Continuous Professional Development

Dimension 85 supports the principles of Continuous Professional Development, as defined below and on the Institute of Continuing Professional Development website.

Continuing Professional Development is the systematic maintenance and improvement, of knowledge, skills and competence, and the enhancement of learning undertaken by an individual throughout his or her working life.

Deveopling your career and professional status is no longer an optional extra to be undertaken according to the random needs or wishes of the individual or to meet some ill-defined, short-term organisational requirements. Planned and structured CPD is now vital for survival and prosperity in an increasingly information-based society and in a world where knowledge is the key to success.

Until quite recently the main emphasis in CPD has been on input measured in terms of points or hours. What is important, however, is the learning and competence achieved as a result of CPD. Professional bodies, as well as education and training establishments and employers' organisations, need to find effective ways of measuring this learning and competence in a form acceptable to their members.