Skill Development Forms and Career Goals and Skills Assessment Report

Skill Development Forms and Career Goals and Skills Assessment Report

6.3.1 Statement of Career Goals

Through working with various organizations, I aim to work as a program coordinator in my future career. According to Kerzner (2017), program coordinators involve themselves mostly in supervision on how the program is executed and in ensuring that all members in that program have all the requirements for the successful execution of the jobs. As well, the program coordinators have a duty in managing communication, organizing events, and scheduling activities that relate to the programs in place. Therefore, Gunderman (2019) asserts that the primary skills that a program coordinator should have include; problem-solving skills, practical communication skills, excellent managerial skills, budgetary skills, and time management skills. Therefore, from my last experience as a volunteer, all the skills expected. Hence, by the time I am completing my studies, I should find ways to increase my knowledge in those specific areas.

In my future career, I would love to work with Non- Governmental Organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Commission that works to help refugees, especially in the third world countries as a program coordinator. The main reason why I am passionate about the venture is that I will not only work as a program coordinator, but I will also indulge in helping young children with education-related work.  The kind of work schedule that I am hoping in my future career is that which will not affect my personal life. In that, I am hoping to be working during the day and weekdays but having time during the weekends and evenings to spend with my family. As a program coordinator, I will formulate mechanisms where I will not lose work-life balance. Hence, I will follow my work schedule unless if there is a verifiable to adjust the time in the office because I know I might be a wife and a mother.

Hence, I need to be there for my family whenever they need me. The major compensation that I am expecting during my work session involves my salary, insurance, and retirement since an organization like UNHCR has a compensation scheme for all its human resource workers (UNHCR, 2012). For my salary, I will be expecting to be around 10000 US dollars before I embark on creating my own organization in the future. Therefore, I would like to one day head my own organization that caters to the needs of the needy in the society, especially in my home country, China.

6.3.2 Plans for Professional Development

As a way of succeeding in my future career, there are several factors that I need to include in my life as a routine. Considering that I am a first-year, I have a great chance to involve myself in voluntary services, which will not only provide to me the required skills but will also open my mind to how a noble leader should react to all people.  According to Bouchard, and Nauta (2018), the author believes that a student should start preparing for their future career while still in school to prevent the academic disaster that might befall them after school completion. Therefore, the factor will help me in ensuring that I look for internship severally like I have already started to provide insight into how coordinating programs works. In my case, since I have already acquired some skills, practice continuity will enable me to expand on the already existing skills and acquire some more skills. as well. I will stay up-to-date concerning the career requirement, which acts as a competitive advantage against my job competitors.

Therefore, as a program coordinator, the major certification that I need to possess, according to Sevy-Hasterok (2019), include a degree in business-related courses, and relevant skills in supervisory programs. Hence, since I have been working with Suzhou North Railway Station and Lu Mu Central Kindergarten, which will be added advantage since they offered me a certificate of merit due to my cooperation during the volunteering period. As well, being a student at Dalhousie University will equip me with an added advantage through my bachelor of commerce degree. Hence, as per now, i am working on ensuring that I will have engaged with more companies to develop a wide range of knowledge and expertise before I complete the university level. As well, after college, I will need to pursue a master’s degree to increase my promotions chances.

According to Stuckelman et al., (2017) the essential practical skills that a program coordinator should possess involves using scheduling and spreadsheet software such as smartsheet that can help in preparing Gantt Chart and use of programming languages such as R- programming that helps mostly with data modeling and statistical approaches. Other skills include community outreach skills, which is a skill taught in social science departments as well as Curriculum development, which is well taught in the school of education (Fitzpatrick & Malmborg, 2018). For community outreach and curriculum development, I believe they are easier to learn through association. Therefore, I will ensure that I learn more of the skills by volunteering in community activities such as joining organizations that deal with community interactions. Through such an agenda, I believe that I will learn more about how to interact with the community at any time and period. For example, if I were working as a program coordinator like now when COVID 19 pandemic has hit the whole world, community outreach related skills would be essential. I would be required to convince the community, for instance, the refugees on the effectiveness of staying at home and sanitizing to avoid the spread of the disease. The skills such as R programming will help me in determining how many sanitizers and masks should be made available in the camps to ensure that all refugee’s need has been catered.

Since most of the practical skills are provided within the actuarial science department, I will make sure that I will take the courses as electives within the period I will be in school. As well, during the internship, I will ensure that I will have a close association with the programmers to get first-hand information. Consequently, I will ensure that I will do my own research on how to carry on with the practical’s through the help of social media platforms such as YouTube and through the learning materials in the school libraries. I also feel the need to involve myself in short courses in the programming studies after school so that I can have ample time to concentrate on their applications.

