8607-521 Managing Own Continuing Professional Development

Introduction

The ILM Level 5 qualification includes a unit called 8607-521 Managing own Continuing Professional Development. This unit is all about personal improvement for leaders and individuals in the workplace. It helps them keep getting better in their personal and professional skills. To do this, they need to know their strengths and weaknesses through self-assessment and figure out what they need to learn.

People in the workplace, like leaders and other stakeholders, have to be good at planning and picking the right things to learn. This helps them adapt to changes in the workplace and do better at reaching the organization’s goals. The unit focuses on making a good plan for short-term, medium-term, and long-term learning and development.

This unit, 8607-521 Managing own Continuing Professional Development, is super helpful for leaders and others in organizations. It teaches them how to look at themselves, see what they need to get better at, and plan to learn those things. The goal is to build both the knowledge and practical skills to manage personal and professional development. The unit takes about 20 hours to learn and adds 15 credits to the ILM Level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

Unit purpose and aim(s)

Encouraging candidates to actively guide their growth is key. It’s about helping them see that learning and progress aren’t handed to them but are something they can control. This means adopting a mindset that values effort and learning from challenges.

In this approach, it’s not just about learning specific skills—it’s about finding ways to learn that work best for each person. Everyone has different strengths and ways of learning, so we want candidates to explore what suits them.

It’s not just about job-related skills either. We want candidates to understand and handle their emotions well. This emotional intelligence is a big part of succeeding professionally. So, it’s about more than just textbooks—it’s about learning from life experiences and understanding oneself.

In a setting that promotes personal responsibility, we celebrate differences. Each person’s journey is unique, and that’s a good thing. We believe that by embracing their individual stories, candidates contribute to a diverse and vibrant community. Everyone is both a learner and a teacher.

Who is this unit suitable for?

This unit plays a big role in making things better at work by helping everyone keep getting better through ongoing learning. It’s about making sure everyone in the workplace can do things to keep learning and pick up the right skills and knowledge for their job. People need to figure out what they’re not so good at and what the organization needs from them. Then, they should put in place good ways to fix what they’re not great at and focus on what they’re good at.

The unit called 8607-521 Managing own Continuing Professional Development is perfect for everyone in the organization. It teaches them how to manage their learning and growth by looking at themselves and figuring out what they need to get better at. This unit is especially helpful for middle managers—those who handle day-to-day work in the organization. Middle managers can do better by using self-assessment and learning activities.

But it’s not just for middle managers. Other leaders, like top executives, junior managers, and team leaders, can use it too. Even regular employees can use what they learn from this unit to find and fix learning needs in their jobs and personal lives. Even outside experts like human resource consultants can use it to set up workplaces that reach their goals.

What are the learning outcomes of this unit?

After finishing this unit, learners should be able to:

• Look back at their personal and work experiences to figure out what they’re good at and where they need to improve.
• Decide on important personal goals and objectives for the short, medium, and long term.
• Know about different chances for development that can help them reach those goals.
• Explain why they’re doing certain development activities, especially those planned for learning from supervisors.
• Talk with others to make sure they can do the planned development activities in the organization.
• Check if the activities are working well and if they’re helping reach personal goals.
• Think about how learning and development happen at work for themselves and others.
• Look back at short-, medium-, and long-term goals to see if they need to change.

What are the key learning areas of this unit?

Unit 8607-521 Managing own Continuing Professional Development is all about learning how to assess and develop yourself. Here are the main things you’ll learn about:

• Self-assessment:
  • Understand how to figure out what you’re good at and where you need to improve based on past experiences.
  • Learn techniques for self-assessment and why it’s important.
  • Discover different ways to set goals that make sense for your development, like using SMART Goals.
• Evaluating Planned Development Activities:
  • Learn different ways to put planned development activities into action.
  • Identify the skills needed for managing your learning and development.
  • Figure out how to check if your planned activities are working well based on your priorities and goals.
• Review and Reflection of the Learning Process:
  • Get good at looking back and thinking about how well you’re doing based on your work performance.
  • Learn different ways to evaluate your performance, including self-appraisal, feedback, 360 degrees, and performance appraisal.
  • Find out how to adjust your goals to make sure they match what you want to achieve.

How is the unit evaluated?

The evaluation process checks how well you’ve learned by using a written test. This test looks at whether you’ve understood the theory and gained knowledge. There are also other ways we check your skills, like supervised practice, simulated exercises, and case studies. These help see if you can use what you’ve learned in real work situations.

References 

• Managing Own Continuing Professional Development Unit Specification: https://www.i-l-m.com/-/media/ilm-website/documents/assessment-and-resources/8607-521-managing-own-continuing-professoinal-development—assistance-pdf.ashx?la=en&hash=4E4F58B9F376182D048A230D8954C6E8413B429B
• Tips for completing the unit: https://www.i-l-m.com/-/media/ilm-website/documents/assessment-and-resources/8607-521-managing-own-continuing-professoinal-development—assistance-pdf.ashx?la=en&hash=4E4F58B9F376182D048A230D8954C6E8413B429B

Additional Resources:

• Korth, Christopher D. “Leading Change: Practical Skills for Real Managers.” Harvard Business Review Press, 2010.
• Nohria, Nitin, Boris Groysberg, and Linda R. Acevedo. “The Power of Learning: How to Transform the Way You and Your Organization Think, Lead, and Succeed.” Public Affairs, 2020.
• Pink, Daniel H. “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Riverhead Books, 2009.
• Siegle, Cynthia D. “Learning and Development for Leaders: A Practical Guide to Growing Yourself and Your Team.” Routledge, 2011.

Academic Articles:

• Claessens, Bram, et al. “Employee self-development through continuing professional development: Antecedents and outcomes.” European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 24.5 (2015): 389-404.
• Harris, Richard, and Karen Taylor. “Developing leaders into lifelong learners: a review of current literature and emerging trends.” International Journal of Continuing Education and Leadership 12.1 (2011): 3-12.
• McGregor, Douglas M. “An adult learning perspective on professional development.” Human Resource Development Review 6.2 (2007): 124-144.

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• ILM Level 5