Continued professional development must be advanced<\/p>\n
Simon Marcus Gower
\nExecutive Principal
\nHigh\/Scope Indonesia School
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The concept of continued professional development (or CPD) is
\nwell and long established in many countries. It has become so
\nmuch a part of professional life that many organizations, when
\nrecruiting, will quite naturally specifically look for a
\npotential employee's previous commitment to CPD. Companies have
\ncome to realize that one of their greatest assets is their human
\nresource and so they have become more circumspect in adding to
\ntheir human resources and they have entered into programs and
\nseminars that explicitly target human resource development.<\/p>\n
There is, however, a tendency for human resource development
\nprograms and CPD to be misunderstood and ultimately not taken
\nseriously enough. For example, a typical response or observation
\nregarding professional development might be -- that most people
\njust think of it as time off from work; and that they just do not
\nseem to think of it as an important part of their professional
\nlives.<\/p>\n
Sadly, this is not only a problem for companies based in
\nIndonesia. European-based companies too have similar experiences.
\nFor example, employees attending team-building retreats
\nconsistently look upon such activities with skepticism and the
\ngenuinely constructive experiences that they may have in learning
\nof greater teamwork are generally lost in practically child-like
\ngiggling. But gradually people in the West are becoming more used
\nto this kind of input into their professional lives and it is
\nhaving a more lasting beneficial effect.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, though, the tales of professional training and
\nimprovement programs often remain woeful. Many Jabotabek-based
\ncompanies utilize villas in Puncak as venues for their training
\nevents; but it is all too apparent that the \"trainees\" attending
\nthese events do not take them seriously enough.<\/p>\n
Again, often childish laughter and play is far more in
\nevidence than any serious concentration on learning and
\nprofessional development. Ultimately, such training efforts tend
\nto deteriorate into \"having fun\" events that may allow people to
\nget to know each other a little better but do very little for
\ntheir professional betterment.<\/p>\n
These kinds of weak training experiences are, then, quite
\ncommon amongst business companies. Perhaps this can be understood
\nbecause, after all, most of the people attending such workshops
\nand seminars are educated people already active in a field of
\nemployment and so some degree of complacency inevitably grows as
\nthey feel they have put learning and study behind them and, in
\nsome cases, they have left learning and education some years
\nbehind them. Of course, such complacency cannot really be excused
\nbut under such circumstances it can perhaps be understood.<\/p>\n
However, there are certain \"professionals\" in whom such
\ncomplacency can neither be excused nor understood or even
\nforgiven. Regrettably, though, education professionals are
\nequally culpable when it comes to being inattentive with, and
\npoorly committed to, continuing professional development.<\/p>\n
Many schools in Indonesia have shown their commitment to the
\ndevelopment of their staff by, for example, being willing to
\nprovide them with tuition in learning the English language. But
\nthis kind of commitment from the employers does not always meet
\nwith a positive response. One headmistress of a Jakarta school
\nnoted that \"if we left it as a voluntary and purely optional part
\nof a teacher's school time, I'm sure very few of my teachers
\nwould bother to attend. Because of this we have made it
\ncompulsory for all teachers to attend a minimum number of
\nsessions in each academic year.\"<\/p>\n
Compulsory training and CPD, then, becomes an option for
\nemployers to at least pursue better performance and skills from
\ntheir staff. However, by making it compulsory alone does not
\noffer any guarantee that results will be achieved and the staff
\nwill be maintaining higher and current standards. It is very
\nclear that employers need to monitor and encourage the
\nachievement of results from their training and developing staff.<\/p>\n
Again, examples of education professionals illustrate the
\npoint. When sent to attend a seminar given by an American speaker
\non the latest teaching methods and strategies for primary level
\nschool kids, a group of fifteen teachers showed disappointing
\nresults. Not one of them had managed to take notes during the
\npresentation and so any feedback from them was sketchy at best
\nand almost entirely anecdotal.<\/p>\n
They had, in effect, viewed the event as an escape from their
\ndaily teaching routines and even began the day with a mentality
\nthat questioned the validity of their attendance. One or two of
\nthem suggested along the way that \"this American's methods will
\nnot apply to us in Indonesia\". Both a sad starting point and a
\nsad end result here then.<\/p>\n
From another training event for teachers the Australian
\ntrainer gained an almost comical experience. The topic for her
\npresentation was \"strategies for working with and encouraging
\nproblem students\", but as it turned out it was not easy for her
\nto get her message across.<\/p>\n
The teachers were a problem and difficult to control. They
\nwould constantly chatter amongst themselves as she made her
\npresentation and by the end of the seminar she found that she was
\nactually applying some of the strategies she had worked out for
\nstudents on these \"difficult to control\" teachers.<\/p>\n
Some schools have made significant expenditures on their staff
\nby sending them to Singapore to attend conferences and build
\nrelationships with their counterparts in Singapore.<\/p>\n
But the return on this expenditure does not seem to be great.
\nStaff members return without being required to present and share
\ntheir experiences and so they may only pass on their experiences
\nthrough informal chats. Any useful documentation or observations
\nthat they may have collected in Singapore only remain in their
\npersonal possession rather than being shared and learnt from by
\nothers too.<\/p>\n
Clearly, then, professional people in Indonesia need to
\ndevelop a better appreciation for their own continued
\nprofessional development and indeed their shared responsibility
\nto develop as a team with other people.<\/p>\n
This kind of personal and shared commitment to development is
\nnot always easy to achieve but if it can be achieved its benefits
\nare, almost certainly, going to prove infinite. Sharing and good
\ncommunication multiplies effectiveness and to enhance schools,
\nand indeed any organization orientated towards quality and
\nimprovement, continuing professional development is an essential.<\/p>\n
The opinions expressed above are personal.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/continued-professional-development-must-be-advanced-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }