My Learning Style and the Relevance to My Studies - Essay Example

Personal Portfolio Section 1: Personal Assessment Introduction Learning styles can be defined as different ways or approaches of learning. They entail educating methods that are particular to an individual and are supposed to let that person to learn best (Tait and Entwistle 1996, pp.97-116). In many circumstances, individuals prefer a particular method of interacting with, taking in or processing information or stimuli. Every person has a learning style, which assists him or her to recognize his or her strong points and their weak areas (Charles et al 2009, pp.55-65). These as a result assists an individual in choosing how well to revise for exams, for instance, write a paper or read a book. My learning style and the relevance to my studies As an individual, I have discovered that I am a visual learner. This is evidenced in that, I learn best when the lectures present information in a written language format or other visual formats including diagrams or pictures (Honey & Mumford, 2006 p68). I usually perform best in class when am provided with clear handouts, or use of projectors in classrooms. I try to remember information by creating pictures in my mind and also take detailed notes while in class or while reading a textbook (Webster 2002, p.713). The relevance of visual as my learning style in my studies and group work is that am able to study best in an exam. Visual learning style is very crucial in my success in the classroom. It is one of my weapons in my education arsenal. A personal skills assessment As individuals, we all have and use our personal skills. It is important to measure our skills effectively in order to produce positive outcomes (Jackson 2009, pp.75-79). I usually take an inventory of my skills in order to know where my strengths and challenges exist. I need to know my starting point in order to move forward. After assessing myself, I found out that I posses such skills as: am open minded, am practical, am productive, am innovative, I posses leadership skills and communication skills. A Personal SWOT assessment Strengths I posses good communication skills which assist me to communicate well with my team and clients, I am very creative and this helps me to impress my clients with a new viewpoint on their brands, Posses the ability to ask key questions to find the appropriate marketing angle. Weaknesses Due to my need to tackle things quickly, the quality of my work is affected and also this causes me stress when I have much work to do. Opportunities Attending seminars and conferences means strategic networking with clients and much training which will assist in improving the company, Treating my clients adequately. Threats Competition from other individuals, who are much stronger than me in terms of communication skills, Being overworked affects my creativity negatively. SMART goals/objectives When setting out goals, they should be specific, measurable, achievable relevant and time bound (Doran 1981, pp.17-21). Some of my short term, medium and long term goals include: Have a time set to study and do my research work and assignments everyday from 7 pm to 10 pm. I will graduate in one years time and as a result, I will study smart to attain a minimum of 3.772 averages in my subjects. Sign up for membership at the social club and commit myself to participate Seek a job in a large company in my field I want to have a savings account with a minimum of $ 400,000 in four years time from 2011 I want to be rich in nine years by starting my own jewelry business from 2013 Create a website to sell my products online once I start my business I want to become a leader by 2015, and I will fight against poverty in my country. Achieve at least 20 percent of capital employed by 2015 Section 2: Communication Skills COVER LETTER Personal address TO THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER, BARCLAY SIMPSON, UNITED KINGDOM. Dear sir/ Madam, Application for a job as a business continuity specialist. It is with genuine interest that I wish to secure a job opportunity in the above named post in your company. I am a university forth-level student studying a bachelor’s degree in Business Management. In addition to this, I have worked as an intern in different organizations and this has improved my skills. I am a self-driven person, believes in my natural creativity, flexibility, good leadership skills, good communication skills, teamwork spirit, and works and under minimal supervision. I believe these skills coupled with my academic background and consuming passion to work will help me achieve the goals set by your company. I believe if given a chance I really will use all the above skills to increase the organization’s revenues, and increase clients in two years time. Thank you in advance as I wait for a positive response. Attached is my curriculum vitae. Yours faithfully, CURRUCULUM VITAE PERSONAL INFORMATION NAME: CONTACTS: PHONE NUMBERS: EMAIL : POSTAL ADDRESS: BIODATA DATE OF BIRTH: SEX: MARITAL STATUS: NATIONALITY: LANGUAGE: MOTTO: AIM AT EXCELLENCE CAREER OBJECTIVES • To ascribe allegiance to my field of knowledge to enable me offer my expertise to an array of clients in an innovative way. • To contribute effectively to an organization through application of my skills and capabilities. • To develop my career in challenging and eye opening environment. • To obtain top quality results of any organization standards, through excellence in the growth and development of the nation alongside my personal growth and development. ACADEMIC BACKGROUND COMPUTING SKILLS • Microsoft Excel • Microsoft Word • Microsoft Access • PowerPoint • Internet and Email CAREER INTEREST My desire is to advance in business oriented line of employment as professional to the highest level and endeavor to give the highest value possible in my life of employment to the organization that hire my services.  