Continuing Professional Development and the ‘10 Days’ Commitment

The 10 Days’ Commitment to CPD for Research Staff

As a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, Cardiff University is committed to ensuring that our research staff engage in a minimum of 10 days’ continuing professional development (CPD) pro rata, each year. Meeting this commitment is a shared responsibility between you (the researcher), your manager(s), and the institution.

• Institutional Commitment – As an institution, we have committed to providing opportunities, structured support, encouragement, and time for research staff to engage in a minimum of 10 days professional development, pro rata per year, recognising that researchers can pursue careers across a wide range of employment sectors.
• Managers’ Commitment – Managers of research staff at Cardiff are supported in meeting their obligation to allocate a minimum of 10 days, pro rata per year, for their researchers to engage with professional development, supporting researchers to balance the delivery of their research responsibilities and their own professional development.
• Researchers’ Commitment – To benefit fully from the institutional commitment, it’s down to you to make full use of the time allocated and to take advantage of the opportunities presented to you to engage in a range of development activity. The Concordat asks that all research staff take ownership of their career, identifying opportunities to work towards their career goals. In support of this, research staff are encouraged to maintain an up-to-date career development plan and to build a portfolio of evidence demonstrating their experience that can then be used to support job applications.

10 days’ professional development may sound like a lot, and your first question might be “How on Earth am I going to be able to do that?”. But it’s easier than you think, especially once you appreciate that not all development is based on the traditional synchronous learning in a ‘classroom’ setting! The next section delves a little deeper into to what actually constitutes ‘development’ and will hopefully inspire you to be a little more creative in your approach to the CPD that you undertake.

What types of CPD are available?

Below is an overview of the types of professional development activity that will benefit you as a researcher, both in your current role and in meeting your future career aspirations. Along with the CPD planning resources mentioned in the last blog (Mind the Gap! – Assessing and Addressing your Development Needs), this overview will help you choose a diverse range of activities to meet your development needs and to think about how you can take full advantage of the minimum 10 days allocated to you each year for continuing professional development.

Formal Learning

Formal learning is probably the form of development activity that we’re all most familiar with, and the one that is most closely associated with the term ‘training and development’. These are usually defined opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills, with the aim of building capacity for the job at hand, as well as for current and future employability prospects. They are generally thought of as classroom-based activities led by an educator/trainer or a team of trainers.

With formal learning activities you would usually expect to know the learning outcomes or objectives before you participate. Activities in this category might include brief “how to” courses to help develop a particular skill, or they may be longer-term programmes of activity leading to the broader development of soft skills, such as leadership. They may involve directed or facilitated group-learning, delivered live (synchronously) either in-person or online, or they may be ‘self-serve’ asynchronous modules (generally online) that you can complete at your own pace.

Cardiff University offers a wide range of formal learning opportunities for research staff:

• Cardiff Researcher development programme – Our programme of training and development for staff employed on the research-only career pathway.
• Staff Development Programme – Courses and programmes for all our staff, including mandatory training and leadership and management development.
• Cardiff Learning and Teaching Academy – Support for developing as an educator, which includes the accredited Cardiff University Associate Fellow Programme for those new to teaching, and particularly research staff who undertake a limited teaching role.
• Fellowship Support Programme – A comprehensive support programme for prospective research fellows that will provide the necessary tools and support you’ll need to write a competitive fellowship proposal.
• Knowledge Exchange and Impact Development Programme – A flexible programme to help you develop skills in knowledge exchange, impact, public engagement, commercial development, and influencing public policy.
• Workplace apprenticeships for staff – Workplace apprenticeships provide an opportunity for staff to combine on-the-job skills development with off-the-job learning. This scheme gives all staff access to development in a broad range of areas, e.g. data analytics, social media, finance and allows participants to work up to level 7, or the equivalent of a master’s degree.
• Wellbeing workshops – Workshops facilitated by our Staff Wellbeing Team on a range of common difficulties including stress management and mental health awareness.
• Formal leadership development opportunities in collaboration with partner universities (including Elevate, GW4 Crucible, Welsh Crucible, etc.).

Other sources of formal training and development include:

• research skills training and accredited programmes
• briefings or workshops from specialists/professional bodies/Learned Societies etc.
• webinars and/or visits by funders
• training from journal editors/peer reviewers

Informal Learning

Although CPD is most commonly associated with more formal types of learning, informal learning activities, such as learning from others and learning by doing, are also important methods of development. The best part is that you are very likely to be engaging in many of these activities already! However, you may not be gaining the most value from them if you do not take the time to reflect on or articulate their relevance to your development as a researcher. For example, presenting at a large and prestigious conference may offer the opportunity to practice enhanced presentation skills (learning by doing), helping to develop your network (learning by doing), and learning from more experienced researchers (learning from others). Furthermore, reflecting on informal learning activities may reveal more gaps in your knowledge and skills, thus helping you identify additional training and development needs!

Informal Learning: Learning from others

Working with and learning from others can give you a new perspective, encouraging you to explore different ways of working and thinking and to apply those to both your research and to your career.

Take advantage of any opportunities to interact with, observe, learn from, and imitate a range of people, including peers, senior figures, and colleagues in other fields or sectors, with the aim of accessing fresh insights and broadening horizons. If those opportunities don’t present themselves, create them! This could be as straight-forward as arranging a research visit to a group in another institution, attending departmental seminars or maybe a larger conference, or putting together a research collaboration. ‘Learning from others’ may also be underpinned by more formal arrangements, like mentoring schemes and networking activities, but the key difference from formal learning is that this is generally a more personal and bespoke experience.

Examples of ‘learning from others’ include:

• participating in mentoring relationships (this doesn’t need to be through a formal mentoring scheme, but this can sometime be easier if your network is in the early stages)
• 1-2-1 coaching and individual advice (e.g., a career consultation)
• peer-to-peer learning (e.g., participating in journal clubs)
• visits to external collaborators
• networking
• participating in research and/or learning and teaching conferences
• participating in mobility schemes
• participating in wellbeing at work activity

Informal Learning: Learning by doing

Developing your skills and experience through ‘learning by doing’ may be something that you’ve planned (e.g., taking part in public engagement activities because you know that this experience will be required in your next role) or it could be something that happens by chance (e.g., filling in for a busy colleague). Regardless of which it is, this is often the most immersive way of learning and, for many people, the most effective method to use in order to retain what’s being learned. If you are looking to stretch yourself within your current role then seek out any ‘on the job’ opportunities that will allow you to experience new tasks and activities which are outside of your usual day-to-day activities (and your comfort zone!), with the aim of providing growth and career development.

Examples of ‘learning by doing’ include:

• organising and/or speaking at seminars and conferences
• chairing panels
• applying for funding (including independent fellowship funding)
• teaching, lecturing, demonstrating, and assessing
• contributing to doctoral supervision
• undertaking public engagement, outreach, and widening participation activities
• taking on service/leadership roles, e.g. departmental committees, societies, etc.
• participating in and forging international partnerships and collaborations

Take home messages…

• Take time to identify the range of skills, qualities, behaviours, and interests you already have, those which you are currently working on, and those which you would like to acquire.
• Engage in all 3 types of learning to broaden your development (don’t forget to check in your College, School, and department for any local development opportunities!)
• Reflect on and make a record of any formal and informal learning activities you engage with in order to fully appreciate their relevance to your development. You may not get the most benefit from them otherwise!

Tools, like the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and the Prosper Portal, may be useful in helping you to identify and articulate skills you’ve developed through engaging in activities that you normally take for granted.