Personal Skills Development in Mechanical Engineering: Analysing Key Skills - Case Study Example

Number End of Module Assessment Part Key Skills a. Examining Key Skills Level 5 In this part, I will try to assess Key Skills Level 5 and compare the principle differences between the Key Skills Level 5 and the requirements of Key Skills Level 4 covered in TMA 02 Part 2. The Key Skills Level 5 are based on building my present capacities as well as applying my skills in better and an integrated way with a view if managing complex work that is also dynamic. I therefore need to have the Key Skills Level 5 in mind. In this case, I have demonstrated the four key skills in this level through my past experiences and my current employment as both a diver and company director. One of these skills is the ability to explore work demands in which I have always depicted my capacity regarding this skill. As a professional Bell Diving supervisor in the oil and gas industry, I have always demonstrated the critical aspect of my work. In this regard, I often break complex tasks down into activities that are easily manageable. I have also demonstrated the ability to identify aspects that are known, anticipated, as well as novel regarding the same activities. At some point, I have been forced to predict the way various work activities can affect each other thereby changing the nature of my work. Another important skill is the skill of planning for work. In this regard, I have increasingly developed the skill of planning my work throughout my career and work experience in the construction and engineering sector. I have often aim at planning to manage my work as I meet my skill-development needs and gain commitment from other workers. In this regard, I ensure that I gain commitment only from relevant people. I consider who can be of help to my proposal development and who cannot be based on the business objectives. To maximize my the approval of my project proposals, I always involve my colleagues as well other important parties in which I outline the project benefits and then involve them in the planning process. In the case of the skill related to work management, I have always demonstrated the same. To manage my work effectively, I am required to focus on ensuring that I am in the front line in making things work. This requirements has been a key aspect especially given my job position in the oil and gas company. In this regard, others are able to work alongside each other to see that we all meet our responsibilities such as obtaining resources, optimizing budgets, and keeping each team member informed besides the effective management of time. I have also exercised skills regarding the management of work through motivating others. This has been possible by having to recognize my immediate needs and the needs of others. More importantly, I have always cultivated good and effective working relationships, which can be depicted through my ability to work and behave ethically, show fairness in decision making, yield constructive feedback concerning worker performance, as well as my capacity to anticipate and deal with resistance and conflict cases in the workplace. Regarding the skill of evaluation performance and evaluating outcome, I often evaluate my overall performance and then present the resulting outcomes. I understand that synthesising of the information I obtain from various but relevant sources is important. I do this though the identification of different perspectives from which I can develop my personal interpretation. As the director of such a large company, I am used to selecting effective ways to structure such information in order to suit the purpose of a given project. Illustration of complex points is always important and this is always best done through graphical means such as images for complex points. I sometime prefer presenting the outcomes of my work using written communication as well as oral and visual means of communication. These techniques of communication are perfect in prefunding information regarding my work outcome since they often depict a use of language that is perfect, assured, fluent, and accurate. Principle differences The principle differences between the requirements in the Level 5 Skills and that of the Level 4 Key Skills is that for the Level 4 Key Skills, learning and experience is required and that competence in the skills can be depicted through working examples that show how well such skills can be applied in a real life situation. In this regard, I am required to show good communication skills, the ability to work with others, skills on problem solving techniques, and skills in information and communication technology (ICT). The ability to explore work demands is on the other hand based on the prevailing situations. Again, the Level 5 Key Skills make my work easier and also improves the application of the Level 4 Key Skills. Fundamentally, Level 4 Key Skills can only be applied given the effective use of Level 5 Key Skills. b. Personal Match to the Key Skills Level 5 Exploring Work Demands In each of the projects that I have supervised, I have been required to identify the possible outcomes with respect to both my objectives and the objectives of the organization. In line with such requirements, I have been in a position to select and apply various strategies and resources in the course of exploring the prevailing problems. I make use of other people’s ideas through brainstorming ideas with them as well as using concepts like imagining analogies, scenario writing, concept maps, and computer modelling among others. I have also been able to conduct research on various option for solving work related problems. To meet some of the work demands, I have often applied critical thinking skills, consulted different reference materials, carried out cost-benefit analyses, and consulted colleagues and specialists. To handle all tasks and their respective demands, I have been able to formulate successful and viable proposals that are aimed at managing the tasks as well as resolving the various problems. I have held the notion that each project has some associated risks. I thus try keep an acceptable level of risk for each task/project. Most importantly, I have depicted a great capacity of handling budgets as well as resource limitations among other constraints facing the completion of each task and the project as a whole. I therefore understand my capacity to assess my current needs in the development of my skills. Planning my Work For a good and successful planning, I have often depict a personal match to this skills by establishing a meaningful expertise, prepare the right resources, as