Professional Development Planning is about exploring where you want to get to professionally in a structured way.  The process involves looking at:

a) where you are now
b) where you want to be
c) how you might move from point a) towards point b)

It’s a process that’s useful whatever stage you’re at but can be especially valuable if you are at a point of change or just starting out.  Or you might want to put together a funding application for professional development and need to think more strategically. 

There are two main approaches to professional development planning:

Guided professional development planning is where you work through the process with another person, a skilled ‘guide’, who offers a useful outside eye.

If you support the development of writers or literature professionals in some way,  you’ll find our 76 page manual on guided professional development planning written by experienced guide Jude Page invaluable.  It’s available to download here free in a pdf version (497 KB).  You can also download sample paperwork (which can be reproduced or used as source material) in a word version.  Printed copies are available price £5.00 plus £1.00 p&p by sending a cheque payable to literaturetraining to: literaturetraining, PO Box 23595, Leith EH6 7YX. 

And you can find out more about tried and tested helping strategies you can use to support professional development planning in Approaches to Professional Development Planning  by Peter Beven.

We're currently setting up a register of PDP guides to act as a resource both for organisations seeking people to deliver sessons for them and individuals seeking a guide. Contact Philippa Johnston for details.

Self-assessment professional development planning involves you undertaking the process on your own with the aid of some form of ‘toolkit’. You can download the one we've commissioned especially for writers and literature professionals here.  Printed copies are available free of charge by contacting Philippa Johnston at literaturetraining Tel 0131 553 2210. Email philippa@literaturetraining.com. We are happy to supply you with bulk copies if your work involves supporting the development of others - we would just ask that you tell us about your experiences of using it.