Professional Development

In the perfect world, human service agencies would have the resources necessary to provide all the professional development opportunities needed by staff. In the real world few, if any, do. As a general rule, economies-of-scale permit only the largest human services agencies to provide a regular schedule of competency-based classroom training and learning libraries filled with current books and videos.

Most agencies – both large and small, public and private – struggle just to provide basic training. Despite the obstacles, your agency can use innovative approaches to provide needed development opportunities for your staff.

Tool Kit - Competency-Based Professional Development (PDF)

This Tool Kit takes a step-by-step, comprehensive look at providing professional development opportunities:

1. Identify your Professional Development Strategy Team
2. Identify the Scope of the Professional Development Strategy
3. Identify Professional Development Approaches
4. Identify Professional Development Resources
5. Communicate the Importance and Availability of Learning Opportunities

For purposes of this Tool Kit, we draw a distinction between the terms Training and Professional Development.

• Training refers to the process of transferring or obtaining the specific knowledge and skills needed to carry out specific activities or tasks.
• Professional Development refers to the process of stimulating an individual’s professional growth in the competencies associated with successful performance. Some refer to this as training in the “soft skills.”