This is an individual Assignment Portfolio.
- In order to pass the assignment, you must product work of a Pass standard across all three tasks.
WORD & PAGE LIMITS:
The following limits must be adhered to:
| Task | Task description | Length |
| 1 | Write a cover letter for a client, responding to a job advert | 1 page
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| 2 | Write a bullet point report plan | 1 page
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| 3 | Prepare a report explaining the cultural and communication causes of the communication breakdown at Access Wimbledon | 1000 words. |
Task 1: (Cover Letter)
Lydia Hamilton has been working in the events and fundraising industry for many years and would like a change. She has seen a job advert for a position as Fundraising and Events Manager.
You are a recruitment consultant and Lydia has asked you to help her by writing a cover letter to be sent along with her CV in response to the advert.
Your task is to read Lydia’s CV and the job advert carefully and write a professionally formatted cover letter for Lydia that will demonstrate to the prospective employer that Lydia has the skills and experience required to perform the job as advertised.
Formatting guidance
- You should select and follow a letter format from one of the templates on the VLE
- The letter should include sender’s details, recipient’s details, a salutation and a signature. These should be appropriately and consistently formatted
- The text of the letter should be structured professionally. You should follow the guidelines from the VLE on opening and closing paragraphs as well as paragraph structure
- Each paragraph in the body of the text should be structured around a single idea
Note:
- The cover letter should demonstrate the client’s ability to perform the job they are applying for
- Each paragraph should be focused around a single idea with clear topic sentence.
- Proof read your grammar and punctuation before submitting
| Lydia Hamilton CV
07568 548 846 Key competencies 1. Strategic planning 2. Creating a positive working environment 3. Achieving targets and goals 4. Monitoring results
Education and Training:
Management Experience
Position: Regional Fundraising Manager Employer: First For Life Duration: July 2012 – Present Responsibilities: Responsible for running andplanning and organising regular year-round events to raise funds for a registered charity · Using resources to maximize participants’ satisfaction. · Representing the charity in the marketplace and developing relationships. · Analysing statistical information and drawing conclusions from it. · Developing and implementing volunteer training programs. · Providing the broad of directors with regular reports.
Position: Assistant Hotel Manager Employer: QCQ Hotel – a four-star hotel in Coventry Duration: Feb 2009 – July 2012 Responsibilities: Responsible for the overall operation of the hotel. Also in charge of delivering results and financial performance objectives. Additional Experience:
Position: EVENTS MANAGER Employer: Convex Hotel – West Midlands
Position: OFFICE ASSISTANT Employer: NHS – West Bromwich
Position: VOLUNTEER Employer: Oxfam Charity –Bristol
References: – available on request |
| Job Advert: 59777462
Fundraising and Events Manager – Charity Right – London £28,000 – £30,000 a year
Role Aim · To develop and implement fundraising strategies and oversee fundraising programs and events · To effectively create fundraising goals and successfully raise funds to meet these goals. · Identify new donors and organise initiatives to raise funding.
Responsible for: · Writing grant proposals. · Organising events across London · Recruiting, training and managing volunteers.
Responsibilities and Duties
Fundraising · Develop and deliver a coherent fundraising strategy for the organisation. · Set and achieve realistic time-limited fundraising targets · Event and Volunteer Engagement
Planning and organising fundraising events across the UK. · Overseeing the process of recruiting, training and managing fundraising volunteers. · Strategic Planning · Play a crucial role in shaping the future direction and growth of the charity, through input into board meetings and the organisational strategic plan. · Take ownership of organisational growth and funding, reporting to the CEO and Board of Trustees on progress against fundraising targets at quarterly meetings.
Qualifications and Skills · University Degree (min 2:1) · Excellent project management skills (essential) · Previous experience of event management. (desirable). · Previous experience of volunteer management. (desirable) · An understanding of the international poverty relief and issues in Asia and Africa (desirable)
Personal Qualities · Excellent planning, time management and organisational abilities. · Highly motivated and able to work independently to agreed goals and targets and take ownership of the overall fundraising programme of the organisation. · Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. · Sensitivity to differences in culture and nationality · Adaptable and flexible to changing circumstances and needs of the role · Able to work under pressure, meeting key project and reporting deadlines.
Please send your up to date and professional CV and covering letter to Diana Messerchmann.
Recruit 4 U Grovner House Pall Mall RG421JX |
Tasks 2 (Report Plan) and Task 3 (Report)
Access Wimbledon is a charity dedicated to organising events for disabled children connected to the Wimbledon Tennis Open every year in London. They arrange visits to the game, an amateur tennis league, and afternoon events where the children and volunteers get a chance to meet their tennis idols.
The staff of Access Wimbledon come from a wide range of cultures around the world. They are all qualified experts with years of training and experience with excellent feedback from participants. They work together to organise and run each event.
However, recently, communication is breaking down between the team with some arguments and frustrations. These minor issues have escalated to complaints.
The Board of Directors have asked you to examine the cultural and communication issues that may have caused the breakdown in communication, and then make recommendations to the Board on how to prevent future conflicts.
However, before you write your report, your Line Manager also expects to see a Report Plan that clearly outlines the exact points you will make in your final report.
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Task 2: Write a 1-pagebullet pointreport plan following the template provided on the VLE.
