Producing a Personal Development Plan

News of the Enhanced Learning Credit has raised the profile of Personal Development Plans (PDPs), because any learning for which it is claimed must be part of a PDP. PDPs have been around for some years, with some Personal Development Records (PDRs) including guidance on creating a PDP and most professional societies requiring Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain membership.

There are many ways to creating a PDP, and each person should choose the method that suits them best. The RAF PDR currently suggests using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to develop the PDP. This is a very valid method, but it requires self-analysis to use it effectively, and some Service people are not good at this; they are more inclined to accept the analysis of others (usually the boss) and would prefer them to decide their PDP. However, the key point is that the PDP has to be personal.

Another idea is to use a skills framework, sometimes called a maturity matrix, which analyses people’s skills and highlights the gaps. This enables a PDP to be devised by filling the gaps in the framework. The matrix is a grid of skills against roles and the individual grades their achievement on a scale of 0 to 3 where:

Level 0 – No Contact – No knowledge or appreciation

Level 1 – Awareness – Understand key issues and ask relevant questions

Level 2 – Knowledge – Detailed knowledge of subject and can provide advice

Level 3 – Expert – Extensive practical experience and applied knowledge.

The grid must be used honestly, and advice from others may be useful. Roles should not be thought of as equating to rank levels: a Sergeant may well be a decision-maker in certain contexts and a junior rank could manage a project; a senior officer may have little experience of a supervisory role, but significant knowledge of what it entails. The top four skills are needed to some extent by everyone; the rest may or may not be relevant to the individual. The last skill – specialist – relates to specialist areas relevant to that individual, and some people may include several specialist skill areas.

The grid gives guidance as to what each cell entry means, and the two example grids reproduced here are for a senior officer and an NCO. These are just intended for guidance; your own grid will probably be completely different.

A senior aircrew officer who has also worked in the procurement of aircraft equipment:

This officer is well developed in the leadership and decision-making areas, but may benefit from more experience or training in project management. They could also enhance their IT skills and gain some more knowledge of finance and budgets.

A NCO working in the technical areas, mainly with radar:

This NCO shows strong supervisory expertise, as expected, but also significant leadership and management skills. Their project management knowledge and IT skills could be developed through training, but their development plan should include some work on contracts, finance and budgeting.

Creating the PDP

An honest matrix shows general strengths and weaknesses. Before creating the PDP, some people may wish to further develop this process by carrying out a SWOT analysis, using it as a starting point. Others may wish to go straight to a PDP. Whichever way is chosen, major skill gaps should now be obvious.

The first question is the importance of filling these gaps quickly. Will the gap prevent you doing your job, or getting a new one? If so, this will become a short-term goal. If the officer above assesses that his lack of IT skills is likely to give immediate problems he might wish to remedy this within the next year. The NCO may be happy with his current skills but knows that promotion may require more understanding about finance and budgeting, so these may become medium-term goals to be achieved within the next three to five years. If long-term interests lie in the IT field, they may wish to gain more suitable qualifications within eight years.

Other factors will affect the plan, such as current qualifications, promotion requirements, or entry to a particular employment field, such as health and safety qualifications. A desire to switch to a totally different field of work will require a PDP oriented towards that outcome.

Start with immediate needs for the job, and personal aspirations. Check that they are reasonable; assess how long they will take and set some deadlines. Get advice from friends, line manager and advisers such as the Education Officer or Personal Learning Adviser.

Look ahead to see what comes next, perhaps for a future job change or for promotion. Set realistic timescales, bearing in mind other commitments (family, detachments, workload).

Long-term goals should be based on where the individual wants to be in, say, ten years’ time. These could bear no relation to current employment, but goals should be reviewed regularly to check they are still relevant.

PDP layout can take many forms, but it should include why the development is needed and some indication of timescale. Short-, medium- and long-term goals divide the plan neatly and make timescales easier to set. A PDP for the NCO above might look something like this:

The detail in your PDP is up to you, but it should guide where you need to be going in life and in your career. There are many people, within the Services and outside, who will help with this planning, and their advice should not cost you anything.