#professionaldevelopment — Quite often when we hear or see the term ‘professional development’ we equate this type of activity limited to teachers and educators. Maybe this is because our kids stay home during those PD or professional development days that teachers will have several times per year.
Indeed, if you do an internet search for the term ‘professional development’, you will end up seeing many search results with some connection to teachers or the educational system. However, professional development should not be limited to just the educators in the working world. Everybody who has a career, both as employed or self-employed individuals, can benefit greatly with regular professional development of some sort.
All upgrading of technical skills in one’s field would fit in this area. Many field experience changing technologies frequently and the individuals who take the effort to keep up to date with them will be the most successful. But let’s not limit this type of continuing education to just technical skills that are specific for each field.
There are many other types of skills which are non-technical which will benefit working professional in any industry or position. These include communication and presentation skills, leadership training, negotiation, conflict management, time management and even emotional intelligence which has been in the spotlight of many corporate management seminars. My half-day seminar program in workplace diversity training would also be a great example of non-technical skills that would benefit all working people.
Networking would be another non-technical skill and while we are at this track, the entire area of social media would also fit into this topic these days. Such non-technical skills will be of great benefit to any working individual even in junior positions. These are the type of skills that will help an individual get better positioned for future promotions into more senior roles.
So when it comes to helping us working professionals in any field whether as employees or entrepreneurs, professional development is for all of us, not just the professional educators such as teachers. Think about the types of skills you can improve upon for your specific career and then make plans to get more education and/or training to improve those skills on a regular basis.
