Admas University

Misrak TVET College

Business Studies Department

Basic Clerical Works Level- I

Learning Guide
Unit of Competence: Plan Skills Development
Module Title: Plan Skills Development
TTLM Code: EIS BCW1 07 0812
LO:1 Seek advice on future career directions
LO: 2 Conduct self-assessment of skills
LO:3 Prepare portfolio of evidence
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Occupational Standard: Basic Clerical Works Level I

Unit Title Plan Skills Development

Unit Code EIS BCW1 07 0812

Unit Descriptor This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and
knowledge required to identify and document current skills and to
plan future skills development under the guidance of an
appropriate adviser.

Elements Performance Criteria

1. Seek advice on 1.1 Possible career directions are identified in industry or

future career organization
directions 1.2 Personal work goals are identified and prioritized
1.3 Future work/career directions are discussed with
appropriate people and additional skills requirements are
identified
1.4 Take into account personal values and attitudes regarding
work and business, in planning future work/career directions
1.5 Additional skills required is identified and appropriate
method/s is/are determined to acquire these skills
2. Conduct self- 2.1 Identify work, life and study experiences relating to
assessment of business
skills 2.2 Assess current skills, knowledge and attitudes against a
checklist of relevant competencies
2.3 Results of self-assessment are discussed with trainer or
assessor
2.4 Further skills development needs are identified
3. Prepare 3.1 Types of evidence required is identified and discussed
portfolio of 3.2 A clear understanding of the purpose of evidence is
evidence developed
3.3 Examples of evidence are collected for portfolio
3.4 Application is completed for recognition of current
competency and/or personal resume with assistance from
assessor

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Variable Range
Appropriate people may include but not limited to:
 assessors
 colleagues
 mentors
 supervisors
 trainers
Methods to acquire may include but not limited to:
additional skills  attendance at workshop or demonstration
 formal course participation
 on-the-job coaching or mentoring
 work experience
Experiences may include but not limited to:
relating to  family responsibilities
business  study including formal or informal learning
 volunteer or recreational experience
 work experience
Checklist may include but not limited to:
 personal skills and attributes
 practical skills
 strengths and weaknesses
Relevant may include but not limited to:
competencies  academic results
 interpersonal skills
 organization skills
 personal attributes
 personal skills e.g. demonstrated leadership, team work
 practical skills directly related to a workplace
Types of evidence may include but not limited to:
 academic results including informal studies
 personal interests and experiences
 previous employment
 recreational experiences
 volunteer work
 work experience
Purpose of may include but not limited to:
evidence  assessment of current competencies
 building a picture of personal attributes
 documentation of competencies relevant to the workplace
 identification of areas for further skill development
 identification of strengths and weaknesses
Personal resume may include but not limited to:
 contact details
 education and extra-curricular activities
 past employment and/or volunteer work

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 personal attributes, skills, strengths

 professional development i.e. formal or informal courses
undertaken
 work experience
 work related or personal references

Evidence Guide

Critical aspects of Assessment requires evidence that the candidate:

Competence
 documentation of personal strengths and areas for future skill
development
 documentation of proposed career plan
 evidence of current competencies
 knowledge of the importance of skills development in career
planning terms
Underpinning Demonstrates knowledge of:
Knowledge and
Attitudes  importance of skills development in career planning terms
 sources of advice on career planning and skill development
 types of evidence and ways of creating portfolios of evidence
Underpinning Skills Demonstrates skills to:

 literacy and communication skills to access information to

identify career options and personal work goals, and to draft a
portfolio of evidence
 problem-solving skills to solve routine problems related to the
workplace, under direct supervision
 technology skills to use business equipment, under direction
Resources Access is required to real or appropriately simulated situations,
Implication including work areas, materials and equipment, and to information on
workplace practices and OHS practices.

Assessment Methods Competence may be assessed through:

 Interview / Written Test

 Observation / Demonstration
Context of Competence may be assessed in the work place or in a simulated work
Assessment place setting.

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Establish Standing Rules

Mobile phone “Must be switched off or make it silent and do NOT leave class to answer phone calls.
It is disrespect to the learning and a distraction to the rest of the class.

Plan Skills Development

Definition of Planning

 Determining the direction of an organization by establishing objectives and strategies to

achieve.
 Deciding in advance:

 What is to be done?
 Who is to do it?
 When to do it?
 How to do it?
 Whit what/whom it should be done?
 Where it should be done?

 It is a bridge between the existing situation and desired situation.

 It is a means of organizing works, determining recourses, defining responsibilities,
coordinating activities, controlling progresses and handling events and changes.

Why planning? (Importance and relevance of planning)

Life is short and you need to live it right.

You need to find out the fire in your soul (Talent + Skill)
You need to learn to become the person that you want to become.

