CPD isn’t just for professional bodies…it’s an open door

Anyone who is a member of a professional body is likely to have CPD (Continued Professional Development) requirements set out for them by the body, usually Finance, Law and HR sectors to name a few. It’s not always driven by the employer; they simply have to create the environment which allows it to happen.

CPD is a process that ensures what your employees are learning is practical and relevant, carried out in a structured way. CPD isn’t just for the professionals…it’s open to all. If it is about making sure that your teams’ skills and abilities are enhanced, then the benefits for your company could be significant.

We are all too aware of the skills crisis facing all sectors and by engaging in CPD you can quickly and easily build the skill sets required by your company. Your teams and you, will continue to learn and develop, keeping everyone’s skills and knowledge up to date, ultimately your business being ahead of the competition and the market.

You might be thinking that this is all very good but learning at work through CPD will take too much time and effort. In recent years, more flexible CPD options have emerged, such as online learning, podcasts, webinars and workshops.

A useful starting point is for your employees to have a CPD plan. As part of your performance reviews and one-to-ones with your teams be sure to include your teams’ goals and aspirations. If this is something not yet in place, don’t worry, we can help you with this. We work with a number of clients helping them develop a bespoke performance review framework, process, talent management and succession planning.

Once the CPD plan is in place, the next hurdle is to find the time to get it up and running. We know this is often a difficult step, trying to balance all of your priorities and business demands. Sometimes we all need help in focussing on the right things at work, and at home for that matter, so spending some of that precious time to release more time is key. We run a 1-day course specifically addresses this – we call it Attention Management. It exposes those ‘time thieves’ and helps you develop strategies and tactics to banish them!  Our next course is on the 25^th October  but you can find out when other courses are happening on our events page. Click here for upcoming events  

Albert Einstein said, ‘education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think’. We can all learn facts, engage in online learning, read articles and so on to learn, but what’s really important is making the learning stick. Earlier we talked about how CPD needs to be structured, relevant and above all practical.

For us to embed our learning, we need to be able to put it into practice and see the results.  Lee wrote a great blog about habit forming and rewards – click here to have a read if you havent’ already.  Our experience from running leadership development programmes shows us that these work best when the learner has the opportunity to put into practice what they have learnt from previous sessions. Additionally, to have the opportunity for personal coaching or action learning groups in-between sessions is also invaluable.

If you have new managers/team leaders in your team or managers who haven’t had the chance to develop the necessary skills yet to do their role, let us help you. We run a classroom based 6-month First Line Management programme or a 7- month experiential Management Development programme which do exactly this. Both of these give the learners a great opportunity to put all their learning into practice.  You can read more about our leadership and management development programmes on our website page here