personal development plannig
DESCRIPTION
Personal EventTRANSCRIPT
Outcome 1 Create and maintain a personal development portfolio
What you will learn
Personal development planning
Approaches to PDP and your broad objectives
Steps to planning
Becoming a self-directed and independent learner
What is a personal portfolio
Personal Development Portfolio and action planning
Confidence quiz
Personal development planning
It is all too easy to have good intentions, but
we often find it is more difficult to put our ideas
and plans into action and make real progress.
Action planning is a way of making objectives
clear and identifying steps we need to take in
order to reach our goals.
Personal development planning (PDP) is a process that will allow you to
identify, manage and develop your skills, experience and learning. It is a
recurring process that will help you clarify and achieve your personal,
educational and career aims. In simple terms it involves a cycle of activities:
• reviewing where you are
• planning where you want to get to
• carrying out your plan
• reviewing again, where you have got to.
review → plan → do → review
The review at the end of one planning cycle marks the beginning of the next.
You will be able to use this planning cycle many times in your life whether you are
planning for a career or planning to achieve your personal goals. You can use it to
help you get the most out of your HN studies; if you go on to degree level study you
will find the college/university you attend will require you to keep up the process,
and, increasingly, employers require evidence that you can manage your own
development, through PDP.
Examples of ways in which you might use PDP include:
planning at school for subject choices and applying to a college
setting objectives for degree level study
setting objectives for employment
gap year or voluntary service
pre exit planning session with supervisor
annual requirement for continuous professional development (CPD)
report in employment
joining professional body/annual requirement for CPD update for
membership
requirement for postgraduate qualification at university
career move: new CPD phase.
There will be other examples of the uses for personal development planning.
Every individual will find the best way to tailor it to their own, personal needs.
The process is very good for thinking about both short-term and long-term
aims.
By completing this process (at this point) you will demonstrate to yourself and
to others such as employers, academic selectors or admissions tutors that you
are able to think critically about your own development and take
appropriate action to achieve goals.
They will also be aware that you have the ability to repeat the process time
and time again to take account of changes in circumstances such as new
opportunities or unforeseen threats.
In particular, your work on PDP in this unit will:
help you make the most of the opportunities offered at HN and post-
HN
develop your skills as an independent learner
ensure lessons learned during your HN course are carried through to
post-HN study and employment.
Approaches to PDP and your broad objectives
Through the PDP process, this unit will help
you to focus on immediate goals as well as
long-term objectives. For the purposes of the
unit you will be looking at your intended
direction over the next 18 months.
The routes applicable to this stage of planning are:
• progression to degree study
• progression to employment.
It may seem to be too soon to start thinking about a future career, but
understanding what is involved in making career decisions, and how long this
can take, is essential if you are to achieve future employment or further study
goals.
Some thought and action planning now will really improve your chances eg
arranging relevant work experience, developing work-related skills to
enhance your CV, or choosing suitable study units.
Making career decisions is not a game of guesswork, nor is it based on the
hope that your ideal job will one day jump out of the newspaper in the form
of an advert. It is a process based on careful evaluation of yourself, followed
by thorough exploration of the options available. The linked activities and
questions in this guide are designed to help you begin this process and carry
it out, in a systematic way, so that you can make decisions which you are
able to justify, and act upon, with real energy and enthusiasm.
You must think about what you really want to do by exploring your own
preferences and priorities. You may decide that you want to:
• use subject specific knowledge
• use particular skills
• satisfy particular interests
• achieve a goal
• feel a sense of purpose or value.
Once you have decided which of these is important you can explore and
broaden ideas about options.
Steps to planning
Irrespective of which route you choose as the area of
focus for planning, there is a step-by-step approach
and framework for analysing, planning, implementing
and evaluating.
The 7 step plan forms the framework for the sequence of activities throughout
this unit.
The personal development planning process is defined by the seven steps to
planning.
This process will be repeated and modified throughout the years as an aid to
decision making.
Becoming a self-directed and independent learner
As a learner whose aspiration is to build on
your HNC/HND by progressing to degree
study, you will need to develop the ability to
plan and direct your own work and to work
independently. There is no mystery to
acquiring this ability.
It is gained through a mixture of self knowledge, making the most of your
strengths, tackling areas that might let you down, being able to plan and
evaluate what you do and taking the appropriate action, where necessary.
