Personal Development Transferable Skills - Essay Example

Personal Development Portfolio Introduction Professional life of an individual needs to be designed and planned much like any organizational structure. In this planning, there is great need for analyzing the qualities of the candidate on the basis of their merits and demerits as well as their relevance in the present models of employability expectations. Modern higher education system has availed ample of chances to the aspirants to identify and decide their goal from variable options and pursue the desirable course that can lead them to the preset goals. In this process, the shaping of the candidates into professionals takes place mainly due to the care they give for their personality development. Even after the completion of the higher education, professionals need to maintain their knowledge and skills and keep them updated at regular intervals. Techniques such as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses give valuable assistance in processing the contributor personality development of individuals by which they can detect their capacities and failures and improve the quality of their employability to new heights. This personal development portfolio will disclose personal details, career objectives and learning styles. Personal Background I am a Chinese national. Presently I am studying a business foundation course in which all the subjects are related business studies. Back in China, the medium of instruction for my high school education was Chinese. I have great enthusiasm for music. I love singing and playing the saxophone. Besides this, I never miss a chance to try my luck in sports and games, mainly basketball. Coming to my family, my father owns two separate business units; one of which is a building material company and the other is a private micro financing firm. In fact, I gained a lot of interest in business studies because of my father’s success. These two units have given me considerable amount of confidence and some amount of fine business exposure to back up my future with some rewarding experience. Tracking Experience Having a school education in China is a wonderful experience because of the design of each day in and outside the classroom. It covers sports, games and a number of subjects to study. My education was often tied up to the boundaries of personal and familial responsibilities because of the family business. I was able to perform brightly at all the classes and I always proved my merit at competitions. At the same time, I spent time to study about the chances of business management academics in the developing world. My school days in China were great, because they offered me a lot of friends and a few teachers who guided us with dedication. I appreciate the new environment in the foundation course institution with high regards because it provides me with all essential confidence and knowledge required for my higher studies. Career Objectives I have long been looking forward to becoming a professionally qualified and technically competent personnel manager. This is possible if I find the position as a Human Resources manager in any organization in China after the completion of my higher studies in any of the top branded universities with the record of leading placement services. With the studies in management done abroad, there will be better opportunities awaiting me in my home country. In the long run, I can reach my goal of becoming a professional director of Human Resources Management. Studying a course in a country like the United Kingdom is truly a dream for most people in our country, because it gives added value to the degree in the recruitment process and most employers consider a foreign university’s degree as an indicator of higher efficiency and better amount of quality skills among the candidates. I have a plan to complete my master’s degree in management and take up a job for two or three years in the UK and then go back to China. There faster developing cities like Shanghai, Chongjin, and Shenzhen etc which provides plenty of opportunities to candidates after their professional studies. Also I have great enthusiasm to be part of any organization that economically rewards my countrymen. At last, if all my expectation to enter the multinational companies in China fails, I will join my father’s business and do innovative trials to improve the growth. I am sure my education will help me think wisely and act better; in such a way, I can dream high and hopefully touch the heights of expectations set by my parents about my future. Besides these, the European educational background will surely rate my status higher than my local peers, which will benefit me socially and professionally in the long run. Learning Styles Early identification of desirable field of career and the preparation for acquiring necessary education is essential for a professional student. Individuals with preset goals and continuously monitored levels of knowledge and skills are placed at the frontline posts in every race at the job markets. There are various learning styles that help the candidates evaluate their skill levels and make necessary improvements. Among them, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) appears brilliant and very effective. As Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall (2003, p. 242) point out, the CPD is basically a methodology through which individuals can set their personal and professional goals with the help of various methods that evaluate their skills. Even though the learning style is based on CPD, the role of Personal Development Planning (PDP) needs to be remembered as a remarkable basis for quality education guidance for professional courses. It is clearly observed that students undergoing PDP are better achievers because of the various skills developed through the program. PDP also focuses on improving the leadership qualities of candidates by exposing them to challenges and their solutions with the inclusion