Enhancing Personal and Professional Development: A Strategic Approach in the Global Context of Higher Education

Introduction

Personal and professional development planning is necessary for the individuals in order to develop own understanding and knowledge to perform efficiently in near future. After analysing the global context of higher education, it is possible to identify the skill and knowledge which are required in the recent era of globalisation for achieving the sustainable career path and professional goals (Kanbay et al., 2017; Aasheim, Shropshire and Kadlec, 2019). The study is hereby effective to discuss the necessary personal and professional skill of the individuals in performing better in the organisation as well as it provides a scope to develop action plan which would be effective for successful professional development.

Global context of higher education

In the recent era of globalisation, there is high transfer of knowledge and skill and it further influence the individuals to improve their performance by enhancing their technical skill and professional knowledge. recently, there is huge competition in acquiring knowledge and performing in the professional field and thus all the individuals try to develop self assessment in order to identify own strengths and weaknesses, so that they can develop proper planning for personal and professional development (Hill, Overton and Thompson, 2019). Additionally, the organisations prefer technically skilled workforce as well as prefer the employees with professional experience, who can handle the workplace and contribute positively in the organisation (Gordon and Gordon, 2017). Thus, it is necessary for their employees to have academic knowledge and understanding as well as it is also required to have professional understanding and knowledge so that they can work efficiently and contribute positively in achieving the organisational success, which in turn provides a scope to the individuals to maximise their professional career goal (Aasheim, Shropshire and Kadlec, 2019).

Academic and professional skill needed in modern work place

The individuals in the rennet era of globalisation need to have proper academic knowledge and understanding in their socialise field of work and additionally, there is also high requirement of professional skill among the employees, where the organisations recently prefer the employees with having professional experience and professional skill, so that they can perform better and achieving future success (Brown, 2018). In this regard, IT skill is necessary in such an era of technological advancement and digitalistaion.al the firms in the recent years prefer to digitalise the business and it is necessary for the firm to have strong employee base, which have string technical knowledge and understanding (Rubens et al., 2018). Hereby, the firms try to retain the technically skilled workforce, who can handle the company database and automatic operational process in order to enhance the organisational performance and improve the creativity and innovatory of the firms. the employees in this regard need to have technical skill and knowledge to handle the Information and Communication Technology, Computerised data base, Cloud computing, Customer data management, supply chain and inventory control system through automatic process so that they can contribute positively in working in the organisation and enhance their professional skill successfully (Aasheim, Shropshire and Kadlec, 2019). Communication is another important skill, which is also necessary for the employees to have conversation with others at the workplace. in this regard, better communication skill is helpful to imp[rove collaboration, where he staff members try to cooperate with others in working at the workplace so that partnership working practice can be developed. working in partnership through cooperation and high communication is helpful where the members try to share their skill and experience and collaborate with each other for improving their performance. hereby, communication skill is necessary for the members to improve their performance and develop suitable working culture at the organisational workplace.

Apart from that, self management skill is necessary for the personal and professional development, where the individuals need to manage self learning and self motivating activities in the organisational context. Continuous self motivation and self earning activities further encourage the individuals to learn better and contribute positively in the organisational workplace. Time management is another skill, which is also essential for the candidates to improve their professional skill and practice, so that the members can manage timing and they can work efficient within proper time (Walther, Miller and Sochacka, 2017). Through prioritising the work and improving efficiency, the staff members can improve their time management skill and work positively in the organisational context. Additionally, for successful personal and professional development of the individuals, it is necessary to improve their leadership skill, so that the individual can lead the team members with harmony and giving them freedom them freedom. The ability to handle the workplace culture and manage the team work activities is also necessary for successful professional practice; where the individuals can contribute efficiently to lad the members towards achieve future success. The ability to have conflicts resolution and mange resistance to change is also required for developing professional skill and practice where the individuals can manage the internal conflicts among the employees positively. Hereby, for carer management and enhancement of the personal and the professional skill of the individuals, it is required to have proper leadership skill, communication skill as well as self learning and motivation activities, so that the individual can enhance performance further (Rubens et al., 2018).

Additionally, creative thinking skill must be enhanced, for the individuals through improving analysis and evaluation, where it is possible to develop creative solutions for the organisational development. The individuals is also required to develop critical analysis skill and technique for better evaluation in order to contribute positively in developing organisational decision innovatively (McPherson and Macnamara, 2017). Being open minded and enhancing communication or sharing knowledge and experience are effective for the individual to improve creative thinking skill which is required in the recent professional era, where the people are empowered well in the organisational decision-making practice. Moreover, problem solving skill is also effective in this practice for successful personal and professional development, through which it is easy for the participants to develop effective tactics to identify and resolve the organisational internal problem in order to run the organisational activities sustainably. Additionally, the ability to develop alternative solutions as well as utilising technical strategy to improve the organisational operational activities is necessary to become professional and contribute in the organisation successfully (Vong and Then, 2019). Recently, the mangers and the organisational leader prefer creative minded people, who can analyse the present situation of the organisation and develop innovative solutions for the business.

