The UK Labor Market - Assignment Example

Week 2: The labor market What I learnt in this lesson. In this lesson I learnt how the UK labour market has changed over the past five decades. This period has seen the decline of the traditional manufacturing industry e.g. shipbuilding and textiles. This has however paved way for the development of the service sector industry such as banking, IT and retail. This has led to high demand for skills in digital technology. Many graduates have flooded the market with credible qualifications. The effect of this is that there is high supply of labour than the available demand. Therefore employers are advantaged in the sense that they have a lot of authority in deciding the maximum wage and salaries to pay. As such there has arisen a great need to be flexible and mobile. As big industries struggle with rising costs and shrinking revenue, SMEs are providing the much needed employment for a large chunk of the population. In the 21st century it is very common to find a lot of professionals in self employment or freelancing. In the international labour market there is so much outsourcing of manufacturing activities in areas where labour is cheap such as Indonesia and china. How I will use this in the future. Having this labour market knowledge is very important for me in the future as I will be prepared to find such a situation where job requirements have considerably changed. I will get the required skills and attitude to survive in the new job market. What I still don’t understand is how the government in the UK is can promote the growth of the SME sector since it seems the only solution there is to the rising unemployment. I think I will find this out by engaging in a research meant to identify the support the government is giving to this vital sector. Week 3: Employability/graduate skills What I learnt in this lesson. In this lesson I learnt that employability skills are a set of attributes and knowledge that i as a graduate should posses in order to be capable to be efficient and effective in the workplace. This will benefit me, my employer and the economy in general. They include; Self reliance- this is evidenced by how much I want to learn, how well I can network, how well I can plan ahead and how self driven I am. People skills- these are skills that enable one to have a good working relationship with colleagues at the work place. They include team working, communication skills, leadership, interpersonal skills, and customer orientation. General employment skills- these are skills employers are really interested in they include but not limited to skills in problem solving, flexibility, numeracy, and business acumen. Specialist skills- these are technical skills that one is required to have to work in a particular sector such as accounting skills. My strengths After rating myself on the QAA core skills scales .I identified my strengths as team working, motivation and interpersonal skills. These are very effective for leadership team building. My weaker areas There are areas that I need to work on to improve my employability skills. I need to work on learning skills and communication skills. The three areas I intend to work on and how I will address them. Learning skills- I need to be motivated to learn by identifying my learning styles and also trying to use reflective writing in order to do some deep learning. Communication skills- I will try as much to understand how verbal and non-verbal communication can be improved through extensive reading and practical sessions. Self awareness- I will improve on my self awareness as it is very vital in leading people. I read widely on ways of improving emotional intelligence. How I will use this in future- Understanding what employers are looking for is very important for me as I will know how I can add value to myself by learning all the relevant skills required of m e. I will also go an extra mile in understanding various skills that we don’t give much concern about but are very vital like communication and people skills. What I have not clearly understood is how I can be able to know the main skills being looked for in every business sector but I can learn about this by researching and reading wide. Week 4: Introduction to Pebblepad What I learnt in this lesson. This was an IT session that was meant to help us familiarize with Pebblepad. The first thing I learnt was how to get into my tutors gateway accessed through the University of Wolverhampton website (www.wlv.ac.uk). After learning how to access my tutor gateway the next thing I learnt was how to copy my webfolio which I will use to copy and publish my assessment work to the gateway. The next thing I had to learn after knowing how to copy my Webfolio was how to change my name on the Webfolio which is essentially changing the name of the assets in my assessment Webfolio. I also learnt that I can authenticate the Webfolio to look exactly how I like it even the theme colour. In this lesson I have learnt how to start my own blog in the Webfolio. How this will help me in the future The future of learning in the university is surely going to be digital as organizations switch to digital technology to assist in delivering knowledge and also linking students, resources and the teaching staff. As such I am now familiar with how this system works. Everything about this system is quite clear to me as it is a very user friendly system. Week 5: Presentation skills and career management What I learnt in this lesson. A career can be defined as a long term individual project through which each person seeks individual fulfillment. It is judged purely by individual achievement, rewards and satisfactions. I learned that an organization which I can be working for can be instrumental in shaping my career through such aspects as career exploration, career goal setting, career