Four Simple Steps to Develop Your Skills and Build a Career Pathway. a Planning Kit For

The skill development planning toolkit for NRM project officers

Introduction

This toolkit has been designed to assist you to:

· Further develop the skills needed for your role

· Identify the best method for developing these skills

· Build an ongoing career pathway over the next three years

It’s intended to be practical and useful. Not to take up shelf or hard-drive space. More information, case studies, interviews can be found on the State NRM Office website, www.nrm.wa.gov.au. This will also be a good site to check out if you’re trying to ‘source a course’ (see Appendix 1). It’s also the access point to log into the NRM online forum where you’ll be able to download a host of handy resources, build your networks and discuss a range of issues with NRM Project Officers (from right across WA) online.

What’s in the toolkit

The kit includes a skills matrix. This identifies the priority areas for skill development of NRM project officers. In partnership with your supervisor, you can use the matrix as a basis to map out your skill development pathway whilst in this role.

It also contains some planning templates to help you to identify skill gaps and which of the skills should be a priority for you. The templates will also assist in identifying how to develop these skills.

Why use it?

The NRM sector needs to retain skilled staff. And you need to continually build your skills through a defined process. This will enable you to take on and deliver on more challenging roles. By using this toolkit you will also become a more ‘attractive employment option’ within your current organisation – or even with other organisations further down the track!

How to use the toolkit

The toolkit should be used in collaboration with your supervisor. It is reasonably straight forward, but will require an hour or two for you to review your current skill set and then work with your supervisor to develop an agreed way forward.

It would be useful to have your job description to refer to as you go through this process. It may also be worthwhile to discuss the skill needs of the role with the person previously in your position or other staff in your organisation.

Step 1. Look at the skill requirements using the skills matrix

Table 1 shows the skills matrix, which identifies the priority areas for skill development of NRM project officers. Don’t panic - these are not necessarily compulsory training requirements. And it is not suggested that you should commence your role with these skills already in place. Think of it more as a skills pathway to perform the tasks associated with your role.

Table 1. Skills matrix - priority areas for skill development

Skill & priority
Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3
(a) Introduction to Project Management / (a) Project management
(Certificate IV) / (a) Project management (Diploma)
(b) Time management / (b) Self awareness / (b) Facilitation
(c) Customer service / (c) Community engagement / (c) Change management
(d) Communication & listening / (d) Negotiation & conflict management
(e) Network development
(f) Adult learning
(g) Professional writing
- Media releases
- Brochures, fliers & promotional items
- Project reports

(a) = Highest priority skill

Note: Technical skills have not been included in the matrix due to the wide range of skills required across roles, regions and organisations. It’s recommended that you identify the core technical requirements of your role with your supervisor.

Step 2. Think about methods for skill development

The options for skill development are shown in Table 2. The options are based on the ‘Staged Self-directed Learners’ (SSDL) model developed by Gerald Grow. The SSDL model shows that learners advance through stages of increasing self-direction, from dependency (on others) through to self-direction. Thus there will be an initial need to participate in workshops and courses as an effective option for skill development. It is also important that you are provided with developmental support and feedback to enable you to move towards becoming increasingly self-directed in your skill development.

Self-direction will also increase as you allocate time to think and reflect on your work to identify areas for continual improvement.

Table 2. Methods for skill development

Skill development option / Description
Workshop / Participative interactive workshop addressing all adult learning strategies & accessing experience of peers. This can also include training courses and to a lesser degree, seminars (which tend to focus on one-way communication)
Shadowing / Staff member works with senior or more experienced staff member to observe how they approach specific tasks or projects
OTJ (On the Job) / Staff member learns directly from their ‘on the job’ experience. Effectiveness will increase as they incorporate some form of reflective practice including debriefs and journal of learning.
Mentoring / Staff member uses mentoring process to address specific developmental issue
Peer forum / Staff member attends (or logs into online) to further develop their understanding of specific issues or seek feedback on challenges that they’re dealing with
Self-sourced / Staff member seeks out learning materials (books, CDs, DVDs, online courses etc) and allocates time to utilise & apply these

