For many students and professionals, the motivation to engage in work-based study stems from a desire to enhance transferable skills, build professional confidence, and unlock broader opportunities for both personal and career growth. Work-based study offers a unique pathway for individuals to align academic pursuits with real-world applications, making it a particularly valuable avenue for those who seek to grow within their chosen fields. 

This professional learning toolkit has been designed to provide a structured resource for reflecting on learning, identifying transferable skills, and planning the next stages of professional development. With its focus on reflection and goal setting, the toolkit offers a framework to help you critically assess your career journey so far and explore future possibilities with clarity and purpose. Through a series of reflective prompts, practical exercises, and strategic planning tools, this resource encourages you to consider the broader impact of your experiences—academic, professional, and personal. Whether you are navigating a career shift, advancing in your current role, or exploring new opportunities, this toolkit serves as a flexible and adaptable guide to support your development.

More than a straightforward reflection, this diffractive approach utilises a range of different activities to open up multiple perspectives on your learning and development.

Designed with versatility in mind, the toolkit is not limited to a specific context or profession. By maintaining an open and inclusive approach, it aligns with broad professional standards and can serve as a valuable resource across diverse fields, including its application within frameworks such as educational leadership. Whatever your professional background, we invite you to use this toolkit as a space for reflection, exploration, and growth. 

There are a range of tools suggested for use:

• Collaging

• Writing your own 'learning story'

• Writing 'I-poetry'

• Planning your professional autobiography

• Professional goal setting

Further information on each tool can be found on the appropriate tab above. You can use these tools in any order you like or pick and mix which you would like to try. You can take as long as you would like to complete them, although there are suggested timescales included. The expectation is that these will allow regular short reflective moments and a creative approach to career planning. 

You should begin by clicking the activities tab at the top of the page. 

Students and graduates, this is a resource you can use independently to plan your professional development. 

Teachers, this is a resource you can use with your students to consider their future learning and career pathways. 

Professionals, a bespoke version of this toolkit can be found here:  TBC

© 2025. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.