Professional Development (PD)
What is Professional Development?
Professional Development (PD) refers to continuing education and career training after a person has entered the workforce in order to help them develop new skills, stay up-to-date on current trends, advance their career, and continue to grow and learn. Some fields require PD to maintain licensure, certification, rank, or to keep your position. Some fields (e.g. teaching) have specific Continuing Education (CE) requirements with restrictions on how those may be obtained.
Why is Professional Development important?
The opportunity to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that can help you in your job and further your career. Professional development is all about building your skill set and knowledge base for your field. It is also helpful for your employer, too because as you increase your own worth (skills and knowledge) you also add to your company’s overall value.
Benefits of Professional Development
Participating in Professional Development:
- Expands your knowledge base
- Boosts confidence and credibility
- Increases earning potential and hireability
- Provides networking opportunities
- Keeps professionals current on industry trends
- Opens the door to future career changes
Examples of Professional Development
- Attend a professional conference
- Participate in workshops: In-person or online
- Complete your CE/CPE or a new certificate/credential/badge/license
- Take a course in your field
- Take advantage of microlearning opportunities (Short chunks of learning in a variety of formats - such as videos or modules)
- Shadow a colleague/mentor
- Read a book that can help you in your field
- Interview someone who holds a position you aspire to
The content above is adapted from: What Is Professional Development and Why Is It Important? This link opens in a new window by Trevor Antley (July 16, 2020) WebCE This link opens in a new window
Professional Associations
Professional organizations or associations can help you network with colleagues, continue learning and keep up-to-date with current events in your career via newsletters, conferences, publications and webinars, and offer opportunities for grants, scholarships, job opportunities, job-shadowing, and more.
Check out these web resources to find professional organizations or associations in your chosen field:
- Professional Association Finder - CareerOneStop This link opens in a new windowUse search feature to locate national professional associations by occupation or industry served. Contact associations to find professional development opportunities, and keep current on changes in your industry.
Lifelong Learning & Professional Development Resources
Online Learning
Continue learning even after college with online, open educational opportunities that can help you grow professionally and keep up-to-date on the latest technologies, issues, and initiatives in your chosen field. The sources below offer professional certificates, micro-credentials, courses, course series, and degrees for further learning.
- Academic Earth This link opens in a new windowAcademic Earth was launched on the premise that everyone deserves access to a world-class education. In 2009, we built the first collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities. The world of open education has exploded since then, so today our curated lists of online courses are hand selected by our staff to show you the very best offerings by subject area. We also make sure there is something for everyone: whether you want to explore a new topic or advance in your current field, we bring the amazing world of academia to you for free.
- Coursera This link opens in a new windowBuild skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies, for free and low-cost.
- MIT OpenCourseWare This link opens in a new windowMIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.
- Open Learning Initiative This link opens in a new windowOLI provides dozens of college-level courses, and a platform that enables research and experimentation with any aspect of the learning experience. The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a grant-funded group at Carnegie Mellon University, offering innovative online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach.
- EdX This link opens in a new windowEdX is a non-profit online initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT and offers interactive online classes from the world’s best universities including topics such as biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics and more.
- Khan Academy This link opens in a new windowKhan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including K-14 and test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content available in 36 different languages.
- Udemy This link opens in a new windowChoose from 155,000 online, low cost video courses with new additions published every month in areas such as: Programming, Yoga, Design, Photography, Spanish, Marketing, Guitar, Finance, Cake Decorating, and many more.
- Udacity This link opens in a new windowUdacity was born out of a Stanford University experiment in which Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig offered their "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course online to anyone, for free. Over 160,000 students in more than 190 countries enrolled. Now Udacity is where lifelong learners come to learn the skills they need, to land the jobs they want, to build the lives they deserve.
Webinars, Blogs & Podcasts, Videos and more...
There are countless online resources offering information to keep up with trends & research, learn new skills, update your technological knowledge, expand your cultural understanding, and continue to learn.
Webinars/Webcasts
- New Horizons - Free Webinars This link opens in a new windowNew Horizons offers you free, educational webinars to keep you up to date on the latest technologies and best business practices. Stay informed with live presentations on a variety of IT and business topics. Subject matter experts with real world experience host each presentation. Each highly interactive session allows you to ask questions and gain clarification in real time. Can't attend on the scheduled date? No problem. New Horizons archives its webinars, allowing you to analyze topics at a later date.
