Professional Identity & Practice

Week 2
LO1
 Mini review of lifelong learning and the benefits of
continuous development & Professional standards
and expectations within various employment
contexts
 Achieving and maintaining professional standards
 Skills requirements in the workplace
 Transferable skills and skill types
 Mini review of week 1 (P1)
Q What is meant by the term lifelong learning?

Q Why is it so important to continually develop your

skills/competences?

Benefits of on-going professional development

Identify 3 benefits to employees

Identify 3 benefits to employers

Other stakeholders? How would they benefit?

Q What are professional standards? Can you provide examples?

 Skills Required in the Workplace
Differing jobs may require differing skills
 Provide some examples of managerial jobs which require different
skills

Transferrable skills
These are skills which individuals need in order to carry out most
jobs in the workplace
 Provide some examples of such skills

What is meant by ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills?

 Hard skills
Hard skills are more linked with intelligence (IQ)
and logical, systematic reasoning
Such skills include accounting, statistical
analysis, programming, use of technology, maths

Most managerial roles require data analysis skills

– managing budgets, reviewing performance
data, producing forecasts, etc.
 Soft Skills
• Soft skills tend to be linked with emotional intelligence (EQ)
– “a person’s ability to be aware of personal emotions and those of others
in order to interact with others in productive ways” (Bloisi, et al,
2007:406)
Cultural awareness and sensitivity to the needs of others is an important
element of EQ

• Such skills include self confidence, networking, communication,

delegation, creative thinking, initiative

A high proportion of managers’ time involves ‘people’ – their own

staff, peers in other departments, senior management, external
individuals – customers, suppliers, local councils, etc.
 Competency Frameworks
“The terms ‘competency’ and ‘competencies’ focus on the
personal attributes or inputs of an individual. They can be defined
as the behaviours (and technical attributes where appropriate)
that individuals must have, or must acquire, to perform effectively
at work.” CIPD, 2017
Observable
Behaviour

Knowledge

Attitudes

Skills

Motives, Values , Traits, Self Concept

 Competency framework
• Organisations using competency frameworks will select the
knowledge/ skills/ behaviour required for a given level of
job from the descriptors created, so it may have headings
of persuasiveness and assertiveness or leading others, with
a description that suits the level/grade of the job

E.g. Working within a team

• Level 1 Demonstrates willingness to help other members
of the team complete their work and uses knowledge to
help other team members solve problems
• Level 4 Designs and implements new team work structures
to improve efficiency and effectiveness
 Customer Service skills

• In small groups identify skills that relate to

customer service.

• Can you rank these skills in terms of level of

importance within the job?
 Team leading and
development skills

• The majority of jobs involve working with

others, but what skills do you need to be an
effective team leader?

• What about developing your team?

Stages of Group Development, Tuckman & Jensen (1965/77)

It’s part of a manager’s role to steer the group through the stages
of group development effectively so that it becomes fully effective
Employability Skills
“A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all labour market participants should
possess to ensure they have the capability of being effective in the workplace – to
the benefit of themselves, their employer and the wider economy.” (CBI, 2007)

There is no agreed list of employability skills, indeed the range of skills has changed
in terms of priorities over the years, but common employability skills include:

 communication and interpersonal  problem solving

skills
 resilience
 using initiative and being self
motivated  working under pressure to
 team working tight timescales
 numeracy  organisation
 IT skills  ability to adapt
 creativity  negotiation skills
Employer Skills Survey 2017 - England
Employer Skills Survey 2017 - England
 Assessing your skills

Why is it important to assess our skills on a

regular basis?
 Self Assessment Tools
There are many tools which can be used to help us to identify our
strengths and weaknesses.
For your assignment you must complete and refer to at least two
self assessment tools when completing a critical evaluation in Part 1
(ii)
Start by completing a personal SWOT analysis
Strengths – current skills Weaknesses – of your current skills

Opportunities - to develop your Threats:

skills to potential career by your current
skills

to your potential development

 Skills Assessment tools (cont’d)
Complete a selection of skills assessment tests/audits
• https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ls/index.php/343479/lang/en/newtest
/Y
online (either receive a copy if you provide personal info. or use the
snipping tool to cut and paste your feedback from the screen)
• https://careersmart.org.uk/tools/career-test-skills-audit (online test)
• http://people.brunel.ac.uk/cards/ASK/player.html(online test)
– Or pdf copy available via:
– https://www.brunel.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/89508/ASK-Skills-Audit
.pdf

• https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/level1/academicserviceswebsite/stud
entandstaffdevelopment/documents/pdp/Personal_and_Key_Skills_Sel
f_Assessment_Audit.pdf

What can you now say about your strengths and weaknesses in terms of
these skills? (i.e. assess your skills) You may wish to complete a revised
SWOT analysis

Remember that you need to paste these documents into your Word
 Working with Others: Your role in a team
In 1981 Belbin published a book on team role theory in which he
identified 8 roles which may be undertaken for a team to be
effective team, later he added an additional role, making a total of
9. These fit into three areas:

• People Focused Roles: Resource Investigator; Team worker; Co-

ordinator
• Thought Focused Roles: Plant; Monitor Evaluator; Specialist
• Action Focused Roles: Shaper; Implementer; Completer Finisher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LunroajlLE

Individuals will tend to have two or three ‘preferred’ roles they

would undertake in a team. These can change over time given our
experience and confidence
People Focused Roles
Thought Focused Roles
Action Focused Roles

Source: https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/
 Which Belbin team roles do you identify
with?

• Review each of the descriptors and then note

your preferences

• Can you provide examples to explain how you

identify with these roles
 Personality Assessment/Questionnaire
• Personality “may be viewed as consisting of stable
characteristics that explain why a person behaves in a
particular way….for instance, independence,
conscientiousness…self control” (Mullins, 2007:125)

What is a personality assessment?

