continuous professional development - Blogs - DPG Community2024-03-28T23:08:31Zhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/feed/tag/continuous+professional+developmentTop Tips to help you with your CPDhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/continuous-professional-development2017-06-26T12:14:23.000Z2017-06-26T12:14:23.000ZAdy Howeshttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/AdyHowes<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2217311?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>Continuous Professional Development is a powerful process where you reflect on your learning. If you're studying right now, this is an important habit to get into. Even when you're not studying, you gain lots by reflecting regularly on what you've learned. It's not just enough to learn. You need to reflect on your learning.</p>
<p>In this video, I got to talk to Krystyna Gadd, an experienced learning professional about the importance of reflecting on what you learn. She told me how it can be an exciting process and shares a story about continuous professional development.</p>
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<div class="SP_Video_Container"><iframe width="479" height="511" style="border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TylF5Z1deNM?rel=0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>
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</div>The Power of #LOVECPDhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/the-power-of-lovecpd2017-03-28T12:35:32.000Z2017-03-28T12:35:32.000ZAdy Howeshttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/AdyHowes<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2217232?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>A Twitter conversation sparked by a 'hello' turned into a crowdsourced list of favourite Ted Talks for HR and L&D people yesterday. <a href="http://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/SamanthaBoucher" target="_self">Sam Boucher</a>, a participant on one of our L&D programmes, kicked off the discussion by checking in on the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23lovecpd&src=typd" target="_blank">#LOVECPD hashtag</a> on Twitter. It followed on from her learning more about Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxoC6481WcU" target="_blank">video we made</a>. When she revealed she was a fan of Ted Talks, a variety of people chipped in and shared their favourite clips.</p>
<p>It demonstrates how powerful a conversation can be in contributing to our development. Social media platforms put spontaneous and powerful conversations like this within easy reach making a good case for the benefits of social media when it comes to CPD. This is one of the many times we've seen the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23lovecpd&src=typd" target="_blank">#LOVECPD hashtag</a> used by people to discuss as well as share knowledge and resources to help each other learn.</p>
<p>Check out the conversation along with some of the Ted Talks that were shared in the curated slideshow below which we'll keep updated as more come in. </p>
<p>If you're on Twitter, do join in with these CPD conversations by including <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23lovecpd&src=typd" target="_blank">#LOVECPD</a> in your Tweet and if you're not on Twitter, maybe here's a good reason to get started.</p>
<p>Tweet you there!</p>
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<div class="storify"><iframe width="100%" height="750" src="//storify.com/adyhowes/what-are-your-favourite-ted-talks/embed?border=false&template=slideshow" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> <script src="//storify.com/adyhowes/what-are-your-favourite-ted-talks.js?border=false&template=slideshow" type="text/javascript">
</script> <noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/adyhowes/what-are-your-favourite-ted-talks" target="_blank">View the story "What are your favourite Ted Talks for L&D and HR?" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
</div>CPD...lets get Personalhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/cpd-lets-get-personal2015-12-08T17:37:59.000Z2015-12-08T17:37:59.000ZJason Dayhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/JasonDay<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2216669?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><span class="font-size-3"><span class="font-size-4"><b><i><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357707?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357707?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full" height="173"></a>CPD…lets get Personal</i></b></span><b><br></b></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">The whole idea of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is primarily work-focused: aimed at developing role competencies, experience and skills, obtaining a promotion, etc. We set SMART objectives for our CPD and then deliberately pursue them. Many enjoy it, yet for others it can often be a chore, something to be ticked off at the annual appraisal or simply to retain accreditation.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Looking at our personal lives, all of us are life-long learners, continually developing. We may desire to: improve our confidence and self-esteem, be a more loving parent/husband/wife, improve our resilience to bounce back when hard times hit, increase our ability to step beyond our comfort zones, to try something new - the list goes on. Yet, why are we not more deliberate in our desire to develop ourselves personally, as people? We so often just expect these life-skills to happen automatically. There is a sense that we will, as people, mature and develop automatically with age and experience to gain those personal traits necessary for life. To a degree this is true of course, age and experience do bring maturity in many areas, but what if we were more active in this process, rather than passive?</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Until recently, my understanding of CPD had been that it primarily brings benefit for the company or to help me do my job better. However, I have now come to realize that it should be as much about personal development, as about professional development.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Instead of confining our understanding of CPD to a work focus, it is more holistic to widen the definition of ‘P’ to stand for ‘Professional <b><i>and Personal</i></b>’. In today’s modern world, companies are ever more flexible in what can be classed as CPD, and I therefore wonder if the definition challenge lies within our own mindsets, and the way in which we approach our own CPD goals?