Table of Contents

1. TITLE
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING SKILL
2.2 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILLS (ICT)
2.3 COMMUNICATION SKILLS
2.4 TIME MANAGEMENT

3 CONCLUSIONS

4 LIST OF REFERENCES

5 APPENDICES
5.1 LEARNING JOURNAL
5.2 CORE SKILLS SELF ASSESSMENT AND SWOT
5.3 LEARNING STYLES
5.4 TIME MANAGEMENT ASSESMENT
5.5 ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
1 TITLE
Personal Development Plan
Name:
BINU AUGUSTINE
Covering the
period from: 06-10-2010 To 16-09-2011

My Goals: To be a MBA graduate in Oil & Gas Management with all the qualities required for a
successful manager.

What do I want/need What will I do to achieve What resources or support What will my success Target dates for review
to learn? this? will I need? criteria be? and completion.
How have I chosen these
dates?
I will fix agendas, set Books like” Kluge: The July 2011
Problem solving and goals and design proper Haphazard When I receive good 3 months before the
decision making actions to solve the feedback from my course ends and by the
skills. problems Construction of the human lecturers and friends and time of my internship.

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
 I will also use mind” by Gary Marcus can they appreciate me on my It is still an area of
brainstorming help me improve my decisions ie if I am able continuous improvement.
technique that I am sure decision making skill. to give good
to help me a lot Being with friend or recommendations in my
persons who are good assignment.
problem solvers and
decision makers.
Watch interviewing
political leaders.
I will spend more time Friends. When I start applying the December 2010
Information and with friends or persons Learning resource centre latest technologies in This helps a lot in an
communications who are good at completing my course effective preparation of
technology skills. technologies. Internet and all type of works and the assignments.
Consult the learning communication medias. improvement in the It is still an area of
and resource centre. marks I receive. continuous improvement.
Newspapers, When I get better marks December 2010
I will be an active Friends, in the coming This skill should be
Communication skills listener; I believe that’s lecturers, assignments compared achieved at the earliest
Oral and written. the best way to learn Talking in front of mirror, to my first assignments for it is very essential for
from others. All communication medias. and presentations. my presentations and
I will make sure the assignments.
communication It is still an area of
language is always continuous improvement.
English.
Maintain an effective The time I managed to December 2010
timetable for all the Personal planners. study and work on my The month that I am
Time management daily activities. assignments will be asked to submit my
Making notes for things reflected on the marks I university assignments.
to be done. score in coming It is still an area of
assignments. continuous
improvement..

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
 2. INTRODUCTION

Learning is a lifelong process in which the learner gains knowledge, attitude, skills and values. As an MBA student it is my
responsibility to develop myself as a strategic learner where I can use my own learning styles and thoughts throughout my
university works. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has set up a benchmark for the international
business students. The benchmark has been developed to improve the quality and standard of both education and
students who acquire their Masters Degrees. After analysing the skills specified by the QAA for all masters programme
with my present skills, I found four areas where I need to improve a lot in order to reach the benchmark. I will be
explaining on the importance of these skills and the different ways that I will work on for the development of these skills
throughout the programme of my studies. The four key core skills that I need to develop during the period of my studies
are:

• Problem solving and decision making

• Information and communication technology skills
• Communication skills
• Time management

2.1 PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING SKILL

This skill is very important to me as a business administration student more over in my own life. There were many
occasions in our life when we stand still confused not knowing what to do or even make wrong decision and regret over
that later on. There will be followers for leaders who are good decision makers because the followers believe on their
leader’s ability.
In order to improve my problem solving skill I will fix the agendas, set the goals and design my action accordingly. From
the ‘VAK learning style’ questionnaire I realised I am a Visual learner and learn things usually by seeing. So I watch
programmes on television like ‘The future decision makers’ in ‘Asianet’ a local television channel of India. I also watch
Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
interviewing political leaders because they are the one who takes the decision for the whole nation and I believe these
approaches are helping me a lot. Brainstorming techniques involving a group of people can also help a lot in problem
solving because we get motivated, new ideas arise and decision making becomes easier.

Although this is a skill that cannot be achieved in a single day and it is a lifelong process, I will try to develop a lot during
my university study terms and I have a set a target of July 2011 because this is the time I get into internship and I need to
be more confident on my ability of problem solving and decision making skills. According to Dr. Charles Foster, The
Chestnut Hill Institute, “good decision comes from disciplined thinking and they are habit forming”. These words have
really motivated me.

2.2 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILLS (ICT)

In the modern world where science and technology rules ICT skill is inevitable for many reasons. The business world is
shrinking by means of formal virtual meetings coming up as the world progresses. Employability is proved to be more
open to the candidate possessing ICT skills than compared to a graduate with a better merit certificate. Employers always
ask for more from a candidate so the ICT skill is always an added and must have skill to be possessed. Information
technology (IT) moved its way to Information and communication skill (ICT) due to the explosive growth of electronic
communication. Coventry University London Campus going ‘paper less’ is an example of how the technology influences
modern education. The online studies, IT resources, moodle, e-library, blogs, wikis, online assignment submission
etc.....are some of the few examples that can be pointed out.

