Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 Project management
- 2 Teaching, training and communicating
- 3 Meeting your users' needs and measuring success
- 4 Marketing your service and engaging stakeholders
- 5 Using technologies
- 6 Getting and staying online
- 7 Generating funding and doing more with less
- 8 Managing money, budgets and negotiating
- 9 Information ethics and copyright
- 10 Upskilling and professional development
- 11 Networking and promoting yourself
- 12 Professional involvement and career development
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Budgeting example spreadsheet
- Index
10 - Upskilling and professional development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 Project management
- 2 Teaching, training and communicating
- 3 Meeting your users' needs and measuring success
- 4 Marketing your service and engaging stakeholders
- 5 Using technologies
- 6 Getting and staying online
- 7 Generating funding and doing more with less
- 8 Managing money, budgets and negotiating
- 9 Information ethics and copyright
- 10 Upskilling and professional development
- 11 Networking and promoting yourself
- 12 Professional involvement and career development
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Budgeting example spreadsheet
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Continuing professional development (CPD) is an important part of being a professional. It is a commitment to keeping your knowledge and skills up to date; without it, your development will stagnate, and you will fail to provide the best service possible to your users.
There are various aspects to professional development. One of the first things to do is to assess the skills you already have (carry out a skills audit). You should then look at the skills and knowledge required by your current role, and see which areas you need to strengthen. You can follow this with a more aspirational assessment – look at the positions you might like to occupy in the future, note which skills you need to develop, and plan your CPD accordingly. This will help you develop as a professional, as well as aiding your career planning.
A commitment to CPD is important because:
• it ensures you have the right skills to give your users what they need
• it makes you more valuable to your current organization
• it makes you more employable when it's time to move on
• it can keep you energized and engaged
• it can lead to further qualifications (such as CILIP Chartership)
• lifelong learning can be enjoyable
• it can extend your professional network through contacts made at courses, conferences, etc.
You can build continual skills assessment into your professional life. Deborah Dalley, a freelance consultant who specializes in personal and group development, gives you some tools to help plan your development.
How to …
Assess yourself
I have been a management trainer for the last 20 years and one thing I've observed is that successful people are proactive, not reactive, about their career planning and personal development. They take responsibility for their learning and recognize that it requires an investment of time and energy.
Personal development planning involves asking yourself three key questions:
• Where am I now?: What skills do I have? Can I identify things that I have achieved that demonstrate those skills? What do I enjoy doing most at work? What motivates me?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Professional's Toolkit , pp. 157 - 178Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2012