The Professional Development Plan (PDP) is a short planning document that examines your current CPD needs, looks at how these might be met and lists objectives for the future. It helps to structure and focus your training needs and should address the following points:

• Where am I now?
• Where am I going?
• How am I going to get there?

On-going training has long been a vital part of the career development of professionals in the highways and transportation field.  Nowadays, with significant changes in government policies and priorities affecting our industry and profession, the need for training to ensure that our skills are up to date and ready to meet these challenges is even more important.

Unplanned training is unlikely to bring the maximum return on the valuable time and money you spend on it and it is for this reason you are required to produce a Professional Development Plan (PDP) as part of the process of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

For more information please see an example CPD Record Sheet   and Personal Development Plan   
 

In producing a PDP you should:

Consider your current job and the skills you need to do it competently. What changes are likely to occur in the next few years?

List both your short and long-term ambitions. Be realistic about your ambitions and the time needed to achieve them.

Think about the areas in which you will need to target your CPD to achieve your ambitions – be realistic and prioritise. A PDP is not a request for unlimited training. Your employer will be interested in the business case for your PDP.

Look to the future; don’t restrict yourself to thinking about current professional responsibilities. Should you strengthen existing skills or develop new ones?

List out your priorities for the next two years. These will form the basis for deciding what CPD opportunities to undertake. It is important to remember that your priorities are not cast in stone; you may wish to change them in the future.

Your PDP will need to be reviewed and updated regularly to respond to changing needs, challenges and opportunities. CIHT provides a standard proforma document that you can use for your own PDP.