Moreover, emotional intelligence is necessary for developing string bonding at the workplace and understands each other’s perspective and culture to work collaboratively. Interpersonal skill and emotional intelligence are hereby essential and these skills are also effective for developing leadership style at the organisational workplace (Whitman and Haddock, 2018). Showing empathy, self awareness, social kill, self regulation and motivation are required for professional growth of the individuals, where they can encourage other and communicate empathetically to develop suitable organisational culture for achieving professional success (Walther, Miller and Sochacka, 2017). Inter personal skill is also necessary for successful professional development, where the individuals need to have good listening skill, caring for each other, leadership orientation, encouraging others as well as developing tea work and managing responsibility efficiently at the organisational workplace. In the recent years, for achieving professional growth and success, it is necessary or the individuals to have emotional intelligence and interpersonal skill so that they can work efficiently with proper collaboration and communication at the workplace for better performance (Aasheim, Shropshire and Kadlec, 2019). Additionally, the creative thinking skill, critical analysis and problem solving as well as decision making skill are also necessary for professional development and apart from that, the individuals need to improve communication skill, leadership practice and IT knowledge in order to perform better and maximise their performance for achieving professional success (Lawrie et al., 2019).

Action plan

Action plan needs to be developed in order to have proper personal and professional development. As per the recent global trend in higher education, it is necessary to improve own abilities and knowledge so that it is possible to work efficiently and contribute positively in achieving the organisational goals and objectives. Here, after analysing the global trend of knowledge and efficiencies, the major objective for personal and professional development are,

To enhance communication skill

To improve IT knowledge and skill

To develop creative decision making skill

To enhance problem solving activities and evaluation

To develop leadership skill

As per the action plan, it is necessary to develop IT skill by enhancing the activities such as participating in IT activities of the firm, contributing with other and collaborative working so that I can seek help and support from the senior IT engineers and develop my skill and abilities to enhance their performance. The success criteria to develop IT skill will be enhancing technical efficiency and managing technical database of the organisation. Secondly, communication skill needs to be enhanced by open conversation, good body language, participating in group discussion and being talkative with others. I also aim to improve creative thinking skill and the activities such as improving thinking process, being open minded, improving innovation and creativity, conducting more research and improving analysis and evaluation are beneficial for me to improve my creative thinking skill. Additionally, I also focus on improving my problem solving and leadership skill, so that I would be efficient to contribute positively in achieving the organisational growth. In this regard, researching skill, team working for sharing each other’s experience, exploring alternative solutions, analysing business environment and evaluating the internal problems are effective to improve problem solving skill and the success criteria would be developing innovative decision making practice for the companies and contributing positively in running the organisational operational activities and resolving the internal problems. The leadership skill is also necessary for the organisational success and for personal growth and professional development, leading and managing the team members is important for the individuals to acv future professional success. In this context, the activities of maintaining the responsibility at the workplace, providing feedback and managing creativity and improving trustworthiness are necessary to improve leadership skill and lead the people towards the organisational success.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, personal and professional development is necessary in the recent global context of high education, where the individuals need professional skill to enhance their professional growth and development. As per the educational field and the professional activities across the globe, the individuals need to develop leadership skill as well as enhance their creative decision making and problem solving skill so that they would be able to contribute positively and efficiently in the organisational decision making behaviour. In addition to this, the communication skill and the leadership skill as well as the IT skill and knowledge are also necessary for achieving professional goals and in this regard, the individuals need to improve the activities in the organisation and communicate with others for sharing their experience and gathering wider skill and knowledge to perform better.

Take a deeper dive into Enhancing Personal and Professional Development with our additional resources.

Dig deeper into Enhancing Operations - Innovation in Tourism with our selection of articles.

Reference List

Aasheim, C., Shropshire, J., Li, L. and Kadlec, C., 2019. Knowledge and skill requirements for entry-level IT workers: A longitudinal study. Journal of Information Systems Education, 23(2), p.8.

Brown, L.S., 2018. Soft Skill Development in the Higher Education Curriculum: A Case Study. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 12(4), pp.7-29.

Gordon, P.A. and Gordon, B.A., 2017. The role of volunteer organizations in leadership skill development. Journal of Management Development, 36(5), pp.712-723.

Hill, M.A., Overton, T.L. and Thompson, C.D., 2019. Evaluating the impact of reflecting on curriculum-embedded skill development: the experience of science undergraduates. Higher Education Research & Development, pp.1-17.

Kanbay, Y., Isik, E., Aslan, Ö., Tektas, P. and Kiliç, N., 2017. Critical thinking skill and academic achievement development in nursing students: Four-year longitudinal study. American Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, 2(12), pp.1-10.

Lawrie, G.A., Schultz, M., Bailey, C.H. and Dargaville, B.L., 2019. Personal journeys of teachers: an investigation of the development of teacher professional knowledge and skill by expert tertiary chemistry teachers. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 20(1), pp.132-145.

McPherson, L. and Macnamara, N., 2017. Knowledge and Skill Development. In Supervising Child Protection Practice: What Works? (pp. 39-46). Springer, Cham.

Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G.A., Schaffer, B.S. and Leah, J.S., 2018. Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), pp.1-13.

Vong, W.T. and Then, P.H.H., 2019. Empowering Rural Youth for Socioeconomic Development: A Skill Development Approach in Sarawak, Malaysia. Information Technologies & International Development, 15, p.17.

Walther, J., Miller, S.E. and Sochacka, N.W., 2017. A model of empathy in engineering as a core skill, practice orientation, and professional way of being. Journal of Engineering Education, 106(1), pp.123-148.

Walther, J., Miller, S.E. and Sochacka, N.W., 2017. A model of empathy in engineering as a core skill, practice orientation, and professional way of being. Journal of Engineering Education, 106(1), pp.123-148.

Whitman, J.S. and Haddock, L.R., 2018. Skill Development in Counselor Education: A Comprehensive Workbook. London: Routledge.