Continuing Professional Development

What is it?

“CPD is the planned and systematic updating of professional knowledge and improvement of personal competence throughout the individuals life”

• It is for everyone not just the ambitious and young
• It’s about personal satisfaction as much as professionalism and making full use of ones abilities at whatever level you choose
• It’s about making conscious decisions to update professional knowledge and improve professional competence throughout your life
• It’s a commitment to being and staying professional, keeping up to date and continuously seeking to improve

Key principles of CPD

• Improve performance - Actively seek to do this
• Individual’s responsibility to own and manage their CPD with, where possible, the support of their employer
• Determined by personal learning needs which recognise current organisational needs where possible
• Reflective practice - evaluates rather than describes what has taken place
• Investment - both in the individual and the organisation
• Essential - permeates all areas of your life both at work and in your personal life

How do I do it?

CPD encompasses all kinds of learning - both formal (training courses) and informal (e.g. meetings; learning at work). You can do CPD anytime anywhere and it doesn’t have to cost money. Activities that constitute CPD are wide ranging and diverse:

• Learning on the job (workplace)
• Learning off the job (outside the workplace)
• Reflective Practice
• Research and Reading
• Formal Structured learning e.g Qualifications
• Networking
• Contributing to the profession
• Learning from Colleagues
• Teaching and training others
• Learning a skill  e.g. IT; management; PR; cataloguing