pd portfolio 28 viii 2008

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Personal Development an introduction by the Vice Chancellor, ProfessorMichael Thorne

A Personal Development Portfolio is designed to help you to record your achievements in a

variety of skills areas and to plan how you will identify gaps in your skills and then fill these gaps.It forms a record which you can present to prospective employers or other organizations whowant to know about you as an individual - hopefully to impress them!

Through the Personal Development Portfolio we encourage you to focus on a range of skills notnecessarily directly related to your degree. Why do we do this? The reason is that thoseemployers who take on new graduates are not only interested in your degree but are looking forevidence that you have a range of other skills which will make you a valued member of theirworkforce. 60% of graduates will enter jobs that are not related directly to their degree subject soclearly your subject knowledge is not the only thing employers are after.

For this reason, we are doing all we can to help our students to ensure that they can convince

employers and others that they have the keys skills that are being looked for, such as team-working or problem-solving. Some of the evidence for this will indeed come from activities youundertake during your studies. But you will also want to record the evidence for skills such asteam-working from what you do outside your university studies. 'Personal development' is justthat - personal - so it is up to you to find appropriate evidence from your own experience.

As well as providing the Personal Development Portfolio, we'll help you fill it in and keep it up todate and thereby translate the totality of your experience into a presentation that will hopefullycommand the attention of prospective employers. As you fill in your own portfolio, you areencouraged to talk to the Careers and Employability Service and to your academic tutors aboutthe kinds of things employers are likely to want to know about. To help you, Anglia Ruskin alsoprovides an exemplar Portfolio. We encourage all our students to broaden their experience

through volunteering and engaging with the world of work. Remember also that we now live in aglobal community, so that language skills and experience of other cultures are highly valued.

The personal development you undergo while at university is the other half of your degree - sodo make sure that it counts!

Professor Michael Thorne

Vice Chancellor

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The other half of your degree.......

Personal Development and Employment Skills

Personal Development Planning (PDP) and your Portfolio will help you to get the most from yourtime at university, to plan for your future, to gather evidence of skills, and to describe them in the

language of job applications and interviews.

Planning for your future and the portfolio are your responsibility, but you can also get supportfrom the on-line resources, tutors and/or lecturers. Aspects of the portfolio may be addressed inyour modules or tutorials, but you should also remember to include evidence of skills that youhave gained from other activities such as volunteering or work experience. You may choose todevelop your portfolio in either paper or electronic format.

Online resources to support your Personal Development Planning can be found atwww.anglia.ac.uk/pdp

Skills sets

Personal Development is very broad, and is personal to you, the student. This means that youwill be looking at your skills and understanding over a wide range of areas. In order to help youto organize your planning and recording, the portfolio is based on six skills sets, which havebeen designed to match the requirements of employers:

Communication skills

Teamwork and leadership

Self-awareness and critical reflection

Problem solving

Organisational skills

Basic and extended skill set

The SPARK cycle

Personal Development (PD) is a continuing process, not simply something that you do once andthen forget about it. We have built this portfolio around a PD cycle to help you to identify,develop and record your skills. This cycle forms the framework for each of the skills sets.

Self-evaluate to identify where you want to be, your needs, and skills gaps

This process is about ensuring that you have all of the skills that you will need in future, andhave a way of presenting these that will convince employers and others. Start thinking aboutexisting evidence for your skills, and compare these with the generic requirements in each skillsarea. Where are the gaps?

Plan how these needs will be addressed

For each of the gaps that you found, write down how you are going to approach it, what the

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measure of a successful outcome will be, and when you expect to achieve this

Act to meet the needs and supplement skills and experience

Now go and do it!

Record the evidence

Record the evidence in a way that is easy to understand and re-use. There is a separate pagedevoted to each skill set, with a table for jotting down individual pieces of evidence and aseparate box to translate this into the sort of style needed for a job application. Add extra sheetswhere this is useful, for instance to include written feedback

Keep reflecting on achievement and gaps

You should continue to record evidence, as you pass particular milestones. However, it isequally important to make sure that you keep reviewing where you have got to, so that you dontleave any skills gaps unfilled. Make a point of returning to your self-evaluation and planningpages so that you keep these up to date. Did everything that you had planned turn out as you

expected? Might you set slightly more ambitious targets, for instance changing your aim forpresentation skills from overcoming the pure terror of your first seminar talk to making aneffective use of slides in your presentations?

Getting started

Having read this introduction, you are now ready to start work on your Personal DevelopmentPortfolio. It takes you through the SPARK cycle, from an initial evaluation through planning andrecording to continuing review.

If you are uncertain what goes where, consult with the exemplar portfolio provided atwww.anglia.ac.uk/pdp . In particular, use this to see how your record of skills and achievementscan be translated into a successful narrative for job applications or other purposes.

The website also contains links to other resources which will assist you with your planning.

Remember that this is a continuing process. You should get into the habit of adding to yourportfolio whenever you have a fresh item to be included. At the very least, you should review theportfolio once each semester. You may also wish to keep archive copies of the document, sothat you have a record of your progress.

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Self-evaluate to identify where you want to be, your needs, and skills gaps

Skills area Generic skills Can I tick the box? Do I have a plan?Communication skills Spoken communication

Written communicationPerformance and publicspeakingGraphic or design skills

Teamwork andleadership

Working in groups

Interacting with others

Relationships withcustomers or clientsTeaching and mentoring

Working with those ofdifferent skills and

backgroundsSelf-awareness andcritical reflection

Know what my strong pointsareKnow what my weak pointsareAct to address myweaknessesReceive and use feedback

Problem solving Identify problemsAbility to deal with change

Flexibility and adaptability

Initiative andresourcefulness

Organisational skills Planning skillsTime management,timetabling and working todeadlinesAssigning priorities

Managing resources

Self-evaluation last updated:

When youve found the gaps, move onto the planning stage

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Plan how these needs will be addressed

Skill needed How to gain or improve the skill Measure of success

To add a new row to the table using Microsoft Word, place the cursor in the bottom right cell and press the tab key

Plan last updated:

Act to meet the needs and supplement skills and experience

Now go and do it!

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Record the evidence in a way that is easy to understand and re-use

Communication Skillse.g. presentation, performance, written skills, others such as graphic skills

Add extra sheets where this is useful, for instance for written feedback or copies of qualifications

Evidence (need only be brief notes) Date

Summaryof evidence (in a form that may be used in job applications)

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Teamwork and leadershipe.g. working in groups, interacting with others, relationships with customers or clients,teaching and mentoring, working with those of different skills and backgrounds



Summary of evidence (in a form that may be used in job applications)

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Self-awareness and critical reflectione.g. strengths exploited, limitations identified and overcome



Summary of evidence (in a form that may be used for job applications)

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Problem solvinge.g. project work, ability to deal with change, flexibility, adaptability, initiative and

resourcefulness




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Organisational Skillse.g. time management, planning, undertaking and completing specific tasks,

enthusiasm, motivation, management of information and resources




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Basic and extended skill sete.g. numeracy, IT skills, language experience and qualifications; assets such as drivinglicense, first aid or lifesaving, professional affiliation etc

NB This may be the section where you choose to collect and record evidence ofany skills which do not fit the categories above, or evidence of specific skillsgained from such activities as volunteering or work experience e.g. interculturalawareness, commercial skills




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Keep reflecting on achievement and gaps

Use the table below to keep a log of the updates to your portfolio.

Semester/year Self-evaluation updated: Planning updated: Records updated:

To add a new row to the table using Microsoft Word, place the cursor in the bottom right cell and press the tab key

Add any comments below:

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pd portfolio 28 viii 2008

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