Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
Principles of personal development in adult social care settings
Handout 5: What makes a good personal development plan?
4222 Learning Outcome 5 Assessment Criteria 5.1, 5.3
4222 Learning Outcome 4 Assessment Criteria 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
4229 Learning Outcome 3 Assessment Criteria 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
A personal development plan (PDP) is your road map to the future success of your career. There is an old saying that ‘if you don’t know where you are going you’ll probably end up somewhere else’, so with that in mind, your plan needs to provide you with as clear and helpful directions as possible. As well as a plan of action you should also include a record of what you have achieved so far.
A number of other people could contribute to your plan; these could include colleagues, other professionals, individuals, their relatives, advocates, supervisor, training personnel and inspectors.
What to include in your PDP
1. Start your plan with some headings such as a title for the document, your name, the date and possibly one or more mission statements (along the lines of: ‘In five years I want to be promoted to …’).
2. The plan itself.
3. A record of progress.
The plan
Creating a table with various headings gives you a valuable visual aid. Below are some suggestions as to the type of headings you could consider.
· Skills and knowledge required: outline specifically what new skills, knowledge or abilities you need to gain or enhance. Include professional as well as personal development skills.
· Training and development opportunities: how exactly do you intend to gain these new skills?
· Resources: what resources (such as funding, time, equipment, support, etc) do you need?
· Performance expectation: how will you know that you have succeeded? For example will you be given a certificate or will you be able to perform a specific task?
· Target date: the date by which you intend to achieve your objectives. Be realistic and be prepared to review and adjust these dates if you find them unmanageable.
· When setting your objectives for your PDP you could apply the SMART criteria to them:
o specific – state exactly what you want to achieve
o measurable – how will you know that you have succeeded?
o achievable – be realistic
o relevant – relate the activities to your goals
o timely – put a specific deadline on when you will complete the objectives.
The record
Again you might find it easier to organise your record in table format. Here are some suggested headings:
· Development activities: as well as formal courses attended, include other professional activities such as conferences, work experience, or any other activity relevant to your professional and personal development.
· Date: when did the activities take place?
· Evaluation of the activity: record what you learnt from the activities; what worked well; what were the shortcomings?
· How has it been useful: what use have you been able to make of the new skills learnt? Do you need to follow up with any further activities?