The brief
Part one
Consider your learning journey since you began your M.Sc. HRM at The University of Liverpool. To what extent have you experienced a transition, both individually and as a team member?
Create your own visual metaphor to illustrate both your professional and personal journey.This should be accompanied by a writtenexploration of your learning metaphor and should be1700 words maximum in length (wordcount will exclude any references and also exclude any words on the visual metaphor itself). This is worth 85% of the executive summary marks.
Part two
As part of your executive summary, you need to demonstrate your ability to manage financial resources. In this part:
a) Produce your two year Personal and Professional Development Plan which outlines your own development needs for the next two years. The PDP discussion should explain what types of development you need, justifying the reasons for the chosen expenditure and explaining how you have investigated the options and decided upon this plan for yourself.
b) Provide cost calculations associated with your plan as an addendum.
300 words maximum in length (excludes any references and excludesthe addendum which shows all the costs of both personal and professional development over the 2 year timeframe). This is worth 15% of the executive summary marks.
Guidance
Key components to be considered include:
Part one
You need to write this as an exploration of your own learning metaphor, yet can draw upon actual aspects of your learning as you explore the metaphor. Examples may include the following, yet you do not need to discuss all these aspects of your learning:
- Your own transition during the year - were there any key moments of change? If so, why do you think they impacted upon you?
- Team work. What have you learned from being in a team? What has been challenging for you?
- Key aspects of your learning which resonated with you, such as external speakers, MBA talks, a company visit, reading certain books or articles, reflective diaries, presentations, lectures and seminars. How did they impact upon you and why?
- What have you missed and why (such as lectures, seminars, external speakers, reading materials or company visit)? With hindsight, should you have gone to the company visit, for example? What do you wish you had done more of and less of this academic year?
- Your professional HR journey. As the transition occurs, how has your own understanding of HR developed? What were the significant modules for you personally and why? What have you found difficult and why?
Part two - PDP guidance.
Consider your ongoing personal and professional development needs over the next two years.
- In which professional areas do you need to gain more skills?
- What personal attributes do you want to develop further (how will you strengthen your weaknesses and further enhance your strengths)?
- How will you do this? Think of the varied ways you can approach your development. Some will cost nothing and others will cost money. Consider where you may work geographically and investigate what opportunities are available in that location. For example, you may wish to join your local CIPD branch events or annual conference if in the UK, you may wish to attend specific training courses in your chosen vicinity, you may want to have a coach or mentor, you may want to do work-shadowing, read books, do some e-learning, attend an international HR conference or join a local HR network. It is your responsibility to create a fully-costed plan and to justify your expenditure decisions.
- Produce a cost schedule of your PDP, with specific details for each quarter (such as proposed training providers)
Additional help with this executive summary
The workshop in CTL-4-FLEX in week 11 (May 6th) at 1-3pm will enable you to explore your ideas for this piece of work. You will be reminded of some key elements of your learning on ULMS550 and other modules. You will also be given the opportunity to start (or continue) creating your own metaphor and be shown some exemplary designs. It is important that you read the brief and that you are prepared in advance of this session in order to fully benefit from it. This is a compulsory session and a register of attendance will be taken.