Student Handbook PDP
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This handbook and accompanying online system was created by a team of current Strathclyde
students with the aim of making students aware of the benefits of Personal Development
Planning (PDP) and providing a framework to best support their PDP throughout their university
career.
University of Strathclyde
Student Handbook 2012
1
What is it?
Personal Development Planning, or PDP, is
a structured and supported process
undertaken by an individual to reflect on
their own learning, performance and
achievement and to plan for their personal,
educational and career development.
Although you may not be familiar with the
term PDP you will find that the process is
something you have experienced before.
Think about something you do well, a
difficulty you overcame or a personal
achievement, no matter how small. It might
be success in your exams, playing sport to a
certain level, learning to drive, organising a
party or entering university.
Just think about your own experience for a
moment. You are a student of one of the top
universities in the UK, but how did it happen
and what skills did you draw upon?
- Passing exams involved developing your
academic skills, working to deadlines and
managing stress under exam conditions.
- Gathering information from different
sources to inform your choice of university
programme employed information research
skills
- Applying to university required attention to
detail, evaluating yourself and articulating
your skills.
By reviewing your options and thinking
about your future, by setting clear goals and
working hard to achieve them and by
identifying your strengths and
communicating them to others you went
through the stages of PDP to support a
major achievement- entering university. All
you need to do now is continue planning
your personal development in order to make
the most of your time here and create the
best opportunities for your future.
PDP isn’t just about gaining and broadening
academic skills but about developing all
round skills and experience. Whether your
experience is in writing reports, speaking a
foreign language, playing sport or looking
after children, you are likely to have
developed a range of transferable skills.
PDP will help you recognise and articulate
the full range of skills and experience that
you have already acquired so that you can
draw on them when needed and also to
identify those areas of personal
development on which you would like to
focus on improving.
Why do it?
You can benefit from the PDP process in
many ways. It can:
- Give you a better sense of who you are
- Give you more control over your future and
a clearer sense of direction
- Increase your self-confidence by making
you more aware of your abilities
- Help you get more from university than just
a degree
- Increase your reflective, strategic,
analytical and creative thinking skills
- Develop a broader portfolio of experience
when you leave university, ultimately making
you a more employable person
When you graduate from Strathclyde, you
will have the opportunity in the majority of
graduate jobs to follow on to a Continuing
Professional Development (CPD)
programme. This is essential for gaining and
retaining Chartered Engineer status, so the
skills gained through this programme will
stand you in good stead for your future
professional career.
“Twenty years from now you
will be more disappointed by
the things you didn't do than by
the ones you did. So throw off
the bowlines, sail away from
the safe harbour. Catch the
trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain
2
Who is involved?
You
It is primarily your responsibility to improve your personal
development. The clue is in the name. University life brings
with it countless opportunities for new experiences, all of
which can develop your profile and hence increase your
employability in some shape or form.
Peer Mentor
Your mentor is a senior student from your
department who is on hand to help with
any issues, academic or otherwise. Having
experienced being a new student
themselves they are often in the best
situation to offer friendly advice on coping
with the demands of university life.
My Peer Mentor is:
Email Address:
Personal Development
Advisor
Your PDA is your first call to
aid with your PDP. Your PDA
will lead your meetings and
help guide you through the
PDP activities.
My PDA is:
Email Address:
Industry and Alumni
Throughout your degree, you will have
numerous opportunities to link with industry
and alumni; these are ultimately the people
you will be working for or with when you
graduate. There are already a number of
classes within the departments with heavy
links to industry, often with guest speakers
from industry. In addition to these classes,
there are several networking opportunities
available such as the annual GALA dinner
for students.
Careers Service
The Careers Service is an
excellent service provided to
students at Strathclyde that can
help with many aspects of
career development such as
CV building, interview and
assessment centre advice and
application form checking. For
more information on the Careers
Service, visit:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/careers/
PDP Champion
Your Champion is a member
of staff in charge of
implementing PDP in your
department.
My Department Champion:
Email:
3
Personal Development Process
The diagram above will help you to go
through the process of reflecting and
planning that is central to PDP. As you
progress through university you will end up
finding a method of reflection that suits you,
for now use the Action Plan and Action
Plan Review forms. These are available
online and give you questions you can use
to identify what you would like to achieve
and how you would like to achieve it.
Action Plan
The green section of the diagram shows the
kind of things you should be considering
when setting yourself goals and strategizing
how to reach them. A solid plan that is
followed through provides motivation and
documentation of your achievements.
