Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the structured vocational learning any professional carries out to keep their knowledge, skills, and capabilities up to date. It is learning that shapes and boosts our careers and helps maintain competence when laws, regulations, standards and practice change, or your career path alters course.
What can CPD do for me?
A solid record of vocational learning helps you keep up to date with changes in line with your longer-term career goals and keeps you informed of changes to policies, regulations, legislation, standards, and practices required of an Environment & Sustainability professional.
What counts as CPD?
Your annual CPD record can be made up of several kinds of learning and activities – from formal training courses to reading articles, from attending workshops to coaching others. Just ensure that your learning relates to your goals, and you will easily demonstrate to employers and that you are committed to developing what you know and what you can do.
CPD for Individuals
Continuing Professional Development enables individuals to adapt positively to changes in both work and industry requirements. Planning CPD helps an individual to be more efficient with their time and recording CPD properly provides evidence of Continuing Professional Development, which can be useful for professional body obligations as well employer supervision and appraisals.
CPD shows a clear commitment to self-development and professionalism. CPD provides an opportunity for an individual to identify knowledge gaps and to resolve these in a recognisable approach to improvement.
Accredited CPD providers should make available to individuals a Certificate of Attendance to attach to their CPD log as evidence of development once a training course is complete or the desired standards of learning have been met.
CPD for Organisations
Providing CPD accredited training and events can benefit your organisation through recognition and an increased brand perception. Internal use of Continuing Professional Development encourages and promotes a healthy learning culture for organisations, that can lead to a more fulfilled workforce and retaining valuable staff.
Many organisations have staff with CPD obligations as members of professional bodies. In circumstances where internal CPD training resources are low, organisations use outsourced CPD training providers to meet staff requirements.
Outsourced CPD providers are typically training companies, online learning resources, events & conference organisers. They are experts in their field and provide practical learning opportunities through CPD events, seminars and accredited CPD courses. Some CPD courses are just 1 or 2 hours long, delivered in a seminar or workshop environment. Other accredited CPD courses can be a full 6-10 week program, split into structured bite-size modules.
Finding a CPD Accredited training provider
It is important to make sure your training provider of choice is an accredited CPD training provider. ART offers numerous accredited and certified CPD courses for healthcare professionals. Click here to view their CPD courses.