Task 2

Benefits of personal and professional development

Personal and professional development encompasses a series of activities where a
professional or individual can learn new knowledge and skills related to responsibilities at
work, work environment. The individual are able to strengthen current skills by applying
them in a new area and gain up to date knowledge of current working practices in other areas.
It also beneficial to expand horizons to support career development. People will be able to
establish networks with colleagues and thereby create a visible personal profile within the
department, division and establish key contacts with senior managers and leaders. Finally
personal and professional development will lead to achieve development objectives in a time-
limited period with increased opportunities for career development and progression.
Personal and professional development of an individual is beneficial for an organization as a
whole. Professional development of a person is a cost effective acquisition of specific
knowledge and skills to the organization. And that person will have the courage to undertake
a particular project or task. A professionally developed person can offer fresh thinking and
new approaches to organizational problems or development. And that individual will be able
to develop links with other departments within the organization. Moreover while working as
a group he can retain as a valued and skilled member of the team while applying his
improved skills and knowledge to improve and enhance the skill sets of others. The
organization as a whole will be able to expose to new working practices and processes with
enhanced employee morale, motivation and commitment. Finally the organization will get the
ability to development of a more informed, skilled and flexible workforce.
 Development opportunities for personal progression
These opportunities may be related internal or external to the organization.
Internal development opportunities
1. Work shadowing – observing and discussing a role or job of potential interest to
you.
It allows you to get an insight into the working life of the profession and allows you
to get an insight into the employer and organizational culture. It gives you a different
perspective on your work by learning from others’ experiences. The person will get
the ability expand his network and helps you make professional contacts. During
work it gives you the chance to reflect on your own professional practice. It also
informs you about the daily joys/struggles of the profession and its limitations.

2. Undertake specialized tasks

These include special activities like take part in exhibitions for the company, giving
presentations to workers etc.
This allow for an employee to develop new skills and to progress within the
organization.

3. Undertake roles in projects

Projects may deploy by the organization for its expansion and for other organizational
requirements. Actively participating in these will allow an individual to take
responsibilities, develop managerial skills and leadership skills.

External development opportunities

1. Foreign tours
An organization may arrange tours for highly performed or task specialized
workers. This give the opportunity to gather knowledge related to his profession
and to get involved with people with different cultural backgrounds. This allows
for an individual to develop knowledge in a broad spectrum.

2. Special workshops and seminars

Attending to these can enhance technical skills, communication skills, leadership
skills etc. These are mainly conducted by specialized people who excel in those
fields. Training under them is a good opportunity.
Support of development opportunities for longer term carrier
progression
1. Work shadowing
Job shadowing becomes essential when an employee is trained internally for his or
next role. For example, the HR manager shadows the HR director when the director is
expecting a promotion to vice president; an HR assistant shadows the HR generalist
when the generalist expects a promotion to HR manager. Training starts with job
shadowing so the replacement employee understands the big picture before working
as a supervisor/manager.

2. Undertake specialized tasks

By undertaking specialized tasks in the organization a person will get the ability
interact with more people within the organization and to expand his network. The way
you carry out the tasks will give a reflection about the personal capabilities and his
attitude. This allow for a person to develop a good understanding about himself within
the organization. The commitment and dedication of a person towards the
organization will pave the way to develop new opportunities and carrier progression.

3. Undertake roles in projects

Active participation in projects allow to create a good picture among others. This
allow an individual to expand his skills which will be very usable in the future.

4. Foreign tours
Foreign tours will give the experience to work and involve with people of different
cultures. Language competency and specific business skills gained at foreign tours are
highly beneficial in long term.

