Employers & CPD
Employers CPD
Most large companies, and many smaller ones, use some form of recording and reviewing learning and experience in management development and professional accreditation. Life Long Learning and Continuing Professional Development encourage the individual worker/learner to evidence successful experience, identifying gaps and using reflection on this to plan future career development.
This section will document the ways in which companies and professional bodies are using Recording Achievement and Personal Development Planning. We would welcome contributions from companies, employer organisations and professional bodies on their use of recording and reviewing learning and experience in the workplace, for professional accreditation and employee career development.
How PDP Can Help Employers
"Those individuals who can pro-actively manage their own development will find the transition from the academic environment to the world of work much easier and are likely to be much more successful.
The ability to effectively manage your own learning and development has been proven to be a key characteristic of high performing graduates 5-10 years into their career.
The process of PDP is key to developing this skill and where well implemented can dramatically improve an individual's employability.
A number of employers are looking of evidence of pro-active self driven learning as part of the recruitment process and PDP is currently rarely referenced or used. Where it has been implemented effectively graduates are able much more clearly to articulate and evidence their ability to continually and independently learn outside a structured academic environment.
The PDP process is a good pre-cursor for the CPD (continuous professional development) process, which chartered professionals across all spectrums (Engineering, Finance, HR, Surveyors, Insurers, Marketers and many more) must demonstrate during their careers."
From a Graduate Recruiter
"PDP links in well with Graduate Recruitment as many recruiters opt to assess students through their company competencies and will look for evidence of transferable skills during interviews and assessment centres. The skills that students have learned and developed from university will be highly valuable to an employer e.g. team work, communication, etc. An increasing number of employers use an appraisal process to assist employees in effectively managing their own professional development. This system allows employees to document successful areas of work undertaken and indeed to learn from areas that are viewed as areas for development through feedback that they have collated from colleagues. Students that manage their own personal development and can demonstrate that they are self aware to potential employers will be among the more successful of our future employees."
Rachel Hewson, Graduate Recruiter, Deloitte and Touche LLP
Employer Engagement Project
A HEFCE-funded project to support HE policy development.
The Employer Engagement Project aims to encourage policy development in within the UK higher education sector, to ensure that the continuing learning needs of part time, discontinuous, work based learners are given recognition and support. Refining best practice within e-technology use will enable both employer and employee to engage in higher level learning, reflection and development. The Employer Engagement project has support from, and involvement with, leading educational institutions from various sectors.
