Making it happen

• Identifying learning opportunities
• Working with your learning style
• Prioritising
• Taking opportunities when they arise
• Accessing opportunities
• Pointers to learning resources
• Motivation
• Turning learning into competence
• Motivation
• Reflective Learning

Identifying learning opportunities

It is sometimes all too easy to miss the learning opportunities that may be open or available to you, both inside and outside the workplace. The type of learning activity you undertake will be dependent on many factors, including relevancy to the subject, what is right for you, availability, and what it involves.

1) Learning at work

Many people fail to recognise or take advantage of the ‘hidden’ learning opportunities that already exist in the workplace. Undertaking new tasks or projects, or working closely with (or work shadowing) a colleague, can both provide a way of increasing specific knowledge and awareness. These opportunities will also improve your interpersonal skills, such as listening and questioning. Try to organise appropriate opportunities with your colleagues, and talk with your line-manager, personnel or training officer about any formal or structured training support they provide.

Anything which extends your knowledge and understanding, or helps you apply your knowledge to practice, falls into this category, and such opportunities may include:-

2) Attending training courses

Courses may be available within your own organisation, via a professional institution or local college, and from a wide range of specialist training organisations. If your plan indicates the need for a training course, you will need to research what is available to you. Your institution, local college, TEC/LEC may be able to help you. Your choice should take into account your preferred learning style, time available to you, location and, of course, how much you or your employer is prepared to pay. There are many types of training courses to choose from:

• short and specific
• longer in-depth
• concentrated on theoretical knowledge
• very practical; full of activities allowing you to experiment with new skills

3) Reading, attending lectures and networking

Professional and specialist magazines and journals often contain valuable articles, features or series on the knowledge and skills your have identified as areas for improvement. Attending local events, such as a lecture, will help your understanding, and provide a chance for you to meet with other professionals. Events run by local professional groups, especially institution branch events, are particularly useful for this.

It is important for many reasons that you build up a network of contacts, both locally and wider afield. Not only can these be a source for obtaining learning support, but they will provide you with a source of informed opinion on current trends and developments.

Even if you are not currently considering your future needs, now is a good time to begin compiling a database of contacts. It will prove useful to get into the habit of exchanging business cards with interesting people you meet at conferences and other events. You may find that these are people able and willing to help, when the time is ripe for you to move employer - or if you simply need advice or mentoring support in later career. Do not call them ‘cold’, however: maintain periodic contact (even if on relatively routine - or even social - matters) over the years.

4) Open and flexible learning

Open, flexible or distance learning has become a very powerful way for busy professionals to develop new skills. Materials come in a variety of media - printed matter, audio tapes, videos, interactive CDs, and via the Internet. Their main benefit is that you can use them as you please, in your own time and at your own pace. Feedback on your progress usually comes from the materials themselves, and/or from tutors who review your assignments.

5) Learning from life outside work

As an individual you will probably be involved in many activities, organisations, sports, societies etc. which, although not directly connected to professional development, can make a contribution in many ways to your personal development. Often it is experiences outside the immediate work environment which do most to develop personal competence, and it is worth recording this type of experience to supplement your personal portfolio.

As a professional you have a duty to the public as well as to the profession. You are strongly encouraged to maintain involvement with the wider community and some of the many possible ways are listed below. The experience which professionals can bring to these activities is frequently a great benefit to those organisations, and through this involvement the engineers concerned can benefit from seeing at first hand some activity completely removed from their normal work.

Examples of the type of experience you might consider are:

• involvement in local or national government, which would widen your understanding of major issues, help you to appreciate the complexity of decision making, and enhance your skill in negotiation and persuading others.
• contributing to a voluntary service, such as St John's Ambulance, which would give you vital first-aid skills
• involvement in running a youth group, which would contribute to your leadership skills
• activities in a local club, enhancing your communication skills and your organisational ability
• participation in a new sport, which might sharpen your learning skills and improve your confidence to tackle a new challenge
• working with the disabled or underprivileged, which might deepen your understanding of the needs of others

Don’t forget that you are also learning from family life. Time spent looking after small children develops patience, understanding, a high degree of personal organisation, and the ability to handle a multitude of tasks simultaneously.