</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">The challenge is to view the words ‘CPD’ in a new, positive and holistic way. Not simply as a work requirement, but as an opportunity to develop ourselves both professionally and personally. It is an opportunity to ‘seize the day’, to identify areas in our personal lives that we know need work, and to integrate these into our CPD goals. It is to deliberately look for ways that will develop us most certainly as professionals, but also as well rounded people of character and integrity, both inside and out of work.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p></div>Making CPD sexy - so what exactly is CPD?https://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/making-cpd-sexy-so-what-exactly-is-cpd2013-10-10T10:12:21.000Z2013-10-10T10:12:21.000ZKrystyna Gaddhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/KrystynaGadd<div><p><b>“Continuing professional development is the action we take to maintain, update and grow.”</b></p>
<p><b>Beavers & Rae “Learning & Development Practice” 2010</b></p>
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<p>Very simply it is about: planning your learning, reflecting on it and then adapting so that what you have learnt makes a difference to what you do. CPD ties in with Kolb’s experiential learning cycle where we have an experience, reflect, conceptualise and then experiment to come up with new ways of working. It is a continuous cycle.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357370?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357370?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand”</p>
<p>Confucius 450 BC</p>
<p> This is one of my favourite quotes and for me epitomises the importance of why CPD and <b>conscious</b> learning are important. I am not suggesting that some people are unconscious, but what I mean is that when we consciously pause and think about what we are about to learn, there are things we will get from the learning that are expected. So that is the <b>planning</b> part – we stop and pause and think – “what will I get from this learning?” “What would I like to get from this?” When we reflect after the learning, we will either confirm what we set out to achieve or we may be surprised at the other “unexpected” things that we learnt from the learning.</p>
<p> Peter Honey, in his publication “Continuing Personal Development” (2007) says that: “CPD, despite being a straightforward process, has become over-complicated and bureaucratic.” It is because of this that in spite of its many benefits, CPD for many has become an administrative exercise, rather than an exploration of new thinking, knowledge or skills.</p>
<p>The CIPD in their factsheet on CPD say “We prefer to focus on output rather than the input of the development activity”. They go on to discuss how the hours spent training are not the key but what value the learning has given to you to improve some aspect of your performance.</p>
<p>CPD is about development – becoming better at something, which may mean practicing a skill, or increasing your knowledge, discarding unwanted habits, updating beliefs, learning to manage your emotions. Every part of you is open to the learning experience. If you see learning as part of your role, it ceases to be a separate task and becomes integrated into your every day activities.</p>
<p>Peter Honey in his publication “How to become a more effective learner” says “Changes are bigger and happening faster. Learning is the way to keep ahead”. So in order to be a “<b>professional</b>”, keeping ahead should be part of our every day activities. The variety of things you can do to “Keep ahead” are endless, from watching a TED talk to a chance conversation with a stranger on the bus. There is a whole spectrum of opportunities out there ,that if we only reflected, we could extract some valuable learning from.</p>
<p>The last part of CPD we have not explored is the “Continuing” bit. If we can see the benefits of CPD we will be convinced and motivated to do it continually, rather than occasionally, under sufferance. So let us just explore the reasons why CPD may not be integrated into everyone’s role: fear of failure, fear of success, too busy, it is boring, no seen benefit just to mention a few.</p>
<p> When you were a child, learning was something you did every day, before you even went to school. It was something we did naturally and incorporating the new learning worked well – if I fell over because I walked to fast for my current walking skills, I slowed down. There was no form to fill out, no learning plan to write, no 1-2-1 with my mother to discuss the best way forward.</p>
<p>Reflecting, which is a big part of CPD – can be “in action” - while you are doing it or “on action” after you have done it. The benefits of reflecting “in action’ can be that we adjust what we are doing, as we are doing it and avoid making a mistake. “On action” helps us to make a plan for the future to avoid making the same mistake again.</p>
<p>If we are <b>proactive</b> in our approach to learning, then we would make a plan to address an identified learning need and then undertake the learning planned. If we are <b>reactive</b> that usually happens when we have reflected <b>on action</b> and found that there was something awry. We would then undertake some learning at a later date to address the need identified.</p>
<p>Learning can also be formal or informal. If we only concentrate on the formal, we miss a lot of learning opportunities. Informal is easy to note and reflect on but informal can be messier and harder to define. The point from this is that there are a myriad of ways to learn but we have to be conscious of them.</p>
<p>As a starter here are some of the ways in which we can learn:</p>
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<li>Analysing mistakes</li>
<li>Analysing successes</li>
<li>Being coached</li>
<li>Covering holidays</li>
<li>Giving and receiving feedback</li>
<li>Job rotation</li>
<li>Reading</li>
<li>Problem solving</li>
<li>Project work</li>
<li>Unfamiliar tasks</li>
<li>Coping with changes</li>
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<p>So come on – give CPD a chance – make it sexy and keep yourself up to the minute as an L&D professional! Take a look at our Prezi on the subject below </p>
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