Step 3. Identify the skills needed in your role

Both you and your immediate supervisor should separately fill in the skill requirement tables for the current year of your tenure (either Year 1; Year 2 or Year 3.) All you need to do is:

1. Select which year is most appropriate (Yr 1, 2, or 3)

2. Identify the skills needed for your role during this year

3. Identify and provide examples of skills that you already have and use

4. Identify any gaps

Then meet for 90 minutes to:

· Compare answers

· Agree on skill development needs

· Map out a skill development program for the coming 12 months

(Note – you may need a separate meeting to map out the Technical Skills section)

If you can already demonstrate satisfactory abilities and practices in any of the skills listed it is recommended that you focus your developmental efforts on the next highest priority in the matrix.

The skill development program should be reviewed with your supervisor every four months.

Year 1 skill requirements

Skill / Skill req’d (Y/N) / Already trained and/or using this skill (Y/N) / Examples of this
(a) Time management
(b) Customer service
(c) Communication & listening
(d) Network development
(e) Adult learning
(f) Professional writing
(g) Introduction to project management

Year 1 skill gaps

Skill / Priority for development / Reasons why

Year 2 skill requirements

Skill / Skill req’d (Y/N) / Already trained and/or using this skill (Y/N) / Examples of this
(a) Self awareness
(b) Community engagement
(c) Negotiation
(d) Project management

Year 2 skill gaps

Skill / Priority for development / Reasons why

Year 3 skill requirements

Skill / Skill req’d (Y/N) / Already trained and/or using this skill (Y/N) / Examples of this
(a) Project management
(b) Facilitation
(c) Change management

Year 3 skill gaps

Skill / Priority for development / Reasons why

Step 4. Develop options to address skill gaps

Now that you’ve identified the skill gaps, you can work on identifying options to address them. An example is provided in Table 3 below.

The skill gap in this instance is ‘Time management’. You now need to identify the ‘what, who & when’ for each of the skill gaps that you’ve identified, using the templates on the following pages. Refer back to Table 2 for a description of each method.

Your completed templates can then be used as a calendar or action plan for your ongoing learning and development. Once these have been completed, fill in the summary template (Table 8) as a quick way to reference guide and a way to track your progress. An example is shown in Table 7.

Table 3. Example skill development template - Time management

What I will do / Who will be involved / Priority / When by
Wshop/course / Identify courses coming up in Geraldton
Use NRM website
Get course recommendations from other staff
Enrol / Supervisor
Me
Me & staff
Me & supervisor / High / 12/3
Mentoring / Work with mentor to identify my time management strengths & weaknesses
Develop strategies to improve effective use of time / Me & mentor
Me / High / 30/6
Self sourced / Buy, read & utilise the ‘No BS guide to time management / Me / High / 30/7
On the job / Grade activities into High Priority & Low priority categories
Track time spent on each
Block time into diary for high priority activities / Me
Me
Me / High / 30/3
Peer forum / Use NRM online to find out how others deal with email / Me / Medium / 30/8
Shadowing / Observe & rate time management strategies used by peers / Me / Medium / 30/4

Table 4. Recommended methods for skill development - Year 1

Skills / Recommended method for development
Wshop/
Course / Shadowing / Mentoring / Peer forum / Self sourced
Introduction to project management / √ / √ / √
Time management / √ / √ / √
Customer service / √ / √ / √
Communication & listening / √ / √ / √
Network development / √ / √ / √
Adult learning / √ / √ / √
Professional writing / √ / √ / √

Table 5. Recommended methods for skill development - Year 2

Skills / Recommended method for development
Wshop/
Course / Shadowing / Mentoring / Peer forum / Self sourced
Project management (Cert IV) / √ / √ / √
Self awareness / √ / √ / √
Community engagement / √ / √ / √
Negotiation & conflict management / √ / √ / √

Table 6. Recommended methods for skill development - Year 3

Skills / Recommended method for development
Wshop/
Course / Shadowing / Mentoring / Peer forum / Self sourced
Project management (Diploma) / √ / √ / √
Facilitation / √ / √ / √
Change management / √ / √ / √

Year 1 Skill development template – Introduction to project management