Recording your Professional Development

As a trainer, recording your learning and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a vital activity as it can help you progress your career and if you are a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) it is a requirement. 

The following table is one way to record your learning and CPD

To download the table click the button

  (Requires Microsoft Word 2003 0r later)

To complete the Learning Log you enter the activity in the first column (what you did) and in the next what you learnt form it and in the last how you will use that knowledge or skill.

The Learning log is to record learning that has happened - the past.  Learning can occur any where, not just at work.  You can record learning that happened at work, in your social life and in any organisations or clubs that you belong to. 

Your learning log is yours and you decide what you have learnt and how you will use it.  if you do not know how or if you are going to use it you can leave the last column blank.  Any feedback that you receive can be added to the learning log.

Once you have added information to your Learning Log, you may need to add to information to a Personal Development Plan or PDP.  A PDP contains areas that you wish to develop or learn. 

To download the table click the button

(Requires Microsoft Word 2003 or later)

The information to complete this form may come from your learning log or feedback that you receive.  It starts with a task that you want/need to learn and then it asks you how you will achieve this.  This is where you need to think about the way in which you will learn the task.  It could be reading, attending a course, networking - anything that helps you achieve the learning.  It then asks what resources you will require - Time, money, other people, space.  Depending on the task you are learning. 

Then you have to think about who might be able to help you achieve this followed by how you will measure the success of the learning.  Will it be improved understanding, better management of something or something else.  The final column is the target completion date.  This column can just have 'ongoing' entered in it if it is something that is always updated such as changes in Health and Safety or Employment Law.

Information from your PDP will be entered into your Learning Log as you will be learning new things.  Both are useful for your CPD and both can be submitted if you need to provide evidence of development.