Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is widely recognised as a fundamental way to improve the professional standards and skills of individuals and their industries. Prior to attempting to understand how to make the most of the various CPD opportunities available, it is important to understand why CPD is important, why it exists and its primary purpose.
Why is CPD important and why does it exist?
Continuing Professional Development exists to ensure that an individual enhances their skills and abilities once they have formally qualified. Typically, academic qualifications may have already been completed at this stage and an individual is now working within their specific industry and job function.
CPD is important as it helps to ensure that further learning is progressed in a structured, practical and relevant way to guarantee that there are applied efficiencies to the learning. CPD allows an individual to focus on what specific skills and knowledge they require over a short-term period, say 12 months, in order to be confident there is recognisable improvement within their proficiency and skill sets.
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think” – Albert Einstein.
The purpose of CPD
In an ever-increasing globalised and competitive society, the importance of Continuing Professional Development cannot be overstated. As the world’s industries are forever evolving, this creates exciting new opportunities but also naturally comes with challenges.
CPD enables an individual to regularly apply focus and attention to important areas of their own development and provides the framework for a professional to take appropriate action to reduce any shortfalls in knowledge. Equally, an individual must see Continuing Professional Development as a way to remain competitive with his or her peers, and as an opportunity to differentiate themselves at moments where this may be required, such as in job interviews or in tenders for new work and business acquisition.
As more people become professionally qualified with similar qualifications, CPD becomes more important as a means of separating yourself from the pack.
A planned approach to Continuing Professional Development allows an individual to put themselves in charge of their own career development and work-related ambitions. A personal empowerment of learning brings with it an increase in confidence and resulting abilities, all of which correlate to an improvement of capability for their employment environment.
How to manage your CPD effectively?
Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience working across all industry sectors. Our unique background and history working with training providers, academic institutions, professional bodies, public and corporate organisations enables us to support organisations seeking authoritative CPD certification for their further learning activities.
It is important to manage your professional development with ease and efficiency. When it comes to how to manage your CPD effectively, we have found that one of the greatest and easiest methods to use is called the CPD Cycle. Put simply, the CPD Cycle is an easy framework to use that helps a professional structure their annual CPD training so that the learning is suitable for your ongoing Continuing Professional Development requirements. Using the CPD Cycle helps manage your ongoing learning efficiently to become a more competent professional in your field of expertise.
The process of recording and reflecting is equally important to manage your ongoing CPD effectively. The myCPD Portal is a free CPD record tool that can help professionals to log Continuing Professional Development training in one simple place, set annual CPD targets, store CPD certificates of attendance, and track learning progress throughout the year.
Importance of CPD for Employers
The responsibility for completing Continuing Professional Development lies ultimately with the individual, often within the context of their membership and involvement with industry professional bodies or institutes. However, more and more employers are taking a proactive and supporting role with the CPD required by their employees.
Aside from industry associations, the importance of CPD within the learning sector and general enterprise is growing, as more employers see the benefits of more highly skilled, motivated and committed workforce.
There is a common misunderstanding with some employers that CPD takes significant time which may result in periods of “out of the business”. However, the availability of more flexible CPD suited for business requirements has increased significantly in recent years, with the introduction of online learning, short courses and half-day workshops, as well as distance learning and educational exhibitions. These can provide CPD learning seminars alongside new business revenue and networking opportunities.
Become a CPD accredited provider
We hope this article on the Importance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) was helpful. For more information about CPD please go to our CPD Explained page. The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience providing CPD accreditation. With members in over 100 countries, our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured.
If you are interested in offering training courses, seminars, workshops, eLearning, or educational events suitable for Continuing Professional Development, please visit the Become a CPD Provider page or contact our team to discuss in more detail. Alternatively, if you are looking for a free online CPD record tool to help manage, track and log your ongoing learning, as well as store your professional training records and attendance certificates in one simple place, go to the myCPD Portal page.
