Professional and Academic Skills Development Assignment Sample

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Introduction: Professional and Academic Skills Development

Professional and academic skills development refers to the continuous enhancement of the skills and capabilities in the career as well as the academics. The academic and career goal targets to develop the necessary skills that are helpful in the future profession and help in the current studies as well (Charlton et al, 2022). The academic and career goals are focused on the enhancement of organisational abilities and becoming an HR manager in a company. The reflective model to be used is SWOT analysis and the theories to be used for time management and organisational capabilities are the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) and the Skill theory of Katz respectively. This report will cover the self-assessment of the capabilities and prepare the PDP for improvement in the future.

Reference materials and sample papers are provided to help students understand assignment structure and improve academic skills. We, as the best assignment helper offer guidance while maintaining original work. The Professional and Academic Skills Development sample highlights reflective self-assessment, clear structure, and practical application of career development theories, and is intended solely for study and reference purposes.

Main Body

Developing professional and academic skills is essential for meeting both current academic requirements and future career expectations. By identifying gaps in key competencies such as time management, planning, and organisation, targeted development actions can be undertaken to enhance overall performance and readiness for a human resource management role.

Self-assessment and reflection

Self-assessment refers to the evaluation of one’s abilities and lacking areas that are needed to develop to attain the performance goals both in profession and academics as part of Professional and Academic Skills Development. The model used for self-assessment and reflection is SWOT analysis. This model was developed by Albert Humphrey during the period of 1960s (Hutson et al, 2022). Through this, I can assess the skills possess as well as lacked by me and the scope and limitations it can bring to my career as well as academics.

• Strengths: Based on the SWOT analysis, it is found that I possess effective communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills. These are helpful to academics and also benefit the future career, supporting Professional and Academic Skills Development (Chu et al, 2021). For example, communication skills helped me in academics through active listening and constructive feedback provided in the classroom and through group activity. Through problem-solving and decision-making, I managed to resolve the concerns of the team as a leader in the group assignments. This will also be effective for me in my future career as an HR manager managing the team and communicating the information in a better way.
• Weakness: Based on the SWOT analysis, I identified that there is a lack of time management, planning and organisation skills in me. These are necessary for better academics as well as future professions (Swanson, 2022). For example, due to the lack of time management, I once struggled with the deadlines in the assignments. The inability to plan and organise effectively resulted in difficulty in completing the study course during the exams. This profession needs to plan and organise the various tasks on a timely basis. This can have issues in my future profession as an HR manager.
• Opportunities: Due to the presence of effective communication, I can share my ideas and views with people confidently. This can benefit me in my career as well as my future profession. Through decision-making and problem-solving, I have the opportunities to resolve issues and make the appropriate decisions. This can help in my career as an HR manager to effectively lead the team and work as per the goals and lead to success.
• Threats: I found the lack of skills that are time management, planning and organisation can bring threats to the performance in academics as well as the profession. This can lead to mismanagement in academics and work and leads to struggle with deadlines and meeting targets (Boselie and van der Heijden, 2024). There is also a threat to me in proper handling of the work and this can impact the productivity and attainment of the desired performance by me.

Time Management, Career Ambitions, and Development Actions

My career goal is to work as an HR manager in the future which need to have certain skills such as time management, planning, organising, etc. As found in the SWOT analysis above, I identified that I lack these capabilities which can cause issues in the successful working in this role. These skills are needed to improve to perform as per the requirements of the job. There can be certain factors that create issues in smooth communication (CHRMP, 2025). Due to the lack of planning and organisation, I struggle to present myself confidently and communicate on the subjects. Other personal factors that hinder the way I communicate and share my thoughts with others are the fear of being rejected and the inability to accept failure. Due to ineffective time management, I struggle with deadlines and as a team leader and member of the group activity, I lose confidence and ability to communicate effectively. This can hurt my future profession as an HR manager.

Effective communication is required to actively listen and transfer information. This also helps in the sharing of information among the staff and management in the company when working as an HR manager. Through this, I can perform the basic functions of the job such as driving employee engagement and involvement and also providing feedback in talent management. The HR manager also boosts employee morale and motivation through effective sharing of thoughts and listening empathetically (365 Talents, 2025). However, planning, time management and organisation can be the factors that hinder my communication skills ability. This can create concern in the mismanagement of the work leading to the low availability of time to focus on listening with concentration. Through the fear of missed deadlines, I can miss the important information and that can also limit my capabilities and better performance in this role.

