Continuous Professional Development in the UK

Continuous Professional Development or CPD for short is a concept that a professional should continuously increase his/her skill and learn new things to stay competitive. At a glance it seems to benefit the employee first since he/she will increase his/her marketability, hence increasing the possibility of jumping company, but actually it (I personally believe so, though we need data to prove this) benefits the company more. Imagine a job that requires 2 man-hours can be shorten to 1 hour, will most likely benefit by the company since the staff can do more things and complete more work within the workdays, hence bringing more profit to the company. We often see (or even experience ourselves) that people who are experienced can complete jobs wayyyy faster compare to new starters. This blog post for example take me only 15 minutes but my earlier posts sometimes take more than 1 hour to write.

With those benefit, it is still surprising to find employer willing to invest, or even allow employee to pursue CPD. It was most lacking when I worked in Malaysia. However in the current company I am working in, employee is allowed (and encouraged) to spend 1 day of the week to work on their CPD, with approvals from managers. So far there is no resistance from my management, and even my manager joined in our group study. Here are the reasons why I think CPD is pushed in the UK:

1. Government Incentive – Companies have some kind of tax break that they can get if the spend on training of their staffs. This includes also taking trainees or internship. I am not too sure on the value but a friend working in the HRMC (similar to LHDN) says that companies can claim up to a certain amount if they spend on allowed expenditures.
2. Technical Management – There are a lot big MNC, but quite a number of companies are SMEs, and I’ve noticed that these companies are normally established by technical experts who left to build their own company. Coming from the same background, I’d argue these people knows first hand the value of CPD (and some organize themselves the session for their staffs).
3. Work life balance – Quite ironic saying this when people doing CPD seems like a workaholic themselves, instead of taking the time pursuing other things like a hobby or side business, but imagine when you are overworked and pushed to the brink with task at the office, then the last thing in your mind when you get home is to sit in front of the laptop and refresh your understanding of something. However my experience personally, I have ample extra time after work and people never bother you outside work hours. So you are free to do whatever you want, and most knowledge workers I see does pursue CPD, if not for their satisfaction and improvement work quality, but also for their benefits.
4. Monetary gain – This is true anywhere, but combined with the availability and ease of doing CPD, it makes much sense to do it. Alhamdulillah I passed one of the professional certificate exam last year and I believe this was one of the main reasons that I was employed in the first place. Which leads to another point:
5. Connections and jumping jobs – I am not sure which one triggers the other, but doing CPD by joining webinars and study group enhances your connection and network, and people who have big network normally jump work often/easily or have larger opportunity in his/her career. It is not only the technical knowledge, the ability to prove that you have the brains, but also it allows you to showcase that you can carry yourself and contribute to a session. In a way it is a long process of interview, one without a definite end.

Of course these are all relative and someone from Finland or high-income nation would say they are allowed even more training and CPD, and I would nod and envy them. However in the end it is up to the employees themselves whether they will strive to benefit from the opportunity or not. And let us be one of them.

Thank you for reading.