Personal Development Plan Review

Personal Development Plan 

A Personal Development Plan or PDP is a document that a person cerates in order to help motivate themselves to improve skills. The user can put down any number of skills that they wish to improve on, both strengths and weaknesses. The user can then say how they wish to improve on these skills by giving bullet points descriptions on different ways they can improve the skills. These bullet points can include different links that you want to visit that give tips on how to improve the skill or names of books that look like they might be helpful. You can also set goals as to when you want to have the skill improved by. These can be short, medium or long term goals. Each of these will have different durations; short term will be 2 weeks to 2 months, medium term will between 2 months and 1 year and a long term goal can be between 1 to 5 years. A PDP will also have a diary that the user can write how they are getting on with reaching their goal, as well as how and when they have completed it.

My Strengths

I have devised my own personal PDP and have included some of my strengths that I fell could use some improvement.

IT Skills: I have adequate IT skills and can use main Microsoft programs with ease. Programs I am familiar with include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. Although I wanted to gain more IT skills and enhance my knowledge as I know that this would help with my college course. The main program that I wanted to become familiar with was Windows Movie Maker. I have always been intrigued by editing videos and wanted to learn more about it. I set myself a short term goal, between 2 weeks and 2 months in order to gain knowledge on this program. I looked online to find different websites that showed step by step instructions on how to use the program including http://www.teach-ict.com/ Which gave some knowledge on video editing. I also looked at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/getting-started-with-windows-movie-maker which gave extensive knowledge on how to use the program. I have been able to create short videos and believe that I have extended my knowledge and have met my goal of learning more IT skills. I am also looking into getting a new laptop and would love to buy more extensive software that can help me to improve my skills even further.

Time Management Skills: I really wanted to improve my time management skills in order to make the most out of my time and so that I could manage my coursework easier. I have Looked at different websites and books that provide tips on how to improve my time management including http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/time-management-tips.aspx Which I found very useful and I was doing well with my medium goal of 2 months to 1 year. Although I fell and broke a number of bones in my foot which required sugary meaning that I was in a lot of pain and wasn’t able to do much coursework. I feel like I haven’t been able to manage my time very well in the last few months; but I am getting back on track and hope to continue to learn new time managing skills.

Planning Skills: Improving my panning skills was an important task for me; this is because I had agreed to help my mum plan my granddads surprise 70th birthday party. I wanted to plan it as best as I could as he means a lot to me. I read a number of websites and books that helped me to gain knowledge on how to improve my skills. These helped me to plan the party and trying to get all of my family to help as well. I was also able to help my cousin who lives in America to come over for it as an extra surprise for my Granddad. I gave myself a medium term goal of between 2 months and 1 year. I believe I have met this as I was able to help plan the surprise for my granddad. I will continue to improve my planning skills as my granny’s 70th birthday is also coming up and we will have to start planning for that as well.

Weaknesses

Within my PDP I also included three weaknesses that I thought could do with being improved and different ways in which I could improve myself.

Written Skills: I believe that my written skills could do with a vast improvement. Therefore I set myself a long term goal of 1 to 5 years to improve this goal. In order to improve my written skills I have been watching videos and reading tips on websites that give tips on how to improve written skills such as http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Writing-Skills I also write short stories in order to try and improve my writing skills. I also use the synonyms when typing words in order to help me learn other words that I could use. I haven’t been able to do my English GCSE but I plan on completing that this year with a C grade or above. I have been able to earn multiple distinctions in my college course and I can see an improvement in my writing so I believe I am on course to meet my target.

Verbal Skills: I think that by verbal skills could be improved especially when presenting presentations as I get flustered and nervous a lot. I set myself a medium term goal of 2 months to a year to complete this goal. In order to help this I have been looking at videos and reading websites that suggest a number of different ways to improve your verbal skills such as http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Verbal-Skills in order to reach this goal. I haven’t had much of a chance to test this new skill although I have notice more confidence when talking to new people which I have often found a bit daunting at times in the past. Particularly in a new environment, an example of this was when I was in the hospital waiting on my operation, they wouldn’t allow my parents to stay with me and I found that scary but once I had settled in after a few hours I was less worried and able to communicate with the nurses more. Therefore I think my verbal skills have improved although I don’t know how well they have improved yet.



Editing Media: While was improving on my IT skills I found a new enjoyment in editing media and decided to improve this skill even further. I have found new software that I can use to complete simple edits such as Windows Movie Maker. I have continued to use this program as well as looking into editing pictures. I found a website called picmonkey http://www.picmonkey.com/ that I have used a lot and have found it very enjoyable. I set this goal at a medium target of 2 months to a year to complete. I believe that I have improved as I was able to earn a distinction in my Digital Graphics and Multimedia units within my Level 3 Computer course at college. I continue to look into other ways in which I can further my knowledge in editing media as I find it very interesting.

Achieve Goals In Future

I will continue to try and improve my English skills by attending English GCSE classes in order to try to obtain a C grade or high if possible. I will also continue to try and complete all assignments that I have set to the highest standard I am possible of completing. I would also like to complete my Math’s GCSE to try and get a C grade in it as well. I am also looking forward to improving my editing skills and am looking for more advantaged software that I can learn to use. I do not know of any other improvements that can be made but that may change in the coming months, but I look forward to continually improving the skills that I have acquired in order to better myself.

Learning Style

My greatest learning style was aural so I was able to make the most out of listening to music while reading and learning about these skills. I believe doing so helped me to take in more knowledge. My second learning style was visual so watching the online videos wold have been a great help as some of them can be very graphical. Knowing what my learning style was and how people with this style learn helped me very much as it gave me new ideas to do in order to help me learn, such as listing to music as well as diagrams and colouring the important pieces of information with a highlighter in order to help me take not of them better.