1 . Be able to assess personal and professional skills required to achieve strategic goals.
Personal skills: time management eg using time effectively, analysing time spent to improve productivity, setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based) objectives, prioritising work tasks, dealing with time wasters, effective delegation; stress management; problem solving; decision making; effective communication eg active listening, questioning, handling conflict.
Professional skills: counselling and mentoring to support staff with their own learning and development requirements; coaching skills; leadership skills; multi-tasking; using occupational standards to identify competencies; continuing self development to meet requirements for industry sector professional bodies eg learning new skills and knowledge, developing in current and future job roles; leading and chairing meetings; delivering effective presentations Achieving strategic goals: importance eg to ensure that staff can perform their job effectively, to provide opportunities to meet individuals’ learning needs, to improve flexibility and adaptability when responding to change, to ensure business success, to create a learning culture; methods eg using conceptual tools to identify own strengths and limitations, developing personal networks, management development and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes
2 Be able to conduct a skills audit to identify learning style .
Skills audit: to assess skills and competencies against organisational and personal objectives; personal profile using appropriate self-assessment tools, psychometric testing, personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis – listing strengths, weakness, identifying opportunities for improvement or career progression, identifying threats to such progress; assessment against relevant National Occupational Standards (NOS) and NVQ competence standards; importance of feedback from others eg peers, line manager, customers; methods of feedback eg appraisal, supervision, performance review, mentoring; defining the gap, identifying learning and development needs to meet strategic objectives Identify preferred learning style: methods such as learning style inventories and questionnaires, psychometric testing eg Kolb (converger, diverger, assimilator, accommodator), Honey and Mumford (activist, reflector, theorist, pragmatist), Fleming’s VAK/VARK model (visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI);
