Employment Skills For Business Students: A Personal Development Plan

Opportunities for Personal and Professional Development in University

Employment skills in this report will refer to a set of achievements, that is personal features, skills and understandings that improves business graduates’ likelihood of gaining employment and being successful in their areas of occupations. These skills will benefit the graduates, fellow workmates as well as the community. Employability of graduates is a very vital issue to both the current students, the governments as well as institutions of higher education. Due to the recent economic recession followed by firstly expanding higher education, the competition for employment in the market has intensified.

The major reason for individual investments in the higher learning institutions is to improve their chances of obtaining jobs. Even though attaining higher grades is highly valued, market competition has made it insufficient to warrant securing a job of your choice. Employers expect graduates to possess several other skills that will empower them to make an immediate impact on the organisations once employed (Hambrick, 2007).

The focus of this report will be to evaluate my personal development progress and planning. It will begin with a highlight of some of the skills which are highly valued when it comes to finding a job. Later, all review my past developments to date. Afterward, all evaluate areas that need perfection as well as identify activities that may assist me to develop areas of weakness during my learning process (Emiliani, 2006).

• Personal development planning
  • Business students key study and employment skills

Of all the careers that I have knowledge of business is one of the areas that require a diversity of skills. Even though a number of this skills can be attained by going through the education curriculum and attaining high grades there are some individual attributes that the students will need to go an extra mile to perfect. Due to the diversity of the business world skills such as multi-cultural working ability is very effective when it comes to improving a graduate’s employability. This though is not an isolated case, the students still need to possess skills such as effective communication, good decision making and ability to work as part of a team (Krishnan, 2008). Other areas such as research, planning, time management, problem-solving, organisation and enthusiasm also need to be considered by students before they can declare themselves ready to take on the employment market. Due to the vast number of academic and personal skills that students are demanded to possess by employers it may not be possible for a student to perfect all the areas at the university level. Due to this, possessing the willingness to learn is another skill that is crucial in improving the students’ employability as well as taking their occupation to the top.

• Reflection of my personal developments to date

Key Skills for Business Students

During my time at the University of Sunderland I have managed to obtain a grasp of several skills through the academic processes and other learning activities designed by my lecturers. Of notice was my participation as part of a group which was involved in organising a fundraising activity for Macmillan Cancer Research based in London. This is a research centre whose objective is helping people have a good understanding of the cancer menace. As part of this group I was able to grasp several attributes which have really assisted in my skill development.

Being a group task, I learned a lot when it comes to teamwork and is now able to develop and maintain a positive relationship that is needed to work as a team and optimise the outcome. Moreover, the research process enabled me to identify the value of time and the necessity of managing it, with this comes the aspect of planning as it goes along with time management. Since we were tasked with being part of the fundraising organisers we had to communicate our ideas frequently to the other parties (Nijhof, 2005). This occasionally raised conflict of interests. The time spent solving the arising problems gave me a chance to equip myself with problem-solving skills in addition to means of communicating effectively. With this comes good decision making.

In general, the activity was very helpful in my quest to develop key employability skills.

• Areas currently being developed

Even though the participation in organising a Harambe gave me an opportunity to develop my skills, most of the areas need time before they can be perfected. Now am working around the clock to sharpen my planning, teamwork, decision making and time management skills. This is being done by tackling daily issues that arise in my academic as well as professional life. The CV attached in my appendix gives more information regarding my skills so far.

• Areas that need development

Even though my development progress to date has been impressive, I still have a few weaknesses that need to be addressed before I can feel fully equipped to handle a job in the business world. One of my major weakness is organisation. Currently I have low ability to utilise resources optimally and feel this area need improvement. In addition to this, I have little experience with cultural diversity and feel I may not possess enough skills when it comes to multi-cultural working ability. Furthermore, I may wish to improve my enthusiasm when undertaking tasks that are crucial but out of my hobbies bracket. Finally, I feel the need to improve my willingness to learn so I can be flexible in handling issues arising in the business world (Neubaum, et al., 2009). More information in this area will be obtained in the resume attached in the appendix.

• Learning and skill development opportunities while at the university

My Personal Development Progress to Date

Apart from attending lectures, the University of Sunderland offers several avenues that students can pursue to assist them further their employability skills. The school has several clubs and societies that are associated with a diverse range of people and tasks. This though is not the only avenue that I can use to learn, during the holidays the school allows its students with the help of their lecturers to secure temporary internship opportunities. This programme assists students to have a glimpse of what employers’ demand as well as give room for students to work together with people of diverse cultures (Paucar-Caceres, 2008).

Another opportunity that can assist student gain some useful employability skills is actively being involved in organising students’ programmes. This may range from students’ meetings, students’ library operating programmes as well as assist plan for special events like entertainments within the school. All these areas together with others not mentioned in my report are useful paths that students can pursue to develop additional employability skills that they are not able to acquire from lectures (Podolny, 2009).

