Professional Learning And Development: Trends And Issues In Australia

Big Picture

The professional development and ethics help to develop the career of people mainly the students and the job seekers. The main aim of professional development and ethics is to interpret the ethical issues of professional development. This provides opportunities to be involved in various activities that are extra curriculum activities.  Professional development and ethics help to improve the skills and leadership style (Brooks & Youngson, 2016). Big picture refers to the situation or issue that needs to be solved.

The discussion includes various sections including the big picture, megatrends, challenges of the job market, goals, professional values, ethics and social responsibilities, competency assessment and managerial and technical competences. The condition of global and Australian economy is discussed. Moreover, the impact of the gender inequality, different types of service sectors and Australian skilled migration are discussed. In the second section, the chemical and material engineering and megatrend analysis are done. The condtion of the job market is not good globally that are discussed. The SWOT analysis is done to check the job market positions. Therefore, strategies are made to improve the condition.

The section reviews the recent big picture internationally in Australia. The analysis of the economy, Australian immigration policies, digital technology, and gender inequality are done.

The international monetary crisis ended in the year 2010, which influenced the business landscape. The new economy started to grow slowly in the advanced developed market.  In recent days, it is easier for the consumers to know about the advanced market more easily than before. This is all because of technology that helps the customers to access the data and compare the product process before buying or selling. As per report, 79% Australian chiefs are concerned about the changed market, whereas 74% are worried about the technological skills (Jackson, 2014). The CEOs expect that the candidates should be familiar with the new technologies.

To be in the global market, the service sectors of Australia need improvement. Australian service sector go on to experience the robust growth with the employment and output of the other sectors. The GDP account of Australia has raised 60% that is $90 billon in the service production in between 2014-2015 and the intermediary inputs of the services are 45% (Dept of Employment, 2016). From the total workforce only 27% that approximately 3.1 million are employed and the labor productivity is high that is 19% above industry average (Dept of Employment, 2015). This has four groups such as Information and Communication Technology and Digital Economy, Transport and Logistics, trade, Professional and Support Services and Utilities Services.

The skilled migration can provide chances to the young people of Australia to build their career in the engineering field. However, it is difficult to find out better jobs in Australia.

It is clear that government is trying to halt the engineering migration for one year. However, the Engineers Australia advises the government to include the skilled occupation list to develop the engineering profession. Hines et al. (2014) opined that this development could be a part of economic expansion and the contraction. However, the engineering employment market is highly cyclic in nature.

Global and Australian Economy

In case of employment, the inclusion of female employees is only 4%, which is much less in comparison to the male employees. In a survey, it is found that in 2011, out of 32,814 only 8385female engineers have the ability of taking the labor force. 24,429 female engineers were unemployed that is approximately 5.2% (Guan et al., 2014). One of the reasons of unemployment is the shortage of skills. In the engineering field, gender inequality is a major problem that needs to b reduced for the economic growth of Australia. However, Chesters, Ryan and Sinning (2013) mentioned that not only in the engineering field but also all over the job market, gender inequality is a major issue that is known as the biasness.

The second part explores mega trends in technical, scientific and professional services. Particularly chemical and material engineers, project administrators, management and organization analysts, program and contract occupations.

Chemical and material engineers have various chances to develop their career in Australia. The Department of Employment took the initiative fort the Australian government as a summary of the job prospects, which are as follows:

• The job openings is expected to be lower from 2014-2019 in the field of engineering
• The degree of Bachelors is minimum and mutual education attainment is 82% with the 18% postgraduate qualification (Dept of Employment, 2016).
• Employment rate in this profession is rising strongly from the past decades and it can be expected that it will grow significantly in future days.
• The proportion of the full time jobs in this field is gradually very high that is 95% than other occupation (Dept of Employment, 2016).

The relevant data for the management and organization analysts are excluded for the ICT business. The management and organization analysts are high in between 25,001-50000 I respect to other jobs (Schober, 2013). From the last years, the average of the educational attainment is going higher at 84%. The Bachelors degree is a common educational degree, which is at 40% in average and 29% of the postgraduate (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2016). The percentage of the under graduate is much lower. The percentage of the employment is increasing, which develops the global market.

