Module 6
Self Development
Tutor File
Kindly reproduced from Foundations for Work project with permission from
DiversityWorks (Project no – 2012-1-GB2-LEO05-08201)
Introduction
Why is teaching learners self development important?
Whether building personal skills or guiding others through the process, self development
must focus on individual strengths, needs and circumstances. Self-evaluation of personal
values, strengths, weaknesses, goals and dreams will determine which skills are most
important in self development. And this will make creating and implementing a
personalised goal plan for success much easier.
Self-assessment also allows the individual to decide what changes are needed in his or
her life. Changes that will not only impact current situations, but lay a foundation for
managing future challenges. And by learning to evaluate every situation in terms of
importance, benefits and drawbacks, the outcome of each situation can be improved.
Control over the plan creates a feeling of empowerment. It also increases the belief that
goals can be accomplished, which makes skills development much easier. This selfconfidence increases the likelihood that the plan will shift from theory to practice.
Assess Current Strengths
Nothing builds self-confidence quicker than realising we have value as an individual and
the potential to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Assessing strengths, or creating a
personal inventory, involves identifying all current skills and qualities no matter how small
or fundamental. Everyone is good at something.
Explore Current Barriers to Personal Growth
In addition to assessing strengths and outlining goals, current barriers to personal growth
must be eliminated or minimised. Possible barriers could include physical or mental
challenges, addiction, a criminal record, lack of education and language or cultural
differences.
It may not be easy but dealing with potential barriers up front will keep them from
becoming more of a problem in the future. Suggestions for overcoming barriers could
include finding a role model or reading about people who were successfully in spite of
similar barriers. Remember, if individuals are determined to succeed, they will find a way
to do it. There are always options.
Keep It Simple and Be Flexible
Self development is truly a personal journey. By the same token, teaching self
development might better be described as facilitating self development, since the
learner’s input is just as important. Unless each learner is fully involved in choosing,
developing and adapting skills to meet his or her individual needs, knowledge about
these skills may never be put into action.
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Title
Module 3 – Self Development
Objective
At the end of this module learners will be able to:

Recognise the significance of own achievements and interests to own
development.

Recognise own strengths and areas for further development.

Understand how a person’s learning style influences career and
education choices.
Time

Be able to set personal goals and objectives.

Be able to make action plans to achieve personal goals.
Depending on ability level of learners this module should take 10-12 hours
facilitation time
Task
To introduce the session
Method
Explain to the learners that in this module they will be exploring
some of the achievements they have previously gained and
finding out how through examining their strengths and learning
styles they will learn to set SMART goals for their future career
or education options.
Activity 3.1
Achievements and
Interests
Method – Discussion and
workbook activity,
possible one to one work
To begin ask learners to describe two achievements and how
they were achieved and two interests and how they are
pursued.
To get the group thinking of these first ask them to discuss if
they can think of any personal achievements? To achieve
something is to accomplish or finish.
In the workbook there is a short example supplied for each.
Learners may struggle to think of an achievement from their
lives or may not consider something to be an achievement, this
is where you will have to support, it is important to stress that
everyone will have achieved something and that it is not a
competition to see who has the best. Achievements are
personal to the individual who achieved it, another person my
not consider it an achievement.
If participants struggle to think of how they got to their
achievement have them break down the individual steps, kind
of like goal setting in reverse, start at the achievement and
work backwards going through all the steps that it took to
finish.
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The second section asks the group to look at what their
interests are and how they follow these interests. Similar to the
first section start by getting learners to think of an interest of
theirs, depending on what stage your programme is at staff
may know what these interests are.
Once the interest is established ask learners to think of what
they do to follow or pursue this interest, again a short example
has been included in the workbook.
Again learners may struggle to think of what they do to follow
their interests and might need assistance from staff on how to
break it down into steps.
A separate section in the workbook asks learners to describe
how their achievements and interests have contributed to their
development and current situation. Basically what benefit have
the achievements and interests been to the individual? How
have they helped them to develop and get where they are
today?
This will require exploring in depth the achievements and
interests and seeing if they have/do help the learners or in
terms of an interest has it helped them in some way? For
achievements it could be something as simple as passing an
exam that has helped them get a job or achieving a certain
level of confidence that has helped them on the programme.
Try and get detailed answers for this section. This may require
working one to one with some learners to fully explore the
section.
Activity 3.2 Strengths
and areas for
development
Method – Discussion,
activity and workbook
activity
Our next section will help learners to identify their strengths in
relation to skills and qualities to help them assess their
importance for future life.
Ask learners to complete the personal skills and qualities
checklist in the workbooks and then list their top 10 strongest
skills/qualities and 10 they would like to improve.
Once the learners have found their top 10 discuss their choices
and how these skills and qualities will help them in
1. Work,
2. Training and
3. Future Life.
Examples could be:
A Work Setting
Skill/Quality – Well Organised
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This will help me in a work setting as I will be able to complete
tasks or roles without losing track of what I need to do.
A Training Setting
Skill/Quality – Show Leadership
This will help me in training as I can help members of the group
who are not as confident or unsure about what to do, I can take
the lead in activities.
In Future Life
Skill/Quality – Self Motivated
This will help me in my future life as it means that I will not
need to be pushed to do something, my motivation will keep
me achieving my goals and working towards new goals.
To complete the self reflection of their own skills and qualities
ask learners to take some time to review the checklist and to
identify three areas for further development and why they need
to be improved.
An example could be:
Area for Improvement – Confidence
What could you do to improve? – To improve my confidence
I could try and speak out more or try harder to take part in
activities that are out of my comfort zone. I think I’m already
getting more confident but could work more on it.
Learners could also use ideas that are not on the checklist or
something that they are already aware that they need to
improve upon and are working towards this.
Activity 3.3 Learning
styles
Method – Discussion,
activity and workbook
activity
Now that learners have identified their strengths and areas
they wish to improve a key element in their progression will be
identifying their learning styles.
In this section we will look at the three main learning styles of
Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. Ask learners to work through
the VAK learning styles questionnaire in the workbooks and
read through the explanation for each. Some may be easily
identifiable where others will have an even mix of styles, this is
completely natural.
Once each learner has identified their style start a discussion
on how their particular style will influence the type of career
they pursue. For example a visual learner will typically be
attracted to creative industries such as engineering or design
rather than text based industries such as journalism or
computing.
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Activity 3.4 Actions
plans and goals
Method – Discussion and
workbook activity
Now learners have explored areas for development we will
focus on action planning and goal setting specifically their
career and educational goals.
Ask learners to read through the tips on setting effective goals
before brainstorming some general goals with the group, at this
stage content is not important, all you will be doing is narrowing
the goals down from general to specific.
In the workbooks learners are asked to focus on Educational,
Occupational and Personal health goals. Give them time to
think through each goal and then note down their goals and the
action steps needed to achieve them.
Activity 3.5 Setting a
SMART goal
Method – Discussion,
activity and workbook
activity
The last two pages are for set aside for one specific goal it is
important that this goal is broken down into each of the steps,
the end result should be a well described breakdown with a
clear checklist of what is needed to reach the goal.
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