Self-Managed Learning for Personal and Professional Development

In today’s business environment it is not only essential for the organisations to change their working mechanism but it is also crucial for the individuals to transform themselves according to the environment (Hopkinson, 2014). Industries are changing and accordingly people also need to change. It is necessary that a person develops themselves as per the standards required in the industry. Many types of skills need to be present in the employees of travel and tourism industry. In order to grab the opportunities available in the industry, individuals need to upgrade themselves on a regular basis. This report showcases the approaches taken by the employees for their personal and professional development. It also produces a Personal and professional development plan for managers in travel and tourism organisations.

1.1 Self-managed learning 

In the development process self-managed learning has a very decisive role. It is based on the fact that nothing works as better as self-managed learning (Busse, Aboneh and Tefera, 2014). Some of the famous approaches to self-managed learning are as follows:

• Books, articles and journals:  These resources have the knowledge related to the abilities and skills that is required by a person. All these sources contain highly authenticated data.
• Seminars: Several types of conferences and seminars are organised by various organisations. The experts from specific fields conduct these where they share their knowledge and hence individuals can learn according to their requirements.
• Internet: In modern times it is the most useful tool that can be utilised by the firm so as to manage self-learning. There is large number of contents that is present on the internet mediums on the specific topics. Using mobile technology any individual can take the information from anywhere. Only problem with this approach is that there are many unauthenticated data available on these sources which can be dangerous for learning (Moon, 2013).
• Social media: It is the new form of approach that is utilised by the managers so as to learn new things. Here the information is transferred from one person to another by interacting with each other. This is also not very authenticated approach.

1.2 Ways in which learning can be encouraged in PPD context

Any process of learning must have short and long term goals. There are several methodologies and approaches used by the employees so that learning is promoted within the firm (Von Haenisch, 2011). Such type of learning is based on the fact that learning process is a lifelong process rather than being one day approach. This is encouraged by the help of:

• Motivation from inside: Many researches have concluded the fact that without self-motivation nothing can be learned. This is also true about the lifelong learning.  Self-motivation of individual decides on the learning methodology that he or she adopts. In the development of skills in a person since it helps in removing the barriers of learning process such as negativity, motivational failures or depression (Mwalongo, 2011).
• Self-management: In the long term learning it is essential that a person manages himself. Organising their daily activities and life style in a manner so that they can learn throughout the life is very essential. Self-management helps in confronting all the hurdles that comes in the way. Self-management is always based on certain types of codes, principle or constructed guidelines.
• Modifying self: It is crucial for the individuals to make changes in them as per the requirement of the learning process (Zepeda, 2012). They need to adjust themselves according to the situations that are faced by them. In order to incorporate lifelong learning modification needs to be done on the regular basis. Feedbacks from other experienced person can help in identifying the things where changes are needed.
• Self-monitoring: It is crucial for any person to monitor themselves as per any predefined criteria’s and rate themselves accordingly. Introspection of the self-capabilities helps in understanding the strength and weaknesses of the individual which is necessary for planning the skill development. It includes evaluating different skills, talent, interest and values that a person.

1.3 Benefits related with self-managed learning for organisations and individuals

This kind of learning has various benefits. It plays a very essential role in increasing the levels of personal and professional skills they have and what is needed in the industry (Desimone, 2011). External approach is not required in this learning. It is an approach that can be easily adapted by any individual and is more reliable in the present time (Cole, 2017). It is helpful in enhancing the core-competencies and facing the weaknesses that an individual has.

Benefits to the individual are understood by these points:

• This enhances the skills of the employees that are essential for them.
• It improves the efficiency of the individual.
• It helps them in grabbing the opportunities available to them without external help (Hudson, 2013).
• It helps them in competing with others.

Benefits to the organisation are as follows:

• It enhances the productivity of the individual which ultimately enhances the productivity of the firm.
• It helps in improving the quality of work that is delivered by the employees which is always good for confronting the competition company is facing (Cleary and et. al., 2011).
• Labourers who are skilled always utilises the resources in a better manner.
• Self-managed learning saves the money of the organisation as companies do not have to spend money on the training and development for enhancing the skills of their employees.

2.1 Current skills and competencies against the professional standards and objectives of the company

There are various skills and competencies that are required against the professional standards and the objectives that are made by the firm. The table below illustrates the gap that is present in my skills and the professional standards.

