Continuing professional development plan template

Do they read books, blogs or other resources? Do they have a mentor? If nothing comes to mind for the employee, this is a problem. This is the big question and will probably take some thinking time and reflection for the employee to fully articulate. Where do they see themselves in 12 months? In 2 years? In 5 years? Reflecting on what they currently do and what they enjoy the most and conversely what they enjoy the least in their role is a good start. Observing their senior peers in the business can help inform where they see themselves going.

Prior to defining this, they may want to spend some time actively observing their senior colleagues or spending time talking to them to help identify natural career progressions in the business. Generally, the gap between where the employee currently is and where they see themselves in the next 12 months can be addressed with training.

But there are other resources that can assist like attending industry events, being a member of industry communities, subscribing to software tools, learning programs or finding a mentor. Speaking with colleagues and finding what works for their peers can be a good source of information for employees who recognize a skills and knowledge gap but may not immediately know how to address it. Writing it all down will help you remember your overall goal and all the steps you have laid out for yourself.

A PDP is not something to be written and forgotten. It is a career-long tool that you should refer to regularly. Writing it down will also be handy for when you are ready to apply for that new position or promotion. You will have a detailed list of all the professional skills you have been working on, and examples of just how you have gone about facilitating your own professional development.

Even though you should dream big, setting unreasonable goals and targets will make the experience of following a PDP stressful and disheartening. Are you meeting your targets?

Assessing your progress regularly is important. You may need to set more manageable steps, or make new targets, or even set new goals. Remember that plans change and, as you go through your career, your goals will progress with you. Skip to content. What is a Professional Development Plan? Now is the time to start thinking about where you want your future to take you.

Tags: Career Development Human Resources. Like This Article? As you complete each development activity it is a valuable exercise to record and review the outcomes of the activity, to reflect on what you have learnt, what went well and not so well, and to identify any further development requirements. Use the Continuing Professional Development Record to record the activities you undertake. Both the CPD Plan and CPD Record below can be completed digitally if you have the Adobe Reader browser plugin installed, and then saved and printed, or alternatively you can download the resource, complete it in Adobe Reader or print it out for completing by hand.

If you would like a copy of these documents branded for your organisation please email [email protected]. A self-assessment is an evaluation of your professional interests, knowledge and skills.

Creating a self-assessment allows you to examine your current position as it relates to your career goals. When you determine the skills and interests you currently possess, you can identify areas in which you can improve to obtain your goals. It can be helpful to identify your transferable skills. Transferable skills are marketable personal assets that many employers seek in candidates, such as good communication, teamwork or leadership.

List which software applications or computer programs you are proficient with. As workplaces become increasingly dependent on computer programs, having technological skills is valuable in any industry. Structure your goals in a way that makes it easy to achieve them by completing small steps. It can also help to categorize goals as short-, mid- or long-term so you can develop more detailed steps to achieve each one:. Long-term is within the next three to five years. Your professional development plan strategies define how you will achieve your goals.

You should list a variety of approaches, including experiential learning learning through doing , exposure learning from others , education and reflection.

As a general rule, the majority of your strategies should be experiential. This gives you a valuable hands-on experience when developing new skills. For example, a person who wants to be a veterinarian could volunteer at an animal shelter as an experiential strategy for learning more about working with animals.