I need to make sure that I do ‘maximum utilisation of the available resources’. I am working on it to improve my ICT skill
by consulting the learning resource centre at the university and asking help to friends whom I find are better at new
technologies. I have not got much time to make it a lifelong process so I have tried my maximum to learn at the earliest
and I am doing on my assignment with my ICT skill. I have put the target date on December 2010 because it is the time of
submission of my assignments for all the four modules. I am sure this skill to reflect on my marks I receive on my
assignments.

2.3 COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
Communication is a process of successful transferring of messages between the sender and the receiver. If a person who
has got all the qualities to become a manager but he lacks only in his communication skill, he is a failure. Communication
is only successful if the message is clearly transferred. Having idea alone is never enough. This is a much talked about
skill even it is told as one of the main quality that is to be possessed by all leaders and managers. Communication skill is
found to be the decisive factor in selecting managers. A survey conducted by pittsburgh’s Katz Business School found
that communication skills, both written and oral presentation and the group work ability were the major job success
factors.

In my first assignment I could not convey my ideas and thoughts properly due to nervousness and lack of verbal
communication skill. I am a pragmatist and so if I get coaching to improve my communication skill I am sure to achieve at
the earliest and I am going for English speaking class to do so. I believe being a good listener can improve the language
knowledge and I always make sure that the medium I use to communicate with my friends is always English. To be more
professional I read newspapers and articles which can be a great source for improving my communication skill. I have put
my target date on December 2010 because my communication skill has to be reflected in my assignments. It is a
continuous learning process there can be only progress by improving this skill.

2.4 TIME MANAGEMENT

In business time is money, time is everything, if we are willing to make some change to our daily routine and strictly follow
a time table, and time management is never so far. As a strategic learner we should try to manage our time properly. Time
once gone can never be taken back that’s why time is called priceless. As a learner when an assessment was made on
how we utilise the time, I found 80% of the time I wasted for useless purposes so now I prepare a list of things that has to
be done according to the priority. We have to be the managers of time and do not let the time to manage us because we
are sure to run out of time if that is the situation. If we can manage time effectively we will be able to get rid of un-
necessary tensions.

I always used to keep all my assignments to the last moment and that always gave me a lot of tensions. I do start a lot of
work at one time thinking I could finish all of them at a time which always proved to be wrong approach. I decided to stick
on to one work and unless I finish that, new works are not started. So now I work on with my planners, to-do list and
priority lists. I am a better person to manage the time now. If I study for only 5 minutes I will study with full concentration

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
and that is called as effective study. My target is set on December 2010 because by this time if I do not manage my time, I
will not be able to submit all my assignments at the right time.

3 CONCLUSIONS

My goal is to become an MBA graduate specialised in Oil and Gas Management, It is essential that by the time I leave the
university I should have acquired all the qualities required for a manager. The skills that I have to acquire are discussed
and I am sure I will be able to develop the skills by the target date set and I believe I am in the right track to reach my
destination. My learning skill will help me develop these core skills. Due to any reason if I fail to do so within the target
mentioned I am sure to carry out trying throughout my study terms and I am sure to achieve them with my own
determination and with the help of my friends and lecturers. Once I feel I have developed my skills of problem solving and
decision making, Information and communication technology skill, Communication skill and Time management reflecting
on my assignment marks I would be more confident in facing the challenging world. I am sure more doors of opportunities
are awaiting me once I am done with my MBA successfully with all the qualities required.

4 LIST OF REFERENCES.

• Jeff Cobb (2009) Mission To Learn [online] available from <http://www.missiontolearn.com/2009/05/definition-of-learning/>

[18 December 2010]

• Charles Foster (2010) Seven Rules for Making Great Decisions [online] available from
<http://bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=27187> [18 December 2010]

• Northedge, A. (2005) The Good Study Guide . 2nd Edition .The Open University Oxford: Alden Group

• Mind Tools Ltd (2010) Introduction to Communication Skills [online] available from
<http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/CommunicationIntro.htm> [17 December 2010]

• Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2002) Masters awards in business and management [online] available from
<http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/masters/mba.pdf> [18 December 2010]
Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
• david kolb (2010) kolb learning styles [online] available from <http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm> [18
December 2010]

• Mind Tools Ltd (2010) Personal SWOT Analysis [online] available from
<http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05_1.htm> [19 December 2010]

• Cleveland Clinic (2008) Example of a Personal Leadership SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
Analysis [online] available from <http://academy.clevelandclinic.org/Portals/40/Personal%20SWOT%202008.pdf> [18
December 2010]

Based on:
The Business Student’s Handbook, 3rd Edition - Copyright © Pearson Education Limited 2007. All rights reserved.