The presence of problem-solving and decision-making is also helpful in better performance in the future profession. Several factors lead to ineffective decision-making and problem-solving (Lussier and Achua, 2022). I found that time constraints and issues in the management of schedules can impact decision-making. Poor information transfer also leads to the delay in decision-making. The misinformation of the decision taken is not relevant and factual. The ability to solve issues and make decisions is an integral part of the HR manager role. This helps in making the choices on the staff and their working. Through active listening, I can also resolve the grievances of the team in the future profession.

Time management is the proper handling of the work schedules and meeting the targets on time. This is the necessary skill that is needed to be present in the HR manager (McCartney et al, 2021). Planning is the formulation of strategies that help in carrying out the tasks and attaining the performance goal. Through organising, the HR manager can effectively manage several tasks. However, as per the SWOT analysis, I lacked these crucial skills which will be beneficial in my future career. These can be developed by taking several actions and improving the overall capabilities. Based on the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) to time management, 80% of the results are generated by 20% of the core activities. This theory was developed by Vilfredo Pareto in the late 19^th century. Through this, I can learn the tactics to prioritise the necessary work that is more beneficial to generate the maximum output. I can work on understanding the basics of this and learn to apply it in practical work to enhance Professional and Academic Skills Development.

The lack of time management is also due to the ability to manage multitasking. This needs to be developed to manage the various necessary tasks at a time (da Silva et al, 2022). This requires the presence of stress management so that I can effectively handle the work with focus while multitasking. Based on the Skill theory of Katz, effective leadership depends on the key skills of the individual which are technical, human and conceptual. This theory was developed by Robert L. Katz during the 1950s. I need to have these skills such as planning and organising for my better role as an HR manager. Planning can be learned by working on goal setting and developing the habits of do-to lists and calendars. Organising can be optimised by learning the scheduling and prioritising the tasks in the working. For this purpose, I can use digital tools that effectively help in the timely completion, planning and organisation of the activities.

PDP

PDP refers to the systematic framework that helps the individual assess the development goals and identify the strengths and weaknesses. This also helps in assessing the actions taken to optimise these lacked capabilities in a better manner.

The PDP is effective in identifying the activities and resources and how progress can be managed.

Professional and Academic Skills Development Assignment Sample

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Conclusion

From the above report, it can be concluded that self-assessment is focused on identifying the skills possessed and lacking by the individual. My career goal is to become an HR manager in a firm. Through the SWOT analysis, the skills found to be present are communication, decision making and problem-solving. However, some capabilities are needed to be developed which are also essential for better performance in academics as well as careers in the future. There is a lack of time management, planning, multitasking, etc. which can be developed through the PDP.

References

• Boselie, P. and van der Heijden, B., 2024. Strategic human resource management: A balanced approach. McGraw Hill.
• Charlton, N., Hart, C., Somers, J., Martin, A. and Bosman, C., 2022. The Academic Skills Model: The value of program mapping to support students’ literacies. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 16(1), pp.105-124.
• Chu, S.K.W., Reynolds, R.B., Tavares, N.J., Notari, M. and Lee, C.W.Y., 2021. 21st-century skills development through inquiry-based learning from theory to practice. Springer International Publishing.
• da Silva, L.B.P., Soltovski, R., Pontes, J., Treinta, F.T., Leitão, P., Mosconi, E., de Resende, L.M.M. and Yoshino, R.T., 2022. Human resources management 4.0: Literature review and trends. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 168, p.108111.
• Hutson, J., MacDonald, E., Young, L., Edele, S. and Smentkowski, C., 2022. Fostering Durable Skills Development: Leveraging Student Worker Programs. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 22(3).
• Lussier, R.N. and Achua, C.F., 2022. Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Sage Publications.
• McCartney, S., Murphy, C. and Mccarthy, J., 2021. 21st century HR: a competency model for the emerging role of HR Analysts. Personnel Review, 50(6), pp.1495-1513.
• Swanson, R.A., 2022. Foundations of human resource development. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Online

• 365talents, (2025). The new HR series: HR new skills, new roles, employee experience, people analytics & more. Online. Available through: <https://365talents.com/en/resources/the-new-hr-new-skills-roles-employee-experience-people-analytics/>
• CHRMP, (2025). Top 26+ HR Skills that You Should Know About [2025 Guide]. Online. Available through: <https://www.chrmp.com/25-top-hr-skills-that-hr-professional-should-know/>