Introduction - Orientation for Success in Higher Education
A course such as an Orientation for success in Higher Education (OSHE) is fundamental for all University students. It is one type of skill and important for university students to make university study more manageable. Every individual aims to have better employability and career opportunities for his future, so now students must focus on their career development using significant tools. It helps them not only get better jobs but also get aware of the adverse impacts of quickly increased unemployment. This essay paper will cover the importance of continuous development using practical career development tools and source material that is advantageous in higher education. In overall understanding, the research paper covers tools such as personal branding, networking and CVs that are relevant to higher education and weekly readings were informative for delivering detailed information on career development and employability. Along with this, the study also includes supporting sentences such as definitions, benefits, challenges, and strategies for each career development tool. In developing own practice, continuous improvement help in spreading out both effort and time to make all specific improvements in pursuing a career path or wanting to shift into a new position. In generating skill and knowledge retention, expanding employee skill sets and generating specific and new ideas, these career development tools play a key role in the initiation process.
Career development and employability
To achieve career success, it is necessary for an individual to focus on the best practices and personal branding, networking and CVs are some important tools for focusing on the best practices. Understanding the concepts of formative skills would definitely help in having quality academic work and career development tools particularly help in a future career in delivering feedback to subordinates. At the current time, the terms of employability and employment often conflated in measuring and assessing effective outcomes in times of rapid recession to the need for work (Bennett, 2019). Personal branding helps to establish a professional reputation and display one's unique skills and qualifications. Networking allows for building connections and relationships with professionals in one's field, which can lead to job opportunities and mentorship.
Personal Branding
- Importance for career development: This can include building a professional online presence through a website or social media, highlighting one's unique skills and qualifications, and networking with professionals in the field. Employability within the context of higher education always relates to the ways to negotiate life and work simultaneously (Bennett, 2019). The current state of the present job market delivers difficulty where this tool helps to differentiate in a closer way from competitors (Collins, 2012). Personal branding also entails promoting, adopting and capturing individual strength and innovativeness specifically to target audiences. Similar to a commercial brand, personal branding refers to an effective way of communication between the respective public and a person based on distinctive values. Personal branding also goes beyond cyberspace to consist of a self-representation itself to bring maximum value to individuals and workplaces where they want to serve their careers.
- Benefits, challenges and strategies: A personal brand tool works as a differentiation and effectively helps in establishing an individual far apart from others and showcases in development of unique qualities and skills. Having a strong personal brand increases career opportunities with visibility and makes one aware and more attractive to potential employers. Confidence is one of the most important things for getting success in higher education, a personal brand can boost confidence and help in communicating effectively about strengths, and goals that they want to achieve. Networking is the last and most important benefit of this tool to make meaningful connections with others in a specific industry.
Developing a personal brand takes time and effort to research, create, and maintain and this considered one of the challenges concerning this tool in higher education. Authenticity is one of the complex factors and balancing the desire to stand out with the requirement and to remain authentic can be challenging. Reputation Management personal brand is only as good as actions and behaviour, and negative information can quickly spread online. Moreover, keeping up with changes is necessary with the market and the personal branding landscape is constantly evolving, and staying in the current scenario can be challenging. It is an excellent tool to build a community around and establish oneself as an individual leader helps in delivering emotional connections with one another and is effective for fulfilling a career in exciting directions (Dani, 2018).
- Evaluation of tool: Personal branding always starts with presenting oneself and social media or personal blog plays an important role and delivers an edge to build trust in the target field as employability.
Networking
- Importance for career development: Building effective connections and relationships with professionals in one's field with the help of networking events, internships, and informational interviews can lead to job opportunities and mentorship. In addition, organisations globally are mostly relying on social media as a hiring tool and this has propelled them to be aware of the necessary task in daily activities (Collins, 2012). It is important to construct confidence in orientation for success in higher education and beneficial for all the parties. In including a better reputation, improved business growth, a stronger support network and advanced connections networking tools play a significant role in career development.
