Personal development plans

Personal development plans

Use a personal development plan (PDP) to help answer specific questions you may have about your own career progression. For example:

• what are your current strengths and weaknesses?
• do you want to move into a particular area or specialism?
• what specific competences, knowledge and skills do you need to advance?
• what may be needed in terms of further experience or qualifications?
• what/who might help or hinder your development?

In this way, a personal development plan can help you start the process of self-evaluation. Many models are freely available to access and download on the internet.

Professional frameworks

Framework tools can also be used to help determine which skills, knowledge and competences may be needed to progress your career. See our professional frameworks page for information on the Physiotherapy Framework, and other frameworks relevant to healthcare practitioners.

Find support with CSP resources

Once you have identified specific career goals – and the skills and knowledge required to achieve them – make sure you get support while developing your competence. A number of CSP resources can help you with this:

• CSP professional networks
• iCSP networks
• Short course listings
• Clinical evidence resources
• the CSP Charitable Trust

Use CSP ePortfolio

And finally, once you've gained your new skills and knowledge, make sure to capture evidence of what you have achieved in your professional portfolio: use the new CSP ePortfolio to get started.