well as ensure that the procedure required in getting results are scheduled and monitored effectively. In line with this, I often negotiate budgets, establish roles and responsibilities of team members, schedule respective meeting, and structure systems for record keeping besides identifying procedures for identifying quality controls. An important aspect that I consider especially given the dynamics of my career in the planning on how to meet my skill-development needs. I often consider support from other people especially my mentor officer responsible for career development and worker training, who may seem to challenge my level of thinking. I consider it as a way of gaining advices and exploring possible alternatives. For an effective planning, I also set clear and realistic targets with respect to the available opportunities and then structure effective ways to meet the targets mainly through the identification of action points. Managing my Work This skill is clearly depicted through my effectiveness in addressing project and other work related problems that could mainly result from factors such as poor communication as well as personality clashes. I have often demonstrated the capacity to restructure meetings, facilitate grievances airing, follow the correct procedures, and solve various problems. I also demonstrate work management skills by monitoring work progress, interpreting information from various sources, identifying any possible errors/bias, and avoiding distortions in the course of making judgements. After each task, I often reflect on my performance regarding the application of skills such as communication, problem solving, as well as working with others. I also review my progress in terms of having met my targets, but this happens with my seniors such as my mentor, my line manager, or a prominent colleague. Where necessary and applicable, I am always forced to adapt my strategies to resolve any arising problems. I do all these with the aim of producing the required quality of outcome. Evaluating Performance and Presenting Outcome Throughout my years of working experience, I have gained the understanding that good use of language is very key to the effectiveness of presenting work outcome. I often use such presentation methods to sustain the interest of my audience who in this regard include colleagues, clients, assessors, and my line manager. In the course presenting information that is meant to communicate about work progress and outcome, the choice of style is highly important. Besides the choice of style, I also consider the presentational device to use such as electronic multimedia. I then decide on responding perceptively to the contributions of the chosen style and presentational device through analysis, development, and sustainability of arguments aimed at persuading, influencing, and informing my audience. After all these, I like evaluating the overall approach of to my work by mainly identifying aspects that could have had impact on the work outcome. The effectiveness of my leadership skills among other skills and their application is highly important. Part 2: Professional Engineering I strongly think that I have met most of the requirements for professional engineering status as a Chartered Engineer. I only need to cover a few requirements in order to qualify for the professional engineering status. As a Chartered Engineer, I would be required to meet all the professional requirements in order to register with the Engineering Council. My qualification as a Chartered Engineer in accordance with the Engineering Council is largely attributed to my academic qualifications, job experience, and more importantly by my ability to generate meaningful solutions to various engineering problems. With a Bachelor of Engineering degree and various professional qualifications, I think I am qualified as a Chartered Engineer. On several occasions, I have been able to solve some complex engineering problems with the use of both existing and new technologies. I have been able to achieve this through my creativity, innovation, and change. I also have the capacity to develop as well as apply new technologies in the engineering workplace besides being capable of promoting advanced designs. To achieve all the requirements towards becoming a Chartered Engineer, I will have to meet a number of qualifications both academically and working experience. To qualify as a Chattered Engineer, I would be required to remain competent throughout my working life. This has to be by virtue of my education, training, as well as experience. The required education, training, and work experience has to depict my capacity to utilize both general and specialist knowledge in engineering and show my understanding and the ability to enhance the application of any existing or emerging technologies. I should as well be in a position of maintaining and extending a meaningful theoretical approach in the course of establishing the introductions as well as the exploitation of new or advancing technologies besides other key developments. In terms of education, I believe that I have right qualification since basically a bachelor’s degree in engineering is require besides all other qualities that mostly arise through work experience. I have already acquired my first degree in engineering, specifically Bachelor of Engineering. My educational background implies that I have the basic requirements of register of a higher engineering status as a Chartered Engineer according the requirements of the Engineering Council. In the course of studying my degree in engineering, I managed to accomplish some of key courses required in engineering. These courses included: i. T19 - Personal and career development in engineering. ii. T206 - Engineering for a sustainable future. iii. T207 - Engineering: Mechanics,materials and design iv. TXR220 - Engineering in action. v. T357 - Structural integrity; Designing against failure. vi. S180 - Life in the oceans. vii. T307 - Innovation; designing for a sustainable future. viii. SXR103 - Exploring science. Other course that I completed as an engineer included the T397 and T450, which is the engineering project. Other important requirements in this regard may include showing my capacity to identify my personal skills and knowledge and their limits, having the ability to attempt extending my personal technological capacity, and being able to broaden my knowledge base by both research and experimentation. I would also be required to show proof of having engaged in innovative and creative engineering technology development as well as development in continuous improvement system. With respect to