Continuing Professional Development
Overview
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is systematic, ongoing, self-directed learning. It is an approach or process which should be a normal part of how you plan and manage your whole working life.
Focus on CPD - why do it and how
CPD is continuous because learning never ceases, regardless of age or seniority, whilst it is professional because it is focused on personal competence in a professional role. It is concerned with development because its goal is to improve personal performance and enhance career progression.
The key features of CPD are:
- the planned and systematic updating of professional knowledge and improvement of personal competence throughout your working life.
- the ownership of CPD by yourself
- the emphasis on learning from an extremely wide range of activities
- the integration of learning and work - the concept of work as a learning experience
- an emphasis on outcomes - answering the questions "what did you learn?" and "how do you plan to apply this learning?" - rather than simply "what learning event did you experience?"
CPD can provide a wide range of personal benefits, including:
- improving performance in your current job
- enhancing your career prospects
- increasing your learning capacity
- greater personal confidence when facing change
- managerial and organisational benefits
CPD gives you a system or framework for action which will help you to achieve optimum effectiveness in your current job. Put simply, CPD helps you to do your job better.
Further information
- The UK Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP) promotes professionalism in Health Informatics across healthcare and the UK. It supports individuals by providing independent accreditation of their qualifications and experience, together with a mechanism for demonstrating Continuing Professional Development as evidence of fitness to practice. It is a requirement of registration that a programme of CPD is maintained.
- Article looking at the benefits of CPD, directed at the Young Professionals Group of the British Computer Society