TRAINING CPD Range of activities

Figure 1: The three steps to CPD heaven

HEAVEN CPD

It’s not enough to follow steps 1-3 you have to prove it

STEP 3

STEP 2

STEP 1

CPD is about meeting needs by application of a range of learning

CPD is about what you need – not about clocking up hours

CPD is the route to getting better at what you do

One thing that the HPC does add is that you should undertake a range of activities – not just one. This is fair enough. It helps make you a more rounded individual. Incidentally, if your particular organisation still insists on “hours served” that is easy to deal with; you simply need to do a bit of maths. For example it takes you 15 minutes to read this article, and another 15 to think about its implications. It will take yet another 15 minutes to go to the HPC web site and/or your own organisation or to “google” CPD and follow up some of the references. Then, after you have put your learning into practice (maybe by doing a career map) and spent a final 15 minutes writing a “reflective” on what you have done (more on this later), then voila that amounts to 1 hour of CPD. If you do it for every article in sportEX you will go a long way to fulfilling your requirements for the entire year!

– because CPD is a route to getting better at what you do (this is Step 1 of the three steps to CPD heaven; Fig. 1). What’s more, you shouldn’t be afraid or resentful about having to do it. Embrace it with open arms. It brings the joy of knowledge and allows you to better serve your client population.

HOW MANY HOURS SHOULD I DO?

Forget hours! There are still a few organisations using them as a guideline but they will soon move away from that concept. It is not about how many hours you clock up – it’s about what you learn and how you put that learning into practice. Have you ever come across someone who says “I’ve got 40 years experience in this job so I know what I’m doing”? And do they? Have they really got 40 years experience, or do they actually have 1 year of experience repeated 40 times? Have they learned where their industry has moved to in the last few years? In the health and performance trade it certainly has moved on. Don’t forget that it is not so long ago that doctors recommended smoking to help clear the lungs! Do you want one of those guys writing your prescription – or someone who’s a little more up-to-date?

www.sportEX.net

Expectations today What is expected is that you identify what you need to know in order to meet the demands of what you do. The HPC describes this as “appropriate to meet the demands of your practice, your service and your service users (1)”. This is Step 2 to CPD heaven. That is a fairly wide definition and it can include almost anything as long as you can justify that it is relevant to you and your client population. It can include keeping up-to-date with current trends, or new ways of working, perhaps improving your business skills or learning a foreign language (especially if you are hoping to work at the London Olympics), or it might involve improving the language you speak now to allow you to communicate better. The options are almost infinite and only you know what you need. Whatever you choose, you only need to ask yourself two questions: 1. Is this relevant to what I do? 2. Will it make me better at what I do and therefore allow me to give a better service to my clients? If the answer is yes to both, then

“happy days”! You can move onto the next stage, which is finding a way to satisfy the need you have identified and putting it into practice – Step 3 to CPD heaven.

SO WHAT DO I NEED? In truth, only you can answer this, but there are a couple of things you can do to narrow your search. One is a SWOT analysis. This stands for: n S–Strengths n W–Weaknesses n O–Opportunities n T–Threats.

It’s a fairly formal process in which you write down your strengths, your weaknesses, any opportunities that may come your professional way, and the threats to what you do. Examination of SWOT is outside the scope of this article but for further information you could look at Atkinson’s article (2). And, by the way, if you do decide to do that, you have already done Step 1 of the 3 Steps to CPD heaven. I told you CPD was simple!

Another approach is to get into the habit of spending a few moments at the end of each session with your clients to write down, for example, three things you did well and three

LEARN AND HOW YOU PUT THAT LEARNING INTO PRACTICE

FORGET HOURS! … IT’S ABOUT WHAT YOU

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