Career Action Plan

BUS220 – Workplace Learning 2

Assessment item 14: Assignment 4: Career Action Plan

Stream 3

Student Name:

Student Number:

Word Count:

Date:

table of contents

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS 4

2.1 Graduate attributes 4

2.2 Employability skills 4

3 S.W.O.T ANAYLSIS 5

4 CAREER GOALS 6

4.1 Short Term Goals 6

4.2 Long Term Goals 6

5 STEPS TO SUCCESS: Career Goals 7

6 CONCLUSION 8

7 REFERENCING 9

Current situation

· An introduction and overview, genuinely reflection on your current career position, which also includes an analysis of your personal preferences, interests, skills, values and abilities. (Word count: Minimum 400 words)

Current situation

· An analysis of graduate and employability skills – you should be able to discuss which of these you believe you can successfully claim to possess and which you may need to acquire or improve upon. You should not just make claims but provide supporting information to demonstrate your claims. (Word count: Varied)

Identify all the graduate attributes and discuss 2 attributes which you believe you can successfully claim to possess and 2 attributes which you may need to acquire or improve upon.

Identify all the employability skills and discuss 2 skills which you believe you can successfully claim to possess and 2 skills which you may need to acquire or improve upon.

Ideal situation

Reflection using a S.W.O.T analysis (Ideal situation)

Reflecting on the ‘gap’ or divergence between your ‘current situation’ and ‘ideal situation’ and provided an analysis of your personal (internal) strengths and weaknesses and your external career development opportunities and threats.

Firstly you are required to write a reflective summary statement of your ‘current situation’ and ‘ideal situation’ and then conduct an S.W.O.T analysis.

After you have conducted the SWOT reflect on what this means to your marketability and to you goals. What can you do to mitigate the weaknesses and threats and capitalise on the strengths and opportunities.

(Word count: Reflective summary: Minimum 300 words; S.W.O.T. Analysis – Varied; Reflection on S.W.O.T. analysis: Minimum 300 words)

Ideal situation

A statement of your career goals, having undertaken a reflection and consideration of what your goals might be.

You should have also discussed these in terms of where the goals are short-term or long-term or both, in terms of which goals you might most immediately pursue and what first steps you might take in pursing them.

This means you will have a statement about where you want your career to go and then you will itemise your short term and long term goals using the SMART technique and you will provide at least two steps to achieve for each one.

For example: Short Term Goal - I will finish two subjects over the summer session achieving a credit in at least one of these subjects. To do this I will make sure that I understand all the requirements of the assessment as soon as I get the information and then I will establish a calendar in outlook with a comprehensive study plan. I will review this study plan weekly and ensure that I am on track.

Long Term Goal – By November 2015 I will be on the board of a Not – for – Profit Company. I will do this by researching what organisations I am interested in on the Internet. I will complete this by Jan 2015. I will then contact the organisation to find out about the process used to appoint board members and the skills required by Feb 2015. I will then register my interest with the organisations where I feel I may have the skills to assist. (Word count: Varied)

A sound and thorough explanation of what you are going to do to achieve your career goals using the S.M.A.R.T. technique.

· Main points summarised and linked to discussion

APA referencing as relevant with citations and list of references for any sources used within the assignment.

Students need to note that despite this being partly a personal reflection it is still academic work and thus needs to be referenced accordingly.

Students are expected to have 4-5 references following APA guidelines, which would ensure they receive a passing mark for this part of the marking criteria.

Some questions that could be answered and a reference included, aligning with the guidelines, are below with brief examples using the employability skill ‘communication’ to highlighting how a reference could be incorporated. Please note this does not mean you have to provide an answer for each employability and/or marketability skill discussed this is to give students ideas of how to incorporate references.

e.g. ‘I have recognised that I need to improve my communication skills. I realised the importance of feedback in the communication process (reference) and realised this need to be cooperated into my workplace communication. As such while on my placement I will ensured to ask questions confirming what I had heard to ensure I am able to undertake the task at hand in a concise manner.’

E.g. ‘I always thought I was a fairly good communicator, however when looking into the communication process (reference) and seeing the importance of active listening (reference) I realised while I was good at conveying messages my listening needs to be improved. ‘

E.g. ‘Given my skills in active listening need to be improved I have decided to take some of the items on the active listening exercise (reference) that I rated as no good and implement then in my everyday communication. This will start with, not interrupting and stop fidgeting when others are talking. Further, through research into my goals I have discovered communication is extremely important in my chosen goal (reference), as such I plan to chat with some of my co-workers and supervisor to see if they can highlight areas for improvements in my communication skills.’

Remember : References can be included where ever you are basing your work on someone else or someone else work is backing up your thoughts. They do not have to be journal articles or textbooks, they can be recourses form your lecture, podcasts, and websites (note: make sure website is a credible source such as joboutlook.gov not a site such as wikipedia).

Ensure you follow the APA guidelines found at