Ongoing professional development

Introduction

Topic 3 highlights the importance of continuing personal and professional growth. This includes:

• Current and emerging trends
• The importance of staying informed
• The value in being involved
• Engaging with your ongoing development

Maintaining a focus on what is happening in the industry and committing to sustaining ongoing professional development will ensure you are well placed to support your clients well now and into the future.

Current and emerging industry trends

In a globally connected world, it is important to think about the emerging practices that are being used in Australia and in other countries. Many countries experience similar issues, needs and conditions to Australia and have developed various approaches to providing community services to assist in meeting needs and managing issues.

Staying informed

In order to stay informed about current and emerging trends, you must actively participate in research. This may involve doing the following:

• Subscribe to industry-specific publications, journals, and newsletters that focus on community services and mental health. Examples include "Community Services Insights" and "Mental Health Today."
• Regularly read articles, research papers, and reports published in these sources to stay informed about the latest developments and trends in the field.
• Join relevant professional associations and organisations such as the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA), or Mental Health Australia.
• Utilise professional association resources, attend conferences, webinars, and workshops they organise, and participate in networking events to connect with industry professionals and stay updated on current and emerging practices.
• Enrol in continuing education courses, workshops, or webinars offered by reputable institutions, universities, or training providers.
• Attend conferences, seminars, and webinars that focus on community services and mental health to learn from experts and gain insights into emerging trends and research findings.
• Utilise online platforms and resources such as websites, blogs, and podcasts dedicated to community services and mental health.
• Follow influential professionals, researchers, and organisations on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to access their insights, articles, and updates.
• Engage in discussions and knowledge-sharing with colleagues, supervisors, and industry peers to exchange insights and experiences.
• Participate in professional networks, forums, and online communities dedicated to community services and mental health to connect with others and learn from their perspectives.

Legal and ethical requirements are another key element for consideration in maintaining currency. Due to the importance of legal and ethical requirements in the social services, you cannot use ignorance as an excuse for not meeting set standards. Therefore it is important that you regularly review and update, where necessary, any legal or ethical requirements that impact your day to day client service delivery or practice.

By actively researching and reviewing what is going on in the industry, you are more likely to be able to identify improvements you can leverage, address any skill gaps you may have, stay compliant and ensure that you are always providing your clients with up to date quality support.

Staying involved

It is likely that you will gradually develop particular areas of interest of your own during your career in community services, and you may decide to contribute to the knowledge base that exists within your sector. You can become involved in current and emerging developments in community services in various different ways, which will also allow you to continue to enhance your own ability to provide best-practice services.

Here are some ways that you can contribute to ongoing, sector-wide knowledge and skills development:

• Return to study and gain a higher-level qualification, then use that qualification to obtain a leadership or management position in a community services workplace.
• Write articles for a peak-body magazine or website that can be read by other professionals working in similar fields.
• Write a letter to the editor in response to an article that you have read in their journal or magazine.
• Participate in positive, helpful commentary and interaction in online forums or on Twitter or other social media.
• Train other workers in your organisation in particular specialist skills.
• Become a mentor for a less experienced worker.
• Deliver a workshop or poster presentation at a conference.

It is essential that you recognise best practice as a changing, developing concept. We do not simply achieve best practice in our work and then conclude that the job at hand has been completed. What represents best practice five years ago may not be the same as what represents best practice today or what will represent best practice in another five years. For best practice to develop across the community services sector, it is vital that you become an active, involved participant within your field of specialisation.

Think about what you have already learned, what you want to learn in the future and what you can do to contribute to ongoing best practice development. That way, best practice will continue to grow and change, ultimately leading to higher-quality service provision by individuals throughout the sector and for their clients.

Engage with your ongoing development

As a community services worker, ongoing professional development is something you should be dedicated to throughout your career. It is a goal that will make your work and interactions easier, less stressful and more rewarding, and it will enrich your work life as well as benefitting your team, your organisation, and the communities and individuals with whom you work.

