Enhancing Employability

Module code: 5BUS1085

Career Action
Plan
Reflection
Self
Purpose
of the
report

Required
information

Self Reflection the

basics

Career Action
Planning

How to structure
and
layout your
report

Reflective Activities
Complete a personal analysis of what you have to offer
this employer at the moment - include your current skills,
knowledge and experiences, both academic and from
other areas
Review where you see yourself against the requirements
of the role identified in the Career Research Report in the
form of a gap analysis - where do you need to add
more evidence of your competence? What additional
skills & experiences do you need to add?
Reflection on Group Presentation assignment team
working - your role and contribution within the team, the
benefits and challenges that working within that team
created, how this will influence how you approach future
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team working

What is Reflection?
looking back on an experience
and making sense of it to
identify what to do
in the future (Drew & Bingham, 2001:221)
In an academic context, reflection is the
process of
looking back (describing) over past events;
analysing how you have learned and
developed as a person and your feelings about
this, and re-evaluating your experience on the
basis of your thoughts.
(McMillan &3 Weyers, 2006: 42)

Why is Reflection
important?
It helps you to identify what you can improve
for yourself as a learner in order to improve
your performance & learning, by identifying
what you do well, identifying problems &
considering what you need to improve
It is personal development: a positive exercise
helps you identify what you are good at and
can build on so to improve and succeed. It
helps you understand that others may
perceive things differently, and consider why
this is...
4
Employers require reflective practitioners

About Reflection
Schn (1987) suggests if you reflect on action
(make sense of something afterwards), you are
more likely to reflect in action(what to do next
time when in the situation)
It is not sufficient simply to have an experience
in order to learn. Without reflecting upon this
experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its
learning potential lost. It is from the feelings and
thoughts emerging from this reflection that
generalisations or concepts can be generated.
And it is generalisations that allow new situations
to be tackled effectively. (Gibbs, 1988:9)
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Kolbs (1984) theory of experiential learning

Do
somethin
g
Plan to
try again
keeping
your
conclusio
ns in
mind

Come to
conclusio
ns about
what you
did

Think
about
what you
did

Connect
your
experien
ce to
theory
6

Gibbs (1988) 7 steps for

deeper reflection

Source (Gibbs, 1988: 47)

Section 1 Personal
Analysis
Review of your skills, knowledge and experience

Personal
Analysis Include information from personal evaluation tests

Review your personal analysis against the requirements

that identified in your research
Gap
Analysis Focus on areas requiring evidence or examples

Career
Action
Plan

Looks at personal development and career related

requirements
Summarise within the report and provide full detailed plan
in appendix

Section 2 Team skills

reflection
Reflection on effectiveness of your personal contribution
Personal
Contribu
tion

Peer
Feedback

Future
Changes

to team
Analysis of role you played in achievement of assignment
objectives
Refection on feedback from peers or team members
How this may support or differ from your perceptions
Consideration of any changes when working with teams in
future
How being more effective team worker may assist you in
future

Tips for good reflection

Be critically evaluative rather than descriptive Reflection is about analysis and evaluation of your own/
your groups experience, rather than a description of it.
Be specific choose one small aspect at a time to
reflect and focus on, eg time management; team coordination
Do not transfer blame your reflection should aim at
improvement, so focus on your own role and what you
should have done and how it could be improved
In reflective writing it is common to use the first
person I, we, our, us
Use correct tense when reflecting on action, use
past tense; talking about future plan should use
future tense
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Task Activities
Develop your Career Action Plan. This should
show both the short-term and longer-term
actions required to prepare you for an
opportunity in the area you have researched.
Your actions must be SMART

Develop at least one completed STAR

competency framework for a
competency other than team
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A practical plan of action with steps that are

SMART
(specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound)

Break your goal down

Break your goal down into smaller steps which are specific. 'I aim to get a place
on ateacher trainingcourse' is not specific.These steps are more specific:
Usethe 'UCAS Teacher Training'course search to find out where I could train
Look at course directories to find out their entry requirements
See a careers adviser for tips on how to complete my application form

Make your steps measurable

Make sureyou will be able to measure when each step has been completed 'I
will develop my confidence' is not measurable, but 'I will volunteer to leadthe
presentation on the 14th July to build my confidence' is measurable.

