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This handbook and accompanying online system was created by a team of current Strathclyde

students with the aim of making students aware of the benefits of Personal Development

Planning (PDP) and providing a framework to best support their PDP throughout their university

career.

University of Strathclyde

Student Handbook 2012

1

What is it?

Personal Development Planning, or PDP, is

a structured and supported process

undertaken by an individual to reflect on

their own learning, performance and

achievement and to plan for their personal,

educational and career development.

Although you may not be familiar with the

term PDP you will find that the process is

something you have experienced before.

Think about something you do well, a

difficulty you overcame or a personal

achievement, no matter how small. It might

be success in your exams, playing sport to a

certain level, learning to drive, organising a

party or entering university.

Just think about your own experience for a

moment. You are a student of one of the top

universities in the UK, but how did it happen

and what skills did you draw upon?

- Passing exams involved developing your

academic skills, working to deadlines and

managing stress under exam conditions.

- Gathering information from different

sources to inform your choice of university

programme employed information research

skills

- Applying to university required attention to

detail, evaluating yourself and articulating

your skills.

By reviewing your options and thinking

about your future, by setting clear goals and

working hard to achieve them and by

identifying your strengths and

communicating them to others you went

through the stages of PDP to support a

major achievement- entering university. All

you need to do now is continue planning

your personal development in order to make

the most of your time here and create the

best opportunities for your future.

PDP isn’t just about gaining and broadening

academic skills but about developing all

round skills and experience. Whether your

experience is in writing reports, speaking a

foreign language, playing sport or looking

after children, you are likely to have

developed a range of transferable skills.

PDP will help you recognise and articulate

the full range of skills and experience that

you have already acquired so that you can

draw on them when needed and also to

identify those areas of personal

development on which you would like to

focus on improving.

Why do it?

You can benefit from the PDP process in

many ways. It can:

- Give you a better sense of who you are

- Give you more control over your future and

a clearer sense of direction

- Increase your self-confidence by making

you more aware of your abilities

- Help you get more from university than just

a degree

- Increase your reflective, strategic,

analytical and creative thinking skills

- Develop a broader portfolio of experience

when you leave university, ultimately making

you a more employable person

When you graduate from Strathclyde, you

will have the opportunity in the majority of

graduate jobs to follow on to a Continuing

Professional Development (CPD)

programme. This is essential for gaining and

retaining Chartered Engineer status, so the

skills gained through this programme will

stand you in good stead for your future

professional career.

“Twenty years from now you

will be more disappointed by

the things you didn't do than

by the ones you did. So throw

off the bowlines, sail away

from the safe harbour. Catch

the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

2

Who is involved?

You

It is primarily your responsibility to improve your personal

development. The clue is in the name. University life brings

with it countless opportunities for new experiences, all of

which can develop your profile and hence increase your

employability in some shape or form.

Peer Mentor

Your mentor is a senior student from your

department who is on hand to help with

any issues, academic or otherwise. Having

experienced being a new student

themselves they are often in the best

situation to offer friendly advice on coping

with the demands of university life.

My Peer Mentor is:

Email Address:

Personal Development

Advisor

Your PDA is your first call to

aid with your PDP. Your PDA

will lead your meetings and

help guide you through the

PDP activities.

My PDA is:

Email Address:

Industry and Alumni

Throughout your degree, you will have

numerous opportunities to link with industry

and alumni; these are ultimately the people

you will be working for or with when you

graduate. There are already a number of

classes within the departments with heavy

links to industry, often with guest speakers

from industry. In addition to these classes,

there are several networking opportunities

available such as the annual GALA dinner

for students.

Careers Service

The Careers Service is an

excellent service provided to

students at Strathclyde that can

help with many aspects of

career development such as

CV building, interview and

assessment centre advice and

application form checking. For

more information on the Careers

Service, visit:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/careers/

PDP Champion

Your Champion is a member

of staff in charge of

implementing PDP in your

department.

My Department Champion:

Email:

3

Personal Development Process

The diagram above will help you to go

through the process of reflecting and

planning that is central to PDP. As you

progress through university you will end up

finding a method of reflection that suits you,

for now use the Action Plan and Action

Plan Review forms. These are available

online and give you questions you can use

to identify what you would like to achieve

and how you would like to achieve it.