• A personality assessment attempts to identify an
individual’s key characteristics

Why do individuals and organisations use them?

 Approaches to Personality Assessment
There are differing approaches to personality assessment, which include:
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1998). A interpretation of this may be found
in the following on-line questionnaire
http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/enfj-type?EI=19&SN=-41&TF=-
3&JP=31

The Big 5 Personality Factors were identified by a number of researchers

including McCrae and Costa (1989). A questionnaire based on this may be
found via:
https://www.123test.com/personality-test/id=fUSRFKZ5TUXDURH&version=

ASSIGNMENT GUIDANCE:
You are strongly advised to complete at least one personality questionnaire for
your assignment. You must include the printed summary of the results as an
appendix to your work
 Developing an Effective CV
(Curriculum Vitae)

A CV should ‘sell yourself’ for the job you are

applying for; highlighting the qualifications
and skills that you have

It needs to be professionally presented in

terms of layout, spelling and overall content
 Compiling a CV – Where to start

Find all of the following information

• Jobs you have had:
– job title, company name, think through the work that you did
(your responsibilities)
– Note contact details for references (up date these, where possible)
– Voluntary work undertaken? (list, as above)
– Hobbies or interests – where you have developed skills

When you have this information read through it and identify:

– Which skills you have, what your achievements are

– Create a table (in Word or Excel) and list the common skills you
identified
 Skills data base (table of skills)
Example
Job Communication Time management Sales

Call Handler, Customers – queries, Make 80 calls per day. Av. 80 calls with c.
Zenon Windows, persuasive language, clear compiled daily returns 45% conversion to
dates to understand and weekly reports sales

Create as many columns as you have skills, try to be as specific as possible and
avoid just listing all of the duties – focus on achievements

You can then use this information to provide tailored sections in your CV, by
selecting the evidence which is most relevant to the job you are applying for
 YOUR CV:

Decide from the following what should go in… and what should be
left out & why you think that

• Skills • Course modules

• Age/date of birth • Achievements
• Photo
•
• Contact details
Qualifications
• Marital status/no. • Languages you speak
children • Referees/References
• Personal profile
• Hobbies/interests
• Nationality
• Work experience
 CV Format
• Length
– Maximum of 2 pages

• Typeface
– eg Tahoma, Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana

• Font
– Size 12pt (depends upon typeface)

• Layout order (apart from the first two bullets, the order is really down to
you)
– Name & contact details
– Personal Profile
– Education/Professional Training
– Work Experience (including achievements)
– Skills
– Interests/hobbies (if relevant)

• Date order
Always put most recent dates first in each section and work backwards from this
 CV Tips

Email account
• Use an appropriate name for your email account (or have a separate one for
employment purposes)

Time Gaps in your CV

• Just state the dates for work/education & explain any gaps in a cover letter or
email – if you leave gaps employers will be suspicious

CV Title
• Avoid typing Curriculum Vitae – often it’s spelt incorrectly (and therefore
doesn’t create a positive first impression) and also it should speak for itself

Tailor Your Work Experience Content

• Avoid using one standard CV for all jobs
• Use your skills database to highlight the relevant skills for the job you are
applying for
 Personal profile

It is popular to start with a personal profile. It should form 3 parts:

• Who are you, professionally speaking..?

• What do you have to offer the employer? e.g.
– How much experience do you have?
– Have you worked for any known firms?
• What are you looking for?

For example:
• I am a first year HND International Travel and Tourism student,
with over five years’ hands-on experience in travel retail. I am
seeking to develop my existing research and analytical skills
within a travel marketing environment…
 Using the FAB formula for your work experience section
Example:

Feature • I worked as a call handler, placing calls to

• What did you do? potential customers of a double-glazing
company

Achievement • In a typical shift, I handled on average 80

• How much did you calls to both domestic and business
do/produce/sell? customers

• On an average shift, I converted 45% of calls

Benefit to sales, improving the company’s
• What was the result for conversation rate by 10%
the employer & you
 FAB - Putting it all together on your CV

Call Handler, Zenon Windows, Kingston, June 2010 – Present

I worked as a call handler, placing calls to potential customers of a double-glazing

company. In a typical shift, I handled 80 calls to both domestic and business customers.
On average I converted 45% of calls to sales, improving the company’s conversion rate
by 10%
Achievement
Feature Benefit
 Cover Letter
The purpose of a cover letter (whether sent in hard copy or soft copy
– email) is to ‘sell’ yourself.
You can only compose your cover letter once you have completed
your CV
Content:
• Make it clear how your skills/qualities match the job being
applied for
• Create interest - make the reader want to go on and read your CV

Remember, whether we like it or not, first impressions count

~ if your cover letter is poorly written, with limited detail, then
the employer is unlikely to bother to go on and read your CV
 Cover letter layout/format
• If providing a hard copy letter then include: Date, your address, the organisation name
and address at the top of the letter
• Salutation: Where possible, find out the name of the person it should be addressed to
and start with Dear …..,
• Put the vacancy details in a heading – so the reader knows which job you applying for
• State why you are interested in the job
• Provide evidence as to why you feel you have the appropriate skills/qualities (using the
STAR method, where possible)
• If you have any gaps in your employment history, then ensure you explain these gaps in
your cover letter
• End with some expectation of a response (e.g. I look forward to hearing from you
shortly…)
• Parting: where you started with a named individual, e.g. Dear Mr Thomson, end
with Yours sincerely.
where you started Dear Sir/Madam, then end with Yours faithfully
and type your name underneath
 Assignment reminder:

• Your completed CV and cover letter for the Flight

Centre, Travel Consultant role in the assignment
brief must be completed based on your actual skills
so far

And

• Be sent to your tutor by 20 January at the latest