It is easy to become so focused on the regular daily requirements of your job that you lose sight of your own professional need to keep growing and developing your skills. Work tasks can be very demanding in this sector, and the time and energy required to perform at meeting best practice standards can be taxing. It is important, however, to ensure that you maintain a productive focus on your own skills and professional learning needs.

In this module you have learned about many different ways to build your skills and knowledge in community services. Often, the challenge is not so much knowing what you can do to grow professionally but rather finding the time to be able to do it. Here are some quick tips that can help:

• Set aside five minutes a day, every day to write a ‘note to self’ about one thing that you can change for tomorrow.
• Watch someone else doing their job at least once a week, consciously observe the things that they are doing well and think about how you could apply these to your own work.
• Set aside a small percentage of your income each year to professional development that is aimed purely at building your own skills and knowledge in areas that are personally fulfilling.
• Participate in review processes such as employee reviews or 360-degree feedback sessions to help you to learn more about your own performance.
• With your co-workers, give and receive feedback on a regular basis.
• Be an active participant in team and organisation-wide meetings and events.
• Identify a time each week when you can read, learn and engage with the ideas of others – on websites, in magazines, through social media and in online forums.
• Apply once a year for a grant, some funding or other financial support to help you complete a new learning goal.

Even if you only select only one or two of these tips and commit to using them regularly throughout a full year, you will be surprised by what you will achieve by the end of that year. It is likely that you will find yourself in a quite different place compared to where you were at the beginning.

Lifelong learning

It is unlikely that you will enter a community services workplace with all of the knowledge and skills that you will ever need. Most people who work in this sector embark on a lifelong learning process in which they come to understand that learning is not something with a definite beginning and end point; rather, it occurs every day and changes to suit the changing needs of your clients, work team and organisation.

There will be times when you need to access further learning or to seek out particular knowledge or information from others. There will also be times when you need to carefully consider your own actions in relation to the legal and ethical requirements that apply to community services work.

As new research is completed and new models of service provision developed, you may need to modify your own work practices to suit these. One thing that is certain is that an ongoing commitment to learning will help you and your organisation to provide best-practice services for all of your clients. This is often referred to as lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning plays a crucial role in maintaining currency and having a fulfilling career for several reasons:

In today's rapidly changing world, where knowledge and information are constantly expanding, lifelong learning is essential for professionals to remain current, competitive, and engaged in their careers. It fuels personal and professional growth, empowers individuals to make meaningful contributions, and cultivates a sense of purpose and fulfillment throughout their professional journey.

Summary

In this topic, you learnt about the importance of continuing personal and professional growth as well as maintaining a focus on the industries current and emerging trends. This involved understanding the importance of staying informed and being involved in the narrative around the current and emerging trends in the industry. The value of participating in lifelong learning as part of your ongoing professional development was also established.

When you are confident you have understood the above topic, attempt the activity below. When you feel you have a strong comprehension of the module and have successfully completed each of the topic activities you may commence your assessment.

Good luck!

KNOWLEDGE CHECK: Activity 2: Post-development evaluation

Building on your last reflection task in Topic 2, conduct a final reflection focused on identifying personal and/or professional development opportunities by answering the following questions. Once completed, print a copy so that you may keep and refer back to it.

You may also choose to use this as a base for future personal and/or professional development planning or to compare to future reflection activities to see how you have changed, or not changed.

POST-DEVELOPMENT EVALUATION
NAME
DATE
DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY GOAL Identify a development opportunity goal you put in place earlier.
DID I COMPLETE THE DEVELOPMENT GOAL AS SET OUT? Assess whether you have achieved the development opportunity goal as outlined. Include your status against this and any parts you have or have not yet achieved.
HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THE GOAL IN ADDRESSING THE GAP? Did completing your plan/achieving your goal address the skill and/or knowledge gap identified?
NEXT STEPS. Identify the next steps in your development plan. These should be focused on the same goal/ gap unless this has been achieved. Alternatively this may relate to a new goal/gap where this has become apparent during activities for the initial goal.