Action Plan

The green section of the diagram shows the

kind of things you should be considering

when setting yourself goals and strategizing

how to reach them. A solid plan that is

followed through provides motivation and

documentation of your achievements.

A good way of setting goals is to use the

SMART criteria. It stands for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bound

Action Plan Review

The blue section shows questions you can

ask yourself when reflecting on tasks you

have completed and the progress you have

made. Reflective thinking is very useful for

identifying things you have done well and

areas you can still improve.

You can record your reflections in many

ways. You can use notebooks, blogs, video

diaries, apps and podcasts to show what

you’ve learnt and how you feel about your

progress.

4

PDA Meetings There are three scheduled meetings with

your PDA during 1st year to discuss your

progression. You can meet more times if

you want to. The Action Plan forms are

provided as a framework to base the

meetings on, but are not necessarily all that

should be discussed.

Your first PDA meeting will be a group

meeting along with some other students.

The first meeting is a general discussion

about the PDP programme and topics of

discussion may include:

- How you have transitioned from school to

university

- How PDP can help you

- What method you can use to record your

reflections

- Any reflections you have made so far

- What you want to get out of 1st year at

university

Your second and third meetings will be

individual meetings with your PDA. For the

first of these individual meetings you should:

- Bring along a completed action plan

detailing any goals you want to achieve,

your strategy of tasks for achieving them

and the target dates for completion of your

tasks. Advice and example forms are

available online as part of Myplace course.

For the second individual meeting you

should:

- Collect any relevant reflections you have

made

- Complete an action plan review; example

forms will be available online

Your PDA will then discuss your review with

you and give you feedback on your progress

so far and help you adjust your plan to

accommodate new targets.

You may also talk about:

- What you’ve gained from PDP so far

- What you have gained from this year and

what you might want from next year

- The progress you have made in your

reflective log

Meetings with your PDA should be related to

personal development and ways you can go

about attaining the skills you want. For any

academic advice such as issues with credits

or your course you should see your Advisor

of Studies or Course Director.

Activities

Throughout the session you should reflect

on lots of different subjects whether that’s

academic things like your work in class and

results or more personal achievements like

sports or developing skills at a part-time job.

Keeping a reflective log will help you to

record this information and you can even

look back and use it later when constructing

your CV.

There are activities on Myplace that can

help you to follow the steps of PDP as well

as resources to help you.

PDP Activity Timeline The PDP programme has been designed to

try and ensure that it fits in with the work

schedule of both staff and students.

Obviously, more attention should be focused

on academic work during exam periods, for

example. However, with just a few hours of

focused work each semester, you can really

make the most of the programme, and the

benefits should hopefully become clear to

you – the PDP activities should not be seen

as a chore! A rough timetable of activities for

both 1st and 2

nd year students is shown over

page.

“Personal Development is a

smart career and individual

investment”

5

1st Year

PDP introduction presentation

Icebreaker activity

Meeting your Peer Mentor

PDA group meeting

Mid semester meeting with Peer

Mentor

Careers Service presentation

Study skills session

Individual PDA meeting 1 –

Action Plan

Mid semester meeting with Peer

Mentor

Individual PDA meeting 2 –

Action Plan Review

2nd Year

PDP introduction presentation

Meeting your Peer Mentor

Individual PDA meeting 1 –

Action Plan

Mid semester meeting with Peer

Mentor

Careers Service presentation

Introduction to study abroad

Individual PDA meeting 2 –

Action Plan Review

Mid semester meeting with Peer

Mentor

Semester 1

Semester 2

1-4

5-8

9-12

1-4

5-8

9-12

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Other Information This PDP Handbook is linked with the

Personal Development Myplace page, which

contains in depth details of the structure and

activities involved in the PDP programme.

However, below are a few of the

experiences and resources Strathclyde

offers which can all contribute towards

personal development.

Study Abroad A number of science and engineering

degrees at Strathclyde offer the chance to

spend at least one year (usually 3rd

or 5th)

studying abroad. This is a fantastic

opportunity to experience a new culture and

see the world, whilst also adding an

international dimension to your degree. The

university has links with many top

universities around Europe and further

afield, with engineering students having

studied in France, Spain, Denmark, USA,

Canada, Australia and Japan amongst

others.