A good way of setting goals is to use the
SMART criteria. It stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
Action Plan Review
The blue section shows questions you can
ask yourself when reflecting on tasks you
have completed and the progress you have
made. Reflective thinking is very useful for
identifying things you have done well and
areas you can still improve.
You can record your reflections in many
ways. You can use notebooks, blogs, video
diaries, apps and podcasts to show what
you’ve learnt and how you feel about your
progress.
4
PDA Meetings There are three scheduled meetings with
your PDA during 1st year to discuss your
progression. You can meet more times if
you want to. The Action Plan forms are
provided as a framework to base the
meetings on, but are not necessarily all that
should be discussed.
Your first PDA meeting will be a group
meeting along with some other students.
The first meeting is a general discussion
about the PDP programme and topics of
discussion may include:
- How you have transitioned from school to
university
- How PDP can help you
- What method you can use to record your
reflections
- Any reflections you have made so far
- What you want to get out of 1st year at
university
Your second and third meetings will be
individual meetings with your PDA. For the
first of these individual meetings you should:
- Bring along a completed action plan
detailing any goals you want to achieve,
your strategy of tasks for achieving them
and the target dates for completion of your
tasks. Advice and example forms are
available online as part of Myplace course.
For the second individual meeting you
should:
- Collect any relevant reflections you have
made
- Complete an action plan review; example
forms will be available online
Your PDA will then discuss your review with
you and give you feedback on your progress
so far and help you adjust your plan to
accommodate new targets.
You may also talk about:
- What you’ve gained from PDP so far
- What you have gained from this year and
what you might want from next year
- The progress you have made in your
reflective log
Meetings with your PDA should be related to
personal development and ways you can go
about attaining the skills you want. For any
academic advice such as issues with credits
or your course you should see your Advisor
of Studies or Course Director.
Activities
Throughout the session you should reflect
on lots of different subjects whether that’s
academic things like your work in class and
results or more personal achievements like
sports or developing skills at a part-time job.
Keeping a reflective log will help you to
record this information and you can even
look back and use it later when constructing
your CV.
There are activities on Myplace that can
help you to follow the steps of PDP as well
as resources to help you.
PDP Activity Timeline The PDP programme has been designed to
try and ensure that it fits in with the work
schedule of both staff and students.
Obviously, more attention should be focused
on academic work during exam periods, for
example. However, with just a few hours of
focused work each semester, you can really
make the most of the programme, and the
benefits should hopefully become clear to
you – the PDP activities should not be seen
as a chore! A rough timetable of activities for
both 1st and 2
nd year students is shown over
page.
“Personal Development is a
smart career and individual
investment”
5
1st Year
PDP introduction presentation
Icebreaker activity
Meeting your Peer Mentor
PDA group meeting
Mid semester meeting with Peer
Mentor
Careers Service presentation
Study skills session
Individual PDA meeting 1 –
Action Plan
Mid semester meeting with Peer
Mentor
Individual PDA meeting 2 –
Action Plan Review
2nd Year
PDP introduction presentation
Meeting your Peer Mentor
Individual PDA meeting 1 –
Action Plan
Mid semester meeting with Peer
Mentor
Careers Service presentation
Introduction to study abroad
Individual PDA meeting 2 –
Action Plan Review
Mid semester meeting with Peer
Mentor
Semester 1
Semester 2
1-4
5-8
9-12
1-4
5-8
9-12
6
Other Information This PDP Handbook is linked with the
Personal Development Myplace page, which
contains in depth details of the structure and
activities involved in the PDP programme.
However, below are a few of the
experiences and resources Strathclyde
offers which can all contribute towards
personal development.
Study Abroad A number of science and engineering
degrees at Strathclyde offer the chance to
spend at least one year (usually 3rd
or 5th)
studying abroad. This is a fantastic
opportunity to experience a new culture and
see the world, whilst also adding an
international dimension to your degree. The
university has links with many top
universities around Europe and further
afield, with engineering students having
studied in France, Spain, Denmark, USA,
Canada, Australia and Japan amongst
others.
