CPD courses in academia (CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development) are designed to enhance your skills, knowledge, and expertise. If you are working in the Higher Education sector, you may need to take part in CPD activities to be part of a professional membership body. When you join a professional body, it is wise to look at the CPD requirements carefully. This would ensure that you can carefully plan how and when to complete your learning, meet the requirements and keep up your membership.
What are the benefits of taking part in CPD?
CPD is a structured process for documenting, tracking, and reviewing your development. You will be able to regularly reflect on your development, become more aware of your achievements, and identify areas where you might want to develop further. Taking part in the activities could lead you to develop professional relationships with others and to network. In the CPD events, you could have opportunities to share knowledge with others and learn about developments in the industry.
What are the challenges?
You may find it challenging to focus on your development when you are trying to balance lots of responsibilities. You might have a crammed schedule and find it tricky to free up time to attend events. You might feel that you have no time to reflect as you are continuously rushing to meet deadlines and struggle to stay on top of your work.
Although some courses may be offered free of charge or at low cost, others could come with a significant cost (and your university may not cover these). At times, you may find it challenging to apply the learning to your professional area.
What is the difference between formal and informal CPD?
Formal CPD can be any form of structured learning with clear learning objectives e.g. professional courses or online training. It may include an assessment to measure the learning.
Informal CPD is often referred to as self-managed learning. It should be relevant to your professional area. This may include activities such as individual study, on-the-job training, attending seminars or knowledge sharing. You may find some activities could be considered both formal and informal. For example, coaching and mentoring may be offered as a structured ongoing development process. However, you could also receive informal coaching or mentoring from a manager. These might be short conversations, relating to solving immediate workplace issues.
What kind of CPD courses could I take?
Many universities provide a wide range of courses in different industry sectors, from short courses to part-time postgraduate-level qualifications. These could offer flexibility so that both you and your employer would benefit while you are studying.
- Workshops & seminars: Many universities offer online and face-to-face workshops for academics and professional staff. These could cover a wide range of fields to help you develop your skills, expand your industry knowledge and network with others. Studying CPD courses means that your qualifications do not become outdated. These events would allow you to continually improve your skills regardless of your occupation.
- Conferences & educational events: If you work as an academic, you might find research and educational conferences most helpful. At these events, you could meet other scholars, learn about their research field and possibly create collaborations with academics from all over the world. Those who work in professional roles could attend a range of events within Higher Education. You might find it helpful to take a look at some of the conferences and events Advance HE offers. These events cover areas such as equality, diversity and inclusion, student engagement, mental well-being, and sustainability.
- University courses: These could include undergraduate, master’s and doctoral studies in your chosen area of expertise. These could help you to specialise in a specific area or to change careers. Attending university courses whilst working could be a fantastic way to develop yourself. Most people would agree, however, that it is a significant investment of your time and resources.
- Online Learning: Online courses can offer the opportunity to learn in your own pace without travelling anywhere. Many universities run high-quality courses on a wide variety of subject fields from computing, management, and fundraising to marketing and leadership (just to mention a few).
- Other structured forms of learning: Many higher education providers offer formal coaching to their staff. Taking part in individual coaching could contribute to many benefits. A skilled coach could be a soundboard. They would listen to you, help you brainstorm some solutions, and ask you insightful questions. Coaching could help you see challenges from new perspectives and find creative solutions. You may develop a deeper understanding of your strengths and improvement areas and become more confident in your ability to overcome challenges.
What other CPD activities could I take part in?
There are a range of other formal and informal activities which you might find helpful:
- Mentoring colleagues
- Being a member of a committee, board, or group related to your subject area
- Curriculum design and development
- Writing relevant books, articles and papers
- Reading and reviewing books, journals and magazine articles
- Reading professional body magazines
- Being part of a community of practice groups
- Work shadowing/secondments, project work
How do I record my learning?
It is a good idea to record all your learning in one place. You could dedicate a notebook to record your attendance or use an electronic file. If you keep your log up to date, you could save lots of time. You would have all the information you need in one place. As professional membership organisations could ask for evidence of informal and formal learnings, it is wise to keep details of your attendance.
What is not considered CPD?
CPD activities need to be closely linked to your professional area. If you attend networking or social events which are not related to your field, these may not be accepted as CPD. Similarly, taking part in sales/ marketing/ promotional events may not be considered relevant. You must demonstrate the development of your competencies as a result of attending the CPD activities.
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