About CPD

CPD isn't just going on a course. It's a mindset, it's an integral part of your career. If you can see a skills gap and address it and learn from that. The boost that you get from that, it could be really rewarding. And, when you look back and you look at your achievements and know that has come from your own initiative - there's nothing better, than that.

CBDs very much self-directed learning. I worked in the Banking sector where it was very structured and you knew where you had to get to and how you were going to get there. In the public sector, that wasn't the case, so I had to be responsible for my and I had to take the opportunity. They weren't just going to give it to me. It's a commitment by me to improve my capabilities to look where I've got a skills gap, fill that gap and build on my knowledge.

if anybody's thinking about doing CPD now, is a brilliant time to do it. We're in a fast changing environment and that means that you need to be flexible and be able to adapt and organizations are becoming more aware of that. And that doesn't need to cost you anything. Their TED Talks podcasts, CIPD in a nutshell and updated free webinars of white papers - take those opportunities, because the rewards are far away, any effort.

Learning helps because it inspires me, for one. Learning makes me want to learn more and learn different subjects and not just always do the same thing in the same way that I’ve always done. It does enable me to do things that I would never have done 5 years ago.

Initially, I went to Law school and became an employment lawyer. Moving into HR, it’s opened up a whole world for me. It’s changing so quickly – new opportunities to learn are coming up the whole time.

If you study HR and you do a formal qualification, I think you can fall into a mindset that there’s only one way of doing things. One of the things I do make time for is webinars and L&D themed Google Plus chats that I’ve joined in with. So, even though I have been on a really tight budget, I’m learning all sorts of things I would have never across when I was a lawyer. 

Who knows what the future holds, but it certainly is going to involve a huge amount of learning and continuous development on my part.