Learn about how the CPD cycle can help you structure your CPD.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is the learning experiences which help you develop and improve your professional practice. Your ongoing professional development doesn’t come just from formal or course-based learning, it comes from anything that helps you to develop and improve your practice. Your learning might be planned (you identify a development need) or it may be unplanned and happen in the flow of work (as part of your role, in the work you do).
The focus of your CPD should be the impact of your learning (rather than how much learning you’ve done).
Start by identifying what your development needs are. You can do this by reviewing yourself against the CIPD Profession Map standards, using the self-assessment tool on the CIPD Learning Hub.
The tool will give you highly tailored learning recommendations to meet your development needs. You can then use My Learning Plan to create your own, bespoke learning plan.
Don’t forget: your professional development doesn’t come just from formal or course-based learning. It comes from any experience that helps you change and improve your practice, such as:
This is where you participate in learning experiences that improve or develop your professional practice. These may be planned experiences that you’ve actively sought, or unplanned experiences that happen in the flow of work. They could include:
Reflecting on your learning is a way to embed what you’ve learned, and improve your professional practice.
That’s why we’ve developed the My CPD Reflections tool to provide an online space to review and reflect on your learning. Reflection takes place via a series of four structured questions, which take you deeper into your understanding of your learning. You’ll consider what you’ve learned, through to how that learning could have a wider positive impact.
These researched and tested questions enable you to consider how you have developed and changed as a result of your learning, which is part of everyone's continuing professional development.
To access My CPD Reflections, you need to login in to the CIPD Learning hub.
Stage 4: Apply and ShareIf you haven’t already, now is the time to start applying your learning. Find opportunities to revisit and embed what you’ve learned. This could be by:
Learning is often a social experience, and the learning doesn’t end once you’ve applied it. Sharing learning is a great way to collaborate with others, build networks and exchange ideas. You could share your learning with your colleagues or communities of practice, and in different ways, such as:
As part of your membership, you have access to a continually updated library of learning programmes on the Learning hub, including all essential insight courses and eight introductory programmes.
I'm Louise the head of L&D for a global financial services firm.
I have three little ones and on top of that I'm studying for my level seven. I would describe myself as someone who's passionate about development of myself and others. I start MOOCs but I don't usually finish. I listen to podcasts on the way to work and I read when I can - but my organization's culture is all about results, so it's hard to justify stopping even for a moment to reflect.
About this time last year, I had been given a few projects to run and after the first two have been completed I started to notice the same mistakes coming up time and time again. There were miscommunications that could have been avoided and generally team morale was low.
I hadn't been putting the time in to check in as much as possible. We hadn't been reviewing projects and learning the lessons before starting another one. And I realised then, that the same was true for myself.
Start so many things when I don't actually build in time to reflect on the assumptions I've made for how my feelings played a part in my decision. I found a reflective practice group which initially felt very unnatural. But I had to be completely honest with a total stranger, but it was liberating.
I felt safe to admit my mistakes and saying some of my thoughts out loud was quite a wake-up call. There are a load of underlying thoughts and feelings that I just sort of affirmed by virtue of keeping them locked up.
Since then, I use the same techniques in my alone time and also build them into regular team discussions and project reviews. Long story short, the quality of our work had vastly improved. I now see my work challenges differently I see them all as learning opportunities and we have a sense of shared ownership without blame when things go wrong. Better yet, my manager has also seen a difference - he's totally sold on it - and he's organised for my colleagues to exchange reflective practice workshops.
I'd recommend as a key skill for anyone at any stage in their career. I have no doubt that if you can find a way to ritualise reflection sharing and learning in your teams. And in your life, you will get results.
Reflecting by pacing alone isn't enough, you may only re-affirm your existing thought process. Reflective practice requires routine reflection in order to create the shift in behavior.
There are lots of ways to do reflective practice,not just in a group. Ensure to pass on the benefits of reflective practice to your team by nurturing a culture of reflective practice.