As a way to keep up with the industry, the main sources that will be relevant to equip me with the upcoming trends will be through Journals, Books, Newspaper, and Social media platforms. For the journals, Google scholar is one of my favorite sites that provide a wide range of journals customized within the years of publication. For books, I will use the school library as well as E-books that are available online, which helps in getting more information about the company’s failures and success. Also, BNN Bloomberg has, and will always be my favorite newspaper since each, and every day it develops inspirational and informing stories on business. Social media platforms are effective since I can follow organizations such as the United Nations and United Nations Human Commission for Refugees and learn about the organizations

6.5.1 Analysis of the Work Term

My working experience started at Suzhou North Railway station, which is termed to be the second frequently used railway in Suzhou City within the Jiangsu Province in China (Travel China Guide, 2020). The railway operates in Guanqian Street, Ancient city center, and Humble Administrator’s Garden. In terms of size, Travel China Guide (2020) states that Suzhou North Railway station has an approximate size of 54.2 kilometers covering the three centers. My second place of work was at Lu Mu Central Kindergarten, which is located at Suzhou in China. Most kindergarten’s in China deals with children from ages 3years to six years, thus requiring a lot of care towards the children (OECD, 2016).

In both Suzhou North Railway station and Lu Mu Central Kindergarten, I experienced a great work environment; thus, no complaints at all. The only difference that the two workplaces are the people that I met during that period. For instance, in Suzhou North Railway station, the workplace embraced work diversity without discrimination. Järvi et al.  (2018) postulate that despite the differences that occur between the workers, work progress should proceed successfully without biasness. Therefore, I witnessed work harmonization, which also shaped my interaction with other people, even in a school environment. In Lu Mu Central Kindergarten, the environment was different since we had to deal with the school children below the age of 7 years. Therefore, I ensured that I interacted with them responsibly since they were at that age where they would easily copy anything an adult would do.

My work in the organization involved coordinating the team members, where I made sure that they served the customers diligently to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty to the railway station. My stay there also equipped me with great teamwork spirit since I managed to work with many people from different demographics such as age, sex, and cultures. Therefore, I can now handle diversity within the workplace in an effective way. As well, I trained new volunteers, which was an alarming call for my communication and program development skills since I ensured that the training program was balanced and effective to both the volunteers and me. My leadership skills were also put to the test, where I developed strategies to avoid time wastage, where I would arrive early enough, plan the day’s work schedule, and distribute it to the team members. During my stay in the station, I also made an input of joining an association known as Suzhou Mountaineering and Outdoor Sports Association. The best thing about the association linked to my career is that I developed writing skills since I was responsible for posting a weekly journal to the organization’s website. As well, my teamwork spirit was still growing since before I post any journal, I had to carry out interviews and feedback collection.

In Lu mu kindergarten, my primary duties were to help the accountant with budgetary skills and in making effective decisions concerning food-related expenses. For the budgetary skills, I used Google Sheet since that is the only budget tool I was conversant with at that moment. During the purchase of the milk bottles, I had to make concrete decisions that ensured the purchasing of quality milk that will be effective for the children. Therefore, I would conduct enough research regarding the type of bottle milk and quantity that the school would require. Hence, my decision-making procedures would be informed by research instead of random thinking of the milk capacity that would cause wrong data.

Since when I was young, my desire was to one day lead a group of people where I would interact freely, and exercise my leadership skills after acknowledging how some leaders mistreated their juniors. Therefore, when I was joining the two organizations, my aim was basically bounded on gaining a little experience on what leadership entails both in a small enterprise and in a big organization. As well, being a sophomore, I was not exposed to the world of business, so I was just curious about how business life outside the classroom can offer. So, my first week at Suzhou Railway was quite hard, but I tried all I could to adapt.  I remember vividly how I would even search on how to get compatible with an organization on the web. Eventually, the program coordinator at the railway was an amiable person, since he took us through the company’s rules and guidelines. After that, he realized my aggressive nature in knowing various things at a different capacity. Also, I was very keen on observing how business was done since the railway being among the best in the city helped me to cope easily.

Therefore, I can attest that I accomplished more than I had desired since I was promoted, where I would now lead my team. During that time, I would research articles that would direct me on how to be a good leader and the type of leadership style that I was supposed to use. While working as a team leader, despite being a voluntary job, I ensured that I bonded with my team members and also taught them the need to respect one another.  The approach helped the team to interact freely, and conflicts within them minimized, and they were open in consulting me. Also, during my voluntary training sessions, I ensured that I equipped all members with the little leadership I had learned during my stay in the facility.