Hawthorne (2015) mentioned that the job outlook does not have any specific data for the project manager and the available occupation are note in the databases that is Program and Project administration. It can be expected that the number of the opening of the jobs are more than 50,000 that is a high amount for the occupation. The proportion of the full time job is approximately 82% that will grow higher in next five years. The bachelors’ degree is the common attainment at the 26% with the 18% postgraduate degree (Brooks & Youngson, 2016). However, the number of postgraduate is lower than the candidates who are graduated. Contract, program and project administrators are employed mainly in the construction, Public Administration, safety, and professional, scientific, and Technical services.

Occupation	Chemical and material engineering	Management and organization analysis	Contract, program and project administration
2014-2019 job openings	≤ 5000	25,001- 50,000	Ø 50,000
Education attainment	Bachelor’s- 82% Postgraduate- 18%	Bachelor’s- 40% Postgraduate- 29%	Bachelor’s- 26% Postgraduate- 18%
Employment rate up to 2020	Relatively steady growth	Very strong growth	Very strong growth
Major employing state and territory	NSW- 24.9% QLD- 25.6% VIC- 21.7%	QLD- 14.7% NSW- 39.5% VIC- 29.9%	VIC- 26.3% NSW- 25.4% QLD- 42%
Main employing industry	Manufacturing- 42.9% Profession, scientific, technical services- 32.1%	Manufacturing- 42.9% Profession, scientific, technical services- 40.4% Financial and insurance services- 14.8%	Manufacturing- 42.9% Profession, scientific, technical services- 11.1% Public administration and safety- 24.6%
Gender share (Full time)	Male- 86.2% Female- 8.6%	Male- 53.5% Female- 30.2%	Male- 39.9% Female- 42%

The section focuses on the greatest challenges of the job market and career growth in Australia. The obstacles can include the competitive job market of Australia. One can gain knowledge from the above mentioned sections as well as from the gender inequality and personal experience. To get a successful career one need to know the challenges and overcome them.

In the employment of the chemical and material engineering, the job market is still growing. As per report, in 2015, approximately 63% engineers get full time job in four months (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2016). However, in case of all jobs, the rate is still below 68%. However, still there is chance of growth of the chemical and material engineering, which has the ability to lead the market. The other engineering sectors also need to grow for the economy of Australia.  

The Service Sector

Australian business sponsored the temporary residents in the professional jobs that have the dilemma to get the permanent residency in this country. There are various challenges for an engineer to get a job. The person needs to have experience and capability of hard working. The large enterprises in Australia promote the graduate programs for the new candidates who seek job to provide them experience (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2015). One needs to take the advantage and fight against the challenge to overcome the problems. However, sometimes the candidates do the unrelated courses that do not match with their qualification to get a job. This mainly happens with the people who are not the permanent citizen of Australia.

Approximately ninety percent of the applicant for the engineering jobs is not considered as the appropriate candidate for other job roles in Australia (Dept of Employment, 2016). Other reason of the unsuitable applicants is mainly due to the lack of knowledge of locality, its regulation and state. Many of the candidates may have not proper skills on the soft skills, supervisory skills and communication. If a candidate wants to shift their career from chemical and material engineering to management and organization analysts, then he needs to know some skills like supervisory skills and management skills. In the job market, the competition is very high therefore; the candidates need to get high scores in their educational qualification.   

One of the big challenges is the gender inequality. The women engineers mainly face problems to get jobs as well as the senior management roles. Some of the candidates face rejection, which can demotivate them and lead them to depression. They need to have patience and continue the struggle to get success in their career. The candidates need to develop their skills in their field. In such cases, the woman candidates have to struggle more because of gender inequality (Hawthorne, 2015). The candidates, who can struggle with patience, will be successful in their career.  

Short term goals

The short-term goal is meant for the coming six months. My aim is to continue with the course of MBA (Master of Business Administration) at APIC (Asia-Pacific International College). I want to devote lot of time in this course that shall help me to improve my knowledge and by career prospective. This further training shall help me to encourage the work crevice enhance my insight in the end. Because of the APIC’s MBA technique, the capacity to accomplish my degree increases speedily and helped to accomplish my knowledge. I know that project management role is going to develop in recent future and this is the reason I want devote more times in the learning process. I shall increase the hours of studying. APIC is reasonable and aggressive than most colleges in Australia (Wasson, 2015). Thus, the idea is to continue with the subject and learn the best as per my ability.

The midterm plan is to complete my Master’s degree. I would like to look for better opportunities in my career but my aim is to make some transition in my career. I would like to focus in getting a good job and thus, I want to focus on my learning capability. In addition to this, I would also like to increase my knowledge on culture and communication of other people. I know that there has been an impact of cross-culture in the recent business activities. Therefore, increasing my knowledge and understanding on various cultures is also important.

