Debate preparation!

This semester in professional competences we had to do a debate which was quite exciting yet challenging at the same time. I found the topic of the debate quite interesting as it was based on Primark which is Uk's famous brand for cheap shopping.The topic that was given to my group was Primark cannot supply inexpensive clothing while respecting ethical and environmental values.I was very content with the topic given to us as i found it particularly easy to do research and to find good evidences based on it.

The main challenges i faced during the preparation was first of all i had no clue how to do the debate but gradually on Danyels guidance and by watching some debate videos i got some idea about it.Then as a group we had to constantly keep in touch which was a bit of a challenge at first but we finally overcame it by setting up meetings and deciding on times that we could meet up.

We all did our individual research at first to have a slight idea about the background of the company then when we had a meeting we came up with three main arguments for our topic and my research was based on Primarks supplier abroad. I found out interesting  information on Primark that i was unaware of therefore it was exciting to do this task. As a group i believe we all did our work on time and was very cooperative with each other however in future i think to improve we should work on our time management for more effective results.

                                                       COMMUNICATION

We have always been taught how communication is so important in our life but what is more important is to being able to analyse and evaluate verbal and written communication. Today's lesson reflected upon the different types of communication we use in our day to day life and barriers to effective communication.

I think nowadays modern technologies have helped a lot in terms of effective communications and people have been increasingly using electronics like smart phones, social media and internet to make communication easier and more effective.For example in college we communicate with our teachers via mails to exchange important messages.However, i have understood that it is important to choose the right communication medium in different situation to make sure the receiver gets the right information.

One of the main criteria in order to succeed at workplace or school is to not only have good communications skills but choosing the right medium to send the message across effectively.I have already started making use of effective communication during my group assignments, goggle groups,text messages and emails helps me a lot to keep in touch with my group mates to do our work in time and exchange valuable information.

However there are also barriers to effective communications and to help understand this better we did a small exercise in class today.We played Chinese whispers and by the end of this game i understood that messages can be misinterpreted till it reaches the last receiver when there is a hierarchy of chain. Barriers like noise, bad pronunciations, lack of hearing all of these can effect the flow of communications which was proved when we played the game of Chinese whispers.

This video below shows how to communicate effectively which is helpful at workplace and school.In future i will follow these tips to improve my communication.

Today's session focused around the topic teamwork.This subject is very essential for us as students because most of our assignments are based on group works like presentations and debates but often there is disagreements and differences among team members. 

Teamwork is important as it allows goals to be reached in an efficient and timely method and is one of the core fundamental skills employers are looking for.Teamwork combines many different skills from many people, allowing achievements to be made but the important factor we must understand is what makes an effective team.

Danyel gave us a presentation that highlighted around characteristics of effective team.This presentation helped me to understand the fact that a teamwork can only be successful if we have commitment to a goal,active participation, open communication,decision making and effective use of ideas.

I can relate this to my own workplace as most of our work is related to team activities.  Although i am particularly good at working in teams, at times i tend to get very stressed out and loose focus but on the positive side i am a good implementer and i take instruction very well rather than leading the team.

To be an effective member in future i will focus on observing and listening more to what the other member has to contribute. My past experience working as a group with my class mates has helped me realize the things we should not repeat and areas of improvements we need to focus on. Communication barriers has been an issue in my past projects therefore for the coming group assignments i will make sure  clear instruction is given out and each members have understood the task.

Below i have linked some interesting videos i came across on effective teamwork.

VIDEO WEEK!

This week was the best lesson for me overall as we were given a really interesting task and moreover it was the last week for classes for holiday break. So you can guess that everyone was cheerful more than usual. Anyways, one of the assignments to link in our portfolio was to make a video.I have never in my life written a script or acted myself in a video so this was something really new to me in my educational journey. When I found out first I was very nervous because I hate acting but then again at the same time I felt excited as it was completely new for me therefore I wanted to give it a try. We were given some topics from where we could select any one of them to make our video based on it. This was a group task so we had to form a group of three, I decided to stick on the same group which we had formed earlier for the case study.  We were very keen to do good interview and bad interview for our video because we all had ideas and personal experiences. We discussed some ideas and finalised the characters. Lorik would be playing the interviewer, Simran would be doing the bad interview whereas I would be doing the good interview. I was quite happy with my part. We worked on our script together in class but could not finish it. We had to film our video after the holidays so we had plenty of time. That’s about it for this week I hope everyone has a good Christmas and new year.

Hello People, so today we did something different again in lesson. I am sure all most everyone is aware of the brand diesel, why would you not after all it is such a famous brand. Well, we had to do a case study based on it. We had to form a group of three or four and work on it together. I formed a group of three people with Lorik, Simran and myself and was quite happy to be with them on the same task. I thought that the best way to start off was by reading through the whole case study in a group rather than reading it individually. While reading it we highlighted paragraphs that we thought are important. Three was three task in the question paper with set of questions, i went through them and some were obviously related to diesel and others were based on marketing. It was quite simple actually. We though t it would be best if we divide the questions so each of us got set of questions. We just did few of them in class as we did not have time to finish all. I also tracked by shares and found out the share price of ASOS has gone down. Again today I learnt a new information based on diesel which was quite interesting. See you all next week :D

Its all about MINDMAP!

Hi everyone, this is the third week of professional competences, I was very cheerful in class today maybe because of the good weather which is very rare. Our class proceeded as usual and I learnt a new topic today that is Mind map. Mind map is basically a diagram used to visually outline information and is created using a software .Two software can be used which are X Mind or Mindmo. I had never heard or used this software to create a particular diagram before therefore I found it very interesting and amusing to use it. I think this software is very helpful and useful to use it in any projects. In class I tried to learn how to use this program and found it very simple because we had been provided with a guide on how to use its functions which was attached to our scheme of work therefore it made our work a lot simpler. We were given to do the mind map on 10 professional competences which we had discussed in our lecture.Have a look at an example of what a Mindmap looks like and i will soon be linking mine on my portfolio page :D

Welcome to my second Blog, today the weather has been very dull but the spirit of the class is still lively, Danyel explained us what we needed to work on for our portfolio and we discussed any issues or confusions we had regarding our assignments. In lesson we carried on with our PLC research project. I decided to do an in dept research on my company. I know that ASOS is a very popular online retailer as I do most of my shopping there because they have a lot of variety and trendy cloths, shoe and accessories. However, apart from this I am completely unaware of the company’s background therefore I was very curious and excited to do my research on the company .This is the second week for professional competences class and each week we track down the share price of our company. I track the share price exactly at 2:25 on Monday. This week the share price of ASOS has gone up in comparison to last week’s price which was 2322, this weeks price is 2460. It is very good and recommended to buy shares from ASOS. Overall I believe my lesson was very informative and found out new information that I would probably never be aware of if I did not have my assignments based on it.