Five ways to help your CPD
CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and it is the process of tracking and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that you gain both formally and informally at work.
There are ways you can help boost your career and add to your CPD; volunteering is one of them. The work-ready benefits for young people volunteering and developing skills are well known – but have you thought about how it could benefit you?
Through volunteering to support extra-curricular activities such as The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), you gain valuable leadership and management experience that can help your overall career progression.
By volunteering for DofE you’ll have the opportunity to guide, inspire and encourage young people to work towards their personal goals whilst working towards your own.
We’ve collated five top tips to help you manage your development
Recording – Keep a record of your learning and your thoughts in whatever way suits you best. You may find it helpful to write things down in detail, or to make notes on insights and learning points.
Reflecting – Review and reflect on any learning experiences over the last six months or so. Write your thoughts down about what you learned, what insights it gave you and what you might have done differently. Informal learning in environments outside of the workplace can be included in this.
Tracking – Write down your overall career goals, for example, where you want to be in two or five years’ time. Then write down no more than three achievable shorter term objectives, including the dates by which you want to achieve them.
Planning – Take the next step towards your objective and make the direction more concrete. If you see a gap in your abilities, you can plan your next move, whether it is shadowing someone with more experience or speaking to your DofE Leader to find out how you could get involved with supporting DofE activities.
Reviewing – Review your development objectives in a systematic way to help you measure your progress and demonstrate that you have achieved your goals.
