How and what we learn, and how that helps us develop in our roles, is unique to the individual. So it is your CPD and, although hopefully your organisation will be keen to support that, you need to be committed and drive your own CPD plan to benefit your career. Your CPD plan therefore needs to be tailored to you and involves first identifying your personal professional development objectives and then the areas/topics where those skills, knowledge, understanding, etc are required. It needs to incorporate your aspirations and desires and not just be based on your workplaces’ expectation. Hopefully, these types of discussions already occur with your manager in setting your annual development plan. If not, then take the initiative to raise them and/or consider how you may want to enhance your work plan yourself with additional learning objectives and opportunities.

I have a personal view of what makes something a learning experience and worthy of being documented as a CPD achievement. It is more about what you do with the experience than just the experience itself. I believe most of us already do many things that are potential CPD activities, such as reading relevant industry journals or blogs and attending presentations online or in person. If you attended an online seminar, for example, it is really only a learning experience if you have considered the learning objective for participating and ensured that this is aligned with your personal development needs (otherwise it may be interesting, but not really part of your CPD). You then need to consider what you have learned or gained from the session and how that will enhance or change your everyday practice. CPD record platforms, such as the free MyCPD.Healthcare provided by the HCA, allow you to document the activity, the time spent on it and the reflections of its CPD value to you.

There are always reasons why we cannot achieve our learning objectives. Let’s consider some of the common barriers.

Time: Probably the most common cited barrier. Yes, we all have immensely busy roles, but CPD attainment should not be considered an optional addition to our roles but rather an integrated component. We also, as suggested above, need to recognise what we are already doing to learn within our busy roles.

Money: CPD is not about attending expensive courses. Many things that are accessible at no cost could support your CPD (eg, free online webinars, journals, LinkedIn blogs, internal training). Most organisations do have some training budget allocation to support individuals in their CPD. But what is important is that this is discussed and identified as part of your development plan with your manager, so they can hopefully help you access that available funding if needed. You may also like to consider funding an activity yourself if the learning may enhance your future career, but is less relevant for your current role.

Learning in more formal settings can sometimes be off-putting for individuals due to emotional, social or skills barriers where individuals may feel exposed or don’t see the value of learning. These barriers can be addressed by managers to support the individual in building confidence (which in itself is learning), emphasising the importance of CPD in role performance and career development, and identifying any skill gaps that need to be addressed first to get the most from any particular learning scenario.

The learning format can also help address some of the above barriers such as on-demand, online courses that allow those participating to learn at their own pace, perhaps in their own time and without feeling the pressure of being watched by their peers. We need to accommodate the introverts in our teams, not just the extroverts.
Please use Learning At Work Week as a catalyst to consider your own CPD. Wherever we are in our careers, we should always be learning.

As Steve Jobs said: “Learn continually – there’s always ‘one more thing’ to learn!”

Mike Dixon is CEO of the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) and a communications consultant