Professional Development (PD) concentrates on the importance and development of non-technical skills for a designer in (Dutch) industry.
More specifically, the main focus is on the following skills:
- Presentation Skills
- Communication Skills
- Team Work Skills
- Self-Reflection
The activities in this course are the following:
1. Introduction meeting
Objective: Get acquainted with your PD coach and content and organization of this course.
2. Workshops and master-classes:
a. Self-assessment
Objectives: Assessing the starting level of each trainee on personal communicative, collaborative and interpersonal skills. Main important learning outcomes are answers to the question: What am I capable of? What are my personal weaknesses? What do I want to develop?
b. Time Management
Objectives: Assess your efficiency in time management. Identify and address the bottlenecks. Gain practical tips on becoming more efficient.
c. Collaboration Skills (as a part of the course ‘Process Design’)
Objectives: Develop awareness for individual differences and group dynamics to work successfully in diverse group and in a Dutch academic/industrial context.
d. Personality profiles
Objectives: Gain insights in your personal preferences and learn to recognize those of others. Learn how to make best use of them in the teamwork, communication and other social settings (f.e. conflict handling, influencing others etc)
e. Application Skills
Objectives: Prepare you for the interviews for the 2nd year project and later on for finding a job in The Netherlands. Trainees focus on improving their CV, motivation letter, use of LinkedIn, do’s and don’ts in Dutch application interviews.
3. Reports on Professional Development
a. First Report: after the Assessment Days trainees write an individual reflection report on strong points and learning points, on learning goals and how the trainee wants to reach these. The report will be discussed in an individual coach meeting with the personal coach of the trainee.
b. Progress Reports: during the PD-program you will be asked to write several reports in order to reflect on your development process.
c. Final Report: In this report, the trainee describes what and how he/she has developed him/herself during the year and on which aspects he/she wants to focus on in the future. So description of the learning points in the company assignment (final project) are also part of this.
All mentioned reports will be discussed with the personal coach of the trainee.
4. Individual meeting with PD-coach (6-7 sessions during the 1st PPD program year)
The general focus of the coach meetings are on personal learning goals, defined by the trainee. The coach will provide further reflections or advises on how to improve on the learning goals. Furthermore, the coach will provide feedback in case it is needed.
5. Learning by doing and self-reflection
The trainee learns by doing, in day to day setting in the PPD program. So all advises or learnings provided by workshops or coaching should be applied in there. Trainees will keep track of what they do, what the results are and what they will do in another setting. Preferably trainees keep a logbook on personal developments.
6. Peer Reviews/Team coaching
As a part of the Process Design Assignment (February-March), the different project groups will have two Peer Reviews, facilitated by the PD coach. In these peer review meetings, feedbacks will be given by group members on group and individual performance on defined criteria.
7. Personal development plan
Within the professional development course, a personal development plan is to be set up by the trainees. This plan shows how the trainee plans to grow from her/his specific starting position to being a professional, technological designer. The plan is updated regularly; at least each half year. Goals are SMART. |