You will be made aware of any opportunities
to study abroad near the start of 2nd
year,
which will include meetings on the
application process and logistics. However,
if you would like further information at the
moment, you can contact:
Allison Handley: [email protected]
Or visit:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/rio/exchangestudyab
road/
Clubs and Societies
Strathclyde University offers a huge number
of different clubs and societies that any
student is free to join. These range from
rugby and ultimate frisbee clubs to anime
and whisky societies and can offer both
competitive fixtures as well as a good social
scene. As all the clubs and societies are
student led, there will also be opportunities
to help run them in the future and hence
improve your CV. More information can be
found at:
Societies:
http://www.strathstudents.com/clubs
Sports clubs:
http://www.sportsunion.co.uk/
Useful links
Careers Service:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/careers/
Centre for Academic Practice and Learning
Enhancement:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/caple/
Personal Development Champion:
Name:
Email:
Student Union, ASK:
http://www.strathstudents.com/ask
“I loved every minute of
studying abroad. I feel that I
have grown as a person from
this experience.”
“Being part of society allowed
me to gain valuable skills, all
whilst doing something that I
enjoy.”
7
Example Action Plan
1. Where am I now?
- Do I have any academic difficulties?
- Rate the following skills from 1-5, where 1 is a weakest in and 5 is a strongest:
Academic Writing 4 Planning and Organising 5
Analytical thinking and Problem Solving
4 Presentation Skills 3
Communication 2 Reflective Thinking 4
Enthusiasm 1 Research Skills 3
Exploring and creating opportunities
2 Responsibility 4
Leadership 3 Self-Awareness 3
Negotiating Skills 4 Self Promotion 5
Numerical Skills 3 Teamwork 4
2. Where do I want to be?
-What skills need improvement?
-Why do I feel those skills are important?
Just now I think I am quite confident but I
struggle with presentations and tend to get low
marks at these
I want to be able to be able to get a 65% or above mark for my next
presentation by the end of Semester 2. Being better at presentations will
increase my confidence and bring up my average grades.
I’m also not great at organising myself which affects my ability to study. I
want to become better organised in terms of my class notes and time-
keeping
Specific Measurable Attainable
Relevant Time-bound
8
3. How will I get there?
- What are the steps I should take to achieve my goals?
4. When will I get there? - When do I want to have achieved my goals?
I could watch some examples of good presentations
and see how people act, then try to copy their
actions. I will also practice more but in front of
people like my flatmates I could use the study
skills information on the PDP page.
I will make a study plan before the exams start
this year and I will stick to it. I will research the
best way to make study plans so that I am most
likely to stick to it.
I have a presentation in week 10 so I should have watched and practiced
presentations by week 9. I should make a study plan by week 8 which will
give me at least 1 month to study for exams.
9
Example Action Plan Review
What did I do?
1. Describe My Experiences
-What was the goal that I set for myself?
- How did I go about achieving my goal?
The goal I set for myself to be able to be able to get
a 65% or above mark for my next presentation by
the end of Semester 2
1a. SMART Goals
- Rate the following statements from 1 to 5, where 1 is for strongly disagree and 5 is for
strongly agree:
From my last PDA meeting I have reached my goal.
5
The steps I set for were relevant to want I wanted to achieve.
5
The steps I set were specific. 4
The steps I set were time-bound. 5
The steps I set were measurable. 3
I was aware of sources of help that were available to help me to reach my goal.
5
2. How Did I React?
- What went well?
-What was challenging?
I feel like the presentation I gave in Week 10 was much better than
before because I didn’t stutter as much as usual. My tutor said my eye
contact can still get better, so I want to improve this next.
I’m struggling to keep to my study plan though
10
3. Could I Have Acted Differently?
- What would I do differently if I could?
4. Next Action Plan
- What do I want to improve next?
As I said before I’m struggling to keep to my
study plan but I think it’s because I have put
down such large chunks of time for studying,
maybe if I break it down into half hour times
I’ll study better.
I think I’d like to look at report writing next. Maybe also think about how
I’d improve my teamworking skills.
11
Recommended 5 year Activity Framework
3 P
DA
me
etin
gs
Introduction to
Personal
2 P
DA
me
etin
g
1 P
DA
me
etin
g
Meeting with Peer
Mentors
Career Service
PD Icebreaker
Activity
PDA meetings
Study Skills Session
Introduction to
Personal
Meeting with Peer
Mentors
Career Services
PDA meetings
Industry Presentation
Introduction to study
abroad
Industry Presentation
PDA meeting
Career Service
Contact
Career Fair
Industry Presentation
PDA meeting
Career Service
Contact
Career Fair
Optional
1 PDA
Meeting
Gala Event or similar
First Year
Second Year
Third Year
Fourth and Fifth