Did you know that over half of the adult workforce participates in job-related or professional development education on a regular basis? No matter your career, you must develop yourself to stay marketable and successful!
Having a professional development plan is essential and can open up more opportunities regardless of where you are in your career. This guide maps out essential planning elements to help you get started.
1. Setting Professional Goals
Setting professional goals is the first step in creating a professional development plan. You may want to upskill and change careers or have your own office. Some questions you may ask to understand your goals include:
What are my career aspirations?
What skills do I want to improve on?
Where do I see myself in 2 or 5 years?
What impact do I want to make?
The goals you set should be SMART goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The criteria for SMART goals will be your guiding hand as you create a professional development plan for yourself.
2. Create Professional Development Milestones
Knowing your objectives, you can begin to build your professional development plan. The saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" rings true for this application; you won't achieve professional development nirvana overnight. But, without a path to success, you'll flounder.
At this juncture, think about connecting the dots. For each SMART goal, write down every step you must take to achieve it. Then, give yourself a timeline to complete it that aligns with your SMART goal. As you complete this step, you'll have a developed professional development timeline, the framework for your professional development plan.
3. Access Professional Development Resources for Microlearning
Now that you have your roadmap to professional development, how will you achieve your objectives? Many ambiguous elements of professional development make most people tilt their heads in confusion.
For example, public speaking involves soft skills like charisma and emotional intelligence. However, most people who aren't naturally charismatic have no idea how to learn it or where to start. That's where professional development resources like microlearning can help.
Microlearning is a learning process that focuses on short bursts of learning or instruction. So, you might have a course over short periods instead of a long course that takes 6 weeks to complete. It offers on-demand education with little impact on one's everyday life.
Microlearning courses help give you regular practice to achieve your milestones. You can learn professional development skills like:
Creativity
Leadership
Critical thinking
Negotiation
Communication
Microlearning courses also provide opportunities for frequent reflection. Reviewing professional progress helps you stay focused on your goals and timeline.
Start Your Professional Development Plan Today
Microlearning has helped many professional workers achieve professional development goals in record time. Don't wait to get the career you want. You can start your professional development plan right now with Coursetter.
We offer online and custom courses for a range of professional development needs. Whether you are embarking on your journey or want to offer professional development to your team, Coursetter can help.
Contact us today to learn more about our course offerings.