resources – lack of scholarship support Table 1: Personal SWOT Analysis Results Strengths from the personal skill audit (SWOT) analysis that came to my attention were quite a good number of personal strengths as indicated in (Table 1: Personal swot analysis) what am good at and what are my best assets that is what I can do well without struggling and also produce quality work. My weaknesses are seen to fall more on presentations skills required thus I need to work on a personal development plan for example by attending public lectures to improve my listening skills, also by joining drama clubs in the campus this will help me to improve my public speaking skills it will also help reduce the shyness. I will also practice listening to English audios and writing articles to assist in improving my grammar both written and verbal as will be seen below to improve my public speaking and listening skills. Opportunities refer to new trends that bring up a chance that makes it possible to do something such changes in technology, development of e-learning portals, audios on languages teaching. Opportunities enhance ones strengths and improve the weakness. Threats can be internal or external; these are factors that adversely affect person daily activities. The threats that come up after my skills audits are language difficulties whereby I am not able to articulate myself well in English. Another threat is the fact that I lack proper financial support for example scholarships such that I find myself struggling at times and this affects my academic performance. Personal Development plan for year two Focus Area Where now What I am going to do How I am going to do Application Success End time English language and Writing skills University level Writing up a project or dissertation Listen to English audio academic tutorials Find English e- books Communicate in English Writing personal assignments To be more conversant with English Able to write and express myself in good English September 2016 Internships and volunteer work In the UK Apply for internships and volunteer work Prepare appropriate CV. Attend career fairs and business expos Preparation of Job entry after graduating A job Appointment June 2018 Public speaking and Listening skills University level Develop my public speaking and listening skill Join campus public speaking and debate speaking groups Course work presentation Competence in public speaking and listening skills January 2017 Table 2: Personal Development Plan A personal development plan is an activity that helps on acting on the results of personal skill audit what gaps are there, how to close up those gaps, what activities will be undertaken and when changes are expected. Time management Time management is a personal skill with great impact on individual’s course performance. Management of the lecture course timetable electronically is a prudent idea as one is informed of different timings of lectures at all times. I also manage a personal self study timetable through an electronic diary which I adhere to without fail. It also contains my assessment deadlines, class test and exam tables. The self study timetables as well as lecture course timetable help effectively manage time and slot time to get involved in extracurricular activities such as sports, drama groups as well as working part time while studying. This ensures that am able to meet assignment deadlines and that am able to prepare for exams adequately. Academic writing and referencing Feedback from previous course work submitted indicated that I need to improve my writing skills with special concern to proof reading of work and touched on use of online resources provided as well as fully adhering to the Harvard referencing requirements. Reference is based on course work assignment of ‘Managing people blog and personal development plan’. Research skills The research skills fall under generalist skills in the skill portfolio. Research strategy is vital in improving competence in research skills. A research strategy involves planning ahead that is time management skills, breaking down the research topic to capture the key words to help in use of searching techniques such as phrase queries and fielded searches, and getting to know the research topic in detail. Harvard system referencing style, reference list 1. Lysons, K. and Farrignton, B. (2012). Purchasing and supply chain management. 8 edn. Harlow, United Kingdom. Pearson Education Limited. 2. Christopher, M. (2011) Logistics and supply chain management. 4 edn. Harlow, United Kingdom. Pearson Education Limited. 3. Rao, S. R., (2016) Management and Organization Behavior. Free-ebooks.net (online). Available at: https://www.free-ebooks.net/category/business-textbooks (Accessed 21 March 2016) Presentation skills A good Power point presentation should adhere to the 10 20 30 rule, that way the presentation will be brief and to the point. The presenter should be very knowledgeable in the topic and have clear understanding of their audience. Use of visual aid enhances the presentation coupled with a great body language. The presenter should be audible and use tone variation appropriately. This ensures audibility and also presentation of neat work. ICT Skills Information communication technology Skills fall under the generalist skills as information technology/ computer literacy, competencies in these skills can help retrieve analysis and explain data in a presentation as shown in the tables, graphs below. Student's Surname Coursework 1 Coursework 2 In class Test Overall Module Mark Adams 55 67 59 62 Brown 61 73 64 67.8 Davies 36 40 24 35 Evans 65 62 48 59.3 Howells 52 67 57 60.8 Jones 75 75 69 73.5 Lewis 51 48 49 49 Morgan 56 66 64 63 Phillips 53 66 63 62 Roberts 45 53 48 49.8 Average 54.9 61.7 54.5 58.22 Table 3: Students score table Chart 1. Student’s scores and average Table 4. Frequecny table Table 5. Pivot table Software’s such as Excel are used to create graphs, tables, charts as illustrated above to come up with statistics like frequency distributions which help to generate means, probability values and standard errors. Use of graphs, tables, and charts in presentations is very important as they are very visible and easy to understand. Good table design should include –title, headings, rounding’s, percentages, sources. Career planning As a business management student I have formulated a career plan to achieve the position of a management consultant in the future, the position requires the key skills such communication skills which is a personal strength as indicated in the personal skills audit, Peoples skills that is interpersonal skills that refer to listening skills that am working on since they fall under weakness in the personal skill audit A curriculum vitae only gives an employer a snapshot of an applicant’s skills and education while cover letter show why the applicant is apply for a position. A career portfolio is used to fill in the gaps between curriculum vitae and cover letter. Do develop a great career portfolio one needs to undertake a career planning process activity Having a career plan is important. It can helps in managing the direction one wants their career to take, the job skills and knowledge they will need, and how they can get them. Career plans help in learning new things, developing new skills, and to expand knowledge. With the rise in use of social media it’s prudent to have social media profiles presenting one in the best light possible and make one look professional. Creation of LinkedIn profiles using high quality professional photography and interacting with other professionals. In personal brand building, one should be speaking on a regular basis. Naturally, this will mean developing communication skills. If one speaks in exactly the same manner others do, they will never stand out from the crowd. Conclusions Summary of your skills development and an understanding of how these skills can be transferred into the work place. Having proficiency in English and writing skills as graduate student I will be able to express myself in the work place confidently both in written and verbal communication. Competency in public speaking as a graduate student will be a great resource in presentations at the work place during quality circle meetings. Presentations require high public speaking as well as presentation skills and information communication technology skills in use of visual aids. Competency in listening skills as a graduate student will be of great important in learning of new ideas at the work place and dissemination of information to other parties. References 1. Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education: what it is – what it is not, Enhancing Student Employability Coordination Team (ESCT), The Higher Education Academy,12-14. 2. Sermsuka , S., Triwichitkhunb, D., & Wongwanichc, S. ( 2014 ). ‘Employment Conditions and Essential Employability Skills Required by Employers for Secondary School Graduate’, The Higher Education Academy, 1848 – 1854. 3. Bogomaz, S., Kozlova, N., & Atamanova I. (2015). ‘University Students’ Personal and Professional Development’ The Socio-Cultural Environment Effect, 552 – 558. 4. Husain, M. Y., Mokhtara, S. B., Ahmada, A. A., & Mustaphab R. (2010) ‘Importance of Employability Skills from Employers’ Perspective’, The Academic Journal, 430 – 438. Read More