Introducing the Learning and Professional Development Centre

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Posted on 11 December 2012

Introducing the Learning and Professional Development Centre

Formed in 2011, the role of the LPDC is to provide a useful and timely suite of staff development support focused on the skills and knowledge any staff at Keele need to successfully do their job.  We also provide a series of bespoke courses for postgraduate researchers and encourage them to attend any of the offer we make if it adds to their existing training programme. With more than 1500 salaried staff and more than on hundred different job roles, providing for the variety of professional development needs at any one time is a complex business. We use a range of data sources to ensure that what we provide is going to be relevant to the most people and that our offer is up to date.

Staff at the Centre hold a range of professional qualifications; from PhDs and Masters courses through to MBTI training and coaching qualifications. As you might expect, we take our own and your learning and professional development seriously. We view personal and professional development as career-long support for each member of staff as they adapt to new roles, new technologies and other changes in the work environment.


Meeting priority needs

We link our staff development offer closely to the strategies and developments in the University. For example, this semester we’ve been running a series of Google support sessions with colleagues in IS Services. We also piloted a new approach towards customer service training linked to the Student Charter working with colleagues from Marketing and from Student Services. As a result, from January 2013 we’re launching new open workshops on Delivering Excellent Service that will be available centrally and on request to a specific team or service.

 

More than workshops

In 2011-12, the LPDC ran more than 280 central workshops and co-ordinated more than one hundred other briefings, events and training activities. We do however do much more than that. We offer a range of accredited and recognised learning courses in collaboration professional bodies and external training providers. These core skill and knowledge development courses include topics of teaching and supervision, leadership and management, business administration and customer service. We’re currently accepting registrations of interest for the postgraduate certificate in teaching and learning with technology which will re-launch next semester after a revision process to bring the content and delivery up to date with contemporary issues.

 

We offer support on request to team leaders and managers, attend and contribute to away days and team development days. We create guidance and support documents for use across the University, on diverse topics including peer review of teaching, working with long documents, using the virtual learning environment and providing student feedback. The Centre disburses funding each year to support teaching innovation projects and co-ordinates the annual Keele Excellence Awards for Learning and Teaching. These form part of our agenda to share good practice and innovation across the disciplines and Schools. We also use produce publications such as Teaching Highlights and co-ordinate the annual Teaching Symposium to share and practice.

 

Learning by doing and learning with others

We are currently developing resources to enable online learning for key aspects of provision around some core policies and practices and around using Microsoft Office. For some people this is a preferred way to learn however we know from your feedback that for many, real additional benefits accrue from learning and sharing in workshops with colleagues with different experiences from diverse areas of the University.

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It’s not all about coming to the Centre or attending a formal event. Learning on the job, through trial and error, and with the support from our colleagues around us is key to successfully developing in role. Keele has a well-established approach to offering local mentoring, for a variety of purposes. These include as an ‘induction buddy’ for new staff, to enhance leadership skills and for those new to teaching, to research and in professional and support areas. This year, we’ve developed mentoring guidance for those involved – and obviously we’ll be running some workshops on the topic in the new year to bring people together to learn with and from each other about mentoring practice.

Please take a look at our webpages – www.keele.ac.uk/lpdc - or contact any of us to find out more about the support and services we offer. Wishing you all best wishes for your professional development in 2013 -  we look forward to working with you.

 

Dr Jackie Potter

Head of Learning and Professional Development

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