Self-Assessment Analysis And Target Setting In Higher Education

Self Assessment Analysis

This report is based on the self-assessment aspect of a person with respect to one’s own self and also with respect to the organization he or she is attached with. Self-assessment is the method of reviewing about oneself and evaluating one’s own strengths and weaknesses in a methodical way. This report is mainly regarding my self-assessment as a student of CAVC higher education.

Further, in the report I will analyze the method of my learning and the way by which I will use the learning. The way of setting my own targets, and targets will I set for myself. The approaches used to set my targets and the learning is mentioned.

Following this I will state the ways by which I will assess my skills and then organize and evaluate those skills (Nixon 2013).

Self-assessment relates to reflective skills of a student. This is the ability of a person to analyze his or her own performance so that the strengths and weaknesses and recognize the areas where improvement is required. Self-assessment is required for students so that they can analyze their strengths and weaknesses and use the knowledge acquired in their future assignments and also in their careers (Boud 2013). In this case I as a student of CAVC higher education am doing a self-assessment about my own strengths and weaknesses (Cavc.ac.uk, 2017).

For my own self learning I prefer to use SWOT Analysis tool. The SWOT Analysis tool is used to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses and accordingly identify the opportunities one has and threats posed towards him with respect to the strengths and weaknesses (Griffin 2013). The way by which this tool can be used to self learning and personal development is as follows,

Strengths- The advantages I have over others, the resources available for access, the qualities other people see as my strengths, the achievements I am proud of, the values which others fail to show, the connections I have with influential people.

Weaknesses- The tasks I avoid due to lack of confidence, the qualities others see as my weakness, whether I am confident about my education and skills, my negative work habits, the traits in my personality which I hold back.

Opportunities- The new technology that is of my help, whether I am in a growing industry, whether I have a good network, whether I can take advantage of the failures of my competitors, to analyze the need of my organization which not yet fulfilled, whether I am able to create opportunities by solving problems related to my organization.

Threats- The obstacles I face in the organization, competition from my colleagues, are there any changes in my job, whether the changes in technology is a threat to my position in my organization, whether any of my weaknesses becomes a threat (Brown 2015).

The above stated is the detailed definition of the self learning technique I wish to use for my self assessment (Brownell 2015).

I have performed SWOT Analysis on myself as a student of CAVC Higher Education and pursuing the course of Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management Foundation Degree (Brown and Harris 2013).

Task 1: Learning style used for Self-Assessment- SWOT Analysis

Strengths – I have good communication skills and am able to communicate quite well with the clients and the members of my team.

 I am very creative and hard-working and will be able to deliver my best level at the work I am assigned.

I am very active in my work and have the ability to deliver my work at any time. This is important for the fact that the tourism and events industry is ever growing and has no specific time of work.

I am totally committed towards the goal of my organization.

Weaknesses – I am impulsive during taking decisions in complex situations. This weakness often  leads to mistakes.

I am not much confident about public speaking and presentations. This problem can cause a lot of issues in my future career. The fear and nervousness of public speaking often takes out the actual essence of my presentation.

I am often not able to express my views regarding a topic even if I have the perfect knowledge about it and this leads to a level of anxiety and frustration.

Opportunities - I am aiming towards entrepreneurship after completing my course and my creative skills are helping me lot to formulate a successful business plan for my own enterprise.

I have assessed from market research that event management is an ever-growing avenue, so I have huge opportunities in the future for my own event management enterprise.

I have learnt a lot from the team projects done in my college and I am looking forward to implement them in the real world in my own business or any other organization.

Threats – The other members of my team are better than me in terms of public speaking and presentation. Due to this, I am not able put through my views and thoughts while presenting something (Maddux and Kleiman 2012).

Though event management is a fast growing area, there are already many established companies who have their own market base. This is posing a serious threat towards my future.

I have used the SMART way target or goal setting to set my targets. This way implies that the goal or target needs to S-Specific, that is, I need to be sure about what exactly I want to achieve. My goal description needs to be specific. M- Measurable- I need to break down my goal in such a way so that it is measurable. A- Attainable- I need to investigate and understand whether my goal is acceptable or not and whether it can be attained. R-Relevant- It is important for me to set relevant and realistic goals or targets. There is a need to train myself with relevance to the set goal or targets. T- Timely – I need set goals and targets within a specific time frame. My goal should have a deadline. Without a specific deadline the set goals and targets actually have no value at all (Midgley 2014).

I am mainly aiming towards starting my own event management enterprise. The time frame that I have set to reach my goal is 5 years after completion of my degree. During this time I have planned to take a training on public speaking and presentation. I will also use this time in search for finance for my start-up.

The way of Setting my Own Targets

The approaches that I have used to set my targets mainly consists of the learning that I have received during the course of my studies. Other approaches include the use of internet from where I have gathered information about the field of event management and the scope of own enterprise in this field (Jackson 2014).

Conclusion

From the above discussion I have done a self-assessment analysis of my own strengths and weaknesses with the help SWOT Analysis and further I have analyzed my opportunities and the threats posed towards my future career. Following this I have set my own targets and analyzed the ways of setting my targets.

