CPD planning
If you take time to plan your CPD in advance you are likely to gain the most from it. We would encourage you to spend some time throughout each year (with or without your employer’s involvement) analysing your current CPD needs, reviewing any CPD you have undertaken, thinking about your continuing and future CPD needs and working out a development plan for the forthcoming year.
Below are some tools to help you with this planning process.
The CPD cycle
One of the simplest ways to approach CPD planning is to use a CPD cycle to help you plan.
Download a diagram and guidance on a typical CPD planning cycle
The ICSA core competencies
ICSA has worked with a group of Members to develop a set of six core competencies. These cover typical areas that Chartered Secretaries are required to be competent in. You are not expected to be fully competent in each of the core competencies throughout all of your career, but you might wish to develop different competencies at different stages.
You could use the core competencies as a CPD planning tool. By looking at each competency and assessing your current situation you can identify areas of strength and areas for development. When you have identified areas for development you can plan your CPD to match these requirements.
The attached list details all the core competencies and the elements that make up each one. Against each one we have given a few examples of CPD that you may wish to consider undertaking. These examples are to give you an idea of how this framework could work for you rather than being an all-inclusive list and we would recommend you consider alternative means of CPD that would help you develop any specific core competency.
View the ICSA core competencies here
You could continue this assessment throughout the CPD year and we recommend that you concentrate your efforts on no more than two or three core competencies at a time.
The ICSA CPD plan
The ICSA CPD plan is a tool which can be used to help you:
- evaluate the CPD you have carried out
- set your objectives
- establish which activities to undertake
- consider how you might evaluate whether the activity has been a success and measure how it might have an impact on your work
The CPD plan should be completed at or before the start of the CPD year. It should however be reviewed and amended where appropriate throughout the year. Completing the ICSA CPD plan is optional and it does not need to be submitted to the Institute. However, we do strongly recommend that you carry out this sort of planning process in order to maximise the benefits achievable from your CPD.
Download a blank ICSA CPD plan to complete
Before completing your CPD plan it might be helpful to look at examples of completed plans to use as guidance:
You may, as an option, wish to download a copy of the ICSA core competencies for use when completing your plan.
Examples of relevant CPD
We have developed some examples of formal and informal CPD in conjunction with a variety of Members from different backgrounds. This is by no means an all-inclusive list but you can use it as guidance on some useful ideas.
Download examples of formal and informal CPD
ICSA CPD opportunities
ICSA offers a variety of CPD opportunities. Not only do we offer training courses, events, conferences and publications but we also offer a variety of other opportunities to develop your skills including, amongst other things, involvement in policy consultations, giving presentations to university students and joining member or sector groups.