Plan your professional development
As communications professionals, our work must always be of the highest standard, supporting ministers to deliver the government’s priorities.
Each year you are required to achieve a minimum of 30 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points, which equates to roughly 30 hours of learning and development. A wide range of activities now count towards your CPD points. Use your Personal Development Plan (PDP) to plan and track your learning, and reflect on how you’re using your new skills.
Access professional learning through the Academy, designed specifically for government communicators to support you throughout your career.
On this page:
- Download your Personal Development Plan (PDP) template
- Learning and development and CPD points
- Academy
Download your Personal Development Plan (PDP) template
Template
Use the following template to:
- plan your learning
- record your learning activities and the related Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points
Download the PDP template (Word, 1 page, 35KB)
Example of a completed PDP
To help you visualise how to record your learning, see:
- example of a completed PDP (Word, 1 page, 34KB)
Learning and development and CPD points
A wide variety of activities count towards your CPD points. This will help you meet the minimum Government Communications requirement of 30 CPD points per year.
The majority of your learning and development (L&D) should come from experiences you get on the job or through doing practical work. The rest comes from learning from relationships with other people (like a coach or mentor) and from formal training.
You might find it helpful to use a rough 70/20/10 guide to check the variety of learning in your PDP:
- 70% on the job learning
- 20% learning from relationships
- 10% learning from formal training such as Advance or Academy training
Academy
The Academy provides learning opportunities and resources to support you throughout your career in government communication, making sure you have the right skills to do your job and achieve your potential.
As a member of the Government Communications profession you have exclusive access to:
A suite of essential learning resources to help you master the fundamentals of being a government communicator, including maintaining professional standards.
Advance, our flagship development programme, tailored for every stage of your career from entry-level to senior leadership.
A programme of live learning sessions led by communication experts and leaders.
An extensive library of on-demand learning enabling you to learn anytime, anywhere and at your own pace.