Continuing Professional Development

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What is Continuing Professional Development?

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is about continuously updating professional knowledge, personal skills and competencies. Even in retirement many people may make a contribution to their profession and still have personal learning goals.

The CQI believes that a commitment to CPD is essential to an individual's effective performance in all aspects of working life.

The underlying principles of CPD are that:

• members should always be actively seeking to improve performance
• development is primarily a personal matter and should be owned and managed by the individual
• any development plan must start with the individual's current learning needs, take into account previous development, fit into their overall life and career plan and, where relevant, meet current organisational needs
• development goals should be clearly defined and accompanied by specific measures of what will constitute a successful outcome
• members should regularly assess their achievement against these measures, either as self-assessment or through peer assessment or with the help of a mentor
• investment in training, development and learning should be regarded as a fundamental principle of enhancing professional and commercial success

How can you benefit from CPD?

CPD ensures that your professional credibility is maintained in order to adapt to new ideas, concepts and practical tools which are constantly being developed.

CPD will provide you with:

• the tools to identify the skills and knowledge that you may need in the future to further your career
• the process to plan how you are going to acquire them
• the guidance on how to capture and reflect on your learning experience
• the ability to assess the extent to which you have achieved your learning objectives

In summary, CPD will provide you with the framework to manage your own development and aspire to improve performance above and beyond the requirements of your present position.

How can I manage my own development?

Developing skills and knowledge is an ongoing process and a personal plan must recognise what has been achieved to date and what needs to be achieved in future to enable you to meet both your personal and career related goals. If development is to be of value then it must be approached in a structured way by recognising, recording and reviewing the success of development activities.