In higher education, multiple teams can be involved in staff development, from a centralised unit to those within teaching and learning or well-being teams. Continuous professional development opportunities could be arranged within a department – such as hosting a guest speaker. But to benefit from these opportunities, coordination is essential. Without it, you can risk duplicating efforts and possibly communicating inconsistent messages.
We need to categorise professional development opportunities and map out scaffolded developmental routes to get the best out of all employees. Here, I identify four distinct CPD categories and then provide a way of offering professional development pathways.
Types of continuous professional development
Mandatory – all staff
For professional development that every member of staff will undergo, include an induction to a new institution, addressing topics such as mission, values, structures. Cover topics such as health and safety, fire safety, EDI and cybersecurity. Repeat elements of this training annually, such as fire awareness, and certain topics can form part of institutional legislative compliance. This category of professional development would typically be coordinated by a centralised organisational learning and development unit and potentially comprise a blend of in-person and online training.
Mandatory – staff in a role family
A role family comprises all staff within a specific group of roles – for example, grouping all staff involved in teaching and learning together. This would include positions such as lecturers, librarians, learning developers, educational developers and careers advisers.
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In the case of a teaching and learning role family, induction would need to provide an overview of teaching, learning and assessment policies, frameworks and expectations. It would also introduce digital learning systems – such as virtual learning environments, learning analytics platforms, lecture capture and originality checking – and personal tutoring, along with use of relevant data dashboards. Ongoing continuous professional development could be staff participating in a mandatory peer support of teaching and learning developmental scheme.
Mandatory – staff in a specific role
What about CPD for everyone undertaking a specific role – for instance, working as course leader? Set up a dedicated induction on carrying out the duties associated with the role. This might include specific training in leadership approaches, digital system application or guiding individuals through administrative duties.
Plan recurrent refresher training for certain topics. Equally, if there is a change in working practices, such as adoption of a new system, roll out corresponding continuous professional development. Remember to include staff promoted to a new role, as well as those who are joining the institution.
Optional: Arrange non-compulsory development opportunities, such as opportunities to take part in communities of practice, networks or attending events. You can also consider less formal opportunities, such as participating in webinars or external events.
The importance of harmonisation
Professional development providers must agree on who will lead on specific topics and the sequencing of CPD. Cover when key messages will be initially introduced, and then revisited and developed at a subsequent stage of a pathway.
Teams who deliver professional development work need to harmonise their systems and processes, including how to promote development opportunities, how to book to attend, recording of engagement and how to evaluate. Without this communication, training can feel disjointed, leading to staff feeling confused around what must be completed and the order to do it in.
Also, failing to rationalise evaluation approaches will make it difficult to establish whether continuous professional development, collectively and/or specific approaches, is meeting intended learning outcomes.
Putting into practice
Using the above categories, we can map out professional development pathways. It’s best to conceptualise these in terms of specific roles. In this example, when anyone joins the institution, they would initially attend a new staff member induction (mandatory training – all staff) delivered by the organisational development unit. This would be built upon by a dedicated induction to teaching and learning (mandatory training – all teaching and learning staff), delivered by the teaching and learning unit.
Once commencing the course leader role, the practitioner would then be required to attend two development opportunities related to leadership (mandatory training – course leader). The first, delivered by the organisational development team, would address institutional expectations of leaders. This could be in the form of expected behaviours aligned to an institutional leadership framework.
The second, delivered by the teaching and learning unit, would address how to undertake the role of a course leader. Optional development opportunities are available via a staff leadership forum – open to all leaders and facilitated by the organisational development team – and/or a more bespoke community of practice for those working as a course leader, organised by the teaching and learning unit. You could make this pathway more complex – for example, adding training or support provided by a line manager, or support to work towards AdvanceHE recognition.
Many university staff will need concurrent professional development pathways representing the multifaceted nature of their roles. For instance, a course leader may also be a personal academic tutor and a researcher. When developing associated pathways, some opportunities will be cross cutting, such as training for all staff. I suggest that these are routinely included for completeness, as failing to do this creates a potential to overlook – and potentially miss out – fundamental stages of CPD.
Steve Briggs is director of learning and teaching excellence at the University of Bedfordshire.
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