Unit 3: Managing Self Development

Unit reference number: T/506/4149

QCF Level: 3

Credit value: 6

Guided learning hours: 36

Unit aim

The aim of the unit is to give learners an understanding of how to manage self- development so that it contributes to the learners achievement of career and personal goals in respect of their work role and professional development.

Unit introduction

Self-development allows individuals not just to achieve their career and personal goals, but also helps to support the achievement of business objectives since skilled, fulfilled employees make effective contributions to the activities of businesses.

In this unit, you will gain the knowledge on how to manage self-development so that it contributes to the achievement of career and personal goals and learn how it links to the work role and professional development. You will also consider how to identify own development needs by understanding how to carry out a skills audit and how to evaluate the current and evolving requirements of your work role in order to inform self-development 1.1 Evaluate the role of CPD in organisations.

You will gain an understanding of how to identify the gaps between current knowledge and skills and those required for achieving personal and professional objectives before using this as a basis for producing an effective self-development plan that relates to your job role and professional development. You will be able to set objectives which are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based) and recognise how different types of learning style contribute to your learning and development. Consideration will be given as to how to monitor and evaluate performance in achieving development targets and matching them against the requirements of the work role. Understanding how to use different sources of feedback to review performance will help inform modifications to your self- development plan.

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

In order to pass this unit, the evidence that the learner presents for assessment needs to demonstrate that they can meet all the learning outcomes for the unit. The assessment criteria determine the standard required to achieve the unit.

On completion of this unit a learner should:

Unit content

1 Understand how Continuous Professional Development (CPD) influences personal effectiveness

Role of CPD: record, review and reflect on own learning

Different forms of CPD: use of experts; workshops; online communities; talking to colleagues, manager; individual reading and research; formal course

2 Understand own values, career and personal goals in relation to a work role and professional development

Goals: personal values; career goals, e.g. promotion, remuneration, professional qualification, contribution to business objectives; personal goals, e.g. job satisfaction, fulfilment, work-life balance, personal development, social interaction with colleagues

Work requirements: current job role requirements; knowledge; understanding; skills; qualifications; evolving requirements; participating in a learning culture; flexibility and adaptability in response to change; acquiring new skills, knowledge and understanding

Gap analysis: current knowledge, skills and understanding compared with desired knowledge, skills and understanding required for achieving objectives (business, personal); skills audit; personal profile; personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis; assessment against relevant National Occupational Standards (NOS); identify own development needs; identifying development needs to meet organisational objectives; objective setting, e.g. SMART targets

3 Understand how to plan development

Development planning: structure of a plan; components of a plan; setting objectives, e.g. personal, professional, career; aligning personal objectives to business objectives; identifying gaps to be bridged; methods of meeting objectives; resources required, e.g. finance, time, physical, managerial support; on-the job training, e.g. job shadowing, job rotation, mentoring; off-the-job training, e.g. external courses; monitoring; review; evaluation; self-motivation

Learning styles: Kolb’s learning style inventory; Fleming’s VARK (visual, aural, read/write, kinaesthetic) model; Honey and Mumford’s model (activist, reflector, theorist, pragmatist); identifying own preferred learning style by using learning style questionnaires; using learning styles in managing self-development

4 Understand how to monitor and evaluate development activities

Monitoring and evaluating development plans: planning monitoring activities; benchmarks; milestones, e.g. review points, review dates, achievements, records; review role of a manager and/or a critical friend; monitoring progression against plans; quality of own work; collecting performance data; feedback from others, e.g. peers, line manager, customers; methods of feedback, e.g. appraisal, supervision, performance review, mentoring; critical reflection; review of own work; evaluate performance against the requirements of your work role; evaluate performance against personal goals; agree whether planned objectives have been achieved or not; record review results; revision to plan; set date for next review; set revised/new objectives 1.1 Evaluate the role of CPD in organisations

Essential guidance for tutors

Delivery

Learners are expected to enquire into the topics under discussion, to question theory and to compare and contrast theory with their professional knowledge and practice. For some learners this will mean building on existing knowledge and earlier studies, while for others it will mean drawing on experience gained in a work environment.

Delivery will be through blended learning, using business resources and class-based teaching. Standard tuition materials, texts, business simulations, exercises and formative assessments can be used. Other delivery techniques can also be used, for example, practical work, role play, guest speakers, tutorials, seminars and discussion groups where personal and professional practice can be shared and discussed can also be used. Learners are encouraged to engage in social learning to carry out practical work, discuss problems, consider experiences, work on case studies, prepare reports for presentation and carry out research on managing self development. Learners in work are expected to use their working context and roles to learn about the practical techniques associated with managing self development.

Assessment

This guidance supports assessors in making decisions about how best to assess each unit and the evidence needed to meet the assessment requirements. Centres can adapt the guidance for learners and the particular assessment context, as appropriate.

For this unit, it is important for learners to use their current work role or a role they are looking to move into.

Evidence can be presented as written reports or presentations. If presentations are used, then copies of slides, handouts and presenter notes must be included, as well as learner observation records completed by the tutor.

For learning outcome 1, learners need to evaluate the role of CPD in organisations (AC1.1), analyse the influence of CPD on individuals (AC1.2) and evaluate the effectiveness of different forms of CPD. Discussion groups will help with achieving learning outcome 1 as it will allow learners to use examples from both their experience and other people personal experience.

For learning outcome 2, it would be useful for learners to begin by completing a self-assessment questionnaire. This can then be built on for assessment criteria 2.1, analyse the importance of considering own values, career and personal goals and how these relate to their job role and professional development. 1.1 Evaluate the role of CPD in organisations. This can be built on to achieve the rest of the assessment criteria in learning outcome 1, describe how to evaluate the current requirements of a work role and how the requirements may evolve in the future (AC2.2), describe how to identify gaps between current knowledge and skills required for achieving objectives (AC2.3), explain how to set objectives which are SMART (AC2.4) and explain how to identify own development needs (AC2.5).

Using the outcomes of learning outcome 2 learners can build on these for learning outcome 3 and learning outcome 4.

Learners can begin by looking at different learning styles and identify which learning styles best suit them. Using this information and the outcomes from learning outcome 2, learners can begin to develop an effective development plan (AC3.1), analyse the different types of learning styles and how these contribute to own performance (AC3.2) and describe development activities and how these contribute to performance (AC3.3).

Learners will achieve learning outcome 4 over time. They will need to analyse how to monitor the quality of own work and progression against plans (AC4.1), explain how to evaluate their performance against the requirements of their work role (AC4.2) and explain how to use feedback in their own performance (AC4.3).

Evidence of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can also be used within the unit to confirm competence. Wherever possible, the learning outcomes in this unit should be assessed holistically across the qualification.