I decided this year that 2011 was the year of some professional development. Well, I decided at the end of last year and opted to renew my lapsed student BCS membership for 2011.
Having studied on a BCS approved degree in Manchester, I knew about the BCS’s work and acknowledged them as a group how act as a common forum for both academia and industry. It is the professional qualifications that I was particularly interested in, many in the areas of Business Analysis and Business Systems Development.
I liked the BCS’s definition of CPD, that focused on maintaining competencies:
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the organised continuation, improvement and broadening of knowledge, understanding and skills, as well as development of personal qualities necessary for an individual to maintain their competence in order to undertake their duties throughout their working life.
On graduation in 2009 I though I was set, that I had everything that I needed and knew all I needed to know for my career. I’ve since learnt that what I studied was both excellent and dated in equal measure. Some of the tools I studied are no longer in common use and others are no good unless adopted by the whole organisation. In short, it was time to do some more learning.
I hope that there will be some more posts to come on the topic of CPD this year as I look to keep the blog updated with lectures, courses and conferences I attend.
I’m also keen to get along to some of the BCS Manchester events this year. The weekly email I get from the branch is always packed full with some great events and opportunities to get along and meet more like minded professionals. No doubt more posts will follow on this.
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