strategies and planning, and feed back through appraisals, mentorship, and counseling. However how successful I am in my career largely depends on my own personal effort through judiciously selecting my first job, doing high quality work, supporting my bosses and continuously looking to get promoted or looking for more challenging tasks. There are four career management competencies that are generally accepted since they were postulated by Ball in 1997. They are; planning, engaging, balancing, and optimizing. In this lesson I also learnt what makes a good presentation. Such issues as understanding my audience, organizing my materials, self composure, and keeping my presentation interesting short and simple, are the hall marks of a good presentation. How I will use this in future. This information concerning my career management is very vital as I will be able to know where I am developing as an individual and when I am just stagnating. The presentation skills will always come in handy as in organizations you have to give your analysis, ideas and results every now and then. I believe careers and personalities are interconnected. I did not get enough literature about this. But I am planning to read more on this subject to understand it better. Week 6: Learning What I learnt in this lesson. Learning can be defined to be the ability to acquire new knowledge through study, being taught or through experience. There are several theories about learning like for example the behaviorist theories. They postulate that learning is a trial and error affair. According to these theories, behavior is caused by external stimuli. Cognitive theories claim that a learner is a rational being who process information through thinking, memory, and problem solving. Constructivism theories put it that learning is an active process therefore knowledge is constructed rather than acquired. Humanism on the other hand postulates that learning is a personal act to fulfill one’s own potential, people act with intention and values. There are four learning styles which are some how connected to individual personalities, they are; activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist. All of these styles have their own advantages and disadvantages. In addition to styles one has a choice of doing deep or surface learning depending on what you want to achieve. How I will use this in future Understanding what learning is in the first place will help me make a decision as to why I want to learn. In addition to this understanding my learning style is important for me to understand how I can maximize on my time and what I can do with knowledge. I think the theories are not well linked with the real learning process but I will take time to read more on the learning theories to see how they apply to learning. Week 7: Personal skills audit and p/pad What I learnt in this lesson. After this lesson I have come to appreciate the improvement I can make through listing my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This SWOT list is what I used to develop my Personal Development Plan. Through this process I came to learn that my strengths fall in personal management and organizational ability. I learned that time management is one of the most important skill in the career of any individual. Many people struggle to keep deadlines and complete work on time. I also discovered that my opportunities lie in reading more and more books to increase my knowledge base. I am particularly weak in critical thinking which is very disadvantageous to me as critical thinking is what professionals and individuals in general use to solve problems that they encounter in their daily engagements. From my SWOT analysis I will be able to develop my action plan in personal development. My PDP should essentially be (SMART): Specific- objectives have to be specific for effective planning. Measurable- this way I will notice progress Achievable- this will motivate me along the way Relevant- when they are so then I will focus as it fulfils me as a person Time-based – without timing then its easy to procrastinate and loose focus I will use this in the future for personal improvement and also I think this is good tool I can use to help those people I am working with improve themselves. Everything in this lesson was quite clear I did not find anything incomprehensible. Week 8: Personality What I learnt in this lesson. Personality can be defined as the several ways in which an individual reacts to different situations around him/her. Personality is distinctive and consistent over time as it is a psychological phenomenon. What I learned is that personality types are determined partly by nature in terms of genes and inherited traits and partly by nurture in terms of culture, family background, and social groups. Basing on different preferences we have different types of people. There are those who are energized by the outer world and those energized by inner self. The former likes talking a lot and focuses on people while the latter is reserved and focuses on thoughts. There are also those people who work with known facts yet there are those who prefer looking for possibilities. When it comes to decision making there are those people who make rational decisions based on impersonal analysis while there are others who make their decisions based on personal values, their decisions are emotional rather than rational. How I will use this in future Learning about my personality I will know my strengths and weaknesses as well as areas of improvements. This will be very important for me as I understand that employers look for certain personality types to fill some positions in their organizations. I will also be able to select ideal people to work with basing on personality types and also know how to handle different people in groups. What was not clear to me is how one can change a personality trait he/she has lived with for practically all his life. Is there a tool one can use? I will read more on this subject to understand better. 