- Benefits, challenges and strategies: Networking is the process of assessing and sharing any particular or detailed information with professional contacts that accelerate more opportunities to progress their career (Oxfordsummercourses.com, 2023). Individuals are always attracted to role models as they have a positive impact on both the attitudes of individuals and become a common practice to establish influence in their careers (Boldureanu et al. 2020). Networking tool refers to software that assists in the maintenance, creation or distribution of a wireless connection that helps in monitoring the moves as well as changes to other infrastructure activities speaking to the right person to improve chances to establish a career in a desired position. Not having better practice in controlling networking activities would deliver challenges and may create problems to work on a project together from different institutions. Networking tool delivers valuable information about job activities and strong industry connections. In getting ahead of a career with future experiences, offering the chance to communicate is necessary to exchange ideas with them, but not having reliable knowledge of career advice from peers in the industry would be problematic as well.
- Evaluation of tool: With networking tools, students will be able to interact and create connections with highly professional people within a workplace and along with that opportunities can be shared by maintaining privacy as well.
CVs
- Importance for career development: It should be tailored to the job or field of interest and highlight relevant skills, experiences, and education. It is an important tool for career development in higher education as it can help students stand out to conceivable employers and extend their careers. CV tools allow individuals to create customized CVs for each job application, increasing the probability of being noticed by the hiring manager.
- Benefits, challenges and strategies: A well-written CV effectively highlights one's capabilities and background, making one more adorable to potential employers. This is because the individual can tailor their CV to correspond to the specific requirements of the job, making their application more attractive. (Gibbs and Barahona, 2017). This can assist and ensure important information presented clearly and accurately, which can help the respective stand out among other applicants. Technical difficulties are one of the important challenges with using particular software from consumer support using the CV tool quite difficult. Keeping personal information, such as work past and educational background, in a centralized place can raise privacy and safety concerns. It is important to choose a reputable CV tool and to carefully review the solitude policy and terms of use before using the software. In higher education, these tools permit showcasing several types of transferable skills such as problem-solving, communication and collaboration skills that are attractive for managers to hire in a responsible position.
- Evaluation of tool: As mentioned earlier, it is important to customize the job application to increase the chances of being noticed by the hiring manager and CVs need to be specific for an individual as a career development tool. This can be done by focusing on the specific requirements of the job and highlighting relevant skills and qualifications.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that the orientation for success in higher education classes teaches specific skills needed to be successful in the university to arrange increasing order of complexity to complete current work practice to the usefulness of the course. The research paper entails practical guidelines of different types of career development tools imparted with managerial skills to be succeed in the university and for a future career as well. For instance, employability must focus on these career development tools from the centre of the curriculums for integrating met cognitive capacities. Moreover, allowing individuals to store their personal information, work experience, education, and other details in a centralized location makes it easier to update and access this information supported with higher education.
References
Journals
Amhag, L., Hellström, L. and Stigmar, M., 2019. Teacher educators' use of digital tools and needs for digital competence in higher education. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 35(4), pp.203-220. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lisbeth-Amhag/publication/335289916_Teacher_Educators'_Use_of_Digital_Tools_and_Needs_for_Digital_Competence_in_Higher_Education/links/5d5e5d71458515210257e190/Teacher-Educators-Use-of-Digital-Tools-and-Needs-for-Digital-Competence-in-Higher-Education.pdf
Bennett, D., 2019. Graduate employability and higher education: Past, present and future. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 5, pp.31-61. https://www.herdsa.org.au/system/files/HERDSARHE2018v05p31.pdf
Boldureanu, G., Ionescu, A.M., Bercu, A.M., Bedrule-Grigoruță, M.V. and Boldureanu, D., 2020. Entrepreneurship education through successful entrepreneurial models in higher education institutions. Sustainability, 12(3), p.1267. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1267/pdf
Collins, B., 2012. The importance of personal branding: uses of personal branding for career development and success. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=joursp
Dani, M.V., 2018. Importance of personal branding for career development. International Journal of Management and Applied Science (IJMAS), 4(6), pp.87-94.