A thirst for knowledge

Agata McCrindle is an enthusiastic fan of continuing professional development having logged over 200 hours of CPD since May 2022. She shares how a wide range of activities have helped her achieve this.

Reviewing my log, I can see there are two fundamental areas of CPD that have resulted in my achieving so many of hours of CPD this year: repayment and learning.

Repayment is also known as professional contribution and is the giving back part of CPD. I have been in business for 20 years, but I still remember the early days when I was developing my career, and then the middle years when I was frantically adapting to changes. Now, with an established career, the time has come to give back.

My CPD activities have included my contributions on the ITI Board and on two ITI network committees (the Polish Network and the LIFT Network). I am also a mentor, which is an incredibly powerful learning tool, not just for the mentee but also for myself as the mentor. I regularly write articles and blog posts, such as this one and I also undertake pro-bono projects.

But learning is the area I really want to focus on in this post. There have been many times in my career when I have had to adapt, requalify and above all, learn. The theory of business evolution is “adapt or die” and there was a point in my career when I was staring “commercial death” in the face.

I used to work primarily as a public service interpreter but following austerity budget cuts just over 10 years ago, that career was no longer sustainable. So, I completed translation courses and successfully passed the ITI Qualified Translator Assessment. Building on this, I learnt how to use CAT tools and then, having done my market analysis, added specialisms which I knew would develop my translation career in my specific language pair.

Look out for the specialism-related webinars and courses that ITI offers. Just because something might work for you in theory, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll like and enjoy it in practice. The free webinars offer a glimpse into the specialism, and you can see if it is of genuine interest to you. Then, courses and webinars for more advanced specialists are also available run by more experienced colleagues from the ITI community or outside experts.

I have also benefitted from course providers in Poland. I completed courses specific to my language in the areas of translation and revision, as well as specialist courses regarding different legal systems. I am already qualified as a legal interpreter for England and Wales, but Scotland has a different legal system so I have now enrolled on a course comparing Polish and Scottish law, which will allow me to offer my services to clients in more than one jurisdiction.

Apart from courses, I have also attended conferences and shows, including the ITI conference in Brighton and KTLC in Poland. These are excellent for networking with colleagues and for general motivation. Sharing ideas with colleagues is very inspiring. Attending trade shows relating to your specialism is also a wonderful way to meet potential clients.

The world around us changes continuously and so we must learn constantly as well. Even though my academic background is in business administration, I still attend business-related webinars and read books with the latest ideas and trends. The way we do business now is different from the way we did business 10 or 20 years ago, so it’s important to learn in order to adapt and prosper.

So, if you feel your career isn’t developing the way you want it to or things aren’t going as well as you would like, sit down, and identify the areas for change and improvement and then find out how you can learn and develop.