- Library of Congress Webcasts This link opens in a new windowVideos of events sponsored by the Library of Congress on a vast array of topics. Many of these will help you be aware of national and world context for whatever career you are involved with.
Blogs
- Work Awesome This link opens in a new windowStart something awesome, do something awesome, and finish something awesome. Turn passion into productivity and become the best at whatever you do.
- Jobacle This link opens in a new windowJobacle.com is a career advice blog that is designed to help you make work better. We go against conventional wisdom when we have to, striving to offer unique and interesting content – the kind of stuff that appeals to the everyday office worker.
- Small Business Trends This link opens in a new windowSmall Business Trends presents cutting-edge strategies for entrepreneurs running a small business and committed to improving their performance.
- The Entrepreneur’s Library This link opens in a new windowMy goal is to bring the best books for entrepreneurs to the surface and take you on a deep dive with the author to focus on the book at hand. Their slogan is, “It’s all about the book." Books on selling, marketing, relationships, innovation, building and scaling, hiring and firing, attitude, and productivity just to name a few.
Podcasts
- PivotWhat’s next for your career and creative projects? Embrace fear, insecurity, imperfection, and intuition as the superpowers they are while pivoting. Join Jenny Blake, author of Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, for intimate conversations with authors and friends on finding opportunity in unexpected places through practical tips and tools. Jenny’s motto? If change is the only constant, let’s get better at it.
- The School of GreatnessAfter his father sustained a life-altering accident, and an injury prevented Lewis Howes from continuing to play professional football, he became a New York Times bestselling author and lifestyle entrepreneur. He started a podcast aimed at sharing “inspiring stories from the most brilliant business minds, world-class athletes and influential celebrities on the planet to help you find out what makes great people great." With topics such as “How to be your best self” and “Defy regret and break your limits,” you’re sure to leave this podcast feeling motivated.
- Manager ToolsManager Tools will help you become a better boss by tackling topics such as how to make a good hire, how to prepare for performance reviews and even office politics.As the podcast site puts it, “There’s a 'Manager Tools' podcast for dealing with every situation you find yourself in. From hiring to managing your admin and from performance reviews to body odor, there’s a cast for that.”
- Accidental CreativeWe help creative people do brilliant work. Our workshops, tools, and podcasts will help you have better ideas, collaborate seamlessly, and thrive under pressure.
- CareerCloudThe show is downloaded more than 2,500 times per day. Guests include resume writers, career coaches, recruiters and job seekers. Topics include resumes, interviewing, job resources & leveraging social media to job hunt.
- Occupations: The PodcastOccupations: The Podcast takes a fascinating, inside look at what it takes to get and hold specific, unique jobs such as being Duck Boat Driver, or Opioid Researcher, or owner of a Fitness Center.
Videos
- VideoLectures.net This link opens in a new windowVideoLectures.NET is an award-winning free and open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science. The portal is aimed at promoting science, exchanging ideas and fostering knowledge sharing by providing high quality didactic contents not only to the scientific community but also to the general public.
- TED: Ideas worth spreading This link opens in a new windowExplore Talks related to human behavior in organizations, motivation, leadership, conflict, change, strategic planning, and much more...
Other Resources
- GenTwenty: The 10 Areas of Professional Development This link opens in a new windowArticle describing ten areas of focus for professional development including: Written Communication; Leadership; Organization; Creativity; Interpersonal; Conflict Resolution; Time Management; Listening; Problem-solving; and Industry Knowledge
- NH Department of Education - Professional Development This link opens in a new windowSponsored by NHDE, the NH Educators Online platform has curated a wide variety of resources for teachers.
- Pew Research Center This link opens in a new windowPew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
Books about Professional Development
Professional and trade associations are the most helpful place to find books being published on new developments in your field. Following authors who are the key writers/speakers in your discipline and setting up author alerts on Amazon and other publisher sites will keep you informed about which books to read to remain current in your field.
The following books are a sample of our library books and eBooks about professional development in the fields of education, business, and nursing. For more books and eBooks please search the Online Library Catalog or ask a librarian for help.
Improving Instruction Through Supervision, Evaluation, and Professional Development by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781641131667Publication Date: 2018
Personalized Professional Learning by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781416627555Publication Date: 2019
Leadership in Higher Education by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781523087006Publication Date: 2019
Transformative Learning in Healthcare and Helping Professions Education by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781641136792Publication Date: 2019
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