WORK EXPERIENCE PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES • Good communication skills • Good analytical skills • Good entrepreneur skills • Working under minimal supervision HOBBIES • Sharing ideas and creating new ones • Reading business Journals • socializing REFEREES Available upon request. Section 3: Employability Skills Team working In every organization, teamwork is very important as it helps individuals to solve problems together and share ideas, which will lead to the betterment of the company. This as a result will assist in creating new and good ideas that will assist in increasing the size of the company, company’s revenues among other factors (Douglas and Robert 2010, p.18). As an individual, I am a team player as am able to work freely with other core workers or other people. This is evidenced in school where I participate well in group discussions, social clubs where people have to communicate and share ideas in order to reach to certain conclusions. Communication & Literacy Communication and literacy are vital factors in every company. Employees need to communicate with their clients effectively and efficiently and for this to be achieved; an employee needs to have good communications skills and literacy. How well a company communicates with the clients determines the number of new customers it gets and retains (Stephanie et al 2007, p.74). As an individual, I possess good communication skills and literacy and this is proven by the good term papers I write in class and how well I convey my information during our group discussions in school or while answering questions in the class. Problem Solving According to the Open Group (2009, p. 313), Problem solving is another vital skill that employees should possess if there must be peace and understanding among core workers. Such problems as disputes among employees can affect a company’s image negatively and this can affect its profitability. As an individual, I believe I possess problem solving skills. Through leadership in various social clubs, group leader in various group discussions, I prove to be a good problem solver as I tackle problems from people not submitting their assigned work to conflicts among club and group members. Self-management According to Jackson (2009, pp75-79), every individual should be his or her self manager. How well a person manages herself also reflects how well he or she will be able to manage the work assigned to them. Self management includes personal cleanliness, way of thinking, arriving at work place in time, ability to finish assigned task in recommended time and time management among others. I possess self, management skills as am able to organize my self and accomplish assigned tasks in good time. For example finishing my research work in assigned time and having extra time to undertake other tasks. As a result, I believe that, I can be a good manager in any work assigned to me. Application of IT For any business venture to excel, the employees should be able to apply IT knowledge in their tasks. For instance, with IT skills, the company will be able to sell goods or services online (E- Commerce) and this will increase the company’s revenues and profitability (Stephanie et al 2007, p.74). As a individual, I have learned some IT skills through enrollment in Diploma courses in IT and this have assisted in improving my skills which I can apply in any company that requires my services. Business & Customer Awareness This entails a person being aware of the business and the customers to approach. As a BA student in Business, I have learnt most of the businesses, what they entail, and how to reach and get the clients so targeted. It is important as an employee to know the target customers of your business. Section 4: Reflective Statement In order to arrive at some targeted point, a person must start from somewhere. At the beginning of the year, being a forth-level university student undertaking a BA course in Business I was not aware of my personal skills, my learning style and as a result, the latter made me to perform very poorly in my exams. Due to my inspiration and need to become a business associate and start my own jewelry store, I decided to concentrate more on business-oriented course. In order to achieve this, I had to put more efforts in class room. Through the realization of my learning style, I was able to get good grades in my exams, as I was able to read smart. My participation in group works actively; asking questions in class also assisted me in achieving this objective (Buckley et al 2010, pp.55-65) In the course of the year, I was able to assess my personal skills as I was preparing myself for job application in order to get a good career of my choice. After thorough assessment, I was able to come up with various skills that were evidenced by various activities I engaged in while in college. Such activities included participation in group works, enrolling in social clubs; some of which I became a leader. Some of the skills that I possess include: being open minded person, practical, productive, innovative, possessing good leadership and good communication skills. I believe that these skills will help me as an individual to improve the productivity of any company that want to employ my services by increasing the number of their clients, which as a result will increase the revenues, and profitability of the company (Brown & Hesketh, 2004 p.127). I also realized that am a problem solver which is a critical factor in any organization and as a leader (Jackson 2009, pp.75-79). During the year also, I applied for a job with Barclay Simpson as a business continuity analyst as I believe that my course plus the skills I possesses are fit for that post. This assessment was designed to encourage me as a student to develop and demonstrate a range of employability skills including personal development planning, time and task management, self assessment, reflection on communication skills, self critical awareness, effective written and verbal communication, the impact of working in a group and how to manage and succeed with regard to the different styles of assessment students will encounter among others. This whole assessment has helped me greatly as before I didn’t know my learning style or my personal skills but after doing this assignment, am aware of why I am the best person for that job. I now know my learning style, my personal skills; I can be able to present a good CV and cover letter to any employer who needs to employ my services and I am also familiar with my employability skills. Conclusion In conclusion, this unit and in particular this assessment has assisted me a lot as a business student by providing me with the essentials that every employable person will require in order to survive in this competing world. References Brown, P and Hesketh, A., 2004. The Mismanagement of Talent: Employability and Jobs in the Knowledge Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buckley, C. A., Pitt, E., Norton, B., Owen, T., 2010. Students’ approaches to study, conceptions of learning and judgments about the value of networked technologies Active Learning in Higher Education. 11: 55-65, doi:10.1177/1469787409355875 . (viewed 9th January 2011). available from: http://alh.sagepub.com/content/11/1/55.abstract Charles Alan Buckley, C.A., Pitt E., Norton B., Owens T., 2009. 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Learning styles and design: The use of ASSIST for reflection and assessment, in Quality Conversations, Proceedings of the 25th HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia) Annual Conference, Perth, Western Australia, 7-10 July 2002: pp 713. ISSN: 0155-6223. ISBN: 0 90 8557 51 5. ( viewed 9th January 2011). Available from: http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp content/uploads/conference/2002/papers/Webster.pdf Read More