This year's theme is: 'Shaping the Future'Although not an IET initiative, the annual Learning at Work Week provides an opportunity to promote work based learning and opportunities to work, so I thought I would write a blog about some of the opportunities available for informal learning as many of our members undertake work based learning rather than the more traditional training courses or lectures (although these do have a places in CPD, they're only 1/6 of the potential activities available).


Any number of day to day activities can involve learning, especially if you are doing something for the first time or working closely under the supervision of a line manager or mentor.  Examples could include:

 

• Talking to suppliers, customers or specialists and working with them to determine their technical requirements

• Secondments and job rotation

• Job shadowing

• Preparing and presenting reports or giving presentations to external customers, colleagues or clients.

As you develop in more senior roles, sharing your own experiences in terms of mentoring or coaching others of providing supervision or management requires a different set of skills that can also contribute to your CPD as well as giving back to the engineering community and managing other resources can also support project management skills development or consolidate training through courses in this area.


If you, or your workplace, are involved in Learning at Work Week, do let us know how you are getting involved in the comments below and it may spark someone else's inspiration for their own CPD.