• Avenues for improvements that I intend to pursue

As part of my development programme I intend to join one club and one society to assist me to develop some vital skills. One society of interest that I have singled out is the African Caribbean society. This is an old society in the University of Sunderland that aims to promote, educate as well as aspire Sunderland regarding the diversity of the African and Caribbean cultures (Presmus, Sanders and Jain, 2003). The target is the creation of cohesion and a  sense of unity. Being an African as well as Caribbean society that accept people of all races I believe this is the right place to acquire some multi-cultural working ability. My deficiency in this area together with the desire to learn more regarding other cultures is what has motivated me to join this group (Tsurumi, 2005). Also, I intend to join the debating club to assist me to gain some enthusiasm. I usually do admire the level of psych shown by students during their debating sessions. Finally, to further my organisation skills I intend to seek an internship during my holidays to learn resource distribution and optimisation.

My general assumption is that by pursuing these three avenues all be able to participate actively in their operations and position myself to acquire some of the skills which I currently lack.

Considering that I may face some difficulties securing internships due to the market competition for jobs, I intend to seek some assistance from my lecturers to secure the same opportunity within the university. As a business student I have acquired some skills which can be useful to the university departments. The school on the other hand can give me an opportunity to improve my skills (Woollard, Zhang and Jones, 2007).

• My personal development plan for the next 12-18 months

Areas for Improvement and a Personal Development Plan

Table 1: Personal development plan for the next 18 months

Conclusion

Employment is the target of most of the students currently undertaking graduate programmes. Whether you intend to pursue self-employment or seek a vacancy in some of the already developed firms there are skills out of the normal academic qualifications that you will need. The market trends combined with the increased number of people investing in higher learning have made competition for jobs stiff. With this educational excellence is no longer enough to guarantee employment. To improve my employability attributes, I have undertaken a personal development initiative to acquire the necessary skills that will improve my value to the potential employers. Through the assistance of my lecturers I have been able to participate is some helpful activities as far as my mission is concerned (Shweta, 2012). The participation in the Macmillan fundraising was a curtain raiser to my objectives. The task opened my eyes to a diverse number of experiences which saw me gain massively when it comes to personal skills.

From learning time management, teamwork, planning, research and decision making all the way to equipping myself with crucial proper communication attributes. I intend to make this just the beginning of my skill acquisition programme. To further my aims of improving my employability I went ahead to identify other areas of weaknesses and means to strengthen them by participating in several university programmes. I intend to get involved in a club as well as social activities within the school. The African Caribbean society being singled out (Cranmer, 2006). Finally, I will seek internship opportunities within or outside the university. All this are aimed at assisting me to develop personal as well as professional skills necessary for propelling my occupation to greater heights. To achieve these targets all will have to rely on the help of my teachers as well of those of fellow students hence I intend to make both my close associates from now onwards (Latisha and Surina, 2010).

References

Cranmer, S., 2006. Enhancing graduate employability: Best intentions and mixed outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), pp. 169-184.

Emiliani, M., 2006. Improving management education. Quality Assurance in Education, 14(4), pp. 363-84.

Hambrick, D., 2007. The field of management’s devotion to theory: too much of a good thing. Academy of Management Journal, 50(6), pp. 1346-53.

Krishnan, V., 2008. Impact of MBA education on students’ values: two longitudinal studies. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(2), pp. 233-46.

Latisha, A.S. and Surina, N., 2010. Employability awareness among Malaysian undergraduates. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(8), pp. 119-123.

Neubaum, D.D., Pagell, M., Drexler, J.A. Jr, McKee-Ryan, F.M. and Larson, E., 2009. Business education and its relationship to student personal moral philosophies and attitudes toward profits: an empirical response to critics. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 8(1), pp. 9-24.

Nijhof, W., 2005. Lifelong learning as a European skill formation policy. Human Resource Development Review, 4(4), pp. 401-17.

Paucar-Caceres, A., 2008. Mapping the structure of MBA (AMBA-accredited programmes) in the UK and France. International Journal of Educational Management, 22(2), pp. 184-209 .

Podolny, J., 2009. Are business schools to blame, s.l.: Harvard Business Review.

Presmus, R., Sanders, N. and Jain, R. K., 2003. Role of the university in regional economic development: the US experience. International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, 2(4), pp. 369-83.

Shweta, T., 2012. SKILLS, COMPETENCIES AND EMPLOYABILITY THROUGH BUSINESS EDUCATION. Journal of Management & Research, 6(4/4), pp. 1-13.

Tsurumi, Y., 2005. Dysfunctional corporations and flawed business education in America. Japanese Journal of Administrative Science, 18(3), pp. 179-92.

Woollard, D., Zhang, M. and Jones, O., 2007. Academic enterprise and regional economic growth: towards an enterprising university. Industry and Higher Education, 21(6), pp. 387-403.

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