PDP, Careers and Professional Bodies – a meeting of the ways?

Nicola Langton , Centre for the Development of Learning and Teaching, University of Reading

Learning to be professional involves many stages and roles - some taught and some simply acquired through experience, observation, critical self-reflection etc. Professionalism can derive from tacit knowledge linked to activities or experiences and a repertoire of solutions to tackle new or difficult problems. Adult learners respond best to experiential learning when it is self-directed and enables them to draw on relevant experiences to date, link immediate learning needs to developmental tasks in a work-based setting. Offering undergraduates opportunities to engage in such experiential learning needs to be staged and include engagement in different communities of practice:

‘As students begin to engage with the discipline, as they move from exposure to experience, they begin to understand that ... different communities ... are quite distinct,... As they work in a particular community, they start to understand both its particularities and what joining takes, how these involve language, practice, culture and a conceptual universe, not just mountains of facts’. Lave and Wenger (1991:13)

This presentation will examine the potential roles PDP, careers advice and experiential learning opportunities offered within a professional programme of study can have on helping learners become professional members of a community of practice. Reference will be made to professional regulatory bodies’ requirements for practicing members to show evidence of Continual Professional Development (CPD) (e.g. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) or engage in voluntary knowledge and skills-based PDP modules (e.g. The Royal Society of Chemists).  Specific reference will be made to the undergraduate Pharmacy programme at the University of Reading to illustrate how linking  PDP portfolios using iLearn (a PDP support tool using Blackboard) to a Career Management Skills (CMS) module and students experiences of professional clinical practice and reflective placement assessments, students can potentially

·         keep better track of their experiences and reflective practice

·         better understand that such experiences apply to their whole career

·         discover what becoming professional means and why it is important

·         identify opportunities for acquiring and evidencing the qualities and attributes becoming professional requires

·         make clearer connections between academic, work and extra-curricular activities

It is hoped that a useful discussion will follow on how best to

·         integrate career development advice and professional disciplinary requirements with aspects of PDP (or vice versa)

·         use PDP portfolios to help student discover, record and reflect on what it means to be professional and how to acquire and evidence essential qualities and attributes

Key words:  experiential learning - communities of practice– professional degrees –governing body requirements – career management skills - PDP and portfolios

Presentation

Handout