With the UK basking in unusually hot weather and the school summer holidays beginning, learning and development might not be the highest priority on anyone’s list at the moment. However, we are now over halfway through the year, so it may be time to think about where you are with your CPD requirements.
In previous articles we have looked at regulatory CPD requirements and how to design an induction programme – these are a solid foundation to your learning, but where do you go from here?
Before undertaking any training, it’s useful to get to grips with your current level of understanding of a particular topic.
What do you know and what don’t you know? What do you need to know?
By identifying the ‘gaps’ in your knowledge – via gap analysis – you can assess your current level of understanding and identify areas you need to work on to achieve competence in your role. From a business perspective, this is very important, as staff who are not competent in their role could pose a risk and this might result in a complaint. Having oversight of any knowledge gaps across your business therefore makes sense. A gap analysis is also useful in allowing a business to understand where energy needs to be spent on employee training.
The Aviva Development uses this model to assess progress and establish an individual’s baseline knowledge. The model has four key steps:
Gap Analysis > Learning Material > Gap Revisited > Reward
Studying the learning material involves improving knowledge and the reward element evidences that learning has taken place – which is useful information for a CPD record.
The gap analysis approach may be particularly useful following the disruption caused by Covid-19. Understandably, CPD may not have been a main focus for many during these difficult times, but its vitally important that those working in financial services get back on track, identify any gaps in their knowledge and keep up to date with their training and development.
Don’t forget that part of the requirements of the IDD are that staff need to complete a minimum of 15 hours of CPD each year, across eight core competencies. During the pandemic, the regulator still expects firms to continue to demonstrate that relevant individuals remain competent to carry out their work.