5. Special workshops and seminars

Participation in these will allow to develop skills required for further carrier
development. Those will guide us for better communication and the ways to deal with
different people. Interaction with different people is important to get a better
understanding and to get an idea of their behaviors. This is very important for
problem solving in a future managerial/supervisory role.
 Steps to carry out a self audit to identify skills and experience
1. List the roles you need to follow in your organization.
To start with you need a list of the role types to be followed within your organization. You
want to simplify the process by grouping together like roles. If you have both a “Electrical
continuity test” and “Electrical bonding test” in different parts, they almost certainly require a
very similar skill set. If this is the case, you can list it as one role type.
2. List the skills needed for each role
Now that you’ve created a list of role types, the next step is to list the skills needed for each
of these roles. What do the skills look like? They could be behavioural like or they could be
more technical like this sample list of engineering skills:
Functional Specification
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Electrical Design
Electrical Schematics
Safety Control Circuits
Telemetry Design
Programmable Logic Controller
3. Create a survey
It’s ideal if you can find out all of the relevant skills a person has, not just those for their
current role. To do this, create a survey that makes it easy for your people to respond. This
essentially means you need to keep it short and not ask the same question twice. To achieve
this, the survey should group together each of the major role types. Use the list you created in
step 2 as your starting point for this.
It may have a number of different role types within it, but there’s probably common skills
across many of them. For example, many of the role types may require people to be skilled at
“Electrical Schematics”. Rather than listing skills more than once under each relevant role
type, list them once under a common group heading such as “Engineering”.
4. Survey your abilities
With the survey designed, you are now ready to ask yourself to respond to it. The number of
roles will determine how you go about doing this.
5. Compile the results
You need to know what skills you posess.
6. Analyse the data
You can now reap the rewards of your skills audit process. You can analyze the skill gaps in
specific roles and future skill requirements

The targets for personal and professional development

The SMART target setting
SMART goal setting brings structure and trackability into your goals and objectives. Instead
of vague resolutions, SMART goal setting creates verifiable trajectories towards a certain
objective, with clear milestones and an estimation of the goal's attainabililty. Every goal or
objective, from intermediary step to overarching objective, can be made S.M.A.R.T. and as
such, brought closer to reality.

1. S-Specific
Your goal should be clear and specific, otherwise you won't be able to focus your
efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it. When drafting your goal, try to answer the
five "W" questions:
What do I want to accomplish?
Why is this goal important?
Who is involved?
Where is it located?
Which resources or limits are involved?

2. Measurable
It's important to have measurable goals, so that you can track your progress and stay
motivated. Assessing progress helps you to stay focused, meet your deadlines, and
feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving your goal.
A measurable goal should address questions such as:
How much?
How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?

3. Achievable
Your goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it
should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an achievable
goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources
that can bring you closer to it.
An achievable goal will usually answer questions such as:
How can I accomplish this goal?
How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?
4. Relevant
This step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with
other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but
it's important to retain control over them. So, make sure that your plans drive
everyone forward, but that you're still responsible for achieving your own goal.
A relevant goal can answer "yes" to these questions:
Does this seem worthwhile?
Is this the right time?
Does this match our other efforts/needs?
Am I the right person to reach this goal?
Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

5. Time bound
Every goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something
to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks
from taking priority over your longer-term goals.
A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions:
When?
What can I do six months from now?
What can I do six weeks from now?
What can I do today?
 Methods to track personal development
1. Performance review and plan
Personal development does not necessarily imply upward movement; rather, it is
about enabling individuals to improve their performance and reach their full potential
at each stage of their career. It is worth taking time to review your activities against
your plans on a regular basis, probably every quarter or so. Less often, and you may
find that you are not placing a high enough priority on your development activities,
and letting progress slip. More often, and you are likely to find that you have not
made enough progress, or that you are tempted to put the review off, because the last
one was so recent.

2. Diaries
Keeping a diary has been shown to be good for your mental health. The reason is
thought to be because it allows you to process your experiences safely, and review
particular events in a less stressful way. Keeping a diary can help you to remember
events and activities. There is a huge range of electronic options as well as the
traditional paper-based route. You could, for example, use a diary app

3. Objectives
Development objectives are actionable plans to improve in your career, profession
and role. This goes beyond your performance objectives to plan meaningful steps that
bring you closer to your career goals. A common way to do this is to simply
repackage your performance objectives to show how they will help you improve as a
professional. Alternatively, you can identify side projects, training and experiences
that you are planning to bring you closer to career goals.

