Personal Development Plan

There are many different types of personal development that should be aligned with each individual employee.  A developmental plan that is created for one employee may not be appropriate for another employee.  Every employee has specific skills and qualities that should be part of the developmental plan and as such the developmental activities are as unique as the employee.  For my personal developmental plan there are four different activities that will be incorporated to help refine and reinforce skills for my current role and future roles.  The four types of developmental activities are continuing education, one-on-one mentoring, group seminars, and job enlargement or employee improvement of personal skills (i.e., project management) (Noe, 2010).

Personal development training has the purpose of helping employees build the skill sets they need to do their jobs as proficiently as possible.  Most employee personal development plans are designed to indentify each individual’s strengths and weaknesses as well as hard and soft skills (Pace, 2010).  Effective personal development on the job also increases employee’s confidence, satisfaction with their work, and productivity (Noe, 2010).  Employees who make these positive associations with their jobs are generally more satisfied with their careers because they feel their work has a high degree of value. 

One-on-one mentoring is a part of employee personal development strategies.  Many times mentoring is incorporated into new employee training, in which the new hire is paired with a more experienced staff member.  However, mentoring can be just as beneficial for current employees in which they are paired with a more senior, experienced employee.  The mentor helps with filling in knowledge gaps necessary for one’s roles and responsibilities and helps to provide guidance on goal-setting (Noe, 2010).  Having a mentor outside of my team can help to identify skills that need further refinement and can suggest training courses or proposed projects that will help to reinforce those skills.

Group seminars encourage employees to formulate their own plans that will help them along in their career paths (Noe, 2010).  The different between group seminars and continuing education is that continuing education is specific to the employee and can include training topics such as interpersonal skills along with technical skills for performing the job (Pace, 2010).  Group seminars can be used for employee development for the whole team.  Team can benefit from taking seminars or training together and can further enhance team building skills.  My current team works very well together; however, recently a lot of new employees have joined the team and it would be a good opportunity for each of us to learn more about fellow team members and how we can all effectively interact with each other on projects.

Continuing education is about forming plans that often list an employee’s competencies and shortcomings along with specific steps to improve weaker skills (Noe, 2010).  The continuing education plan can be formulated with me and my manager that will focus on the specific skills that I need to further development.  The education plan includes a timeframe for which to make improvements.  As I participate in continuing education courses, my manager and I will evaluate my progress and can offer feedback (Noe, 2010).  The feedback can include taking more continuing education courses or if my goals are met, taking on added job responsibilities to put into action the skills learned.  This leads to the last activity of job enlargement.  Some of the continuing education courses include further developing my knowledge on adult education, creating effective training courses, and implementing global projects.

Job enlargement is a technique where my or others numbers of job tasks is increased as associated with a certain job.  It is able increasing the scope of one’s duties and responsibilities (Noe, 2010).  By having job enlargement as part of my personal developmental plan, it increases my workforce flexibility, meaning that I am able to perform many different functions that may have been previously done my only one person.  Additionally, job enlargement brings about a feeling of having more responsibility and worthwhile in the organization (Pace, 2010).  Having the opportunity to be able to learn more about my skill set and identify possible additional developmental areas is what employee development plans are all about. While I work in Professional Development & Training, I also work on global scale projects related to training.  Having the opportunity to work on more projects as the project manager, I am able to learn how to be an effective project manager.   Job enlargement is providing new projects that one may not have previously had the chance to work on and experience in their current role. 

Employee development is unique to everyone and there are different activities that are included in one development program that may not be included in another program.  The employee and their manager should develop the right plan together and continue to monitor the employee’s progress throughout the developmental plan.  No matter one’s experience or job title (level) there is always something that employees are able to learn, additional skill sets to master.

References:

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Pace, A. (2010). Unleashing positivity in the workplace. Training and Development, 64(1), 40–44.

