Your role in shaping future CPD

CPD is a two-way street. Angela Dickson explains how sharing your CPD experiences can help shape the ITI offering which in turn can benefit all its members.

Someone once said (I may be paraphrasing) "Ask not what ITI can do for you, but what you can do for ITI”. So far, so worthy and dutiful. But in fact we can have it both ways… Let me explain.

ITI is run by its members, and indeed it IS its members, and would be nothing without them. The people who serve on the ITI Board are all also members of the Institute, elected by fellow members, and the (fantastic) office staff carry out the priorities that are set by the Board.

How does CPD fit into all this? We all do things that improve us as professionals, whether we formally acknowledge this or not. CPD can take a multitude of forms, and is delivered in a multitude of ways. One of the many providers of CPD is ITI itself. The Institute is both a community of practice whose members are responsible for their own professional development, and an organisation that can offer professional development activities.

So how does the ITI decide what CPD to provide? One way is via the CPD that members log on their profiles on the ITI website. If the ITI office has an overview of the sorts of CPD members are doing, that can give ideas for how to shape the CPD that ITI offers in the future. Members can, of course, approach the ITI office directly with ideas for CPD events they would like to see - and many events are volunteer-led and provided by ITI Networks.

ITI’s CPD programme provides courses that can boost the confidence of those starting their careers and offer interest to even the most experienced member. Those starting out can build their skills in preparation for (eventually) taking the MITI assessment. Over the years ITI has developed its online training to provide flexible learning for all members.

Of course change of any scale can be daunting. But by keeping up to date with current practice, learning new skills and refining what we do, we can keep our careers moving. Career progression isn’t just for employees.

We all as individuals benefit from some strategic thinking about professional development - where am I now, where do I want to be, and by what route do I plan to get from here to there. ITI has to take a similar approach, looking at the birds-eye view to decide what kind of CPD it wants to offer in future. So as members, we can speak up about the kind of CPD we want; we can log our CPD in our profiles so that knowledge can be gathered about what we’re already doing; we can explore the Webinar library that is one of the perks of membership.

You already know this, but CPD benefits everyone - learning new skills, gaining professional recognition, meeting others and expanding your network of colleagues, progressing your career, increasing earning potential. And an association of individuals who are committed to both their own individual development and that of the collective can be very powerful. To maximise these benefits, a strategic approach is what’s needed, both as individuals and as an Institute. If ITI gets its CPD offering right, its members benefit from a fuller range of development opportunities, and the Institute benefits from a little extra income that is put back into services for members.

If I were in the mood for cliches, I would say that was a win-win.