Whilst many recruiters focus on new candidates for job roles, they often overlook their own staff without consideration of improving the knowledge and skill set of pre-existing employees.
Continued professional development, otherwise known as CPD, is key for upskilling your existing workforce. Not only can it reduce recruitment costs, but can also assist in addressing skill shortages in your workforce.
In an ever-increasing globalised and competitive society, the importance of Continuing Professional Development cannot be overstated. The world’s industries are forever evolving, which creates exciting opportunities but which also comes with challenges. CPD enables an individual to regularly apply attention to important areas of development and takes appropriate action to reduce any shortfalls in knowledge.
As a manager it is likely that you already provide refresher training for your staff, making sure they are up to date with workplace policies and procedures. You may have experienced that whilst your team is hard working and passionate, some might lack the drive or confidence to put themselves forward for a new course of qualification. By encouraging your team to continue their personal development, you can enhance their morale, motivation and wellbeing. It has many benefits for the employer too!
The key benefit of CPD for employers is that it ensures standards across the setting are both high and consistent – this is great for your reputation and should be something you shout about online. CPD also contributes to maximising staff potential and provides a useful benchmark for annual appraisals.
Whether you work in Customer Service, Childcare, or Business and Admin, Aspire Training team has a fantastic variety of short courses to suit you and your employees, all of which can be used as part of Continued Professional Development.
For employees
CPD is great for ensuring your employees keep their knowledge and skills current and relevant to their role. In addition, it can contribute to their professional ‘sense of direction’ and loyalty towards the company they work for. Completing CPD helps build confidence, credibility and allows staff to highlight their achievements, arming them with tools to cope positively to a variety of changes.
There are also a few simple things you can do for your staff during their CPD training –
- Make your setting ‘revision friendly’ – Space permitting, try and have a quiet area where staff can go to do any research they need to do, or complete their assignments online in peace when they have spare time.
- Celebrate success – Showing recognition will help incentivise other members of your team and boost morale.
- Tell your staff what it means to you and set a good example
- Whenever you get the chance, whether in your one-to-one catch ups or when a new person joins your team, be vocal about how much you value people continuing their professional development and what a positive impact it has for not just the setting but the children too.
- Include training in objectives
- When you set out objectives for your staff, talk to them about working towards their next qualification. Having the goal written down can be strong enough motivation to nudge them towards taking action and signing up for a course!
To see a list of the fully funded courses Aspire Training Team provides, please click here.
To arrange your FREE Training Needs Analysis at your setting, please contact our Business Development Manager, Rob Arnold by emailing robert.arnold@aspiretrainingteam.co.uk or call 01202 551553.