my previous work, I have always depicted my proficiency in various tasks especially as a proficient diver. I have always considered it essential to have a well-developed ability to solve problems, since most of the task that I have been doing contain a certain amount of “evolution” that requires me to find work around on the seabed. As part of my company’s procedures every task is accompanied by a hazard identification and risk assessment meetings. These meetings are meant to establish any problems we can foresee occurring associated with our operations, risks identified are awarded a value and above a certain value the task cannot be carried out, in such circumstances mitigations have to be put in place to reduce the risk to an acceptable value or the task needs to be re-engineered. These procedures are a form of identification of a problem and solving it before it occurs. I have also been required to have a system in place that should a problem occur during the implementation of a task that requires deviation from the task plan, we stop work and apply a management of change to procedures, this requires input from the project management, client and technicians .When an alternative strategy is agreed upon it is in turn risk assessed and if passed included in the task plan as an amendment. This has proved to be a valuable tool in problem solving for me. This competence has to entail the ability to determine the needs of users and the capacity to make assessment on marketing needs as well as contributing to marketing strategies. In the same regard, I have to show my competence in identifying constraints as well as exploiting opportunities associated with development and the transfer of technology in a given field. I also need to depict my capability in promoting new applications whenever I see appropriate and also securing intellectual property rights whenever necessary. I should as well in a position of developing and evaluating continuous improvement systems in the engineering workplace. Apart from the requirement of being completed throughout my working life, the other major requirements of becoming a Chartered Engineer is to be in a position of applying meaningful theoretical as well as practical methods to various aspects such as in analysing and solving complex engineering problems. The first ability in this case entails identification of potential projects as well as opportunities. Here, I should have the ability to explore the territory within my responsibilities specifically for new opportunities. I also have to review my potential regarding the enhancement of engineering products in my company alongside other attributes like systems, processes, and services. It is also required that I should portray my ability to apply my engineering knowledge to assess whether certain opportunities are viable. Conducting appropriate research and the undertaking design and developments of engineering solutions are part of the critical requirements to become a Chartered Engineer with regard to my ability to apply theoretical and practical methods to solve engineering problems. I would be required to portray this competence through my ability and capacity to identify and agree on meaningful research methodologies. In any given engineering project, I should as well depict my capacity to successfully initiate and complete activities like assembling the necessary resources, carrying out the needed tests, collecting, analysing and evaluating the respective data, as well as being able to draft a design, present and agree its recommendations. In the same regard, undertaking a good engineering design is highly recommended. As a competent engineer, I am also required to show my ability to implement design solutions and then evaluate their respective effectiveness. In this regard, the Engineering Council would expect me to show my capacity in ensuring that design results application is done in a manful and practical outcome. I am also required to identify the needed cost, safety, quality, appearance, fitness, as well as reliability due to the purpose and the possible environmental impact of the outcome. As a qualified Chartered Engineer, I need to have the capacity to establish the best criteria for evaluating design solutions. I should as well be able to evaluate possible outcomes against any prevailing and original specifications. I have to be also ready to actively learn from feedbacks based on results in order to improve future design solutions in which case I would be able to build best practice. I am also required by the Engineering Council to show by qualification though my ability to provide technical as well as commercial leadership. I belief that I fully portray this requirement of becoming a Chartered Engineer. During my past working years in my engineering career, I have been able to identify factors that affect the implementation of projects. As a good leader, I have been able to work along other employees; both my siniors and my junior employees. In essence, in my profession as a diver it has been essential to be able to work well within a team, particularly as a saturation diver living and working in a very challenging environment. I believe that I have a well-developed ability to work well under instruction as well as deliver instruction to lesser experienced team members, being able recognise the strengths and weaknesses of myself and colleagues has helped to build a strong working team and stable social environment while at sea. This aspect is part of the leadership skills and abilities required. We as divers are also well supported by the rest of the dive support vessel who are essentially there to keep the two divers on the sea bed safe and supplied with the resources for the task, it is therefore essential to be able to work well with the other disciplines. I have therefore been able to climb even higher along the leadership path. My capacity to make sure that the necessary resources are always secure was mostly successful in which I could also brief the project team on various aspects. As a director of a company that not only employs rope access technicians but also runs industry standard training courses, it is essential to be able to work well with others despite being their leader. In this regard, I am often involved with the training of complete novices, which highly requires understanding often tailoring the training to suit different individuals to achieve the same outcomes in a reassuring environment. With respect to this ability, I am often caught between having to negotiate the right resources for each task as well as negotiating any necessary contractual agreements specifically