Seminar 4:

Self assessment tools for e-portfolios

Compare a range of self assessment tools and their histories

Discuss how appropriate these tools are to assess your current skill set

ON YOUR OWN With the results of the self assessments and 3-5 job roles identify potential areas of improvement

Your tutor should give you a Career Development Skills Questionnaire. Please complete this on your own.

Then talk to each other, 1. work out how the marking works, 2. what do the questions tell you about yourselves?

“Planning you career is not an easy task…

Knowing YOU is the first step to indentify a career.”

Trought (2012) Brilliant Employability Skills, Chapter 3.

Task – 5 minutes On your own do a

quick Self SWOT in your notebook - what are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the context of employability skills?

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Strengths What advantages do you have that others don't have (for

example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?

What do you do better than anyone else?

What personal resources can you access?

What do other people see as your strengths?

Which of your achievements are you most proud of?

What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?

Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in?

Weaknesses What tasks do you usually avoid because you don't feel

confident doing them?

What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?

Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?

What are your negative work habits (for example, are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress)?

Do you have personality traits that could hold you back in your field? For instance, a fear of public speaking.

Opportunities

Tip. Think of things available to you at Leeds Met,

at your part time work, in your community…

Threats

Do some research at home to

complete this section…

Task: 5 mins

Task 1. - 5-10 minutes Take a blank piece of paper and draw a line

in the middle of it. On the left hand side, write down write down all the times in your life when you have been really happy. On the right hand side write all the unhappy occasions.

(Tip - think of atleast 10 things on each side)

Task 2. – 5 minutes

Now, look at your list, look at trends. Answer the following questions:

What really makes you happy?

Is it working with a group of great people?

Is it order, structure and routine?

Is it having a fantastic teacher/lecturer/mentor and meaningful learning experiences?

Is it material success or respect of your peers?

Task 3. – 5 minutes Then, think, what makes you unhappy? Is it working too many hours? Being shouted at? Feeling undervalued? Being underpaid? Feeling lonely?

Trought (2012) Brilliant Employability Skills

Taking what you have learnt about yourself ◦ Can you think of any roles that you can

immediately think you would like to do?

◦ Research job roles available to graduates, you need this for your webfolio.

◦ Are there any skill gaps you can identify?

To keep this simple we are going to focus on the top three sought after employability skills identified by Lowden et. al. (2011)

However do not forget other skills identified by European

Employers and Diamond’s global and intercultural attributes previously discussed in lecture 1.

Team working Problem solving Self-management Knowledge of the

business Literacy and numeracy

relevant to the post ICT knowledge Good interpersonal and

communication skills Ability to use own

initiative but also to follow instructions

Leadership skills where necessary

Knowledge of business is

specific to job role, you are demonstrating this with the way in which you design your assessment centre, Literacy, numeracy and ICT and integrated into all your modules, other areas we will discuss further on in the module…

Belbin is a British

researcher and management theorist best known for his work on management teams.

He still consults and lectures worldwide and recently returned from Russia and China.

Background to Belbin’s research Belbin explained

Meredith Belbin explains his ideas

Belbin Interview

Belbin’s nine team role stereotypes are used to identify people's behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. This information can be used to:

Build productive working relationships Select and develop high-performing teams Raise self-awareness and personal

effectiveness Build mutual trust and understanding Aid recruitment processes

Think about your e-portfolio,

What characteristics sounds mostly like you?

Do any of those sound like your friends?

Good teams have a mixture of skills so a task can be completed well.

Think about your assessment centre team.

What characteristics can you see?

The majority of people are a mixture of a few of the characteristics. These can be measured through a test only available online on the Belbin website.

Questions are asked about the individual and then a main characteristics are shown, from those a profile is done about the characteristics of a person, it also offers career suggestions.

Although this is very expensive to do, here is an abstract of a profile from someone you may know.

Career suggestions:

“Your career points towards one which interpersonal skills play a very important part. Any job you undertake should ideally offer you some scope for negotiating... You should avoid work where you are for most part on your own. You will thrive in a busy office”

Character:

- “Needs to work in a mentally challenging environment

- Requires intellectual stimulation

- Likes to use personal initiative

- Keen to explore new ideas

- A thinker rather than a doer”

Obviously there are always negatives to each

type of characteristic See below link, any of these ring true with you? Team roles, advantages and disadvantages to

characters

How good is your problem solving?

