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What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?
What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?
Continuing Professional Development is a powerful learning tool that professionals from across all industries can apply to their lives to remain focused on improving skills, ensuring academic qualifications do not become outdated, and take an empowering approach to career progression.
What is CPD?Continuing Professional Development is a commitment to ongoing lifelong learning. CPD encourages looking forward and identifying opportunities to learn something new, refresh existing knowledge, improve skills, or simply keep up-to-date with the latest developments within a particular profession or industry.In practice, CPD can mean everything from taking a training course or attending an educational event, to studying for new qualifications or learning new aspects of a job.CPD enables learning to become conscious and proactive, rather than passive and reactive. It involves an individual documenting and keeping a record of the increasing skills, knowledge and experience they gain throughout their career.CPD combines different methodologies to learning, which includes training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and events, webinars and online eLearning programs. CPD can also include sharing best practice techniques, thoughts and ideas, all focused towards an individual improving within the work environment.
More about CPDEngaging in CPD activities ensures that both academic and practical qualifications do not become outdated or obsolete, and allows for individuals to continually ‘up skill’ or ‘re-skill’ themselves regardless of their occupation, age or educational level.CPD is an ongoing process of frequently improving skills and competencies to enhance workplace performance and future career prospects. Continuing Professional Development is increasingly becoming known as the international terminology for professional further learning.CPD Service UK provides Continuing Professional Development accreditation to organisations across all sectors, and is a key driving force in the promotion of CPD across the world.
Types of CPD
Types of CPD
Continuing Professional Development is a powerful learning tool that professionals from across all industries can apply to improving skills and developing their knowledge. The types of CPD vary depending on a range of different learning methods.
Structured CPD / Active Learning
Structured CPD / Active Learning
Structured CPD typically involves interactive and participation-based study. It is often proactive and can include attending training courses, workshops, seminars, conferences, e-Learning courses or CPD certified events. CPD active learning can also apply to professionals taking career-orientated exams, however the study and revision would be considered self-directed learning.
Reflective CPD / Passive Learning
Reflective CPD / Passive Learning
Reflective CPD defines learning that often has a structured format, however will typically have no participant-based interaction, and so this form of CPD is much more passive and one directional than structured CPD. Examples of reflective CPD can include watching training videos and tutorials, attending a non-interactive lecture, industry briefings, podcasts, case studies and industry updates.
Informal CPD / Self-Directed Learning
Informal CPD / Self-Directed Learning
Self-directed CPD covers all unaccompanied and unstructured learning. This includes discussions in forums, reading books, articles and publications; either in print or online. You could possibly also include industry-specific news or research into relevant fields. Self-directed CPD often does not have specific learning time frames, is informal and learning outcomes can vary for each individual.
TRAINING COURSES
TRAINING COURSES
A CPD training course is the most well-known method of completing Continuing Professional Development. A training course is a type of short course and typically only a few hours long up to one day. CPD training courses provide an opportunity to focus on a particular subject matter in detail. They are usually conducted in a group setting.
CPD training courses will typically include group work, activities and interactive discussion, in order to allow individuals to contribute which can lead to better retention of knowledge. Seminars can also be a chance for individuals to network with others from different areas of their own industry or other sectors.
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
A workshop is an interactive educational group session typically involving between 1 to 3 days of learning. Workshops and seminars are similar, but there are a few key differences. CPD workshops are less theoretical and tend to offer a more hands-on, practical skills approach to learning which may include practical exercises, breakout sessions and role plays. Workshop groups are usually smaller than seminars.
As CPD workshops are primarily activity and exercise based, it gives the group a chance to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical context and offers a hands-on approach to enhancing skills and knowledge.
WEBINARS
WEBINARS
Webinars are an online learning activity held virtually and attended by an online audience. Often, the main objective of a CPD webinar is to educate and inform professionals in a short and concise manner about new and relevant information. CPD webinars can provide opportunity to interact and participate, ask questions to the hosts, complete polls or surveys, and share documents between attendees.
CPD webinars are useful in that they do not require attendance at an in-person event and therefore provide opportunity for wider, often international, participation.
EVENTS
EVENTS
There are a number of different forms of learning that are considered CPD events. For instance, there could be a live speaker delivered in the format of a guest presentation or a panel discussion. CPD events includes conferences, usually held at venues, sometimes with a keynote session and offering breakout learning by topic. Seminars may also feature as part of wider CPD events.
Organisations can choose to host or sponsor a particular industry trade show which are usually held in large spaces, with hundreds of products and services being showcased, and in doing so may add an educational CPD learning opportunity within the trade show itself.
ONLINE COURSES
ONLINE COURSES
Online CPD courses are an increasingly popular method of learning, and can offer convenience and affordability, in that there is no need to attend an in-person event and course materials can be shared free online.
Online courses offer flexibility for individuals to participate at a suitable time and schedule around other work and family commitments. In many instances, online CPD courses can be spread over a period of time rather than requiring participation on a given day.
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