with the other stakeholders. The requirement by the Engineering Council that one should be able show the capability of planning, budgeting, organizing, and controlling people, tasks, and resources comes out clear in my case. I have always depicted rich capacity in these aspects as a director in a large company within the engineering sector. I have been utilizing my communication skills to exercise my capacity to set up the right management systems and agree on quality standards, programs, as well as budgets. In this case, I have been able to demonstrate use of well-developed communication skills in all my tasks as far as my work as a professional diver and as a company director is concerned. Besides, being the project manager in various company projects has made my application of such skills possible. It is essential to be able to communicate well as a diver, often the only information we are given regarding a task is via verbal communication either over the telephone prior to a dive or over our helmet speakers during the dive. We are required to give clear and accurate verbal feedback during the dive and a written post dive report, the details given in our reports are often the basis for further intervention and as such are required to be accurate. My position as a company director and project manager for a rope access company required that I communicate well with both employees and clients. In such a case, I have been able to organize as well as lead my work team in the coordination of various project activities. I have understanding that such ability is a key quality that could improve my chances of becoming a Chartered Engineer as required by the Engineering Council. I have been involved in several successful tender applications that have resulted in long term contracts and as such have been required make presentations to clients and their engineers as well as holding daily task meetings with employees. With respect to all these, I have always ensured that differences from the set quality standards, budgets, and programmes are fully established. I has also focused on structuring the best corrective measures possible in order to maintain a good working record as leader and company director. Through the use of effective communications skills, I have depicted the capacity and success in gathering and evaluating feedback in order to recommend the necessary impartments. I have as well been able to lead my team members as well as developing staff in order to meet the changing managerial and technical needs. With regard to this engineering requirement, I always review and then agree objectives as well as work plans with my team members and individuals. To achieve effectiveness in the tasks requiring teamwork, I have always focused on identifying the needs of team members and those of individuals. This then calls for their respective development. The need to offer quality leadership by supporting the development of teams and individuals is often one of my priorities. I thus see it necessary to assess teams alongside individual performance in order to structure the right feedback. Through my rich skills in information and communication technology (ICT), I think am fully qualified for the engineering requirement of being able to provide technical and commercial management. Throughout my career in the engineering sector. This has been possible through my Open University studies in which I have been required to demonstrate ICT skills in in all my work and projects as well as in my leadership practices. These have been mainly in the form of presenting information in the form of spreadsheets, tables and graphs, as well as having to perform extensive research over the internet for information not provided in course material. With the help my ICT skills, I have always been able to effectively plan for the implementation of various project. As required by the Engineering Council for one to become a qualified Chartered Engineer, I have depicted my capacity to identify various factors that possibly affect the implementation of any given project. I have applied the skills related to this requirement on various projects. I have also exercised by ability to prepare and implement various project plans as well as related method statements. Through intensive research, which is possible through ICT, have been able to secure the right resources for projects after which I have been able to confirm the right roles in each project team. Besides, I can today apply the right contractual agreement with all the stakeholders in my current company such as subcontractors, clients, and suppliers. During my career as more specifically with my position of company director I have applied ICT in producing submissions for tender committees. The requirement of planning, budgeting, organizing, directing, and controlling people, tasks, and resources has been quite easy with the use of my ICT skills. I have as well been able to manage teams besides developing my staff with a view of meeting the changing technological, technical, as well as managerial requirements. I have used research through the same skills to agree objectives, work plans, and suggestions from teams as well as individuals. Planning, budgeting, and organizing involve intensive tasks and intensive documentation, which can best be done though ICT techniques. I understand that as an engineer one cannot avoid the related task. I have most found the documentation of tasks like budgeting, organizing, and planning very extensive and thus requiring many hours of research into available materials and technologies to overcome the problems of operating in a harsh environment, and meeting the approval of clients. I have also been required to project manage a team on-site and as such was required to file an electronic daily report to the client for approval to meet our targets and to back our claims for invoicing, which was also calculated and submitted by myself. Upon completion of my degree course I have planned to improve my ICT skills, which are key in engineering. From a reflection of what I have already achieved in my engineering career, I think I am very close to meeting all the requirements of becoming a Chartered Engineer according to set standards by the Engineering Council. I am almost completing the basic educational requirements. My working experience in the engineering industry has also sharpened by ability to portray most of the required competencies as an internationally viable engineer. I only need to complete my education fully in order to qualify since throughout my years of work, I have depicted almost all other desired qualities for the requirements. Read More