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What is a personal development plan?
A personal development plan is a fantastic way to implement many different training techniques. These plans will help staff to target areas for improvement and reflect on how they have worked in the past. A personal development plan is a process of:
- Reflecting on past achievements
- Learning to use strengths effectively
- Looking for new areas to develop and improve
- Setting clear goals
- Understanding current skills
- Recording achievement and reflecting on success
The whole purpose of a personal development plan is to incorporate the trainee into their own learning and give them control over what they must work towards. These plans are often very private ways of encouraging yourself to become better and be self-aware of your own success and failure. Some of the main benefits of PDPs include:
- High levels of motivation and feelings of inclusion
- Staff take a greater interest in their own development needs
- People can track learning and will become better learners
- Helping people to recognise and reach their full potential
Personal development plans (PDPs) can be used in a variety of industries and should be actively encouraged. Some people take to the concept very naturally and will enjoy having such control over their own development, whereas others may take longer to get used to the PDPs. These plans should be incorporated into many different areas so that staff get used to them and can help with inductions, identifying areas for improvement and when discussing what areas a member of staff can improve going forward
Planned and unplanned learning opportunities
Learning and development opportunities can come in all shapes and sizes and each person will benefit from different methods of learning. Understanding how someone likes to learn – either in a structured manner or unstructured – will help to get training to the correct standard. The main two ways of learning are planned and unplanned. These relate to things which are clearly set out and will likely be incorporated into a personal development plan and other opportunities that arise at various times.
Planned training will be very structured, take place at specific times and have clear outcomes. This type of learning will give a learner the opportunity to prepare for when and how they will be gathering new skills. Unplanned opportunities will arise randomly and must be spotted when they do. This type of learning requires a person to think on their feet and adapt to a situation – something which is much more realistic and can be very beneficial for a company. This could happen when someone spots something that needs changing or a situation comes about which managers decide to allow trainees to handle to further their development.
Training opportunities can also take place at work or away from the company. When away from work it will be down to the trainee to spot development opportunities and learn from these as best they can. A model can be employed to see where and how training opportunities arise:
Using the diagram shown you can see the main differences between planned and unplanned opportunities as well as training which can be completed at work or away from the office. Each section accounts for a different style of learning environment, each of which can be beneficial for development.
