Continuing Professional Development

The CPD Policy offers the following definition of continuing professional development:

"any activity which improves the effectiveness and the efficiency of the individual, of the operation of the various parts of the organisation, and of the University as a whole.

CPD appears accross a spectrum of activities from the formal and structured to the informal and unstructured, both within the University and outside of it."

Annex A of the CPD Policy identifies the information that staff should keep in their personal record of development activity (or CPD record). The University has drafted a framework for staff to use (although where they are already using something similar eg for continuing membership of a professional body, they may continue to do so). The reflective element of the record remains confidential to the member of staff, their appraiser and their line manager (where their appraiser is not their line manager).

The University wishes to use the potential of CPD Records to:

• Promote accurate identification of professional development needs, making full use of the appraisal process for this.
• Ensure that staff record and reflect systematically on their development activities, to enable the learning acquired from these to be transferred to the workplace in a timely and effective way.
• Gather and use for forward planning processes better data on development needs and on the totality of resources that are invested in staff development across the University.

For more information on the purpose and benefits of maintaining CPD records, and examples and guidance in completing them please either contact a member of your Human Resources Services client team or visit the Human Resources Department webpages.