Purpose of planning

 Planning gives:

 direction
 Reduce the impact of change
 Minimizes waste and redundancy
 Set standard used in controlling

How to plan?

Examine yourself (honest self-diagnosis)

Identify your strength

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Change your life to the purpose you are created for as early as possible.
You need to learn self-initiative (Self-starter)

Personal factors which affects our plan

Willingness to plan
Risk taker
Innovator
Entrepreneur

PROBLEMS OF PLANNING:

Mainly concerned with future outcomes

Future is uncertain and difficult to predict
Many unexpected events can happen
Planning skills are not prevalent at all levels
Plans sometimes lack the quality of planning.

This course focuses in two areas:

1) To bring a change of thinking in your life

2) To find your purpose in life and guide you to become the best of whom you are.

1) Change of Thinking

 Your situation does not change as long as you have a negative frame of mind
 You can only achieve to the level of your thinking
 You will never rise above the image you have of yourself in your mind
 If you change your thinking your life will be changed
 Have some fire in your spirit and mind that may keep you moving forward
 Learn to dream and it will have the power to revolutionize your life

Group Work

In what areas do you see the need for change of thinking? List the top 5.
What are the possible challenges?
How can you overcome those challenges?

2) Know your purpose

 Purpose gives meaning to what we do.
 Purpose brings pleasure to life
 Purpose serves as a compass to keep us going on the right direction.
 Purpose guides us through. When crisis, people, activities, or other elements pull us from our
path, it's Purpose that brings us on course and guides us through.

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Individual Work

Define your purpose in Life?

3. Living to the Standard of Our intelligence (Birth Right)

The four Intelligences are:

 IQ – Mental Intelligence – The dealing of the Mind

 PQ- Physical Intelligence – The dealing of the Body
 EQ – Emotional Intelligence - The dealing of the Heart
 SQ- Spiritual intelligence - The dealing of the Spirit-conscience

The four intelligences

 Mental Intelligence (IQ)
In simple definition, mental intelligence is our ability to analyze, reason, thinks abstractly, use
language, visualize and comprehend

 Physical intelligence (PQ)

Our capacity to act on our thoughts and feelings and to make things happen is highly determine by our
physical intelligence. Our body is a brilliant piece of machinery that out performs even the most
advanced computers (covey).

 Emotional intelligence (EQ)

Is one’s self knowledge, self-awareness, social sensitivity, empathy and ability to communicate
successfully with others? It is a sense of timing and social appropriateness, and having the courage to
acknowledge weaknesses and express and respect differences (Covey).

 Spiritual Intelligence (SQ)

It is the central and most fundamental of all the intelligences because it becomes the source of
guidance of the other three. It represents our drive for meaning and the infinite.

1. SEEK ADVICE ON FUTURE CAREER DIRECTIONS

1.1
I
dentify possible career directions in industry or organization.

So, you want a job!

Before you begin the hunt for a job, there are two critical issues you have to look at:

 What kinds of jobs there are out there that you could do?
 Which of these you would be happy and successful doing?

You may have a very definite idea about a career you would like to follow or, like many other
people, you are far from sure. Often you will choose a job you know something about just because
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you are not aware of the full range of possibilities.

Identify possible industries and possible jobs

One good starting point is to identify an industry that appeals to you first. If your parents own a
farm, your likely industry will be Primary Industry, unless you really want to get away from the
farm. If your family has a family business of any kind, you may want to go into that business. But
even then, there are lots of potential roles within a business and you may not be interested in them
all. For most of us, we have no real idea what the options are unless we get some help finding our
way around the work world.

"Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
by Harvey Mackay.
Look around you. How many people do you know who love the work they do? You can love the
work you do if you take the time to research the work world and your own likes and dislikes.

Have you got it right?

Often you cannot tell by the name of a job whether it will be a suitable career for you. It is much easier
to do a little research into a profession before you start, rather than change your course mid track.
Keeping your options open and doing a little investigation can save you a lot of hassle in the future.
Let’s now utilize an Internet career pathway quiz in the next activity to help select the right career for
you.

1.2 Identify and priorities personal work goals

So far you have started to put the work world under a microscope. Now let's have a deeper look at who
you are so you can identify the kind of work that will suit you.

Who are you?

Each person has a unique personality and way of looking at the world they live in. In order to see
where your place in the world is, some self-assessment is necessary. You have done those on-line career
quizzes, so let's see now if you can identify more about yourself that will help you choose a career that is
right for you.

What are you interested in?

Begin by answering the questions on the following page for yourself, then get someone you trust to
do it for you. They will see things about you that you cannot see yourself. Sometimes how we see
ourselves and how others see us can be quite different. Our own sense of our abilities is usually either
over-estimated (we are too confident) or under-estimated (we are not confident enough). If we
continue to over or under estimate our abilities we ensure that the workplace we have joined will
become a place of frustration and stress.

