Engage in Professional Development

For the competency “Engage in Professional Development”, I have selected one recorded presentation as an artifact to represent my ability to demonstrate the disposition for lifelong learning and continuous professional development. This recorded presentation is “Career Interests and Professional Development”.  

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The “Career Interests and Professional Development” recorded presentation demonstrates how I investigated my career interests and potential professional development for my lifelong development. During this activity, I began by identifying where I wanted to be in two to five years and built a plan to get there. This plan resulted in a collection of tools, resources, and professional networks that I can use as I grow within the field. These included identifying relevant professional organizations, collecting a few major journals within my area of interest, potential career opportunities, and a reflection on my anticipated career interests.  

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As an individual who has been with the same employer for over fifteen years, there is a strong investment by the employer in my development. Over many years, I have had robust and strategic development goals for both performance and career growth. While I continue to receive this incredible support for my growth as a professional, this activity has helped me reflect deeper on my career aspirations and how I may position myself in the field of Learning and Development at the current moment. This investigation has also expanded my network of sources such as professional associations and journals to continue nourishing my knowledge of current trends and needs within the field.  

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Finally, as I reflect on this recorded video, the engagement level with professional associations and networks is important for best practice sharing in any field. Engaging in professional development is a maintenance activity all learning professionals should have on their agendas because practices, theories, processes, and methods of learning change over time. Maintaining membership with the identified organizations will be part of my career development and building of knowledge about the learning and development field. Exploring career opportunities in the market will be important as the industry changes and new roles are created and current roles are restructured. It will be important to understand the expectations for these roles and then upskill myself to be a good fit for any role I gain interest in.