Unit 2

Advanced Professional

Development

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Skills Audit

• A skills audit provides a convenient way of

gathering information about the available

capabilities of people for a specified task.

• This may be a particular task to be carried

out within a project or it could be a more

general requirement for a specific job role.

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Leadership Skills AuditA leadership skills audit, for example, provides a definitive measure of

leadership skills and ability, including:

1. A definition of leadership.

2. The main inhibitors to leadership development.

3. How to identify the competencies most vital to leaders in your

organisation.

4. How to develop a leadership model that is appropriate to your

organisation.

5. Developing a leadership performance profile.

6. How to administer the profiles and get feedback.

7. Rules for analysing the resulting profile data.

8. How to use and communicate data derived from the audit.

9. How to build the leadership skills audit process into an annual cycle.

10. How to use the assessment data to build a comprehensive, targeted

leadership skills training program. 3

Skills Assessment Methodology

Personal profile using

self-assessment tools

• A profile is a means of self-

evaluation. It is a personal

record which is for you to keep.

It is for your own use to help you

identify strengths and

weaknesses, and to plan how to

develop your skills in particular

areas.

• The profile focuses on a range

of skills concerning research

and communication and will help

you with the formal

selfassessment exercise

required for this course.

• The best place to start with is

yourself - but what do you need

to know about yourself?

• There are three main aspects of

your 'vocational profile'.

– Skills, Motivation and

Personality.

• Can I do the job ?

– Skills: demonstrated through

qualifications, abilities, experience,

aptitude tests

• Will I do the job?

– Motivation: interests, values, ambitions

• Will I fit into the

team/organisation?

– Personality: personal traits, attitudes and

preferences

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Skills, Motivation and

Personality

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Personal profile using self-

assessment tools• It may also be essential to consider

constraints and special

circumstances, such as any physical

or health disabilities, geographical

restrictions, and limitations of finance

or family circumstance.

• Assessing 'Skills' is not

straightforward. You can be skilled at

one thing, but find something similar

quite difficult.

• Or you can be confident in using a

skill in some settings, but not in

others.

• So to gain a rounded picture of your

skills and abilities you will need to

draw on many sources of information

which will require careful interpretation

• Nevertheless, the more sources

available the fuller the picture.

• By reviewing these you will also

take the first step towards

identifying evidence of your

capabilities; evidence you can

include in your CV or cite at job

interview.

• You want to get a job that uses

your skills to the full, which plays

to your strengths and lets you

make an effective contribution.

• But what are your skills?

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.

To assess your strengths and weaknesses in terms of 'transferable skills' that can

be equally applied to both the academic and work setting.

Other Skills Audit• http://www.businessballs.com/personalprofileindicator.pdf

• A particularly good site can be found at http://www.psychometric-

success.com

• Developing your own style is fundamental to professional and personal

development.

– Go to the following site and try some of the activities suggested.

– http://www.studyskills.soton.ac.uk/studyguides/Learning%20Styles.doc

– Go to the following website and read some recent research articles on

learning styles

– http://www.learning-styles-online.com

– Also, go to http://www.skills4study.com and click on Learning Games.

– You may also like to go to the following sites, which identify different learning

styles as advocated by Kolb

http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/Kolb.htm

– For more detailed information on management and development, you are

directed to: Mumford, A (1986). Handbook of Management Development.

Gower.

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Psychometric testing

• A psychometric test is a way of assessing

a person's ability or personality in a

measured and structured way.

• There are three main types of tests:

– Ability tests.

– Personality tests.

– Interest tests.

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Psychometric testing

• Some tests are used by employers to help them in

their recruitment process while other tests can help

people with career decision-making.

• It is common for graduate employers to use

psychometric tests as part of their selection process.

– Organisations believe such tests help them recruit the right

people with the appropriate mix of abilities and personal

qualities.

– They are also useful for "sifting out" large numbers of

applicants at an early stage and so saving the employers

both time and money.

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Psychometric testing

Ability tests

• General intelligence

tests

– Some tests assess your

general ability (your

intelligence).

– They are not dependent on

prior learning or knowledge

but more on how good you

are at solving problems

using logical thinking.

• Specific ability tests

There are two types of

specific ability tests:

• Attainment tests– These examine the skills and

knowledge you already

possess.

– They are designed to assess

what you know at the time of

the test such as for a driving

test or a word processing test.

These can be known as work-

related tests.

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Psychometric testing

Aptitude tests

• These are more of a

measure of your potential

for certain activities.

• They do not rely on any

previous knowledge or

training, but more on

your natural ability or

aptitude.

• The two most common

forms of aptitude tests are

verbal and numerical

reasoning tests.

• There are also more

specialised tests which

can be used if you are

applying for particular

careers in IT, science or

engineering, for example.

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Personal SWOT analysis

• A personal SWOT analysis attempts to

answer the simple question, 'what are you

like?'

• The purpose of this is to understand where

you are at the moment and where your likely

vulnerability lies.

• By analysing four key factors, it is possible to

build a strong picture of yourself.

