Career Professionalism

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Career Professionalism
+ Professionalism is defined as one’s conduct at work. In
spite of the word’s root, this quality is not restricted to
those in occupations we describe as “professions,”
typically those which require a high level of education and
have high earnings. Cashiers, janitors and waitresses can
demonstrate a high level of this trait, just as doctors,
lawyers or engineers can display a low level of it, and vice
versa.

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Career Professionalism
+ As with good health, the absence of professionalism is
usually more obvious than its presence. Who will notice
whether you have this quality or not? Your boss definitely
will as will your customers and co-workers, and it can
affect your ability to keep your job and advance in your
career.

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Course 3: Practice Career Professionalism
UNIT OF COMPETENCY : PRACTICE CAREER PROFESSIONALISM
MODULE TITLE : PRACTICING CAREER PROFESSIONALISM
MODULE DESCRIPTOR : This module covers the knowledge, skills
and attitudes in promoting career growth and advancement,
specifically to integrate personal objectives with organizational
goals set and meet work priorities and maintain professional
growth and development.

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Course 2: Work in a Team Environment
SUGGESTED DURATION : 5 hours
QUALIFICATION LEVEL : NC II

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Course 2: Work in a Team Environment
SUMMARY OF LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon completion of this
module the students/trainees must be able to:

LO1. Integrate personal objectives with organizational goals

LO2. Set and meet work priorities
LO3. Maintain professional growth and development

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Lesson 01: Integrate personal objectives with
organizational goals.
Personality Development
Personal goals affect how an employee performs. While they
can serve as motivation to be more productive and more
successful, they can also cause conflicts between staff or
between work and home..

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Lesson 01: Integrate personal objectives with
organizational goals.
Businesses are most successful when employees’ personal
goals are aligned with corporate goals. This can be difficult to
do at times, but it is possible.
Most of the time, personal goals should still be work-related,
such as achieving a sales volume, working a number of hours,
organizing a specific project, or improving a specific skills.
Finding common ground between these personal goals and
your organizational priorities can be hugely productive.

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Lesson 01: Integrate personal objectives with
organizational goals.
The easiest way to do this is to simply ask employees what
they think the team can do to help them reach their personal
goals. Make sure you follow up by clarifying how their own
goals are contributing to the overall team objective.
One of the most effective ways we have to protect ourselves
and others from illness is good personal hygiene. This means
washing your hands, especially, but also your body. It means
being careful not to cough or sneeze on others, cleaning

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Lesson 01: Integrate personal objectives with
organizational goals.
things that you touch if you are unwell, putting items such as
tissues (that may have germs) into a bin, and using protection
(like gloves) when you might be at risk of catching an
infection. Personal hygiene, such as bathing, is very much
dependent on the culture in which you live. In some cultures, it
is expected that you will wash your body at least every day
and use deodorants to stop body smells. Other cultures have
different expectations.

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities

In any responsible position in any company that you ever

have, it is a given that there will be more work to do than
there are hours in the day. You could kill yourself, trying to do
everything that needs to be done, and still not manage to
complete it all. As an employee, your most important task is to
determine priorities, so that the things that need to be worked
on are those that receive your time and attention and that of
your department.

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities

Priorities have to be established based upon what is best

going to meet your company’s needs. But, that’s not always
easy to determine. What often looks like the best possible
solution may not actually be so. Properly determining
priorities requires understanding the various tasks that need
to be done, how they relate to your company’s goals and how
they compare to other tasks that also appear important.

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities

ABC Prioritizing
The most common form of prioritizing tasks is by a simple
ABC method. In this method, you make a list of all the tasks
that you have to complete, and assign them a letter code:
+ A = High priority, very important to get this done
+ B = Medium priority, this should get done
+ C = Low priority, it would be nice if this could get done

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities

It is assumed with this method that you know how

important the various tasks are in regard to your company’s
and department’s goals. Otherwise, the priorities you place on
the individual tasks really have no value.

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities
The next step in the process is to add a due date for each of
these tasks. Most important tasks need to be completed by a
particular time. If they aren’t completed by that time, they
move from just being important to being important and
urgent. Some items may not have a due date, especially
things that are priority C. However, a priority C item, that
never gets dealt with may become more important over time.
For this reason, some people put a start date on the items

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Lesson 02: Set and Meet Work Priorities

as well. That way, even items that may be a Priority C will have
some visibility.

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Lesson 03: Maintain Professional Growth
and Development
In rapidly changing environments, both organizations and the
people who make up those organizations must engage in
continual growth, or risk becoming obsolete. All too
often, professional growth is a hit-or-miss process. Learning
opportunities selected are often those that meet immediate
needs rather than future needs.

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Lesson 03: Maintain Professional Growth
and Development
Professional development helps build and maintain morale of
staff members, and is thought to attract higher quality staff
to an organization. It is a process of improving and increasing
capabilities of staff through access to education and training
opportunities in the workplace, through outside organization,
or through watching others perform the job.

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Lesson 03: Maintain Professional Growth
and Development
A career, the pursuit of consecutive, progressive achievement
especially in public, professional, or business employment, is a
personal choice that entails commitment, perseverance, and
a plan. Professional growth in a career requires the continuous
acquisition of knowledge and skills through study, instruction,
investigation, and practice. It is an on-going process.

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Lesson 03: Maintain Professional Growth
and Development
Career planning involves visualizing what you want to be doing
in the future within your profession. Career planning enables
professionals to set goals and define specific tasks that must
be accomplished in order to reach those goals. At the same
time, career planning considers options, and alternatives.
Flexibility is important as we cannot know the future.

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Thank You
For Your Attention