Week 7: How does understanding your sector help you?

Introduction

You have now investigated your sector, or the sector that you wish to work in, from several perspectives. You have looked at the differences between jobs, professions, industries and sectors, thought about global and international factors that affect economies and sectors, and analysed the impact of customers, competitors and suppliers. You have also considered the role of organisations such as professional bodies, trade bodies and trade unions in contributing to your understanding of your sector, and how you might make contacts and network effectively. Finally, you have thought about how job markets in different sectors and industries vary.

This week, you will use a tool called a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to help you think through how this knowledge and understanding will help you. You will reflect on how this information can be used in different ways depending on your circumstances and your aims and aspirations.

Watch Lynne Johnson as she introduces Week 7.

Download this video clip.Video player: boc_uys_1_video_week7_intro.mp4

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Transcript

LYNNE JOHNSON

Welcome to Week 7. You’ve done a lot of work already and have thought about your sector from a number of different perspectives. This week, you’ll be thinking again about your current situation by starting to identify gaps in your knowledge, experience, qualifications and contacts. You’ll use the SWOT analysis tool introduced in Week 3 – that’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – to help you to fill in these gaps. You’ll also discover ways of finding help and support and devise a personal action plan, which will help you establish a realistic time scale to achieve your aims and aspirations.

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As with other weeks, you’ll need to use your notebook or the Toolkit [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   to jot down your thoughts and responses to the activities.

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• describe the concept of a SWOT analysis and how this can help you to understand your current situation
• undertake a SWOT analysis on your current situation using what you know about yourself and your sector
• identify how you might improve your performance in your current job
• describe possible steps you could take in order to (re)train or gain further qualifications
• outline how a job or career change might be beneficial for you personally.