Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the means by which professionals maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills and develop the personal qualities and competencies required in their working lives. It is a process for setting yourself objectives for development then charting your progress towards achieving them. It is about where you want to be and how you plan to get there.
We have adopted a set of standards for Continuing Professional Development and are here to support your development and progress by prompting you to do CPD as part of the annual CPD audit.
The professional skills and knowledge you require will vary considerably, depending on your professional role and discipline. Your CPD should reflect both your current needs and your future aspirations. It is for you to decide the areas of skill and knowledge that are relevant to your role. As your career evolves, your skills and knowledge needs will change and your CPD will help you steer and manage your own route into the future.
A wide range of activities can contribute to your CPD, however it is not about the quantity of the activities but the quality of the reflections linked to recent learning activities. It is for you to recognise needs and opportunities both inside and outside your workplace and to take advantage of learning experiences to developing your own CPD programme. Joining IFST can also help you manage your own learning and growth by offering a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques.
"Maybe reflective practices offer us a way of trying to make sense of the uncertainty in our workplaces and the encouragement to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos..." (Ghaye, 2000, p.7)
"We want to encourage professionals, as reflective practioners, to think about what they do well, to reflect on what they could share with colleagues, as well as identifying their own development needs." (DfEE, 2001 Continuing Professional Development)
Now that you know what CPD is, it's time to get recording! Check out our Five steps to perfect CPD for some tips and tricks.
Please note that we no longer accept paper-based CPD submissions as part of renewal process for our Registers. You will be able to submit your records online via our myCPD system, which has been designed to help you manage your own learning and growth with ease.