of expert ideas and real-time experience. This program essentially works as a basic tool for improving the candidates’ ability to perform self-evaluation and plan future course designs based on distinguished requirements and opportunities. Personal development aims at making an individual capable of determining his own strengths and weaknesses based on opportunities and threats that may arise from the variations in competition levels. In fact, through the various systems and mechanisms for practice, PDP makes it possible for the candidates to set their long-term goals and help them plan for the ways to reach there. As this program vividly addresses the comprehensive development of students, it provides for techniques like SWOT analysis and Personal PEST evaluation. According to Addams and Allfred (2013), while the SWOT test explores the factors like strength, weakness, opportunities and threats around the candidates’ personality as a relationship with their goals, PEST is about creating continuous awareness about the practical world comprising the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that are influential to the growth of an individual. Even though knowledge can be made for uniform supply, skills always remain unique. Therefore it is important for individuals to take a test to check their fitness level at different skills. Most skills are identified as transferable because of their fitness in changing organizational conditions. That means, an employee with a particular skill set can render the service in different organizations without barriers of terms and locations. Some of the skills as observed by experts are teamwork, written communication, spoken communication, listening, logical argument, problem solving, analytical skills, creativity, flexibility, leadership, organisation, numerical, physical etc (Academic Skills advice) Each of these skills is defined clearly with their functions and a rating variable ranging from one to five points is set for making the rating. As such, the candidate can make a self evaluation by allotting points against each of his skills; and at the end, a higher level of consolidated average shows better employability of the candidate. After the rating of actual performance, the candidate can make a statement of commitment to undertake remedial action against each of the weak skills. Development of Skills Being professional is showing quality skills with accuracy. According to Floyd and Allen (2008, p.162), a professional requires to possess distinct levels of knowledge and skills involving the part of work he is assigned to do, and for this, he must show good communication skills quality performance, predictability and consistency, confidence and responsibility. In order to achieve the level of a professional of global standards, Chinese students have to look for European universities that offer more practical teaching. The present course pattern at the foundation level offers better opportunities to evaluate the trends and directions of the academics. There is a lot of improvement in my critical evaluation skills after the foundation course. Apart from this, teamwork skills applied in the classroom is highly beneficial for the students to break the cultural and political barriers. It offers wonderful opportunity to learn collaborative and accommodative behaviour. I must give more care on my communication skills because of my lacking efficiency in English. I think living in the UK and regular socializing and reading will help me resolve this drawback. Research skill is another area where I must sweat a little, because the course patterns in the previous studies did not require much of academic reading. However, wider exposure to books and journals and guidance of experts will definitely help me find me ways to solve my issues. Lessons from Lectures The lectures in the foundation course are praiseworthy, because the teachers are highly efficient in touching the hearts of each and every student. The skills I have identified as good and poor about me are all due to the effect of lectures. Apart from the academics and basics, I have learnt means to improve my communication skills, researching abilities and investigative reading. Another important benefit of the course so far is it teaches the ways to explore multiple options and set the most suitable goal of the career. According to Slade (2013), “n choosing among alternatives, a decision maker will select the plan that best satisfies his goals (p.56).” In this regard, one of the best lessons to be learnt from the lectures is about making goal-setting decisions. Conclusion I have been an aspirant of higher studies in business management with a career goal of becoming a Human Resources Management professional. Presently I continue my foundation course with the objective of learning the global basics of business studies. From the course design and the peer exposure, I have improved a lot in both academics and communication besides a number of skills required for being a professional course student. I think, the coming terms of the course will take me through better levels of learning and improve my professional skills greatly. References Addams, L., & Allfred, A. T. (2013). The first step in proactively managing students’ careers: Teaching self-SWOT analysis. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17(4), 43-51. Academic Skills Advice. Personal Development Transferable Skills Profile and Action Plan. University of Bradford. Available at: http://www.bradford.ac.uk/academic-skills/media/learnerdevelopmentunit/documents/academicskillsresources/personaldevelopmentplanninggoalsettingandsapra/Transferable-Skills-Profile-and-Action-Planning.pdf Floyd P & Allen B (2008) Careers in Health, Physical Education, and Sports. US: Cengage Learning. Fry, H., Ketteridge, S & Marshall, S. (2003). A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice. US: Routledge. Slade, S (2013) Goal-based Decision Making: An Interpersonal Model. UK: Psychology Press. Read More