Personal and Professional Development

Task 1

1.1 Evaluating approaches to self-managed learning

Self-managed learning is the process of learning by which individual people find different methods of learning things, whether within the organization or outside the company. Self-managed leaning aims to enhance the lifelong development of individuals and an organization by evaluating approaches to self-managed learning (Hunter, Laursen and Seymour, 2007.). To find different ways of learning things one of the best ways is self-learning. For developing my inter-personal skills, I used different approaches of self-managed learning. Some of the approaches are as follows:

Seminars and conferences: Attending seminars and conferences is the best way of self-managed learning as here people share their views, ideas and experiences which had helped me in developing my personal skills and confidence to speak within so many people (Gordon, 2003).

Social networks: Being socialized within the local community or virtual community had helped in self-learning.

Internet: Internet is the best network through which any person can gain knowledge. By surfing in different website and reading articles related to my subject matter had helped in gaining knowledge of various things.

Further with that there are different learning styles that can be used by people for self-learning. Some of the learning styles are Kolb's learning style and Honey and Mumford learning style which represents a learning cycle where the learner touches all the bases i.e. experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting.

Kolb's learning style

Concrete Experience: This stage of learning style emphasizes on personal involvement with different people. Here, the learner becomes open minded and ready to adopt changes (Gordon, 2003).

Reflective Observation: Here, the learner relies on his own thoughts, patience, and feelings in forming opinions.

Abstract Conceptualization: The learner relies on systematic planning and this directs him towards developing own ideas to solve the problem.

Active Experimentation: Here, the learner thinks practically according to the situations.

Honey and Mumford learning styles

Activist: These people learn by doing. They follow open minded approach to learn.

Theorists: These people like to understand the theory behind the actions.

Pragmatist: These people see how to put learning into practice in the real world.

Reflector: They learn by observing and thinking about what has happened.

I follow concrete and activist learning style as these styles had helped to improve my confidence. Because of these styles, I became open minded person who always learns by doing things.

1.2 Different ways where lifelong learning in personal and professional context could be encouraged

Self managed learning is a way where lifelong learning in personal and professional context can be encouraged. Self-managed learning set a goal of learning by evaluating the main purpose and finding out the ways to achieve those goals (Johnson and Golombek, 2002). I used different approaches of self-managed learning which had enhanced my growth.

Mentoring and coaching: I used coaching for self-managed learning. The mentor had helped to go through all the techniques which I can use in developing new ideas for learning. They made me study all the possible outcomes which are necessary for self-managed learning.

Social networks: Social network had helped me to share my opinions or views with different people and learn new things from them. Information given on Bulletin boards, internet and new groups can also be used for learning new things.

Interviews: I found many interviews on internet related to self-managed learning. They made me to learn different things which will help in my growth.

Lifelong learning is more about continuing learning. Individuals can make a personal assessment of lifelong learning by evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

SWOT Analysis

By evaluating personal SWOT this had helped me in my professional learning of different things by using different tools like self-reflective learning and continuing professional development (Lee, 2004). Self-reflective learning had helped me in learning new skills and also developing personal skills. By reviewing my opinions, judgment and actions, I had analyzed my strengths and weaknesses. Further, this helped me to link my professional development to practical things that I experienced in my life.

Assessment of learning

Assessment refers to all those activities that an individual or his mentor do in assessing the things that have been learnt by the individual (Malm, 2009). for assessing my learning skills, I asked feedback from others about my learning achievements and disappointments.

1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning to individual and organization

Self-management learning shows effectiveness in personal and professional development of an individual and an organization. At a personal level, it sated the search of knowledge of an individual with a wide scope of learning (Hensley, Smith and Thompson, 2003). Therefore, self-managed learning provided me an opportunity to explore my individuality by gaining knowledge. This had helped me gaining insight and knowledge about the external world. This had also helped in developing my personality and increasing my confidence level.

Another benefit that self-managed learning provides at the personal level is that, it defines individuality in each person. That is, every person is different in his own way of learning style. With that, it imparts a sense of responsibility in an individual person and he feels responsible for the rate and superiority of the learning process. It also enhances the creative skills in an individual, which help in building a successful professional in a corporate world.

Self-learning not only help personal but it also benefits to an organization also. Employees who take initiatives in undertaking their own program are motivated towards their work and this help firm to establish itself in the market (Day, and et.al., 2006). Self-learning emphasizes on gaining knowledge of different areas which will benefit the organization in their development. This makes individuals as proactive rather than reactive and this quality is appreciated by the business entity.

Task 2

2.1 Process and activities required to implement a development plan

The improvement in job skills is very important to be successful in my entire life. Managers can use personal and professional skills and can perform its responsibilities and duties accordingly (Stenfors-Hayes, and et.al., 2010). There are many challenges that an individual faces in an organization. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a development plan for the growing success of the company. The development process which I made is:

Conduct skill audit – This provides an opportunity to assess and find out my strengths and weaknesses, which I have to improve. Opportunities that I can grab in an organization and the threats which can harm me in future. Skills audit will help me to set my priorities according to the time taken by individual task and further this will help in achieving my goals easily.

Establish development objectives – Here, I have to set that goal which I want to achieve in future. For this, I have to make an objective which I have to achieve and for that I will make list for all future requirements (Pololi and et.al., 2000). Prioritizing my objectives according to my strengths and weaknesses which in turn will help in achieving my goal.

Identify developmental activities and monitoring strategies – Here, I have to identify all those activities, which will help me in developing my skills. These activities will improve my weaknesses and increase confidence in me.

Implement plan – After identifying my goals and objectives, I have to make an implementation program. This will help me finding and removing my barriers which will hamper my develop

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit