Professional Development Plan (PDP)

How to develop a plan:
• There is no prescribed method for creating a personal professional development plan. Here are several tips that can help your plan creation process.
• Begin by writing down all the tasks you are currently responsible for, areas you must be
knowledgeable about, the skills you need to possess, and changes that are likely to occur in
the next two years.
• Seriously consider any short or long‐term goals you might have for developing or adapting
your career. Be realistic about your ambitions and about the time needed to achieve them.
• Develop ideas about your continuing education needs, what priority each need has, and then
list your priorities for the next two years (or whichever time frame you have chosen).
• Don’t necessarily restrict yourself to thinking about your current professional responsibilities.
Think about your career and its development, and consider whether this is a time to
strengthen existing skills, develop new skills or broaden your understanding of the planning
process.
• You may wish to divide specific continuing education activities into three major categories:
• Activities needed in order to undertake or advance your current planning work.
• Activities that keep you in touch with planning issues not directly related to your
day‐to‐day work.
• Activities that develop skills complementary to professional planning activities and are
designed to help career progression or to maintain competence.
• Remember that your personal professional development plan is a flexible document. Return
to this document every few months to re‐assess its contents, add new ideas, and revise
elements that may no longer apply.