Undertaking HN study provides the perfect opportunity to work on these
aspects of your development and this will stand you in good stead in the
university environment, ensuring you are prepared for the opportunities and
challenges that degree study will bring.
Please click on the image below to watch a short YouTube clip, which
introduces the purpose and benefits of personal development planning.
Guidance on assessment process
Guidance on creating, maintaining and presenting the portfolio and action
plan will be addresses within the supporting lesson notes and the classroom.
Your tutor will give you support and advice on assessment throughout the
completion of this unit.
In putting together a portfolio and devising an action plan you will need to
engage in several processes. These include:
gathering evidence of skills and achievements
analysing current work and personal qualities and skills
giving explanation and receiving feedback on self appraisal and plans
investigating options post HN
communicating with key people in relation to present course and
future plans
locating resources to help with planning and achieving goals
The personal portfolio
What do we mean by a personal portfolio and why
should you develop it?
A personal portfolio is a collection of documents that details your
achievements through particular stages of your educational path or career
route. If you develop this portfolio of evidence over a considerable period of
time it will be of real value to you in assessing the skills you have already,
recording new achievements and planning future goals and objectives.
Although, in this instance, your portfolio will assist you in gaining the Personal
Development Planning unit, it has a wider significant use. For example, it has
the potential to provide evidence for potential employers or other places of
study that you are able to plan and evaluate your own objectives and goals.
The portfolio can also be a basis for future planning in whatever context you
find yourself, once your HN course is finished. Increasingly, employers are
encouraging continuous professional development (CPD), universities are
required to ensure learners undertake PDP and many professional bodies use
a portfolio approach to generate evidence of competence in a specific
vocational and/or professional field. The process of planning, portfolio
building and evaluation is therefore an important building block at this stage
of your academic and vocational journey.
Your portfolio and action plan will show:
your ability to reflect on your personal qualities and skills
evidence of your achievements
your ability to weigh up your options for post HN study
how you monitor and amend activities planned to achieve current
and future aims and goals
how you take responsibility for achieving aims and goals
how you manage the opportunities offered to you during your course
your ability to set SMART objectives
lessons learned.
Your personal development portfolio and action plan
The following gives advice and guidance on
completing a portfolio including a personal
action plan.
Each step has:
guidance and advice, eg what questions you should ask
advice on when you should review each part of the portfolio/action
plan
advice on how to gather evidence
pro-formas that can be used to record activities and which can be
used as the basis of your portfolio and action plan (given in the
portfolio shell). These are designed for written submissions but you can
use other forms of evidence such as video or sound recordings as long
as they cover the assessment requirements.
Although the development of a portfolio is a continuous process, you should
set key dates for completing tasks and for meeting your tutor to review steps.
You will be able to complete some things immediately, such as basic details
and objectives, but you will only be able to complete other aspects after
finding out relevant information.
Please click here to access a copy of the portfolio shell. Alternatively you can
locate a copy of the shell in session 1 leaning section.
You should record all activities undertaken in compilation of your portfolio
and retain a copy in word as well as those uploaded on to Mahara.
Before you start work on your portfolio, consider for a moment how you tend
to approach a new learning situation. Most people repeat the same cycles
over and over again. For example, think of your personal experience when
learning to drive or learning a foreign language.
Activity 1.1
Please review the following statement and begin to identify how you are as a
new learner embarking on your studies.
Growth in confidence
1. When approaching a new topic or skill:
a) I feel confident
b) I believe that I will make good progress
c) I don’t realise how little I know
d) I am looking forward to using the new skill
2. As I start to explore the subject:
a) I feel strange/awkward
b) I am horrified at how much there is to learn
c) I feel that I’ll never manage to grasp these new ideas or sections
d) My confidence lessens
3. When I continue to try:
a) I make steady progress
b) I start to enjoy it
c) I feel that I am going in the right direction
d) Fear of failure lessens and confidence grows
4. If I continue:
a) I get confident
b) I get good at it
c) I feel proud of my achievements
d) Friends/colleagues recognise my achievements
You can find a copy of the above questionnaire in word format, located on
Moodle, Session 1. Please complete this questionnaire and retain a copy on a
USB stick to bring to the next class.
What next
In your next class you will be introduced to Mahara and have the opportunity
to begin building your Portfolio with support and guidance from the lecturer.