Educational Technologies

Technology and advancements in technology are creating changes in the way that education and training are being provided to learners and on the overall development of training programs (Ahmad, 2010).  Many organizations are implementing training programs that leverage technology.  Using technology in a training environment requires collaboration between the training team and the technology team.  However, with the implementation of technology over the last several years, organizations have seen decreased costs associated with developing and delivering training courses (Dede & Palombo, 2004).  There are four selected technologies that have influenced the field of adult education and training.  The technologies are computer-based training (CBT), distance learning, multimedia training, and intelligent tutoring systems (Noe, 2010). 

Computer-based training (CBT) is a more interactive learning experience in which learners use computers that provide content, simulations, and case studies that learners provide responses and then the computer analyzes the results of the learners decisions (Noe, 2010).  Based on the decisions made the computer can provide feedback.  The advantages of CBT are that it is accessible at anytime and anywhere for the learner.  The audience for the course can be broad or specialized based on the desired learning objectives.  Additionally, the training can be delivered to all geographical locations.  The practical application of the content, feedback, assessment of decisions made by the learner, and other features of a classroom setting can be built into the learning environment of the computer training program (Dede et al., 2004).    

Intelligent tutoring systems are an instructional system using artificial intelligence (Noe, 2010).  The tutoring program is a way to structure the learning environment in which the content and instruction being provided to learners is tailored to the learner’s needs.  The tutoring approach focuses on one content domain at a time in which the learner is able to increase their understating of that content area before moving on to the next content area.  ITS can decide, based on the learner’s previous performance, what information to provide to the learner to ensure that they understand the content being presented (Dede et al., 2004).  Finally, self-assessments are provided and based on the results additionally information can be provided for the learner (Noe, 2010).

Distance learning is typically used by organizations that have many different geographical locations in which learning and information needs to be provided to multiple learners that are spread out around the globe (Noe, 2010).  Information about an organization’s products, new products being implemented, policies, and procedures can be provided to learners at the same time using the distance learning feature.  The benefit of using distance learning is that there is a two-way communication between the educator and the learners in the multiple locations (Ahmad, 2010).  There are two types of technology that are involved in using distance learning and they are teleconferencing and individualized, personal-computer-based training.  Distance learning uses various forms of technology that allows the learners to be able to interact with each other and the educator at the same time while being in different locations (Noe, 2010).

Finally, multimedia training is a form of training that uses two different training approaches; one is audiovisual along with computer-based training (Noe, 2010).  Multimedia training programs can incorporate graphics, animation, audio, and visual to help enhance the learning process.  The learner is able to interact with the content as the training is computer-based which helps learners to find a greater connection to the content being presented.  The delivery method for multimedia is flexible as it can be delivered using   video, the internet, or an organizations intranet (Barkley, 2010).  Learners are provided with built-in guidance programs that give the learners immediate feedback. 

The four selected technologies all have the opportunity to continue to influence how individuals learn because the learning can be interactive while being provided at any time anywhere (Barkley, 2010).  Additionally, while conducting the training the learner is able to get immediate feedback and identify where additional training may be required.  Technology is always changing and being updated which means that it will only become more interactive for the learner.  Currently, one disadvantage to online training is that some of it is not interactive for the learner.  Adult learners want to be able to apply previous experience and knowledge to current learning situations (Dede et al., 2004).  With distance learning, multimedia, and intelligence tutoring, these provide more interaction for the learner while incorporating technology into the course.  However, as technology continues to expand the level of interactivity will continue to grow which will continue to motivate the learner.  The technologies selected allow learning to become a more dynamic process for the educator and the learners.  Recently the learning environment has expanded to include greater interaction between learners and the training content which means that technology is helping to expand the environment for which learning can take place. 

References:

Ahmad, N., & Orton, P. (2010). Smartphones make IBM smarter, but not as expected. Training and Development, 64(1), 46–50.

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dede, C., & Palombo, M. (2004). Virtual worlds for learning: Exploring the future of the "Alice in Wonderland" interface. Threshold: Exploring the Future of Education: 16-20.

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.