This section will focus on the second point that Chi made in Audio 3: identifying the skills you have now. Evaluating your abilities is concerned with helping you to take stock of your current position by:
To do this, start by identifying all the sources that you can use – these can be quite varied. For instance, you might consider:
A key part of this is collecting evidence from a variety of sources so that you can see how different people or organisations rate your strengths and weaknesses. This can be useful when it comes to recognising either unrealistically high or unnecessarily low estimations of your own abilities. You should also consider sources from outside your professional and academic circles. For instance:
This is an example of how to apply a holistic approach to career development (Figure 3).
It's all well and good for you to go away and identify possible sources now, but this won't be much use in a month or so when you have forgotten all the details. So the next activity will start you off on the process of developing a portfolio of evidence – initially regarding where you are now, but there is nothing stopping you from keeping this up to date in the future and outside the confines of this course.
Aim of this activity:
Table 1 below is an example of some sources of evidence. Give a few examples of sources of evidence you could draw on. It will be useful to update this in the future as your studies and your career progress.
Description of information source | Kind of information | Location | Usefulness |
---|---|---|---|
Last year's performance appraisal | Covers work performance and professional development needs | My personal file at work | Contains useful information on skills gaps |
Most recent CV | Jobs, education and training, skills, abilities and interests | On my home computer | Good source, but needs updating |
Feedback from most recent study assessment (i.e. tutor comments on coursework) | Comments on performance and study skills | In my OU study folder | Identifies some key strengths and weaknesses |
Opinions of friends, family and colleagues | Comments on my list of strengths and weaknesses | Informal checklist | Very subjective, but may provide food for thought |
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