The plan should be structured clearly with · No paragraphs · A list of the information you will include in your Executive Summary · The headings of each section in your report · A bullet point list of each point you will make in your ‘analysis’ · A list of recommendations you will make · Each point supported by 1 or 2 pieces of evidence · A list of references (1 Page) (Total = 10 Marks)
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Task 3: Write a 1000 word report explaining the cultural and communication issues that may have caused the breakdown in communication at Access Wimbledon, and then making recommendations to the Board of Directors on how to prevent future conflicts.
(Approximately 1000 words) (Total = 75 Marks)
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Scenario: Breakdown in Communication at Access Wimbledon
Access Wimbledon is a part of a group of public charities dedicated to the inclusion and participation of disabled children in national events.
The staff of Access Wimbledon come from a wide range of cultures around the world. They are all qualified experts with years of training and experience. They work together to organise and run each event. They are expected to work with colleagues, volunteers and participants in order to create a high standard for each event.
Recently, a series of complaints have been made by staff and volunteers about their colleagues.
The Board of Directors have decided to investigate these complaints one by one. The Board suspects that the issues have more to do with ‘culture’ and ‘communication’ than with the professional skills and organisational policy because feedback from participants is positive, both for the events and for the staff.
The Human Resources Manager conducted an investigation, interviewing staff and volunteers.
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A summary of the major issues testimonials gathered from those involved
Note: Only the most relevant comments have been summarised here. Each member of staff was encouraged to talk directly and openly.The interviews were at least an hour each. These are only the highlights.
David (Volunteer Tennis Coach) I’m not interested in discussing the arguments. That’s for management to decide, not me. I’ve got three seasons of coaching to prepare for, and a dozen phone calls to make.
But if you ask me, I think it’s pretty clear; twenty years ago, everyone who worked for the charity was British, and we didn’t have any of these problems.
Gertrude (Event Manager) I wish I could make Stephanie understand that I need her to supervise ten children, not just one. All the other volunteers have to supervise groups, but ‘oh no’ not Stephanie. Don’t get me wrong, she’s one of the most liked volunteers we have, but she drives me nuts.
It’s especially hard when Stephanie and Lee are at the same event. She just gets up his nose. I wish I could make him see the volunteers and participants are real people, not just statistics and cogs in a machine. We aren’t paying them.
Andi (a duty nurse assigned to events) Carmen and Gertrude are rude and offensive.They’re always bossing me. Don’t they see that I’m the one with the medical knowledge? They shouldn’t be telling me what to do.
I think they don’t respect me because of the colour of my skin. I’ll bet they treat David the exact same way.
Carmen (occasional volunteer and the mother of one of the children) I think the charity does a wonderful job, and my son, James, loves tennis so much, but it’s a real challenge. Anything could happen, you know? And he has special needs. I’m not going to just leave James with Access Wimbledon without being straight on a few things.
I like Stephanie, I do, because she’s a straight talker. But sometimes I worry that she’s paying more attention to other children and not James. And I honestly don’t understand what point Andi is trying to make half the time I talk with him. And I don’t think that Gertrude or Lee really pay attention to my concerns.
Stephanie (Volunteer career) I think Gertrude does a great job organising the events, and I love giving up my time for the charity: it puts such a smile on the children’s faces. But I just can’t manage ten children. The children, like James, have very specific needs, and if you’re not careful, something bad could happen, and then there’s a court case.
I was a teacher before I retired, and sometimes I don’t think Lee and Gertrude pay attention to my experience. I’m not just going to keep my mouth shut on these things
Lee (Trustee, Donor and Health & Safety volunteer) I’ll admit that I findStephanie frustrating – she always does her own thing- she always questions instructions.I’m from the business world. You tell someone to do something and they do it. I can see why some people think I’m being harsh, but the truth of the matter is: when it comes to health & safety, there are just no questions permitted. Just do the job you are meant to do, end of.
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Guidelines for the Report
In your report, you should
- Introduce your report with a 50-75 wordsexecutive summary(this is not part of the word count)
- Analyse the situation (approx. 650 words)
- Make recommendations (approx. 250 words)
- End your report with a 50-75 word conclusionssection
The report should be correctly formatted
- Title page
- Contents page
- Executive Summary (introducing the report)
- Background
- Analysis
- Recommendation
- Conclusions
- References
As well as
- Headings for each section
- Page numbers
- Page headers
Note:the number one area the examiner will be considering is your paragraph structure
- Each paragraph should be focused around a single idea with clear topic sentence.
Also Note:
- Harvard referencing guidelines are available on the ARU Library webpages
- Proof read your grammar and punctuation before submitting
Reading list for the report and report plan
You should only use these texts for your work. It is not acceptable to ignore the reading list as it has been specifically chosen to provide the right texts for discussion. Do not conduct alternative research on the internet.
The main sources for you report and report plan should be the excerpts in the module’s set text
- Cullen, J et. al. Business Communication, Hampshire: Cengage
Additional evidence may be drawn from these sources, available in the University’s online library.
- Hofstede, G. Pedersen, P .and Hofstede, G. 2002 Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press c2002
- Hofstede, G. Hofstede, G. and Minkov, M. 2010. Cultures and organizations: software of the mind: international cooperation and its importance for survival. London: McGraw Hill
- Nakata, C. 2009. Beyond Hofstede: culture frameworks for global marketing and management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
