What are the benefits of professional development?
Continuing professional development (CPD) is the process of proactively keeping your skills on point and your knowledge up to date throughout your career. CPD incorporates a vast range of activities from reading or listening to podcasts, to networking at events or volunteering as a mentor.
In an industry as fast moving as ours CPD is vital. It not only helps you perform better in your current role, it allows you to grow your career potential. For today’s ambitious tech professionals, it’s the differentiator and one of the key reasons for becoming a BCS member.
Where does it fit into my membership?
By signing up to the BCS Code of Conduct, you make a formal commitment to undertaking CPD. It’s a broad church combining many methods and techniques so knowing where to start, let alone managing regular activity, can be overwhelming for even the most enthusiastic member. Fortunately at BCS you’ll have a wealth of practical support and guidance to hand.
Our CPD portal walks you through the different approaches you might take, helping you identify valuable sources of learning from within the BCS ecosystem and beyond – while our PDP tracking app lets you easily plan, record and reflect on your progress. Then there’s Springboard, the online hub packed with interactive learning and resources for developing your business and workplace skills, plus employability tools including CV writer and interview simulator to ensure your success when it’s time to take the next steps in your professional journey.
How will it help my IT career?
CPD is often regarded as a chore, a nice-to-have if only you had the time! In reality it’s probably something you already do without realising – at BCS, you’ll have the tools and the steer to structure and align this activity more closely around the needs of your role and wider career goals. You’ll be able to recognise more relevant opportunities and effectively record and evaluate your learning. Far from being a chore, you’ll discover enjoyable experiences that fine tune your knowledge and competence, increase your value to the organisation and accelerate your career progression.
