Have the back-to-school ads got you thinking about heading back to class yourself? How will you choose what and when you’ll learn?
Back to school tips
- Use the Competency Profile for Alberta Pharmacists to identify what areas you need to brush up on. We all tend to overlook our own shortcomings, so the Profile is a great tool for objectively assessing your skills. You can assess your skills online as the first step of the Continuing Professional Development Plan process.
- Use your Continuing Professional Development Plan to help you design, track, and evaluate your learning. What? You don’t have a plan? Well, that’s easy to fix. Login to your registrant profile and click on CPD Plan to get started. The Plan walks you through self-assessment, planning your learning, documenting your learning activities, and evaluating your progress.
- Start now. Avoid the panic at registration renewal time. Spread your learning throughout the year and track your accomplishments in your CPD log as you go. Then, when chaos is swirling around you in May, you can sit back, relax, and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back!
Do you need a few more reasons for hitting the books? Here are 13. A study revealed that adults have an intriguing mix of motivations for returning to school.
- Personal sense of accomplishment (a benefit perceived by 81% of adults).
- Learn about things that interest me (78%).
- Earn a higher income (71%).
- Change to a different career/industry (65%).
- Become an expert in my field (59%).
- Be a better role model for my children or other youth (58%).
- Do my job better (55%).
- Gain respect at my job (49%).
- Overcome disadvantages I have experienced in life (49%).
- Gain respect from family and friends (48%).
- Advance within my company (48%).
- Start or expand my own company (41%).
- Have a greater positive influence in my community (39%).
Originally published in the August 21, 2012 issue of The Link
