Personal Development Planning (PDP) is a key component of today’s Life Long Learner’s Continuous Professional Development. Personal Development (PDP) is designed to support attainment of personal and professional objectives and to help plan short and long-term career, personal and professional goals. There is an emphasis on learners making sense of what they are learning and how they are learning it and ultimately taking responsibility for what they learn (Jackson 2001).

The purpose of PDP is to:

• Help all learners understand what they are learning and contextualise this to their wider learning;
• Develop study skills;
• Improve employability;
• Encourage learners to become more articulate about their achievements and their future goals;
• Develop a positive attitude to learning throughout an individual’s professional life.
  

  (Source: Higher Education Academy: PDP and employability)

Your eportfolio should be used to help you realise the many skills that you have developed during your time at QMU and should also provide you with the vehicle to help you plan ahead for your personal and your continuing professional development.

CPD (Continuing Professional Development) means supporting employees to understand more about the environment and profession in which they work, the job they do and how to do it better. It is an ongoing process throughout a Life Long Learner’s working life.

The world in which we all live is rapidly changing, social and economic developments directly affect the environment in which we live and work, and technological advances provide radically different ways of working. CPD opportunities provide a means whereby Life long Learners can keep abreast of these changes, broaden their skills and be more effective in their working lives.

CPD can be part of an individual’s personal ambition to be a better practitioner, enhance his/her career prospects or to simply feel more confident about their work and make it more personally fulfilling. It can be a step on the ladder to higher qualifications or enhanced job prospects or be required by professional bodies to maintain professional status. It can be part of meeting targets set by workforce performance management schemes or an opportunity for individuals to change their career paths.

Whilst CPD is an important part of our working lives, it also represents a means for QMU to support their staff. CPD can facilitate access to specialised structured learning and development, help to review working practices and contribute to a more effective and profitable organisation. Indeed, engaging employees in CPD activities can be invigorating for individuals and the organisation alike.

Through the practical implementation of the QELTA Strategy, Learning and Development Policy and other Career Advancement Policies and Procedures, Queen Margaret University is committed to life long learning. We encourage individuals to consider CPD as an essential part of modern working life – a means of managing and developing their careers over the course of a lifetime.

Benefits for Employees/Life Long Learners

There are many professional and personal reasons why individuals may wish to undertake CPD, including to:

• Achieve personal development
• Be better at doing your job
• Develop your knowledge of the environment in which you work
• Understand the latest developments in your field
• Change career
• Achieve advancement at work
• Respond to changing conditions at work
• Improve your career prospects by achieving additional qualifications

Benefits for Queen Margaret University

QMU understands that a successful institution with a good reputation for quality and good working environments finds it easier to attract and retain excellent employees.

Queen Margaret University can help support Life Long Learners through providing CPD programmes that enable Learners to pursue best-fit CPD opportunities, some options include:

• Personal effectiveness
• Management and Leadership Development
• Change Management
• Mentoring/ coaching and communication skills
• Post Grad Cert/Dip or MSC in Teaching and Learning
• Various technology focused online course and workshops

To find CPD opportunities most relevant to you please contact the Learning and Development Adviser, Human Resources or the Centre for Academic Practice.

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