Action Planning
In order to complete your Action Plan , you will need to draw together the information generated in :
• Skills Assessment : Planning Ahead – this will have enabled you to consider your current skills level in the core areas that employers believe to be important when recruiting .
• SWOB analysis – this will have helped you to identify areas you need to build upon .
Completing the Action Plan will enable you to :
• Identify personal goals for your period of work experience .
• Decide upon methods for achieving these goals .
• Enable you to record your progress , with evidence as appropriate .
You may wish to involve someone else in your action planning – your work experience supervisor or tutor may be appropriate . If you are on a formal placement or internship , it may be that you have a work based learning agreement which would incorporate aspects of your action planning process .
In order to formulate an action plan , you need to :
• Prioritise . You cannot achieve everything you want to simultaneously alongside study and everything you pack into your life so you need to set a limited number of goals at any one time .
• Be flexible . Achievement of one goal may have a knock on effect for another so you need to review and reflect upon your progress as you go along .
• Ask for help . There is no reason why you have to do this on your own ; especially if you are finding your way in a new area such as careers exploration . Careers advisers and personal tutors are there to help you so use them .
In addition to the above , there are some practical guidelines which are commonly acknowledged by careers professionals and psychologists to ensure that action planning is effective .
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