Set steps that are realistic

Make sure each step is realistic and achievable 'by next week I will get a
placement in marketing' is not necessarily achievable becausethe decision to
recruit you lies with another person. If you were to say 'by next week I willsubmit
my CV for at least marketing roles' this is achievable.

Set dates
Set yourself a date by which you will complete each step. Also set review dates
to check your progress and make changes.
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Structuring your report

Introduction and
Contents
Section 1 Personal
Analysis
Section 2 Team
Working Reflection
Section 3 - Conclusion
References and
Bibliography and
Appendices

Outline what your assignment will cover include a brief

summary of role/sector that you identified in Assignment 1 and
information on key competencies identified

Personal Analysis
Gap Analysis
Career Action Plan summary
Role in achieving team assignment objectives and requirements
Reflection on any feedback from team members or peers
Consideration of any future development or changes
Brief reflection on how you feel having completed the
assignment and how you intend to use your Career Action Plan

Reference sources used to research and construct your report

Career Action Plan in the form of a table
Completed STAR competency framework

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Writing your report

A report
reports
on
something
in a
concise,
formal
way using
clearly
defined
sections
presented
in a
standard
format,
which tell
the reader
what you
did, why
and how
you did it
and what
you found

A report
should be
written
concisely,
in a
business
like
manner,
and have
headings
and subheadings

As this
report is
personal
to you, it
can all be
written in
the first
person ,
ie, I

Note the
available
marks for
each
section
and
ensure
that you
take
account of
these in
how you
construct
your
report

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Remember
to include
your
appendice
s and all
your
references
and
bibliograp
hy

Laying out your report

Use Times
New
Roman/Arial
12pt with 1.5
spacing
Use page
numbering
from the
Introduction
page
onwards

Use 14pt
headings and
12pt subheadings

Have a title
page and a
contents
page

Include a
final word
count on the
title page

Refer to the
CASE Guide
to Report
Writing for
more
information
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Submission
Requirements
Your report must
be submitted to
the correct
assignment tab

Ensure that you submit on time by

10:00 on Monday 5 January 2015

Ensure that you

submit in the
required format

Only submit an MSWord document (doc

Stay with the

required word
count

The word count for this assignment

is 1100 words (+/- 10%)
Appendices are not included in the
overall wordcount

or docx), submit one document which

containing all the required sections
Label your document as follows: Your
name: Student number: EE1 (eg John
Smith 1234567 EE2)

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Beware of the penalties

Failure to label
a penalty of 5% will be deducted
document correctly or
from your mark for each
submitting the wrong
type of file
Failure to submit on
time

Penalties will be applied from 1% for

1 30 minutes late to your mark
being capped at 40% if you are more
than 300 minutes late

Failure to stay within

defined word count

Penalty of 1% deducted from overall

mark for each 100 words over word
count

Failure to accurately
state word count

a penalty of 5% will be deducted

from your mark

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Extension Requests
You must
apply for an
extension if
required by
Friday 5
January
2015

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References
Cottrell, S. (2003) Skills for Success: The Personal
Development Planning Handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Drew, S. & Bingham, R. (2001) The Student Skills Guide. 2nd
edn. Aldershot: Gower.
Drucker, P.F. (n.d.) In ThinkExist.com Quotations (2008) Peter
F.
Drucker quotes. Available at:
http://einstein/quotes/peter_f._drucker/ [Accessed:
19September, 2008].
Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiental Learning: Experience as the
Source of Learning and Development. Eaglewood Cliff, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Schn, D. A. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner.
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San Francisco: Josey-Bass.