ACTIVITY

What do I enjoy most?

1. What do I enjoy doing by myself (some examples may be reading, fishing etc)?
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2. What activities do I enjoy doing with other people (some examples might be going to the movies, playing
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Now get another person in the room to go over your responses for Activity 4. Make sure that person
gives honest, constructive feedback. Remember, there is no right or wrong answers.

Developing Personal Goals

Think about what you want in life. Think about how you are going to get there. Where does
work fit in with your life plan and personal goals? You may be hungry for promotion and
responsibility. Or you may value pleasure and home and friends more highly than your job.
Most likely, you want to lead a full life and spend all your time in a meaningful way. And you
want to be good at your job and for the experience to be rewarding. That's all! A valuable exercise is to
sit down and work out what it is that you want to achieve from work and in your personal life. Ask
yourself "What are my personal goals?" By first identifying your personal goals, you can develop a
long-term game plan to achieve them. By working out what you want, you'll also be able to strike a balance
between home and work that's right for you.
ACTIVITY

Goals: On a separate piece of paper, or a blank word document, answer the following questions. It’s up to you
whether you share this information with others.

 Think back over the past year. Write down:

 All the major things that happened – good and bad – over which you had control.
 What you achieved and what you didn’t achieve though you would have liked to. Be honest and
truthful with yourself.
 Ask yourself some hard questions.
 “In what areas of my life am I not achieving what I want?”
 “How am I limiting myself?”
 “Where am I lacking confidence?”
 Write down your top five goals for next year.
 Be specific.
 Make sure they are measurable goals (i.e. at the end of the year you will be able to say whether or not
you achieved them)
 Have deadlines for achieving them.

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Identifying personal skills

It would be great to think that our ability to tell a joke, play football or tap dance would be
enough of a skill in the average workplace to ensure a wonderful career. Of course if
these are the careers you are pursuing, then these are not only recreational skills but the
work ones as well.
Generally speaking however, the term 'personal skills' refers to the intangible skills that these
recreational skills show. For example if you tell a good joke it could be that you are a great
communicator and that you bring a sense of humor and fun to the workplace. Or if you play
football, it could be that you are a good team player, have a great sense of discipline, fair play or
physical stamina. These personal skills then show what kind of person you are and how you may
relate to the whole organization. A prospective employer will take this into consideration
particularly when they have more than one applicant with the professional skills suitable for the
position.

1.3 Discuss future work/career directions with appropriate people and identify additional
skills requirements

It's no use deciding you want to be an aeronautical engineer if you left school early and don't
intend to go back. It's probably not going to be possible to dig archaeological ruins if you have a
bad back, but there may be other aspects of archaeology that will appeal to you just as much if
you just research the options. When choosing a career you have to cut the suit to fit the cloth, but
it's amazing what the options really are when you start looking.
You've just completed a lot of self analysis, and now it is time to get expert help. If you are a
job seeker who has never worked, you may find it difficult to pay for this help, so you need to
know where you can get it free of charge.
Appropriate people may include:
 assessors
 colleagues
 mentors
 supervisors
 trainers

1.4 Take into account personal values and attitudes regarding work and business, in
planning future work/career directions

You've done a lot of research to this point: you've looked at jobs, you've looked at yourself,
and you've looked at jobs again but with more information about yourself at hand. So by now
you should have short-listed a few options. Now you are going to look at yourself yet again,
but at a deeper level.
While you are doing the following exercises, keep your preferred jobs in your head and
assess whether they fit with your answers.
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What are your values?

This may seem like an unimportant question but researchers studying the elements of job
satisfaction have found that our values can be more important than skills or salary when it
comes to an employee staying in the job they have chosen for themselves. One in eight job
searchers interviewed stated that a conflict in values (either the boss' or the company's)
was the main reason they left their employment.

1.5 Identify additional skills required and determine appropriate method/s to acquire
these skills

So, have you reached a decision on what you want to do? If you have made a decision, you now
need to research that decision to ensure you can achieve it. If you have not made a decision, you
still have to research your range of options to see if they are achievable.

Method/s to acquire additional skills may include:

 attendance at workshop or demonstration

 formal course participation
 on-the-job coaching or mentoring
 work experience

2. CONDUCT SELF-ASSESSMENT OF SKILLS WITH ASSISTANCE

2.1 Identify work, life and study experiences relating to business

Experiences relating to business may include:

 family responsibilities
 study including formal or informal learning
 volunteer or recreational experience
 work experience

2.2 Assess current skills, knowledge and attitudes against a checklist or relevant
competencies

Checking job choice against current attitudes to work

Your attitude to work – like your attitude to life in general – will determine how stimulating and
satisfying the ride is. You might know people whose attitude is to do as little as possible – people
who wish away their day until home time. You can avoid this if you find a job you love doing. If
you have a bad attitude to work, no job will satisfy you and you will fail at whatever you do. The
key to a good attitude is to WANT to do the work. This course is designed to help you find the

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work you want to do and will love doing.

