Level 4 SMDM

406 Personal and Professional Development

Introduction
4 learning objectives, assessed across 3 work-based projects.
Projects aim to give learners an understanding of personal and
professional development within the workplace.
Theoretical and practical assessments that will provide long-
term benefits within the workplace and beyond.
Project 1
Learning outcome 1:
The learner will understand how to plan for personal and professional
development.

Assessment method:
Report and research notes.

Timeline:
Set at review 1, sent for submission at FAP 1.
Project 1
Learners to identify minimum of three opportunities for personal
and professional development:
Personal
Something that will help them outside of work too, such as improving
communication or presentation skills.
Role-specific
Ideally something linked to their job or person specification. Something that will
be of benefit in the particular role/organisation theyre currently based.
Future
This is a bit more wide-ranging. For this the learner needs to identify what skills
may be useful for future roles (Ill come back to this one).
Project 1
The report:
Their report needs them to discuss the benefits of each of the
opportunities they have identified and explain how they will help them
in the future.
Regarding the future development point: theyll need to make
reference to the wider world of marketing and identify what the current
trends are within the industry, for example live streaming. The purpose
of this is to encourage the learner to develop new skills rather than
simply focus on being good at the job theyre currently doing. Emphasis
with this is on being proactive and not being caught out by new
developments (however there are a lot of false dawns in the industry
too).
Project 1
The report:
Their report needs them to discuss the benefits of each of the
opportunities they have identified and explain how they will help them
in the future. Big emphasis on why something has been chosen.
They need to do this analysis of each of the development points
chosen.
Project 1
Regarding the future development point:
Learners will need to make reference to the wider world of marketing
and identify what the current trends are within the industry, for example
live streaming.
The purpose of this is to encourage the learner to develop new skills
rather than simply focusing on being good at the job theyre currently
doing. Emphasis with this is on being proactive and not being caught
out by new developments (however there are a lot of false dawns in the
industry too).
Project 1
To complete, learners will submit a detailed report along with
copies of any research notes.
Project 2
Learning outcome 2:
The learner will understand how people learn.

Learning outcome 3:
The learner will be able to produce personal and professional
development plans.

Assessment method:
Report, evidence of self-audit, dream job specification, personal
development plan, and progress diary.
Project 2
Timeline:
Set at review 2, reviewed at FAP 2, sent for submission at review 3.
Project 2
The second project is the biggest of the three and will likely take
up the most time.

Starting point: self-audit

This is likely to take the shape of a SWOT analysis, in which learners
will look at their strengths, weaknesses, future opportunities, and
threats to development.
Guidance questions in the notes.
Project 2
Next: dream job specification
Learners will need to draft a person spec for their dream job in digital
marketing. This should make them think about what skills they will need
to develop in order to progress in their careers.
For the specification they will need to think about the skills and
experience that their dream job requires, then compare themselves
against it.
This will hopefully provide some context for setting personal and
professional development targets, which is next.
Project 2
Target setting:
Learners will need to identify at least three SMART targets, fitting the
same criteria as in project one (personal, role-specific, future), and
complete a PDP.
Part of this stage is to also evaluate the learning resources that are
available to them inside and outside of their employment. This will help
them determine whether something is actually attainable as per the
SMART model.
The report also needs learners to briefly explain the importance of the
SMART model.
Project 2
Progress and learning styles:
Next learners need to decide how theyre going to make progress,
which is when learning styles come in.
Theyll need to consider their own learning style visual, aural,
kinaesthetic, verbal, logical, social, or solitary and choose resources
that are best suited to the way they learn.
In their reports they will have to refer back to these styles. They
will need to explain how they discovered this style and why they
subsequently chose the methods and resources of learning that
they did.
Project 2
Progress diary:
Learners will be expected to maintain either a written diary (which could
be in the form of a blog, for example), or a video/audio diary. These
will also be submitted as evidence.
Learners must have a minimum of five updates against their progress.
Ideally the method they choose to record their progress should be
linked to their individual learning style.
Project 2
Report structure:
Introduction.
Self-audit analysis.
Dream job spec comparison.
SMART targets, importance of the model.
Learning resources needed, and discussion around learning styles.
Choice of tracking method.
Conclusion, reflecting on whether the correct learning resources to fit
their learning style were chosen.
Project 3
Learning outcome 4:
The learner will be able to make recommendations for personal and
professional development.

Assessment method:
Presentation and evidence

Timeline:
Set at review 3, reviewed at FAP 3, presented at review 4.
Project 3
The final project tasks learners with producing a giving a
presentation in which they explore what they have learned
throughout the entire process.
This is where the reflective diary comes into play: they need to
evaluate their own progress against the goals they set.
Project 3
Presentation must include:
Exploration of what the learner has discovered throughout the projects.
Analysis of reflective diary, showing the progress made between the
updates.
If any progress wasnt made then this needs to be mentioned. Learners
can base the discussion around the barriers they faced and suggest what
they can do to overcome them.
The benefits of reflective practice.
Next development steps.
These dont need to be documented or formally planned, learners just need to show
that theyve considered what their next steps will be based on the progress so far.
Project 3
Presentation:
As a minimum this presentation can be between the learner and the
assessor.
If theyre comfortable, however, it would be nice to invite managers and
potentially peers too. It should be a celebration of what the learner has
achieved throughout the process.
A witness statement is available for assessors to sign as evidence of
the presentation taking place.
Supporting materials
Available for assessors and learners:
Template for personal development plan.
Template for SWOT analysis.
Completed witness statement.
Report template.

The presence of supporting materials doesnt mean these have

to be used, however.