Australian Skilled Migration

Long term goals

The people, who can gain knowledge form the chemical engineer and business analysts, are able to work as the project manager and can follow higher-level leadership style. To secure the future, one needs to avoid the long-term goals at the beginning and adopt the short-term goals. To reduce the gender inequality, the effective leaders can influence women to join not in the engineering courses but also participate in the education and career planning programs (Antony, 2014). This needs to be started form the early days of life that is from school and college life. I hope that these types of courses can help women and reduce the gender gap in case of engineering profession and entrepreneurship professions in Australia.

Professional values

In my view, the professionalism is highly important and encompasses with the other values that is respectful, punctual and responsible. However, Houghtalen, Osman and Hwang (2016) mentioned that the professionals need to consider the best interest of the society and environment to make decisions and take action. The project managers have some responsibilities to take the ownership in decision-making. The project manager has the responsibility of the task if the task fails or succeeds.

Respect refers to the value that a professional needs to uphold regarding the environment of the profession. I need to follow the professional values to be successful I my career.

In view of Chuang et al. (2014), the stakeholder is the individual group that can affect or be affected by the decision and outcome of the project. The strong project manager has the ability to handle the stakeholders. The leaders have some ethical and social responsibilities that they need to follow. For example, the responsibilities are the corporate social responsibilities, economic responsibilities and the philanthropic responsibilities.

Set up Competency targets

This table shows every level of socio-cultural competencies. I am targeting to it after the MBPM to fulfill the gaps to improve the comment deficiencies. As per the above table, the competencies of mine are targeted to the third level that is equivalent to the 60%.

In the above table, the self-analyzed socio-cultural levels are described with my quantified current levels. I gained knowledge from Chemical engineering, professional courses and working in Hospitality industry. On the above table, all of my adopted skills are described.

This figure shows the merged targeted levels and the self-assessed levels o fine via the online learning system of APIC. In the table, the red bars are represented to show the socio-cultural competencies.

In the table, below my targets and deficiencies in MBPM are outlined. From the website of APIC, my deficiencies are shown. Via conducting the assessment and target setting, I can take out the best subject matters to develop my career graph. I can expect that I will learn many things from the assessment.

This part provides the SWOT analysis of mine that summarized my strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. This helped me to achieve my goals. My all the activities has influenced the SWOT analysis that created a strong overview of my workings for CPD1102.

Gender Inequality

Figure: SWOT analysis

(Source: Azapagic & Perdan, 2014)

In case of reduced demands of engineering in Australia, there is a significant political threat o get the first professional job and gain knowledge. In recent days, I am unemployed therefore; I have enough time to attend the professional programs. From the following table, the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological analysis is shown.

From 2017 January to 2018 February, I tabulated my preferred plan. This schedule showed that my aim is to complete the minimum each month for the thirteen months and in this time; I need to invest the cost. From the following table, one can get an idea of types, progress, time and budget of the preferred plan. To confirm the preferred plan, I need to consult with my mentor and lecturer about the program. This can be done face to face or via electronic communication system such as emails or telephone.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that my professional learning and development plan is outlined as the graduated chemical engineer from 2017 January to 2018 February that is the end of the masters in the Business project management with the Asia pacific international college. At this time, I scheduled extra activities for the specialized development for enhancing the career prospects. During the completion of the L&D plan the global and Australian economy were conducted my main goal is to make progress in the engineering industries and face the challenges to modify my gaps and progress in my career. However, the main challenge for me is to overcome the challenge of unemployment. In case of the engineering profession, the skilled migration can help a lot to the women to overcome the challenges. Moreover, the professional courses can help a candidate to improve the career graph. During the explore of professional values and ethics, I need the self assessed targets after doing the MBPM course. In the final section, the possible strategies, preferred plan and proposed program are structured that can help me to achieve the goals to be a successful project manager in future years.

This L&D plan provided me a meaningful sight to view the Australian industrial market. From this, I have found that the gender inequality affects the labor market mainly in the chemical engineering profession. However, during the bachelors’ degree, the majority students were female and this was the highest rate among all types of engineering. I need to research the job market of Australia to as the female employees to make my skills stronger. I want to be a successful leader, in which the professional courses are helping. As I have previous experience of job, therefore I will not face more problems to get job in anywhere of the country. After doing the professional courses, I am confident that I can be a strong leader as well as the business analysts.

References

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