Blogs

Last week I commenced my HRD programme in London having successfully completed the L&D Practice last year. A great personal achievement last year was to have been shortlisted for the ‘CIPD Outstanding Student of the Year Award 2013’ and I wanted to continue my professional development by moving on to the next stage -  L&D Management. It was great to meet my facilitator Shaine Richardson and my 11 colleagues with whom I will be sharing the next 11 months!

So many friends and colleagues have asked “why do you want to put yourself through another year of study?” “How are you going to find the time?” “Your work is full on at the moment – is this the right time?” In answer to this – is there ever a ‘right’ time? I am passionate about Learning and Development and I personally want to increase my knowledge, confidence and competence of L&D Management in order to move me to the next stage of my career as well as making myself a rounded and credible L&D professional. The CIPD provides you with the industry best practice (and there is also no getting away from the fact that it is important to have on your CV!)

I am delighted to be back studying with DPG after a very fruitful experience last year and before I knew it April 7^th had arrived!

So what is different with DPG this year? – One huge difference is how the DPG Community has progressed and the introduction of the Learning Pathway. I believe that creating a community of learning is so important and something that I champion and drive through learning interventions within my organisation. The collaborative social site we use in my organisation is ‘Yammer’.

The DPG Community and indeed the fantastic Learning Pathway is a smorgasbord of information and resource with ‘social’ and ‘collaboration’ at the heart. It provides an avenue and a voice for all learners to share. The search engine is incredibly easy to use and at the click of a button, videos, blogs and resources related to your search are at your fingertips.

The Learning Pathway is a great addition this year as it neatly stores all your course details and portfolio-where you can upload all your assessed submissions. Have a phobia for technology? Fear not - with an online tutorial from Mike Collins (which was incredibly helpful) we are quickly guided and given the tools to start our ‘journey’. As an aside I’m not keen on the term ‘journey’ as it seems very overused (especially with reality television such as X-Factor who are all on a ‘journey’) but I cannot think of a better word to use at the moment – as from my experience last year it really is a learning journey!

Someone asked me last year “what tips have you got for learning and studying” I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer to this (as we know we all learn differently) but I guess my advice is to be open, (the wide mouthed open bowl that receives everything that pours into it!) Have your learning ‘antenna’ up all the time especially at work and see where you can apply your learnings or perhaps start challenging the norm. When it comes to the ‘study’ part we need to individually manage this ourselves - we each have a work-life balance to juggle, so for me I know that my weekends are going to have to be ‘adapted’ for the next 11 months……..but I am holding on to the fact that it will be worth it!

Having attended workshop 1 I am just about to start the study part! I remember last year it took me a while to get ‘back into study’ and this year is no different! For all those who have just commenced a programme with DPG good luck with it and hopefully I will see you on line!