http://www.dawn.com/weekly/education/archive/080427/education2.htm
The sky is the limit
By Syed Zaffar Hassan Naqvi
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is the improvement of professional and educational skills throughout a professional career. It is the process whereby individuals can maintain the current standard of best practices within their profession through any activity that increases the skill, knowledge or understanding of the professionals and their effectiveness at the workplace.
The liberalisation of national economies has instigated furious competition among the business organisations. High awareness imparted by media amongst the customers enables them to compare the real value being offered by competitor companies and consequently incessant innovations have become indispensable on the part of companies for their survival in this era of commercial war. To cope with these challenges, companies require innovative and creative people equipped with contemporary skills and knowledge.
There was a time when a person stuck to one organisation throughout his career but the situation now seems to have changed 180 degrees. There has been a drastic change in the job culture.
Today, the mobility and swapping between organisations is considered as a pre-requisite quality for the growth of a professional. Even organisations compete for high calibre professionals, for continuous enrichment of their human inventory.
The concept of job security has ended. Jobs now demand continuous performance and only those who are equipped with modern skills, and upgrade their knowledge on a continuous basis can perform in the modern workplace.
Organisations have drastically cut down their training and development budgets, thus the responsibility of professional development lies on the individuals themselves.
Another contemporary phenomenon of workplace culture is an enhanced workload. Employees have to sit for late hours for completion of their routine work in offices. They have their social and personal engagements as well, so how to pursue CPD?
It’s a difficult task but it is the need of the hour, necessary for survival in today’s competitive scenario. Thus one has no other option but to pursue improvement.
Academic achievements are not the sole qualification of a professional is a well-accepted concept nowadays. A continuous learning process within the profession you may be pursuing, through experience and innovation, is the real factor in the growth of high-profile professionals.
There are many ways to pursue CPD according to the personal choice, field of operation and working environment. Here, I would describe some informal as well as formal ways of pursuing CDP.
Informal learning
Individuals can enhance their professional capability through informal modes. This may include reading of books, magazines, professional journals as well as browsing the Internet in order to explore new developments in a respective field of work.
It is the most effective and cost efficient method adopted by most eager and ambitious professionals. However, in a larger perspective, it has certain inherent limitations too such as the lack of self-motivation, lack of objectivity as there really is no immediate pressure to show performance and the unavailability of practical guidance.
Regular courses
Some institutes offer regular short courses on practical training of subjects relevant to the professions. In our country, the Pakistan Institute of Management Sciences (PIMS) offers courses in different fields of management. There are some smaller institutes too that offer short courses in fields such as fashion designing, public health, hotel management, business communication, fine arts, computer skills and calligraphy.
Some Pakistani universities also serve to enhance professional skills for adding human capital to the industrial growth such as the University of Punjab, University of Karachi and the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, that offer short-term courses on subjects like HRM, IT, Marketing, and Finance and Supply Chain Management.
The short-term courses and diplomas are considered effective because these are designed in accordance with the emerging development of the specific fields.
Industry people and high profile professionals are often hired to design and deliver these courses so it covers the most important practical areas under focus.
A drawback with these short-term courses though is that generally they are not individualistic thus sometimes they bear no fruit for the person enrolled in them. These courses are developed by keeping in view the general trends and developments rather than considering individual lapses.
Distance learning
Distance learning courses best suit individuals working in remote areas and those who do not have access to renowned institutes for their professional growth. Comparatively these are less effective due to the lack of interaction between the learner and the trainer. However, one can draw optimum benefits from such courses with extra commitment and dedication.
The Allam Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Pakistan offers short-term distance learning courses in various fields. Designed and developed by the academicians, these courses usually carry a theoretical approach rather than a practical one. They are suitable to those individuals who may have practical expertise but do not possess its academic proof.
Membership of professional organizations
Professional organisations are established for the promotion and regulation of their respective fields. Members of these organisations are required to adhere to the code of conduct and professional ethics prescribed by the organisation. These organisations also help their members keep pace with the modern developments and improvement of professional capabilities.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, Institute of Corporate Secretaries, Institute of Bankers Pakistan, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Chartered Institute of Management, Chartered Institute of Taxation, Provincial Bar Councils, Pakistan Bar Council, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and Pakistan engineering Council, etc., are some of the professional bodies working for the promotion and regulation of their respective professions in Pakistan.
Online training
There are many institutes offering online training in almost every field of work. Online learning is a cost effective method but the verification and authenticity of an online institution can be a problem as there is no physical contact between the trainer and the learner.
The incorporation of a regulatory framework for online education can be the best solution in overcoming this issue. Online training subjected to a regulatory regime could prove as an effective channel of learning.
The writer is a banker by profession