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Personal SWOT analysis• Your personal values are the

things that are important to

you and that you look for in

your life and relationships.

• Personal values can include;

family, money, the

environment, independence,

ambition or honesty.

• It's important to set your

goals in line with your

values; otherwise you may

end up where you thought

you wanted to be, only to be

disappointed

• Being clear about and knowing

what's important to you is vital,

and will be a great guide to you

as you move onwards and

upwards.

• It will

– 1. Keep you on track and

motivated.

– 2. Help with making decisions.

– 3. Add to your sense of fulfilment

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Strengths and Weaknesses

are usually things internal to

you - about your skills,

personality character, etc.

Opportunities and Threats are

usually external - about people

you know, job openings that

might occur, and other external

factors that might impact on your

life.

Assessment and management

competence standards• A competence standard is a requirement or condition for the

purpose of demonstrating a particular competence or ability,

such as a particular level of knowledge, or the strength or ability

to carry out a particular task within a set period.

• Professional and qualifications bodies need to be very clear

about what is (and is not) a competence standard.

• Institutions which use an interpretation of competence

standards as a basis for admitting students and making

adjustments would do well to check that they have a correct

understanding of what the relevant professional or qualifications

body has defined as competence standards.

• Competence standards are not the same as subject benchmark

standards, and there may be scope for some confusion here.16

Gap Analysis

• From an organisational perspective,

understanding and knowing what and where the

knowledge, skills and abilities of your

employees lie is essential and critical in the

modern working environment.

• Recognising individual employee strengths and

being aware of their weaknesses will allow an

organisation to optimise peoples' strengths and

support their weaknesses.

• This can be achieved by carrying out what is

known as 'gap analysis'. 17

Individual Research

1. Go to the following sites and make notes accordingly

http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cesagh/documents/GAPANALYS

IS.rtf

– Case Study 1: Skills gap 'threatens UK future'

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-

/1/hi/education/4501346.stm

– Case Study 2: India firms warn on IT skills gap

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-

/2/hi/south_asia/6124872.stm

2. For those of you who wish to undertake further study, you

are directed to (Pedlar et al, 2007) Chapter 5 - Assessing

Yourself and Setting some Goals for Self-Development,

and Chapter 6 - How to Select and use the Activities.18

Identifying learning and

development needs• There are three contexts in which learning and

development needs may be identified:

1. Organisational.

2. Group or team.

3. Individual.

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Identifying learning and

development needsThere are at least eight potential

influences that stimulate the

requirement for new and improved

skills.

1. Annual (or more frequent)

organisational proactive event.

2. Changes in the marketplace mean

customers change, new customers

emerge, customer expectations

change, competitors become more

powerful, and new competitors

emerge.

3. Changes in technology and

working practices are a constant

feature of organisational activity.

4. Changes in personnel arise out of

organisational change; a different

mix of people need multi-skilling,

changes to roles and

responsibilities cause key staff to

be overloaded.

5. Changes in financial support

across several sites cause a

reassessment of the scope and

potential of training.

6. External influences, such as

environmental, financial or legal

pressures.

7. Group problem-solving, or reaction

to change event.

8. Individual problem-solving, or

reaction to change event.20

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Learning and Development

• Any work related activity contains the potential

for learning.

• This could be new learning or confirmation of

previous learning.

• There are a number of ways in which you can

learn at work, which we can collectively call

learning experiences.

• These include:

– Learning from the job that you are doing

– Learning using knowledge, skills and insight.

– Learning from previous experience.22

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Learning Cycle

(adapted from Kolb 1984).Shows that skills are

improved by:

1. Having a learning

experience (new or

from previous

activities).

2. Reviewing the

learning experience -

in other words, how it

went.

3. Learning lessons

from the experience.

4. Planning how you

can improve

Identifying Your Own Style

• Identifying the way in which you learn will also help

you with your learning and development needs.

• Individuals are unique and, as a consequence, are

likely to develop their own differing learning styles as a

result of their experiences within an organisation and

in other areas of life.

• These individual styles can be contrasting.

• However, the important rule to remember is that, no

matter how diverse learning styles may appear, as

long as they are effective in the majority of cases then

they should be seen as productive.24

Identifying Your Own Style

• The aims of analysing learning styles are to:

1. Realise that there are many different

learning styles.

2. Discover resources where you can assess

your learning style.

3. Realise there are strategies you can use to

make best use of your natural learning style.

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1. To score, use a scale from 0 to 10; 0 being nothing like you and 10

being completely like you.

2. At the end of each section total your score. This will give you an

indication of your preferred learning style.

LEARNING STYLE AUDIT

1. The higher the score indicates your preferred learning style,

although it should be noted that, it is possible to have high scores

in more than one category.

2. Whilst the principles of progress through the learning process are

to be maintained, the importance of finding out about you

preferred learning style or combination of learning styles is that it

will give you a greater understanding about how you would

approach a new learning opportunity and how you may be able to

adapt to situations which do not necessarily suit your preferred

style.

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