Continuing Professional Development Continuing professional development, or CPD, is the ongoing process of developing, maintaining and documenting professional skills.
These skills may be gained formally, through training courses, or informally such as on the job or professional/association meetings. Some professions use the term ‘continuing professional development’ formally, and require a certain amount of development activity to be carried out and documented each year as a condition of maintaining membership of, or registration with, a professional body, or a licence to operate in that field. In other areas, CPD is used more informally. A commitment to learning and improving is, however, generally expected of anyone in a professional capacity.
The Continuing Professional Development Cycle The process of CPD is designed to help you identify and act on your own development needs. The Continuous Professional Development Cycle shows that professional development is, like much other learning, best thought of as a circular series of activities. The process moves from identifying your development needs through planning and then carrying out your learning activities, to reflecting on your learning, and then applying it and sharing it with others.
The Continuing Professional Development Cycle. 1. Identify and plan your development. 2. Plan learning activities. 3. Reflect on your learning. 4. Apply your learning. 5. Share your learning.
1. Identify and Plan. 5. Share your Learning.
2. Plan Activities.
4. Apply your Learning.
3. Reflect on your Learning.
Perhaps the most important thing about CPD is that it is personal. Each individual is expected to identify their own needs, organise their own training, and learn for themselves. Part of being a professional is taking responsibility for your own skills and recognising when they need to improve.
1. Identifying Your Needs There are a number of ways in which you can identify development needs.
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