How do we decide what professional development is right for us?

“If we are not sure about the value and benefit to ourselves of undertaking CPD – how can we expect others to make that link?”

When thinking about the content for this blog I started reflecting back on some of the conversions I have had with music leaders from the West Midlands region over the past twelve months, there have been a number of common themes.  One of those is recurring themes is access to, and use of information.   There is so much information available on the internet, so we all know it’s very easy to get information overload! 

Obviously you can use the MusicLeader website [and that has a handy search function] but those discussions with music leaders raised an interesting point for me.   My inbox is inundated daily with newsletters I have willingly signed up to, in order to keep me up-to-date with all things music leading, not to mention all the booked-marked websites on my internet browser that I try to visit regularly.  But sometimes it can just get a bit too much to actually take in.  So how do we fight our way through this information jungle?

We have to have access to information, and there are numerous ways to access information, whether that’s on or offline.  However, for me there are two questions which really help me decide whether to proceed with accessing the information... Why do I want that information? And furthermore what am I going to do with the information when I find it?  If the answer to either question leaves you scratching your head then it’s worth doing a bit more digging. 

Read my next blog to follow the digging...