Professional Development

Professional development is the process by which a person maintains the

quality and relevance of professional services throughout his/her
working life. It has been defined by the Institute for Continuing
Professional Development as:
'The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of
knowledge and the development of personal qualities necessary for the
education of professional and technical duties throughout the
practitioner's working life.
Professional development is not a product, devised by training providers
and academic institutions. It is a mindset, a habit to acquire.
Professional development requires self-directed, independent learning. It
also demands an active rather than passive approach to learning.
It differs from other forms of learning because it requires us to decide
what needs to be learned or un-learned, how to learn it, and how to test
and assess our learning.
 Professional Development
Continuing Professional Development encompasses all formal
and informal learning that enables individuals to improve
their own practice.
Professional development is an aspect of personal
development and, wherever possible, the two should interact
and complement each other. The former is mainly about
occupational role development whereas personal
development is about the development of the person, often
the whole person, and it almost always involves changes in
self awareness. (Earley & Bubb, 2004)
 Professional Development
According to Madden & Mitchell (1993), CPD can fulfil three
functions:
Updating and extending the professionals knowledge and
skills on new development and new areas of practice- to
ensure continuing competence in the current job.
Training for new responsibilities and for a changing role (e.g.
management, budgeting etc) developing new areas of
competence in preparation for a more senior post
Developing personal and professional effectiveness and
increasing job satisfaction increasing competence in a wider
context with benefits to both professional and personal roles.
Continuous Professional Development
Cycle
Self-Assess

Review Plan and Prioritise

Do
 What this module is about
Taking responsibility for learning and
development needs

Personal, professional and organisational goals

and objectives

Analysing current skills and preparing and

implementing personal development plans
 Summary of Learning Outcomes
1. Explore methods to improve personal and
professional skills to meet the organisational
and own goals and objectives

2. Carry out the personal skills audit which

identifies preferred learning style

3. Prepare and implement a personal

development plan
Why Professional Development is
important?
 Business vision, goals and strategy
HR, goals and strategy
HR Management

Help to build an
appropriate
organisational
context
Plan positive
policies for Induct, train and
redeployment manage
and effectively
disengagement

Performance
& Growth Appraise, plan,
Achieve learning and
meaningful development for
career planning the short and
long term

Motivate and
reward in ways Attract & select The Wheel of HRM & Business
that will ensure people to fit the
peoples business (Rosemary Harrison2002)
commitment
A History of Learning and Development

HRD (Human Resource Development) began in

1950s
American organisational psychologists
Built on Scientific Management work of
F.W. Taylor (1856-1915)
Improved conditions for employees enhance
efficiency and business productivity
 A History of Learning & Development
1939-1945 (2ww) Thrust to systemise training received a huge boost
Inexperienced operators need to master tasks quickly to boost the
war effort
1950-60 Trend continues and academic research and systematic approach
develops into a full-blown model
UK sets up 23 industrial training boards in 1963
Models aim to make training methodology more rigorous, consistent
and scientifically based
1950-60s (US) Organisational psychologists such as Argyris (1957) McGregor (1960)
and Likert (1961) and Hertzberg (1966) were studying motivation at
work
Work drew attention to employee needs for self-fulfilment,
meaningful work and tasks that could engage their intelligence and
develop their potential
Coupled with developing notions of total quality management
(Japan)
 Systematic Training Model (Boydell 1971)
What would become the major criticisms of this
1. Plan model?
Training Training operating in a free-standing closed
system dominated by functional tasks

Assumes these tasks should and can take

Evaluate 2. Design place in a predetermined sequence
Training Training
In reality training has to be carried out in
contexts that can be messy, disorganised and
political
3. Deliver
Training Training can fail without attention to context
 Training & Development Cycle
(Peter Earley & Sara Bubb, 2004)
Identification of training &
development needs

Evaluation of training Analysis of training &

& development and its development needs
impact

Planning & designing of

Monitoring of training training & development
& development programmes

Implementation of
training & development
 A History of Learning and Development
1970s Human Capital Theory (G.Becker 1975)
1980s Trend continues for performance improvement and human resources
departments to increase business productivity and add value
Conflict between short term economic gains and strategic approach
to training and development
Current Trends Organisations recognise need to create synergy between training and
development of the individual employee, development of business
strategies and plans and development of the organisation
Still in most organisations learning and development focused only on
immediate operational, technical and legislative requirements
Current Trends Emergence of knowledge based economy
Organisations need to make investment in learning that leads to
improvement and innovation
Create ability to develop and apply new knowledge to continuous
improvement
 Case Study Proctor & Gamble (P&G)
Major re-organisation in 2000
Matrix organisation/global business units
By 2004 30% rise in productivity (in UK)

HRs role
Training for skills no longer viewed as key process
Shift from training to learning to develop learning strategy
across the company
Managers given coaching skills
By early 2004 adopted a management technique throughout
whole organisation
Learning and development built into the performance
management process
Determined to grow its own rarely recruits from outside
Personal & Professional Skills
 Professional Skills
Professional skills are known by a variety of terms:
transferable skills, key skills, core skills, generic skills or
generic competences.
They are the kinds of skills necessary for effective
performance not only in the workplace but in life in general
and once mastered, through a variety of opportunities, can
easily be transferred from one field to another, from one
career to another, from one life situation to another.
 Personal Skills

Personal skills include being able to support and

encourage others, being able to give and receive
constructive criticism as well as being able to
negotiate. They are also concerned with listening to
and valuing others' opinions, and being able to
convey your point clearly to a group.
 Further Reading & Research
Books
Pedler M et al, A Managers Guide to Self Development. 5th Edition (2006)
McGraw Hill ISBN 0-07-709830-7.

Web
Institute of Continuing Professional Development (www.cpdinstitute.org)
The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (www.cipd.co.uk)