4. Reflecting and planning

Creating a personal development plan involves more than simply contemplating what
you want from your life and how to go about achieving it. If you want to create a
personal development plan that helps you to achieve your goals, preparation is the
key. To prepare, one must have a great deal of self-awareness. This includes clear
understanding of personal values and ethics, analyzing personality characteristics,
evaluation of learning styles and identifying strengths, weaknesses, motivators,
opportunities and threats.
 Personal and professional development plan
Learning & Type of Time Who is Resource
development development scales responsible requirements
need
Obtain professional Following a End of May Myself Suitable institute
level qualification related technical 2019 to follow the
in electrical & course course
electronic Books and study
engineering field methods

Be permanent in Complete the End of Myself More

the job required December Managers responsibility
experience level 2019

Improve Take on more Fourth Get feedback More authority &

management skills responsibilities to quarter of from manager responsibility
handle workshop this year
operations

Improve Learn proper shift Within this Get feedback Shift handover
communication handover year from the cards, special
skills procedures received signs & markings
person

Improve public Prepare & deliver Within this Get feedback Opportunity to
speaking abilities minimum of 5 year from the give the
presentations participants presentation
 Task 3
Recommendations for personal and professional development
Benefits of reflective practice on personal development plan
1. Enhancing problem solving skills

When starting off with reflecting on our technical skills we may tend to concentrate
on problems which arise. By carefully going through and analyzing those problems,
we will improve our own capacity to find solutions. Refusing to admit that there is a
problem is kind of barrier against problem solving. Some people may see it`s bad to
see problems when doing work. But again how a person could develop skills to solve
problems if there are no problems. So it is necessary to keep a good practice on
looking for any problems/faults when we are at work.

2. Improving own organizational skills

We will notice as this section progresses that the benefits of reflective practice can
reaching into every aspect of our professional work as a technician/mechanic. If we
are thinking carefully about what we are doing, identifying possible actions and
choices, trying out solutions, and adjusting what we do to take account of the results,
this involves a good deal of organization. By breaking down issues and problems into
steps or stages, we will get better at organizing your time and our activity to
concentrate on the important actions to get better solutions. Lack of motivation to
grow can be a main drawback against developing organizational skills. Similar to the
effects of resistance to change, employees who are not motivated for growth will not
seek out opportunities provided by the organizations. By understanding future
benefits of learning we can get a motivation in our work and in turn which will
improve organizational skills.

3. Improvement of decision making skills

As we reflect on our practice, we will find that we need to make decisions about what
to do (or not to do) next. We may have a number of choices which we have to weigh
up, and deciding which one to take can be difficult. If we regularly reflect on our
technical skills in depth, we are regularly going to come across the need to make
decisions, but the results of our reflective practice will help you to make those
decisions in a more informed, thoughtful and objective manner. Looking for a quick
fixes (addressing the symptoms and believing you are done) can lead to bad decisions
at work. To avoid this one should first have the basic understanding thoroughly. With
optimized knowledge and experience about subject can give out a good decision.
Actively involving during the work is important to avoid misunderstandings.
Progress evaluation

While making a personal development plan it is essential to evaluate the progression

according to the parameters in that plan. Obtaining a professional level qualification in
electrical & electronic engineering field is a major step out of those. Obtaining an IVQ level
4 diploma in near future will ensure to enhance the theoretical knowledge in electrical and
electronic engineering. Furthermore it will provide the opportunity to follow IVQ level 5
diploma in electrical and electronic engineering or any further education opportunities. Also
this will also necessary to get new job opportunities or progress to a new level in the
employed organization.
Opportunities for further development
By completing IVQ level 4 diploma in electrical and electronic engineering we will be
eligible to follow IVQ level 5 diploma in electrical and electronic engineering. Following a
higher level of education will enhance the required theoretical knowledge and supervisory
level knowledge. Special training programs may offered by the organization for highly
skilled employees with good commitment towards their work.
We can join social development societies and clubs to get involved with people. These
societies and clubs are there within or outside the organization. We will get the opportunity to
expose to new events and will be able to meet new people which may effectively change our
lives. Special programs will help to improve communication and public speaking skills.
Lot of organizations have different sports teams. By joining a preferred sports team will give
you better enjoyment and good health benefits. This may help to improve psychological
health as well. Engaging in a sport we like will help to relieve stresses that we encounter in
our life. Sports may assist in learning social interaction and provide you a great opportunity
to be part of a team. In a competition, you are going to interact with other teammates and
create a plan for success. Since you are going to rely on the new members of your team, it is
highly likely that you will make new friends. Sports are more enjoyable than engaging in
work outs. Many people can also engage in one sport and thus reap the numerous benefits of
sports.
Participation in professional organizations. This may give the ability in attending local,
regional, national, and international meetings, conferences and workshops sponsored by
professional organizations. Within the organization a person can present papers at
conferences and workshops. Also may get chance in serving as an officer, board member,
committee member or coordinating events sponsored by the organization.