Give something a three-latter acronym and it sounds important and powerful: HMG, USD, CID, and JCB. Then there’s CPD: not the carbon disclosure project but Continuing Professional Development. In reality, training while in employment. Many professional bodies have CPD requirements for their members: they have to keep their noses to the grind stone by keeping their knowledge and skills up to date. But the vast majority of workers are not in a professional body.
The skills and knowledge focused on the CPD are not necessarily academically focused. They can be very rooted in the needs of employees to continue their development and of employers to encourage them to do so.
Fewer official programmes
It’s my impression that there are far fewer formal CPD programmes than there used to be. Even if they did not call them CPD programmes many employers offered something like them. Employers are still filling skills gaps but with ad hoc training or recruitment rather than with overarching schemes. I don’t have any concrete evidence to back this up but it seems so.
Accreditation not worth it
There are private organisations which offer accreditation for CPD courses. I’ve looked at them but can’t find the advantage in getting accredited. These organisations will not reveal the full extent of their criteria and have no official status. The best accreditation is from those who have used courses.
Down to the individual
Without employer-backed programmes it is largely down to the individual to look after their own professional development. Each needs to build their own personalised CPD by making a mini audit of what they know and can do: judge that against what is needed; then fill in the gaps with training.
Less than a night out
It does not have to be expensive. We at ContentETC are offering e-learning courses for less than £20. Must less than a night out and of long-term value. It’s now fashionable to put “my” in front of names in order to make them more personal. “My M&S”, “My perfect Volkswagen” and “my.bhm” for the University of Birmingham. So here’s another: “my CPD”.