Identify sources of support for planning and reviewing owndevelopmentThere are lots of sources of information and support around your own professional

development. We have already looked at some of these including national

occupational standards, peer assessment, observation of practice, supervision

sessions, and other types of feedback.

There are, however, further ways in which you can inform your development and

ensure that you are continually up-to-date on the working practices that link directly

with your job.

Sources of support for planning and reviewing development.

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College tutors

You may need to be assessed in your practical work by your tutor, and this is a good

and constructive way to get feedback that can help you begin your professional

development. This may be done by your tutor coming to visit and observe your work,

or to assess you in your professional practice. It may also be done through feedback

on your theoretical work, and your tutor may be able to suggest further sources of

information for you to work from.

Line manager

Your line manager has a vested interest in helping you improve your working

practices, and they should be able to supply you with a personal action plan in which

you can note suggested ways of improvement. Action plans are usually dated and

contain actions that you are asked to complete in order to further your development.

These might be further training, or further reading of some kind. The actions are

usually dated for review, and after that date your line manager will review whether or

not you carried out the action and what the results of that were.

Personal development plans are a type of longer term action plan that are used to a

large extent in appraisals.

Appraisals

Annual appraisals are conducted in most organisations, and everyone right up to the

directors, or head teacher if you work in a school, will meet with the person who

manages them to go through ways in which their role and their own personal

qualities can be improved upon.

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The Internet

The Internet is an amazing resource, full of information. Not all of it is good

information, however, and it is a good idea to use websites that are comprehensive,

have lots of information that you know is valid, and that are well known.

It can be hard to figure out sometimes which information is good and which is not so

good, but a good rule of thumb is that if it is easy to read and informative, and covers

information that you know to be true already, it is probably a decent site. Bad writing

is harder and more boring to read, and that can be a sign that the quality of the site

in general is not very high.

Books

The library is a good place to start when you are looking for books on a particular

subject, and if your own local library does not stock a particular book you are

interested in, you can always order it from them.

Bookshops, both online and high street, are also great places to find good

information; generally, a book will have been through far more rigorous quality

processes than most information on the Internet.

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