Checking job choice against attitudes to other people

One key factor in enjoying work is enjoying the people working around you. It is important to be
able to recognize and relate to other peoples’ differences.

Checklist may include:

 personal skills and attributes

 practical skills
 strengths and weaknesses

2.3 Discuss results of self-assessment with trainer or assessor

ACTIVITY

As a result of completing activities to date, you should have a clearer picture of your personal strengths
and weaknesses, current work skills, values, interests and possible work options. With your classroom
teacher, discuss the following points:

 Have you found a career path that you want to follow?

 Are you likely to be able to acquire the necessary skills and abilities to do the work?

2.4 Identify further skills development needs

ACTIVITY

Skills I need to develop

Job I want to do Training and/or skills I need to be able to do that work

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Thinking and learning styles

Good trainers or instructors know that different people learn in different ways. Good students also
work out how they learn best. Make sure that any training you do is suitable for your learning
type.

There are many ways of looking at learning styles but the simplest is to break them down into
three basic modes:

 VISUAL – some people like to see what you mean and make decisions based on how things
look.
 AUDITORY – some people like to hear your ideas and decide based on how things sound.
 KINAESTHETIC – some people like to experience what you are talking about and decide by
how things feel to them.

Creating a career plan

Many people do not work out a career plan. They hope that the ‘right job’ will come along and
that when they are ready they will be able to make the changes they want to move into a new
career. There are a few things wrong with this approach. It puts you on the back foot. In this
position you are more likely to be ‘reactive’ to market trends rather than be ‘active’ with them,
and you are likely to find yourself in work that you may be good enough at, but that you are not
happy doing. You can choose to be:

 Reactive – and wait for the world to do it for you

 Active – and go with the flow, keeping abreast of changes so that you can move forward with
ease.
 Pro-active – and be in the forefront of change, creating the trends and new innovations.

3. PREPARE PORTFOLIO OF EVIDENCE

From your earlier work on yourself, you should be now having some indications as to which part
of the market you fit into. If it was suggested to you that you go on a bus where the driver didn’t
know where he was going, would you go? Of course not, but that is how many of us approach the
world of work. Hopefully you have realized that you do not want to travel blindly into work that
does not suit you.

3.1 Identify and discuss types of evidence required

Types of evidence may include:

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 academic results including informal studies

 personal interests and experiences
 previous employment
 recreational experiences
 volunteer work
 work experience

3.2 Develop a clear understanding of the purpose of evidence

Knowing what sort of work you would like to do is only half the battle. You then need to actually
get the job. So now you need to know how to impress an employer and stand out from other
applicants.

Purpose of evidence may include:

 assessment of current competencies

 building a picture of personal attributes
 documentation of competencies relevant to the
 workplace
 identification of areas for further skill development
 identification of strengths and weaknesses

ACTIVITY

Identifying the evidence you will need to collect and why it matters

It is surprising how much paperwork there is that can tell someone else who you are. Even if you
have never worked before, a prospective employer can tell a lot about you from these pieces of
paper. Fill out the table below on the evidences you may need.

Type of evidence Evidence I have Why I need it – what it shows

about me

Formal Education

You will need originals of your:

 School reports
You will constantly be required
to copy these for job
applications, so keep them filed
safely and cleanly.

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Informal Education

You should have evidence of

any short courses you have
attended or completed.

 Personal interest courses

 Sports training (football,
volleyball etc)
 Non-sporting (chess, school
magazine etc)
 First aid training
 Work experience
These will tell your prospective
employer that you are
motivated, interested and able
to stick at something you like
doing.

Referees

You should organize referees

who will be able to say good
things about you. These can be
previous employers, teachers,
coaches or perhaps a family
friend – as long as they have a
good word to say about you.

Computer and other

technology skills

These are important and

deserve attention in their own
right. Name programs and
software you have used. Also
include word processing skills,
graphics software, spread
sheeting and so on.

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3.3 Collect examples of evidence for portfolio

Evidence to support the fact you are who you say you are

You should now collect together all your documents relating to courses, volunteer and paid work
you have done.

Personal resume may include:

 contact details
 education and extracurricular activities
 past employment and/or volunteer work
 personal attributes, skills, strengths
 professional development i.e. formal or informal courses undertaken
 work experience
 work related or personal references

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