My desire also in working in exercising my leadership skills in both small and large enterprise was accomplished by working for both Suzhou railway and Lu Mu kindergarten. Therefore, I learned the best way to handle my organization, both as small and large enterprises. In return, since one day, I will initiate my own organization, I will have knowledge in all aspects to ensure the success of my enterprise.

The primary skills that I developed from the two organizations include; Leadership skills, communication skills, Decision-making skills, Budgetary skills, Networking, and Time management.

Leadership Skill

In Suzhou railway, I was given a team of volunteers who I was supposed to lead. The leadership skill was necessary since I was responsible for ensuring that I report to the manager on our daily activities. As well, I effectively coordinated my team members to ensure that they served the customers with diligence, similar to how I treated them.

Communication Skill

The skill was also achieved since I had to formulate an effective communication strategy with my team, the manager, and while conducting weekly interviews for the Suzhou Mountaineering and outdoor sports Association.

Decision-Making Skill

The skill was achieved in both Suzhou railway and Lu Mu Central Kindergarten. In the Suzhou railway, I had to apply critical decisions while tasking my team members and in training the new volunteers. Since I had to know which team member works best in which area to avoid inconvenience. As well for training purposes, I had to critically decide what to teach depending to avoid random teaching, which one does not achieve much. In Lu Mu, the critical decision making skill would show up while purchasing bottled milk since we had to consider the quality and quantity of the milk to be purchased.

Budgetary skills

The skill was gained in Lu Mu, especially when purchasing the bottled milk, since I had to ensure that the data was correct.

Networking skill

My networking skills have developed since I managed to convince the two organizations to enroll me, especially for the Suzhou Railways. Therefore, that has given me more confidence in approaching bigger organizations for my internships and also for job capacity.

Time Management Skill

In Suzhou, my time management developed immensely since I came up with effective criteria where I would arrive early enough to plan on the day’s schedule, which would enable my team members to work effectively and efficiently.

In my work term, budgetary and communication skills have to be advanced since they are the major skills that help the company to success even amid calamity. During my exercise of budget skill at Lu Mu, I learned that I would only use Google sheet while making the budget. The weakness in that skill is that I need to learn more tools. Whitbread et al. (2017) outline Mvelopes, Moneydance, Mint, CountAbout, Quicken, and Personal Capital since they are among the budget tools. Communication skills also need to be advanced, especially in ensuring that I can understand and speak common global languages for effective understanding and harmonization. For instance, in Suzhou station, due to the diversity of the workplace, communication skills would be most effective, especially in explaining certain factors to people in an easier language that they can understand and execute the job effectively.

My future career aligns within the project coordinator rank after school completion, and after that, I have a dream to start my own organization. Therefore, the experience was worth it, since I now know some useful tips in managing and leading employees like the case of Suzhou Railways. Since I am just a sophomore, I will ensure that before I complete my studies, I have experienced more of such experiences. That will ensure that I have more confidence when I am looking for a job after school completion.

References

Bouchard, L. M., & Nauta, M. M. (2018). College students’ health and short-term career outcomes: Examining work volition as a mediator. Journal of Career Development, 45(4), 393-406.

Fitzpatrick, G., & Malmborg, L. (2018, September). Quadruple helix model organization and tensions in participatory design teams. In Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 376-384).

Gunderman, R. B. (2019). Practical wisdom and the program coordinator. Academic radiology, 26(9), 1278-1279.

Järvi, K., Almpanopoulou, A., & Ritala, P. (2018). Organization of knowledge ecosystems: Prefigurative and partial forms. Research Policy, 47(8), 1523-1537.

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

OECD (2016). Education in China. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/china/Education-in-China-a-snapshot.pdf (Accessed on 21st April 2020).

Stuckelman, J., Zavatchen, S. E., & Jones, S. A. (2017). The evolving role of the program coordinator: five essential skills for the coordinator toolbox. Academic radiology, 24(6), 725-729.

Sevy-Hasterok, R. (2019). Graduate Program Coordinator (Doctoral dissertation, Emory University).

Travel China Guide (2020). Suzhou North Railway Station. Available at: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/suzhou-north-station.htm (Accessed on 21st April 2020).

UNHCR (2012). A Guidance Note on Health Insurance Schemes for Refugees and other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/4f7d4cb1342.pdf (Accessed on 21st April 2020).

Whitbread, S., Linnane, K., & Davidson, A. (2017). Policy Innovation: New Thinking, New Skills, New Tools. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.