1.) How accurate, in your view, is your personality profile as revealed by this assessment? This assessment is very accurate as it has several traits that all seem to be identical with my personality type. 2.) Does this assessment indicate that you have one or more ‘dominant’ traits? From this assessment I can say that I don’t have a dominant trait as the results did not have traits where I have extremely low score or extremely high score. 3.) Given your profile, what jobs or occupations would you not be suitable for? Given my profile I will not be best suited for jobs that require one to be calm collected and isolated from the rest of the society such as research or accounting. 4.) How helpful do you think this personality assessment is in enabling an organisation to make predictions about your job future? Many organisations nowadays are relying on personality type assessment to decide who is compatible with a certain job within their organisation. So I think in future this assessment will enable an organisation decide where I should work. Week 9: Perception What I learnt in this lesson. In this lesson I learnt that we as humans see things differently. This is what can be referred to as perception. It is the selection, organization and interpretation of information around us. People use perception to guide their behaviour. Perception is usually influenced by the following four factors: Attention and selection Organization Interpretation, beliefs, values, and attitudes Personal meaning All these factors determine how we behave. How I will use this in future Understanding that we as humans are different and have different opinions of things and people around us influenced by our perceptions towards the same, I will be able to live harmoniously with people that I don’t necessarily share the same opinions with. I understand that my future managers and colleagues will have their own attitude towards me based on their perceptual framework. I can even influence an interview so its important I mind the impression I live on interviewers and managers alike. In this lesson I could not actually have a clear idea of how I can influence other people perception towards me so that I can favor me rather than leave a negative impression. I will read motivational books to understand how I can achieve this. Week 10: Reflective writing What I learnt in this lesson I this lesson we concentrated on reflection type of academic writing. I learnt that reflective writing is simply a structured format of a written account and academic theory base on someone’s reflection. Reflection is a way of enabling self-development and deeper learning by looking back at your experience. I have come to appreciate how much I can improve myself through reflective writing. What it does is that it links the theory and practice and also links the past and the present knowledge. This way I can avoid mistakes and also apply some success principles that had worked for me in the past. A good piece of reflective writing is: Simple and clear Organized and well linked with evidence Properly structured and written in correct grammar How I will use this in the future Through reflective writing I will be able to turn surface learning into deep learning to analyze principles and their application. This is also a good way of analytically recording experience. The fact that reflective writing links between theory and practice means that it is a good method of learning and applying what I have learnt in real life. I believe I can use reflective writing to improve my performance in studies as well as develop professionally in my career and life. What is still not clear about reflective writing to me is how effective can it be considering the fact that we only give account of things basing on our opinions and personal bias. But I think this can be overcome through trying to be as objective as possible. Week 11: Team working What I learnt in this lesson Group work is a very common way of doing things in any organizational set up, be it in university or in the work place. This is because ideas can be well developed within groups and a common goal can be reached at very effectively and efficiently. To a graduate I have learnt that learning how to work in groups is very important since they enhance the competitiveness of a business. They improve productivity and ensure quality work and processes are achieved. Working in groups also reduces costs in businesses. Organizations nowadays have flatter structures necessitating groups work as everybody is answerable to the group. You can also share important information and ideas. Effective teams have; shared aims, trust, equal participation, commitment from all, group values adherence, and productivity. Being an effective group member is also vital for the success of any group I am in. this is achieved through; accommodating others ideas, respecting others and group rules, offering my opinions freely, using my body language as appropriately as I can, and building on others’ ideas. How I will use this in future I believe having team/group working skills is very important as organizations use teams to solve unique problems that cannot be solved using individual effort. Every body knows something others don’t so it is only prudent to know how to work with others without limiting my potential or that of others. What is still not clear in this lesson is how one can be able to ensure that ideas and opinions are expressed freely in groups where the composition is of people in different levels for example a meeting with extremely powerful top management and low level managers. I will read widely to understand how such a situation can be managed Read More