Test

1) Evaluating the problem Clarifying the nature of a problem Formulating questions Gathering information systematically Collating and organising data Condensing and summarising

information Defining the desired objective 2) Managing the problem Using the information gathered

effectively Breaking down a problem into

smaller, more manageable, parts Using techniques such as

brainstorming and lateral thinking to consider options

Analysing these options in greater depth

Identifying steps that can be taken to achieve the objective

3) Decision-making deciding between the possible

options for what action to take deciding on further information to be

gathered before taking action deciding on resources (time, funding,

staff etc) to be allocated to this problem

4) Resolving the problem Implementing action Providing information to other

stakeholders; delegating tasks Reviewing progress 5) Examining the results Monitoring the outcome of the action

taken Reviewing the problem and problem-

solving process to avoid similar situations in future

Describe a situation in which you analysed data and solved a complex problem;

Describe a complex problem you have faced and the steps that you took to solve it;

Describe a setback in your life and say what you did to overcome it. What lessons did you learn from this?

Describe a time when you demonstrated creativity in solving a difficult problem;

Describe a time when you provided a new or different solution to a problem;

Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem;

Describe a difficult problem that you have solved. State how you decided which were the critical issues, say what you did and what your solution was. What other approaches could you have taken?

Give an example of a problem you have solved that required analysis. What methods did you use and what conclusions did you reach?

Link to more information

In turn give each other three examples of problems you have solved that required analysis.

What methods did you use and what conclusions did you reach?

Now critique your answers, can you improve on your answer? Is that what an employer is looking for?

Problem solving is something that grows with practice.

Have a look at other research on problem solving so you understand the mechanics of it within business as well as your own skills…

Good self-management skills contribute to employee satisfaction and growth.

Key elements of self management having a personal vision and goals evaluating and monitoring own performance having knowledge and confidence in own ideas and

vision articulating own ideas and vision taking responsibility. Self-management skills can be demonstrated in various

settings. see table of examples of self management on X-stream Under PPT for this session for some examples to assist you in identifying your employability skills.

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Task 5 mins:

You will be given a handout

This is another self assessment, read the instructions and complete.

This will show you areas that you may wish to improve within this module or in the future.

This concludes the self assessment tools for this seminar, however, there are MANY many many more available…

Lets look at some of the following resources:

The Mindtools website is very helpful and has diagnostic tests in a range of skill areas. For example:

◦ How well do you manage time? http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_88.htm

◦ How motivated are you to lead? http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_01.htm

◦ How well do you delegate? http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_60.htm

The following are all helpful free diagnostic tests:

◦ Leadership http://www.dkmanagementtools.com/free-leadership-self-assessment-tool and Emotional Intelligence http://www.ihhp.com/?page=freeEQquiz

◦ Communication http://www.goodtherapy.org/interpersonal-communication-skills.html

Entrepreneurial Skills

Group Skills IT Skills

Time Management, Verbal Communication, Creativity

Problem Solving Skills Numeracy Skills

Try out some of the following resources:

The Mindtools website is again very helpful and has useful self-assessment tests available. See for example:

◦ Explore your values and how this impacts your decision making http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_85.htm

◦ Explore your personality type http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_51.htm and other psychometric tests http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_21.htm

The following also provide helpful self-assessment tests:

◦ Explore your learning styles http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

◦ More on personality type http://www.41q.com/

Ask your tutor for help in deciding what is best to explore today (and later)

Interview Skills

Improving your CV

Improve your Job Application writing skills

Also see: Career service link

Areas identified for career development are:

1. Leadership and Management

2. Problem solving and decision making

3. Communication skills

4. Time management skills

5. Personal mastery (Mindtools, 2013)

NHS Leadership academy

Directed study: With the results of the self assessments in class and those you have found online compare results with 3-5 job roles in Global Businesses and identify potential areas of improvement

(see x-stream for example job roles and TNA and as discussed in Mitesh’s lecture. (Lecture Number 4)

That’s the end of today's seminar.