Appendix B. Individual Development Plan Outline

Student Portion

  1. SKILLS ASSESSMENT — ​what skills do I currently have?
  2. CAREER ASPIRATIONS — ​what career pathways interest me? What do I like to do and what do I value about my work environment?
  3. DESIRED SKILLS — ​setting goals for the skills I want.
  4. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT — ​what support can I take advantage of?

Desired Skills

Desired skills should be:

  • Specific & Sensible — ​Are goals focused and unambiguous? Considering difficulty and timeframe, are goals attainable?
  • Measurable — ​Could someone identify whether or not you achieved this goal?
  • Action-oriented — ​What action(s) do you need to take to achieve the goal?
  • Help — ​What support will you need? Where can you get it?
  • Time-bound — ​What time frame are you accountable to?

Use the spaces provided (expand as needed) to reflect on your self-assessment and career aspirations/professional values while considering the following questions:

  1. How do your strengths align with your current role? Can you identify gaps in skills or strengths?
  2. If you are unsure of a career path that is of interest to you, how can you apply your strengths towards career exploration?
  3. How can the information in boxes 1 and 2 be used to prioritize the goals that you set in box 3?

Student-Mentor Relationship Discussion — ​Thought Questions

  1. What are potential barriers to successful student-mentor conversations? What strategies can you use to work around those barriers?
  2. What do you think ‘productive conflict’ means? How can you establish goals when you and your mentor disagree?
  3. What should the next steps be after your initial meetings(s) with your mentor? How can you follow up with your mentor?

Mentor Portion

  1. SKILLS ASSESSMENT — ​what skills does my student currently have?
  2. CAREER ASPIRATIONS — ​how can I support my student’s career goals? What does my student like to do?
  3. DESIRED SKILLS — ​helping my student set goals for the skills they need to be successful.
  4. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT — ​what support can my student take advantage of? How can I advocate for my student?