Continuing Professional Development
CPD can help you to reflect, review and document your learning and to develop and update your professional knowledge and skills.
Continuing Professional Development – CPD – is a vital part of your career development as a professional. It refers to the process of tracking and documenting the knowledge, skills and experience (KSE) that you gain both formally and informally as you work, beyond any initial training. It’s a record of what you experience, learn and then apply. It can help you to reflect, review and document your learning and to develop and update your professional knowledge and skills.
And many professional bodies require you to keep a record of your own development as part of their professional standards, further emphasising its importance.
It is a clear demonstration to potential employers or clients that you take your own career seriously and want to aspire to higher things, and information on your CPD should always be included within job applications and CVs. It can give that vital edge to your application.
We at The Business School adopt the ‘T-shaped person’ concept:
Across the T is the breadth of KSE gained through CPD, training or experientially – these are cross-sector, generic KSE areas, such as IT skills, understanding of finance, customer service, health and safety.
In the upright is the depth of KSE in a particular, specialist area – these are sector specific KSE areas and will represent the key profession and thus be linked to a particular professional body. Of particular importance is currency – knowledge and skills must be maintained.
Compare this to an I shaped person –great depth in a particular aspect, but little “soft” skill development – or a bar shaped person, who is generally thought of as a “Jack of all trades, but master of none”.
To support this concept, we have developed a series of short courses at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. They range from generic (Managing Health and Safety, Understanding Financial Management, Introduction to Logistics for example) to specific to our specialist areas – Facilities Management, Logistics and Transport. These are all available as ‘bite-sized’ chunks of learning (between 10 and 20 hours) culminating in a quiz to reflect on your learning and a downloadable certificate of completion. And they are all based on professional standards from The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management.
If you would like more information, please contact us by email or telephone or our online form:
Email: training@thebusinessschool.uk.com
Telephone: 0116 367 4858
We look forward to hearing from you.