You will be made aware of any opportunities

to study abroad near the start of 2nd

year,

which will include meetings on the

application process and logistics. However,

if you would like further information at the

moment, you can contact:

Allison Handley:

a.handley@strath.ac.uk

Or visit:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/rio/exchangestudyab

road/

Clubs and Societies

Strathclyde University offers a huge number

of different clubs and societies that any

student is free to join. These range from

rugby and ultimate frisbee clubs to anime

and whisky societies and can offer both

competitive fixtures as well as a good social

scene. As all the clubs and societies are

student led, there will also be opportunities

to help run them in the future and hence

improve your CV. More information can be

found at:

Societies:

http://www.strathstudents.com/clubs

Sports clubs:

http://www.sportsunion.co.uk/

Useful links

Careers Service:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/careers/

Centre for Academic Practice and Learning

Enhancement:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/caple/

Personal Development Champion:

Name:

Email:

Student Union, ASK:

http://www.strathstudents.com/ask

“I loved every minute of

studying abroad. I feel that

I have grown as a person

from this experience.”

“Being part of society

allowed me to gain valuable

skills, all whilst doing

something that I enjoy.”

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Example Action Plan

1. Where am I now?

- Do I have any academic difficulties?

- Rate the following skills from 1-5, where 1 is a weakest in and 5 is a strongest:

Self Awareness 4

Exploring & Creating

Opportunities 5

Exploring and creating opportunities

4

Analytical thinking and Problem Solving 3

Negotiation 2 Self-Promotion 4

Presentation 1 Innovation 3

Communication 2 Subject Knowledge 4

Academic Writing 3 Research 3

Teamwork 4 Responsibility 5

Leadership 3 Reflective thinking 4

Planning and Organising 2

Positive Reaction to feedback 4

2. Where do I want to be?

-What skills need improvement?

-Why do I feel those skills are important?

Just now I think I am quite confident but I

struggle with presentations and tend to get low

marks at these

I want to be able to be able to get a 65% or above mark for my next

presentation by the end of Semester 2. Being better at presentations will

increase my confidence and bring up my average grades.

I’m also not great at organising myself which affects my ability to study. I

want to become better organised in terms of my class notes and time-

keeping

Specific Measurable Attainable

Relevant Time-bound

8

3. How will I get there?

- What are the steps I should take to achieve my goals?

4. When will I get there?

- When do I want to have achieved my goals?

I could watch some examples of good presentations

and see how people act, then try to copy their

actions. I will also practice more but in front of

people like my flatmates I could use the study

skills information on the PDP page.

I will make a study plan before the exams start

this year and I will stick to it. I will research the

best way to make study plans so that I am most

likely to stick to it.

I have a presentation in week 10 so I should have watched and practiced

presentations by week 9. I should make a study plan by week 8 which will

give me at least 1 month to study for exams.

9

Example Action Plan Review

What did I do?

1. What was the goal that I set for myself?

The goal I set for myself to be able to be able

to get a 65% or above mark for my next

presentation by the end of Semester 2.

2. Rate the following statements from 1 to 5, where 1 is for

strongly disagree and 5 is for strongly agree:

From my last PDA meeting I have reached my goal.

5

The steps I set for were relevant to want I wanted to

achieve. 5

The steps I set were specific. 4

The steps I set were time-bound. 5

The steps I set were measurable.

3

I was aware of sources of help that were available to help me to reach my goal.

5

What Have I learnt?

3. What positive things have I done? What mistakes did I make?

4. What do I have to improve in my next Action Plan?

I feel like the presentation I gave in Week 10 was

much better than before because I didn’t stutter

as much as usual. My tutor said my eye contact

can still get better, so I want to improve this

next.

I’m struggling to keep to my study plan but I

think it’s because I have put down such large

chunks of time for studying, maybe if I break it

down into half hour times I’ll study better.

10

Recommended 5 year Activity Framework

3 P

DA

mee

ting

s

Introduction to

Personal

2 P

DA

mee

ting

1

PD

A m

ee

ting

Meeting with Peer

Mentors

Career Service

PD Icebreaker

Activity

PDA meetings

Study Skills Session

Introduction to

Personal

Meeting with Peer

Mentors

Career Services

PDA meetings

Industry Presentation

Introduction to study

abroad

Industry Presentation

PDA meeting

Career Service

Contact

Career Fair

Industry Presentation

PDA meeting

Career Service

Contact

Career Fair

Optional

1 PDA

Meeting

Gala Event or similar

First Year

Second Year

Third Year

Fourth and Fifth

Year