Table of evaluation relative to the professional standards:

S.NO	Skills and Competencies	Score	Score by others	Variances
1.	Skills for countering issues	7	8	-1
2.	Team construction and managing	8	9	-1
3.	Good listener and advisor	7	9	-2
4.	Research linked with innovative methods and concepts	8	6	2
5.	Providing motivation	8	6	2
6.	My effectiveness and efficiency	9	7	2
7.	Quality standards	8	9	-1
8.	Effective as a team member	8	8	0
9.	Styles of leadership	8	6	2

Negative sign illustrates my weaknesses while positive showcases the strengths that I have. Based on the table my skills are as follows:

CV Name: Address: Telephone No: Email: Carrier Objective: To be a better employee by taking use of the experience and skills I have as well as ensuring the growth of organisation I get the chance to work. Academic Qualification: · Graduate · Master in Hotel Management Experience: Working in Thomas Cook from the last two year. Personal skills: · Problem solving ability · Skills of leadership · Honesty · Skills of time management · Working as a team Declaration: I solemnly declare that all the above mentioned information is correct and up to best of my knowledge.

2.2 Own developmental needs and activities required to fulfil them

There are several developmental needs and activities that I require so as to fulfil the requirements of the professional standards. This part is illustrated in the PPT.

2.3 Development opportunities in order to meet present and future needs

Methodologies and Approaches Used for Promoting Learning Within the Firm

Various developmental opportunities are available with me and I just need to capitalise on it when the right time comes. This part is also illustrated in PPT.

2.4 Plan for personal and professional development

PPD plan needs to be made checking the above mentioned needs of mine. Plan is as follows:

S.no	Learning objective	Current proficiency	Target proficiency	Opportunities of development	Criteria for judging success	Time scale	Evidence
1.	Effectiveness and efficiency	Presently the method that is in use is efficient.	Inheriting new methods and techniques will assist in achieving desired outcomes	Guidance by seniors	Performance report can be beneficial	4-5 month	Administrator’s judgement
2.	Style of leadership	Presently using autocratic style of leadership	It is crucial to adopt democratic style of leadership	Trainings like simulation training and motivational sessions by the senior managers can be beneficial.	Judgement report by the higher level managers.	2 weeks	Report by top management
3.	Motivational level	Presently the motivational level is in the negative direction	It is crucial to have positive and higher level of motivation	Seminars and motivational conferences can be helpful as well as theories of motivation can also be used.	Judgement by colleagues can be crucial	3 months	Colleagues and other coordinator’s report

3.1 Process activities that is necessary for applying development plan

Many activities and processes are there that can be beneficial in plan implementation for development (Huber, 2011). For enhancing the current abilities and skills these processes can be crucial. For ensuring higher level of success implementing it in a proper way is crucial. Some process activities need to be done in this regards which are as follows:

• Setting time scale: It is always crucial that the made plan is bounded under certain time clause. By doing so pre-defined task can be completed on time.
• Learning strategies: Several methodologies, approaches and strategies may be used in the learning process. Approach selection everytime relies on their personal requirements (Kapoor and Solomon, 2011).
• Skills, knowledge and activities: In order to achieve different the plan in the process, people need to have proper understanding of knowledge skills and abilities. Work associated problems can be easily solved using all three.
• Resource: It is crucial in the process that selection of resources needs to be done more wisely (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). More authenticated resources need to be chosen so the people can move in the right direction.
• Evaluation and feedback: In the implementing process it is always crucial that a person evaluates the effectiveness of the learning process. Apart from self-monitoring it is beneficial that feedbacks must be taken by others. This helps in making the evaluation process more useful and hence the quality of learning process can be improved.

3.2 Undertaking and documenting planned developmental activities

Since monitoring is a very essential process in the developmental plan hence it is crucial that it is done in a more précised manner (Wang, 2013). In order to achieve this documenting of each and every thing will be beneficial in this regards. These documentations can be utilised for the future reference where plan can be made. Few of the activities are provided below:

• Managing changes: Documentation plays a vital role in the change management process. Even a bit of change can be documented down. Feedbacks are easier to be given when it is documented down.
• Strategies of learning: Effective strategies of learning have to be taken into account for touching the higher growth rate.
• Research: This is an essential process where the important data needs to be gathered by the help of research.
• Monitoring and evaluation: In this whole process, it is important that monitoring of the process needs to be done so as to mark any kind of variances. If the variances are identified then it can be removed with the use of developmental plans.

3.3 Own learning abilities relative to the original aims and objectives set in the developmental plan

For individual, it’s essential to devote their time in the process of their personal and professional development. It will assist individuals in moving towards the path for achieving objectives and goals (Jackson, 2015). Improvement must be done in the personal and professional development plan as per the requirement. Fewer ways to understand the requirements are described below:

• Formal meetings: By the process of formal meetings, individuals can produce their development plan in front of the person who has more expertise in their respective fields. This may help in redevelopment plan.
• Other’s experience can be beneficial: In accessing and evaluating own developmental plan, experience of others can be highly effective. It helps in updating plan, reshaping it as per the requirement etc.
• Self-motivation: In order to achieve greater developmental standards self-motivation is highly required. Without this whole plan can never be successful and may not be able to get achieve the desired goals on time.