6) Learning from your own experiences

Everyone learns from experience, and the greatest benefits are often achieved from risky situations or from failure. It is important to identify success as well as the lessons learned in any situation, however apparently negative, and to consider how it has improved your competence.

Working within your learning style

If you know your Learning Style then you will find it easy to identify learning opportunities which fit with your style, and which are therefore more likely to prove successful. However, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid opportunities that do not match your style. Often, people like to try using different styles to add ‘balance’ to their learning, and to help them become more flexible and a ‘multi-skilled’ learner. Try activities from different learning styles and see how you get on.

Find out more about Learning Styles.

Prioritising

There may be times when your workload can seem unmanageable, and adding development activities on top just makes things seem impossible. Obviously, meeting your work deadlines has to come first, but it is important to remember that making time for your development will pay dividends in the future, as you become more skilled and efficient.

Initially, you will need to consider exactly what it is you must tackle first. Break down the items on your development action plan into a list of the tasks, even dividing larger projects into smaller stages. Once you have this list, you can consider them individually. The next stage is to consider whether tasks are urgent or important.

Ask yourself... ‘what will happen if I do not do complete this task?’ This will help you decide whether the task is urgent or important, both or neither.

Of course, some tasks are both urgent and important, and it is these that you should focus on first. Whilst a number of tasks will have been labelled ‘urgent’, some will be more urgent than others - so now is the time to think chronologically. Sketch out a rough timetable of when the various deadlines fall. Do not forget to include any other commitments you have, such as holidays, secondments or other training activities, and any personal commitments that might affect your time. It will then be possible to take a realistic view on what is achievable, and allow you to prioritise your plan accordingly.

Taking opportunities when they arise

Although it is generally important that you stick to your plan where possible, if opportunities arise for you to do a task with lesser priority before a higher one, it should not be overlooked. Opportunities for professional development do not always arrive at the most convenient times, and this is why your plan should be flexible enough to allow you to benefit from such opportunities when you can. You can always change your priorities if you need to.

Accessing opportunities

The internet is a tremendous resource for finding and accessing learning and development, and it can be a tempting place to begin looking for training and work opportunities. This is fine, and you will certainly find plenty to choose from! However, it is sometimes better to start small, so instead of starting big, begin your search in a small way, by talking to the person next to you.

Unless you are self-employed or working alone, your colleagues will have experience of opportunities they have identified and exploited in the past. The prime benefit of talking to colleagues in an environment similar to yours is that they will have experienced similar training needs, and so are likely to have information directly relevant to you.

In larger companies, the personnel department will generally be able to put you in touch with training providers used by the company, or provide you with lists of internal courses. You will probably find it harder to speak openly to work colleagues about your search for another job: this is where you may wish to begin talking to people from outside your company.

Your institution will have groups/networks that bring together professionals from different backgrounds, often on a nationwide basis. You should be able to find details of such meetings and events on your institution’s website. Networking at such meetings will bring you into contact with a variety of people in your field, with whom you can discuss your needs and share information.

Pointers to learning resources

Anyone seeking to develop their professional competence need not go short of learning resources. The main difficulty is knowing where to start looking for these. The worldwide web offers endless possibilities but you can spend a lot of time surfing before finding what is right for you. A good place to start is your institution’s web site or Professional Development Department. Some institutions run technical and managerial courses but even if yours doesn’t they will have a list of providers they can put you in touch with.

Your institution will also have a network of local and regional groups which put on lectures and visits which may be of interest to you. Local libraries carry directories of course providers as well as technical publications and management textbooks. A countrywide network of Learning and Skills Councils hold information about learning providers within their area and also house SETPOINTS which offer opportunities for online learning. Local universities and colleges will have details of their own courses but often also carry lists of recognised NVQ assessor/verifiers as well as other course providers.

