What is CPD and why should you do it?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the expectation that achieving a professional or vocational qualification shouldn’t be the end of the story. Many roles now have a requirement to regularly refresh relevant skills in order to develop and stay up-to-date. We take a quick look at how you can do this and why it’s so important.
We can all appreciate that progress in areas like technology, legislation and science are constantly helping us make improvements to the ways in which we live and work. So, imagine what it would be like if you completed a qualification for your job, but your knowledge just froze at that point. The longer you were working, the more out-of-date your skills would become. Imagine the GP who didn’t prescribe the best medicines because they hadn’t heard about them? They wouldn’t be doing the best for their patients.
CPD, therefore, recognises that industries and the best working practices evolve over time. Medicine and related disciplines were some of the first professions to have a CPD requirement, but today almost every professional or skilled role has an expectation for people working in them to keep up-to-date.
What you can include as CPD does vary from role to role. Studying further relevant qualifications or attending training are likely to count across the board. Other activities like reading professional journals, giving talks or training yourself, or taking part in webinars and discussions can count too. Professional bodies will have a section on their website, which explains what they include and how to record it.
Whether you are in a ‘regulated’ profession, like teacher or doctor, or member of a professional body will also affect how you record your CPD and whether you have to submit it each year for your membership organisation to review. Again, this will be made clear on the relevant website.
Whether you are in a job that requires a set amount of CPD or not, there are many reasons why everyone who takes their career seriously should think about doing it. Being able to show that you actively take part in CPD activities will:
• ensure you keep up-to-date with developments in your industry and job role.
• demonstrate to both current and future employers that you take your role seriously, potentially increasing your chances of promotion or a new job.
• be an opportunity to meet and network with others doing a similar job but in different settings.
• be the chance to visit different venues, as events are often organised in relevant, interesting locations.
• and should be enjoyable too!