3.4 Updating developmental plan on the basis of feedbacks and evaluation

Changes in the developmental plan as per the requirement are very necessary. It needs to be done on the regular basis. It is crucial that the updating process in the developmental plan must be based on either the self-evaluation or by the feedbacks that is given by others (Stalker and Mavin, 2011). Few things that need to be done for this are as follows:

• Change in the training methodology: For removing the flaws in the developmental process, training methodologies needs to be changed smartly. This will help in ensuring that more appropriate outcomes can be achieved.
• Different approaches: Many types of approaches are obtained by individuals so as to make the learning process more appropriate. In resolving the problems that may arise in future in the developmental process, taking use of different styles can be beneficial. This makes the plan multi variant.
• Motivational requirement: For achieving any goals it is crucial that an individual must have greater levels of motivation. In the development of professional attribute motivation is a must requirement.

4.1 Selecting solution for problems related to work

Many types of problems exist within the hospitality firms (Suh, West and Shin, 2012). For ensuring higher growth rate of firm they all need to confront with a plan. It is also necessary for the personal career. In this section of the report one such problem has been highlighted which is as follows:

Problem that exists in some units of Thomas cook is of working as a team. It is seen that they are unable to work as team which is highly essential in the modern day business environment. It is crucial that Thomas cook utilise collaborative working as a tool. Working in teams reduces the efforts of each person. It is crucial that firm enforce the environment where people work as a team. This may lead to provide better services to the consumers. Some methods can be utilised for solving the problem:

• Construction appropriate communication channels:  It is crucial that firm creates a communication channel that brings smoothness in the work process and ensure that there is no obstacle in the flow of information.
• Reducing confusion: It is essential that managers reduce the confusion between the staffs at different levels especially regarding the organisational structure as well as whom they will have to report. Any confusion can reduce the performance of employees and overall organisations. This can be done with the help of using proper communication mediums.
• Team building exercise: It is the role of the managers to conduct such activities that enhances the team spirit within the employees. Team games and other exercise can help the company in building the trust among each other which is necessary for working as a group. This also helps in bringing coordination among the staffs.

4.2 Learning styles that helps in resolving issues

Benefits of Personal and Professional Development

Thomas cook’s employee takes use of many types of learning styles. These learning styles assist in resolving the issues that are identified in the above section. Every employee selects their own style of learning according to the developmental needs (Warrick, 2011). In identification of learning styles senior managers can be highly helpful. It is the manager’s role to encourage people for adopting the changes as per the requirement and the standards that have been set by the managers of the firm.

Utilising the three styles solitary, verbal and logical, new style of learning can be created. Channels that are predefined can be utilised for communicating at various levels of organisation. Like in the case when the managers need to have control over their operations they can use controlling and direct instruction method. This helps them in taking control over their subordinates. Supportive style is also used by managers for interactions of strategic levels. Places or situations where motivation is needed, like in the change process, this method can be highly useful. In order to understand the perception and thinking of the employees Promoter style can be used by the managers.

4.3 Different time related strategies for organisations and individuals

There are several time constraints associated with any organisation or individual. All these strategies help the individuals or organisations to complete the task on time and hence they play a very necessary role in making it a success (Testa and Sipe, 2012). It’s the management of time that brings success to the organisation or an individual. Some of these strategies are as follows:

• Setting goals: It is crucial that before making the developmental plan an employee must set the goals they wanted to achieve. These goals must be smart so as to gain maximum profits.
• Scheduling: It is essential that all the activities that need to be done in the developmental plan must be scheduled in a particular time frame. All the activities need to be divided into the smaller forms so that it can be completed on time.
• Organising: In this time related strategy company needs to organise all the resources they have as well as organise them as per the requirement from time to time.
• Time bound: It is another time related strategy where all the activity that needs to be done has been allocated particular time. Without time bounding any activity success can be of no use.

Conclusion

A conclusion can be drawn from the above assignment that in the present environment for business, it has become crucial for not only the organisation but for individuals also to upgrade themselves as per the future requirement of the industry. This helps them in grabbing the opportunities available with them. In order to develop personal and professional skills a development plan needs to be designed. Learning strategies like self-managed learning can be beneficial for both organisations and individuals. In the development process feedbacks from others can be crucial especially the feedbacks from experienced persons can be of high use. Various gaps can be found out by the help of monitoring and evaluation of the skills that is present with any individual.  Various time management strategies can be helpful for the individual to get the desired result in a given time.

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