Turning learning into competence

One of the most important contributors to the growth of your competence will be the way you capture your learning. This is probably the most rewarding and encouraging aspect of following your development action plan and measuring your competence, as it demonstrates to us how we are growing and improving. Capturing learning is also vital if we aren’t to lose the valuable learning experiences that are happening to us every day.

Capturing your learning will enable you to establish the value of each new skills or piece of information, and identify which of your competences it will contribute to. Key to this process is recognising when you have learnt something. You may find this difficult initially, but you will soon be in the habit of spotting your own ‘light bulb’! Starting to think in term of competences will also help you here.

Each time you spot that light bulb, stop and think about it. Ask yourself what you have learnt, how you can apply that knowledge in the future, and whether it will make a direct or indirect difference to your competence levels. You should be recording significant learning events anyway, but you may like to write down other events too, as this will help you in your reflection. If your competence has improved significantly as a result of the learning, you may also update any self-assessment or competence records you have.

Motivation

• Motivating yourself
• Motivation from others
• Rewards

1) Motivating yourself

The main motivations in professional development are the benefits and rewards it can bring to you personally and professionally. To maximise the motivation you feel it is important to have a goal that you are currently working towards. This enables you to judge your progress toward that goal, and to enjoy a feeling of accomplishment, both at arrival and also while en route. A good way of defining your goal, or goals, is through the DAP, covered in the ‘Planning’ section of this Guide. It is important not to limit yourself to short-term goals as early completion of these could lead to you losing interest. It is perfectly acceptable to have goals coming to fruition several years in the future: those, you can work towards, one step at a time.

If your goal is to change jobs, it may help to think of your development in terms of enhancing your CV. Some projects may seem unrewarding or uninteresting: however, you can gain fresh motivation by considering them in terms of key-words, such as team-work, budget planning, project management, and so on. These projects can then provide evidence that you possess these skills. You can go further, and analyse which competences your project fulfils.

When you do not wish to change job role but are finding motivation difficult, you can identify those elements of your work you particularly enjoy, and consider how you could maximise or develop these. For instance, if you particularly enjoy web site development, you could volunteer to take on further responsibility in this area.

Personal rewards, for things such as meeting deadlines or completing a sale, can consist of activities not related to your work and can be an additional source of motivation. These are covered in the following section.

2) Motivation from others

Talking through our plans and achievements with others can be a great boost. Even when we are feeling unmotivated, a quick chat with a colleague can often make us see that we have achieved more than we thought, or that we are still on the right track. Having a mentor can be an invaluable support at these times, and will help us focus on the positives and keep sight of our goals. Even someone who is not our formal mentor, but is perhaps a trusted and respected friend, can provide the kind of positive reinforcement that will keep you going when you feel as though you’ve run out of steam.

3) Rewards

Rewards can take many forms, and their importance will vary according to personal taste. The most obvious reward of personal and professional development is increased employability, which is especially useful if you are considering a change in career path or applying for a promotion. Gaining experience of core skills (such as interpersonal skills and project management) can provide a boost to your CV, and make it sparkle in comparison with your less developed peers. Gaining experience in a diverse range of environments and situations should increase the range of evidence contained in your portfolio - again useful when considering a change of direction.

For those not seeking to change career, the main reward might be increased profile within the work environment. As you become more aware of, and competent using, various skills, you will become more in demand at your current location.

In some cases you may be working towards a specific qualification, or professional recognition: in this case attaining that particular goal will be reward in itself. This in turn will increase your employability.

As mentioned previously, there are rewards and benefits available to you outside the work environment. These tend to be for short-term goals, and can be as simple as knowing that you have nothing to do, other than relax, during the weekend following a week of hard work. Other rewards can include meals at restaurants, chocolate or trips to the pub.

Find out more about Self Assessment of Competence.