Continuing professional development

Not so long ago, a person joining a company, or indeed the Services, could expect a career for life. The way in, certainly at professional level, was usually through a period of academic study combined with structured training

Not so long ago, a person joining a company, or indeed the Services, could expect a career for life. The way in, certainly at professional level, was usually through a period of academic study combined with structured training. After this the individual would generally follow a clearly defined path of progression in their chosen field of employment. Professional development was too often regarded as an optional extra or even unimportant.

However, the pace of rapid changes in technology and business over recent years has been breathtaking. Personal computers are commonplace, video-on-demand is a reality, and we can access our bank statements while trekking across the desert or navigating rapids in a canoe. Hand in hand with this have come new organisational models, such as the learning organisation and the centreless corporation. Management gurus invent new terms for sacking people – downsizing or rightsizing – and even challenge the very concept of an organisation. One of the latest buzzwords is ‘networks’, suggesting that individuals no longer have long-term loyalty to a single organisation, but carry out different projects with different groups of people.

Learning and CPD

Organisations of all types now place great emphasis on what is called continuing professional development (CPD). This can be defined as ‘the systematic maintenance and improvement of knowledge, skills and competence, and enhancement of learning, undertaken by a person throughout their working life’.

CPD activities can include in-house training, open learning, short courses, conferences, seminars, workshops, self-study, preparing and making presentations, and being a coach or mentor. The key to CPD is learning, and this comes about in different ways. It can be formal or informal, structured or ad hoc, job-centred or person-centred. We each have our own preferred ways of learning, but each of us, when we learn anything new, typically passes through four distinct phases.

1. Unconscious incompetence: we don’t know that we don’t know, and have yet to learn about a subject.
2. Conscious incompetence: as we begin to learn, we become aware of our failings and inability to master the skill.
3. Conscious competence: we have begun to master the skill but are still prone to errors.
4. Unconscious competence: we apply the skill automatically, through the unconscious mind, without the need really to think about it.

Formal learning is gained through structured courses run by education or training establishments, whilst informal, or incidental, learning is gained in an unstructured way through our work or other activities. In some respects, therefore, CPD is just a way of giving a name to a process that we have all been engaged in anyway, incidentally and without being aware of it.

Support and planning

As traditional organisational structures break down, everyone should take responsibility for their own CPD and find ways in which it can be supported. Some people have personal, business or life coaches, mentors or career counsellors, while others receive support from professional bodies, employers and the various networks of which they are members.

Planned and structured CPD is vital for survival and prosperity in an increasingly litigious society, where professional ethics are in the spotlight and where many people may need to remember that their purpose is to act for the public good. Professionals must be able to identify and measure CPD, both for their own purposes and in order to demonstrate it to others. This is not just clocking up hours spent on an activity; it is also about the assessment of what we have actually learned. Part of this process involves the personal development record (PDR), which can be in hard copy, on CD-ROM or web-based.

CPD can help us deepen our understanding of a subject, broaden our knowledge into a related field, or change the direction of our career completely. An awareness of CPD, and an ability to demonstrate it to a prospective employer, is especially important for Service leavers.

Commitment to CPD

The Institute of Continuing Professional Development offers membership to individuals who make a commitment to CPD over and above that required by their main specialist professional body. It works with other bodies, including the Services and the MoD, to affirm and promote the critical importance of CPD globally, and has produced a CD-ROM entitled Continuing Professional Development – an Introduction, which features short contributions from leading industry and education figures.

Anyone requiring further information about CPD; its related aspects, such as planning and recording, coaching or mentoring; or a copy of the CD-ROM should contact the author or the Institute of Continuing Professional Development (see box).

Contact details

The Institute of Continuing Professional Development

Email: info@cpdinstitute.org

Website: www.cpdinstitute.org

Graham Guest

Email: graham@guest.name

Website: www.lifelonglearning.tv