Assessment of skills is important to judge oneself according to the needs of the company. The skills acquired should match the requirements of the company (Samardzija and Balaban 2014). The steps of assessing skills are as follows,

The knowledge I have is the primary aspect of assessment. My knowledge and skills should match the needs of the employer or the field I want to work in. If my knowledge is not up to date with respect to my role, my first goal should be to enhance my skills according to the level of requirement of the organization or field (Smale and Fowlie 2015).

The next level of assessment of skills is to judge whether I can add value to the organization in which I want to work. This can be done if I can generate income, solve different issues and also reduce the costs. In this manner I can improve the quality of service that I can provide to the organization.

The next step is to assess my expectations from the organization. This includes the level of salary and the job satisfaction I get from this organization.

The final step of assessment of skills is the feedback I receive from others. This feedback, whether it is appreciation or criticism helps me to improve my skills with respect to the needs of the organization.

Personal Development Planning is required to analyze and organize my skills in accordance with the needs of the organization. Personal Development plan is mainly the process of explaining the importance of the skills I have and whether they are suitable for my future endeavors (Cottrell 2015). This process helps us to assess our own skills and then develop ourselves accordingly to overcome our weaknesses. There are mainly 9 steps in this process. These include,

Defining my goals- My targets and goals need to be determined in advance so that I can decide what is important and what are my priorities in my career.

Prioritizing- The goals which I have determined also need to be prioritized accordingly. The skills I need to achieve primarily in the start of my career should be of first priority and accordingly, the skills can be improved and new skills can acquired as and when required.

Setting deadlines- The time frame needs to be set for the achievement of goals. Setting of time frames or deadlines helps in the setting the right the path for the achievement of goals.

Approaches Used to set Targets

Understanding strengths- I need to assess my strengths in such a way so that I can use them properly for achieving my goals.

Recognizing threats and opportunities and threats- I need to recognize the threats that are imposed towards and also the opportunities I have with respect to the skills I possess.

Development of new skills- Developing new skills is necessary for self-development. Skills required for any specific purpose of the organization need to be acquired as and when required.

Taking specific actions- To achieve my set targets and goals I need to take specific actions as required for the task.

Getting support- The support received from specific sources which include my mentors and professors plays an important role in the achievement of targets.

Measuring progress- Measuring my progress helps me to work accordingly towards and plan and organize my skills. This also acts as a motivating factor (Head and Johnston 2012).

The above mentioned 9 steps refer to the process of personal development planning and this in turn helps us in planning, organizing and evaluating my skills with respect to the task in hand (Beausaert et. al 2013).

Conclusion

From the above discussion I have learnt the ways if assessing my skills. Further, with the use of Personal Development Planning I have analyzed the ways to plan, organize and evaluate my skills.

I was assigned a presentation my professor on a specific topic related to hospitality management. I had somewhat less confidence in public speaking. Due to this I have learnt this skill from my fellow classmates and my professors. As a result, I have given the presentation with confidence and this had a positive impact on the listeners (Gaitán 2012). This led to a successful presentation from my end and I have received good grades for this presentation. This assignment was also a test of my skills of effectively working in a team. I was confident about this skill of mine. Although during this phase I realized that I need to improve myself in this aspect. During the course of this presentation I have learnt a lot from my teammates and also learnt the skill of organizing different thoughts together and create a meaningful presentation from this.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that though I was less confident about my skills regarding public speaking and presentation, I have acquired the skill successfully and implemented it accordingly for my own benefit.

References

Beausaert, S., Segers, M., Fouarge, D. and Gijselaers, W., 2013. Effect of using a personal development plan on learning and development. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(3), pp.145-158.

Boud, D., 2013. Enhancing learning through self-assessment. Routledge.

Brown, G., 2015, October. Self and peer assessment. In Assessment & Grading Seminar Series.

Brown, G.T. and Harris, L.R., 2013. Student self-assessment. The SAGE handbook of research on classroom assessment, pp.367-393.

Brownell, J., 2015. Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills. Routledge.

Cavc.ac.uk (2017). Cardiff and Vale College :: Courselist. [online] Cavc.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.cavc.ac.uk/en/courselist?fcs-keyword-search=&fcs-subject-area=69 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave Macmillan.

Gaitán, A., 2012. Understanding Students' Experiences of e-PDP and the Factors That Shape Their Attitudes. International Journal of ePortfolio, 2(1), pp.29-38.

Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning

Head, K.S. and Johnston, J.H., 2012. Evaluation of the personal development portfolio in higher education: An explorative study. Nurse education today, 32(8), pp.857-861.

Jackson, D., 2014. Self-assessment of employability skill outcomes among undergraduates and alignment with academic ratings. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), pp.53-72.

Maddux, J.E. and Kleiman, E.M., 2012. Self?efficacy. The Wiley Handbook of Positive Clinical Psychology, pp.89-101.

Midgley, C. ed., 2014. Goals, goal structures, and patterns of adaptive learning. Routledge.

Nixon, S., 2013. Personal development planning; an evaluation of student perceptions. Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 8(3), pp.203-216.

Samardzija, A.C. and Balaban, I., 2014. From Classroom to Career Development Planning: ePortfolio Use Examples. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 9(6).

Smale, B. and Fowlie, J., 2015. How to Succeed at University: An Essential Guide to Academic Skills, Personal Development & Employability. Sage.