We want to get you hooked on CPD and here’s why.
Why practice continuing professional development (CPD)
This is more difficult than it sounds as history (and research) tells us we don’t prioritise our personal and professional development.
In today’s ever-changing world, we are constantly learning. New technology, governing body standards and best practices are introduced into the working world daily.
The need for CPD, and ongoing education, has never been more important than it is now.
Research from the CIPD, a professional body for HR and people development, reveals that 49% of UK workers could be in the wrong job based on their skill level. Individuals were either under or over-skilled for their roles. Their research also showed that a university degree is no guarantee of being prepared for the workplace.
Despite these insights, 25% of those questioned said they had not received any form of training in the last year.
These statistics highlight the need for ongoing training and development in the workplace.
However, our working lives feel busy enough so why would we spend precious time attending boring training courses or webinars?
Many of us see it as a chore and others have no idea where to start when it comes to practising CPD.
This information is far from the truth of what CPD can offer and the benefits of continuing professional development far outweigh the time commitment needed.
Leap Like A Salmon are your partner in professional development, helping transform your CPD online. Helping you make the next steps in your career, or keeping you skilled to retain the role you already have.
So just why is CPD important? Let’s leap into the facts.
Why is continuing professional development important?
Most see CPD as physically going on a course. Whilst this is correct, CPD is anything that makes you think, reflect and be more self-aware, this includes.
- Learning from mistakes
- Being responsible for a project
- Leading a project with a new team
- Attending events, conferences and training
- Collaborating with our peers
- Knowledge conversations with colleagues
- Volunteer work
- Reflecting on activities
- Reading blogs and forums
Benefits of CPD
CPD puts you in the driving seat. Whether the learning is self-guided or through certified courses, it will be sure to boost your confidence in and out of the workplace. The skills and knowledge you gain will enable progression, increase your self-awareness and put you on the right path professionally.
The five main benefits of CPD are:
- Expand industry knowledge and stay up to date with the latest trends
- Build confidence and credibility within your profession
- Increase self-awareness
- Feel in control of your career progression
- Improve workplace skills
Further benefits of using our CPD platform are:
- Capture and manage activities to support your professional development
- Securely store and organise all CPD plans, records, files and reflections in one, easy-to-access place.
- Benefit from insights, masterclasses, resources and gather support from our CPD experts.
- Access your CPD files and resources, online, anytime from any location.
- Prioritise your wellbeing with our ‘wellbeing wheel’.
- Collaborate with others within your organisation to share their CPD knowledge, and experience and to help and encourage one another on your professional development journey.
Advantages and disadvantages of CPD
Traditionally the disadvantages of CPD have been the cost, time implications and knowing where to start. That’s where we make things easy for you.
On our mission to get you hooked on CPD, you can trial our platform for free, spend as much time as you want on there and we’re there to guide you every step of the way.
Disadvantages of CPD do exist. However, we’re confident that once you’ve experienced how practising CPD can transform your professional outlook, the disadvantages of CPD won’t be a barrier to you anymore.
Some feel that a disadvantage of CPD is that it takes an individual away from working on an organisation’s core aims and pulls them away from contributing to the bottom line of the business. In addition, some individuals feel that offers of CPD from their employer are to cover up a deeper structural problem that needs addressing.
These two reasons alone answer the question of why is CPD important.
By upskilling employers and investing in their professional development, you are investing in the organisation’s overall performance, positively contributing to the bottom line.
And for organisations where there are deeper tremors of a weak structure, CPD could help an employer realise their path within the organisation and their role in the structure.
The importance of CPD:
CPD is important because it can help you become a powerful force and control your career compass.
When it comes to describing the importance of continuing professional development we can look at career paths. Some of us will have up to seven careers in our working lifetime. As we shift careers, pivot, leap off career ladders and opt for alternative professions, how can we keep ourselves upskilled and prepared?
When it comes to continuing professional development, the below video highlights a few areas that we should be engaging with and to hook us into action.
The keywords linked to continuing professional development (CPD) are development, reflection, wellbeing, learning, knowledge sharing, progression, feedback, self-awareness, goals, performance, apprenticeship, objectives and volunteering.
Our personal and professional development should be something that inspires us. It helps us develop a solid foundation at the start of our careers. It is something we can use to build, develop and grow our confidence, skills and abilities.
So what next. We need your help to challenge the way we view CPD and shape the way we learn and reflect today.
When it comes to CPD, ask yourself:
Are you motivated by the term?
How can you make CPD work for you?
How will CPD be advantageous to me?
How can you carve out more time, energy, direction and clarity to do CPD?
Be part of the change and contact us and we can make a difference together.
Get hooked on CPD
Predicting the future working world
Universities predict that in ten years’ time, we’ll need these four skills to succeed in the working world:
- Cognitive flexibility
- Digital literacy
- Emotional and social intelligence
- Creative and innovative mindset
So how can we prepare for these skills? How can we get ready for the future of the working world or prepare ourselves for a career pivot? How can we prevent you from being blind-sided by the introduction of technology that could affect your profession?
CPD (Continuing professional development) can inject learning into your routine and help you prepare for the future working world. By committing to your learning and development you can add new, functional skills to your CV.
These new skills will empower you and make sure you are future-fit and ready for potential career pivots.
Ways to take control of your career development
The Leap Like a Salmon CPD platform provides a safe and secure portal for learners to plan, record and share their continuing professional development.
Find out what showing your commitment to continuing professional development looks like.
We encourage our members to record anything from what they learnt after reading an educational blog, to recording knowledge conversations with colleagues to reflecting on lessons learnt from mistakes. It’s not just about attending an official webinar, course or training programme to record your CPD. Taking part in personal and professional development can build, develop and grow confidence, skills, and abilities in and out of the workplace.
The importance of self-awareness in the workplace
Reflect on how you’re reflecting.
Organisational psychologist, Tasha Eurich believes reflection can increase our self-awareness in the workplace. If we reflect on our reflecting we can question why we’re doing it.
Asking the question “why” can often lead us away from the truth. Eurich’s research has found that we can’t excavate our unconscious thoughts, feelings and motives, they’re engrained, learnt behaviours that cloud our self-conception and are often skewed by recent events.
Instead of asking why to increase our self-awareness during the practice of reflection, let’s ask what. What can I do to change this situation? What’s most important to me? What can I do differently? What are the situations I react to and what do they have in common?
Your inner force is a powerful tool. Use it alongside CPD to focus on your development, wellbeing, progression, performance and goals.
The benefits of CPD far out-weight the disadvantages. A LinkedIn survey revealed that 65% of people who practice CPD support the idea that it leads to a highly skilled workforce who are more likely to be retained by their employer due to this investment in the future.
It’s time to get future fit, empower yourself and increase your self-awareness to take control of your career progression.
So here’s our challenge to you:
Commit to recording one thing you have learnt every day and gradually over time your reflections will become deeper and they will drive your learning journey. You never know, prioritising continuing professional development might help you land that dream job one day!
Let us know how you get on and how this small change has made a difference to your professional outlook.
Check out our Knowledge Base for further resources and support with our Ask The Experts or stay informed with our social Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
