PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

INTRODUCTION The aim of this assessment is to build a Personal Development Plan and evaluate my current skills and knowledge. The primary objective of PDP is to improve my knowledge and plan my educational development according to my background and personal experience so far.

WHAT IS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN According to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in UK (QAA 2004) defined PDP as: Personal Development Planning is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development. The primary objective for PDP is to improve the capacity of individuals to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning, helping students: become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners; understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context; improve their general skills for study and career management; articulate personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement; and encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life.

The benefits of PDP

The theoretical benefits of PDP can be summarizes as follow according to Quality Assurance Agency (QAA 2009):

plan, integrate and take responsibility for their personal, career and academic development, identifying learning opportunities within their own academic programmes and extra-curricular activities

recognise, value and evidence their learning and development both inside and outside the curriculum be more aware of how they are learning and what different teaching and learning strategies are trying to achieve be more effective in monitoring and reviewing their own progress and using their own records and evidence of learning to demonstrate to others what they know and can do

evaluate and recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and identify ways in which perceived weaknesses might be improved and strengths enhanced develop their identity in relation to their academic, professional and personal progression develop a vocabulary to communicate their development and achievement

be better prepared for seeking, continuing or changing employment or selfemployment and be more able to articulate the skills and knowledge they have gained to others

be better prepared for the demands of continuing progression and career development in professional and academic careers.

The personal development plan for me is a chance to know myself better. I can realize what I want to achieve, my short term and long term aspirations. I am going to focus on what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to use my strengths to develop my weaknesses to become strengths. After completing my degree in Informatics and Communications I started teaching computers in a private institute and a local college. Working in the field of education help me to improve my leadership skills and become more responsible as a person. After almost 5 years of teaching I decided to change my career direction in accounting field and that helps me to improve my skills in other areas. I become more adaptable and able to work as a team member and improved time management as I have to meet

deadlines in my current job. When I become a member of the company I work for, I start thinking that an undergraduate degree alone is not enough in todays competitive environment with so many graduates competing for the same job. I study the different master courses around in local universities and I decided to make the application for the MA in Management from University of Wolverhampton and got accepted. I believe that the combination gained in undergraduate degree and the valuable business knowledge and management skills I will be able to gain from this postgraduate degree will help me improve my career expectations. With the assistant of SWOT and SKA analysis I will understand better my strengths and weaknesses and based on my knowledge so far I will try to improve the most I can.

SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT analysis is one of the most popular strategic planning tools used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in any situation that needs a decision. SWOT is defined based on the following criteria: Strengths are internal attributes that are helpful to the achievement of the objective Weaknesses are internal attributes that are harmful to the achievement of the objective Opportunities are external conditions that are helpful to the achievement of the objective Threats are external conditions that are harmful to the achievement of the objective According to Cowan (2000), a SWOT analysis may be used by individuals to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately their opportunities and threats. Based on this, below is a summary of my personal SWOT analysis.

STRENGTHS Patience Sense of humour Outgoing and competitive Friendly and approachable Hardworking and committed Team work Open-minded Responsible High technological skills Leadership skills

WEAKNESSES Sensitivity Poor time management Stress easily Get bored quickly

OPPORTUNITIES New challenges Wider career prospects Starting a new business

THREATS No management experience Competition other students graduating self with the same degree globally

employment Show off the skills i have learned throughout the Master course

SKA Model

Skills Know how

Knowledge Know what

Attitude Know why

The ingredients of SKA came from Vinkes (2002) definition of the competency as the ability of an individual to select and use the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary for effective behaviour in a specific professional, social or learning situation.

What are skills, knowledge and attitude?

Knowledge. According to Winterton (et al., 2005) Knowledge is sometimes viewed as if it was a concrete manifestation of abstract intelligence, but it is actually the result of an interaction between intelligence (capacity to learn) and situation (opportunity to learn), so is more socially-constructed than intelligence. Knowledge includes underpinning theory and concepts, as well as tacit knowledge gained as a result of the experience of performing certain tasks.

Skills. Proctor and Dutta (1995) define skills as goal-directed, wellorganized behaviour that is acquired through practice and performed with economy of effort. Each element of the definition is important: first, skill develops over time, with practice; second, it is goal-directed in response to some demand in the external environment; third, it is

acquired when components of behaviour are structured into coherent patterns; and finally, cognitive demands are reduced as skill develops.

Attitude. Attitude can be defined as a "learned tendency to act in a consistent way to a particular object or situation" (Fishbein). Attitudes have affective, cognitive and behavioral intention

components. A competent person must have the capacity to sense and recognize a situation, the tendency to act in a controlled and predictable manner and an ability to be consistent in acting in a manner relevant to the situation. In relation to safety and health issues, these attributes need to be directly related to the situation and not of a generalist nature.

SETTING OUR GOALS According to Denis Watley Quotation The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. Some goals are short term and others are long term. Some goals are easy and others are difficult. The whole point is our goals to be effective. Effective goals are set in a SMART way. A goal is SMART if its Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time related.

SPECIFIC

MEASURABLE

TIME RELATED REALISTIC

ACHIEVABLE

Specific means clear to anyone has a basic knowledge of the project Measurable means we should be able to measure whether we are meeting the objectives or not. Achievable means we have to know if the goal is obtainable Realistic means if we have the availability of resources (money, knowledge, materials, time) to make the objective happen. Time related state if you have enough time to achieve the goal and when you will achieve it. Tangible ??

References

1.

Denis Waitley quotes (American motivational Speaker and Author of selfhelp books. b.1933) http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Denis_Watley, 1 April 2012

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