This document discusses the importance of planning for professional development. It introduces tools like SWOT analysis, skills auditing, and creating SMART action plans. A SWOT analysis involves analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A skills audit evaluates skills and abilities in areas required by employers. An action plan sets goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound to focus development efforts. Mastering these planning techniques will help students identify skills to improve and effectively work towards their future career goals.

1. Planning Your
Development
Destination: Inspiration

2. Introduction
• In order for you to get the most out of your work placement, it is vital
that you plan correctly.
• You need to look at the areas you need to develop and create an action
plan of how you are going to achieve those.
• In this session, we are going to look at how to evaluate your own skills
and create an action plan based on your current needs.

3. Session Objectives
• By the end of this session, all students will be able to:
• Explain why it is important to plan for your development
• Carry out a SWOT Analysis
• Carry out a Skills Audit
• Prepare an action plan

4. Planning for Your Future
• You are already planning for your future by attending college and carrying
out a work placement.
• So why is it necessary to do further planning?

5. Why is it important to plan your
development?
• Allows you to identify the areas you need to improve on.
• Allows you to compare your skills and qualities to those you
will need in your job.
• Gives you focus for the future.
• Allows you to set a timeline for your development.
• Will impress your employer!

6. SWOT Analysis
• This is a simple method of working
out what skills and qualities you
already have and those that you
are lacking:
• You simply look at the skills and
qualities that you have and put
them into the appropriate box.
• It helps if you know what an
employer is looking for.
Strengths Weaknesses
SWOT
Opportunities Threats

7. Strengths
You are good at these now.
Skills & qualities you have
You need to maintain these
Weaknesses
You need to learn these skills or
qualities.
Behaviours you need to stop.
Opportunities
What are you doing at the
moment to increase your
employability?
Courses & training events should
go here
Threats
These are things that could
potentially stop you achieving
your goals.
SWOT

8. Skills Audit
• This is another simple activity you can do to determine whether or not you are
ready for a particular job and what you still need to develop.
• In this one, you need to know the skills and qualities required by an employer.
• You then grade yourself on each:
• Can do really well
• Needs work
• Can’t do at all
• This will allow you to determine which skills and qualities you need to put in
your action plan.

9. Action Plan
• Once you have established which skills
you need to work on, you can create an
action plan.
• It is important that the targets you set for
yourself are SMART:

10. Specific
• Make sure that your goal is very specific.
• “Improve my attendance” is very vague.
• “Increase my attendance from 80% to
95%” gives a very specific target for you to
aim for.
• Make sure your target tells you EXACTLY
what you are going to achieve.

11. Measurable
• All targets should be measurable.
• That means when you are done, there
should be some sort of proof.
• For instance, “Pass my course with
distinction grade”, is measurable because
you will have a certificate as proof at the
end.

12. Attainable / Achievable
• You can set yourself the best goal in the
world but if it is impossible for you to
achieve it is meaningless.
• For instance, “Become a vet” is a great
aspiration but unless you have A’s and A*
at GCSE it is not achievable.
• Make sure your target can be achieved in
the time you have set yourself.

13. Relevant
• When you are setting targets for your
personal development, they don’t just have
to be academic.
• You can set yourself targets related to your
personal growth and development.
• However, if your boss asks you to create an
action plan, don’t put targets in there
related to your hobbies!

14. Time-Bound
• In an action plan, every target should have
a target date that you would like to achieve
it by.

15. This is a SMART Target; True or False?

16. This is a SMART Target; True or False?

17. This is a SMART Target; True or False?

18. Summary
• Now that you have worked your way through this slideshow, there are three
activities for you to do:
• SWOT Analysis
• Skills Audit
• Create an action plan
• Once you have created these documents, upload them to 3D Learning and I will
give you feedback.
• Don’t forget, you will be asked to do these tasks as part of your assignment do
this is your chance to practice before submitting work for grading!