Approaches to professional development
It’s recommended to focus on your professional development early on in your research career, as this will help to shape your journey.
- Why professional development?
- Professional development planning- PDP ROC – Overview
How can I prioritise my professional development?
Professional development is crucial for researchers as it enables them to stay abreast of the latest advancements, methodologies, and technologies in their field.
It fosters continuous learning, enhancing researchers’ abilities to address complex problems, collaborate across disciplines, and adapt to evolving research landscapes. By investing in their growth, researchers ensure their work remains relevant, innovative, and impactful in driving societal progress.
Why professional development?
Professional development extends your enquiry into your research into other important domains such as to your own skills, understanding, aptitudes and ambitions.
Development as a professional involves more than building your research profile and research skills.
Professional development is becoming increasingly significant as employers look for researchers who can add value to their organisations.
What are the benefits of professional development?
- A competitive edge – the competitive nature of academia means that any form of additional skills and development you have, the more of an advantage you must secure and maintain the roles you want.
- It can give you more choice – whether you want to stay in academia or leave it, professional development experience can give you a deeper understanding of the possible choices available to you.
- A strategic approach – reflecting on your objectives, skills and areas to develop can give you a strategy for how to move forward with your career. A strategic approach is based on thorough self-awareness and knowledge of career options. These include career structures, types of work, recruitment methods, and what support, training and development is available.
Professional development planning – overview
Vitae has a specifically tailored short online course that we encourage you to have a look at for in-depth information on professional development. There are three key components of professional development planning that you should be aware of:
What constitutes professional development planning?
- Training needs analysis – One part of your development as a researcher is to identify the training you need. Audit your current skills and abilities to ascertain opportunities for further development (this doesn’t have to be only training opportunities as the name implies). From this, map out a professional development plan to get started.
- Planning– Plan for your career; map out objectives and goals to reach. Include what training and development opportunities you will need along the way.
- Reviewing – Treat your development plan as a dynamic, flexible document that you can amend throughout your career. Review your career at any stage that you need to. Discuss your development needs with a manager or supervisor if need be.
Final takeaways
- Vitae has a specifically tailored short online course that we encourage you to have a look at for in-depth information on professional development.
- Professional development is becoming increasingly significant as employers look for researchers who can add value to their organisations.
- One part of your development as a researcher is to identify the training you need. Audit your current skills and abilities to ascertain opportunities for further development.