Personal Development Plan PDP

PDPs  A really straight forward way to start planning for your future success.  Also useful if you are working hard but feel you are not getting anywhere worthwhile. If you answer NO to any of these:  Have you thought about what you really want from life/your future?  Have you spent enough time planning?  Have you set yourself clear goals? If not then how do you know where you are going and if you are on track to achieve what you want from life?

Taking ownership  Ensuring you have time to think through your own ideas of what you may want to do in the future can really help.  Look at where you want to be, where you are now and plan the steps you need to take to reach your destination.  Goal setting is a powerful process of thinking about your ideal future.  It will help with motivating yourself (setting smaller goals to achieve along the way) – and celebrating these when achieved.  It will help you turn your vision or idea in to a reality.  You choose where you want to go in life.  Once you know this (or start to think through your ideas). You will know what you need to focus on and can identify and overcome potential distractions that could otherwise lead you off track and away from your goals.

Why do a PDP and set goals?  Every successful person has set goals for themselves it’s not just luck!  Setting goals gives you a long term vision and short term motivation.  It can help you focus on priorities and become more organised.  It can also help you recognise opportunities available to you (within college, through external groups and organisations, volunteer work, part time jobs and people in your own network).  Once you start to tick off smaller goals your confidence will grow and you will start to realise what you can actually achieve.

How to start – BIG PICTURE Goals are set on a number of levels  First create your “BIG PICTURE”. What you want to do with your life - maybe over the next years. Identify what you want to achieve in a range of areas: Career, Work, Relationships, Family, Hobbies, Friends and Learning and development.  Think about how you want your life to look  You could even create a visual poster to represent how you want your life to look – put it up at home so you remember what you are aiming for. Link to example posterLink to example poster  Make this as detailed as you want. You can even add a picture of the money you want to make, the friends you’ll have, the career you want, the skills you will gain and even the car you may want to be driving in 5 years.

How to start – Smaller targets Look at each of your goals in more depth and detail. Break these down into targets you must meet in order to achieve your goal. Example My Goal – To become a Nurse (OVERALL GOAL). (TARGETS) To do this you need to get a place at University, so look at the entry requirements – this can differ depending on University and year of entry – Keep up to date with this! - In most cases you will need to build a portfolio of a range of care work experience – you can do this throughout your course and extra volunteer work. - You need to achieve at least a C at GCSE Maths, English and preferably Science. - You will need to pass your course and achieve a set number of UCAS points (depending on the University you want to go to) - You need to prepare yourself for the recruitment process to get into University – what will they want you to demonstrate. THERE ARE MANY MORE THINGS YOU WILL NEED TO DO TOO – Take ownership of the research you need to do.

How to start – Smaller Targets  There will be a lot of smaller targets to achieve for each of your goals.  The PDP planner will help you to set these targets across the length of your course.  Remember at each stage – if you need help just ask. Staff members (not just your course tutors) can help you to link up with people who can help you.  Google is also useful and can help you to link up with people in your local area who have the same interests and goals as you.  It is a good idea to set out Key Milestones along the way – Like passing each of your Units, year of the course or course as a whole, or attending your placement – and picking up experience and skills.  Reward yourself each time you meet Key Milestones to keep you motivated.

Achieving your goals  You will then have clear overall goal(s) – BIG PICTURE (could be one or two options)  You have clear targets to achieve for each of these  These will be set to be achieved across the next few days, weeks, months and years.  NEXT STEP - TAKE ACTION  Start to work towards ticking off your targets and you will ultimately achieve your goals.

SMART TARGETS  Ensure all your goals and targets are SMART  Specific  Measurable  Achievable  Realistic  Timebound – with a time set to achieve them by.

Be Positive in your language  So instead of saying “I don’t want to be in a dead end job” say what kind of job you do want to be in and feel positive about it and think about how you can achieve this – what are recruiters looking for from applicants for those types of jobs and how can you develop those skills.  Or “I don’t want to fail my course” set a clear objective to “I will achieve Merits or Distinctions in my course”. Think about how you could get those Merit grades, do you need study skills support at college? Then set this as a target.

What you need to do  Start to think and research before completing any forms.  Think about that big picture and what you want from life  If it helps create a visual picture of what you want your future to look like.  Then start to think about how you can achieve your goals through SMART Targets.  Start to complete your paperwork.  PDP – Broken down by month visual overview planner and a more detailed plan.

For inspiration Visit the Employability Moodle Page Under: “Student Info” “Student Support” “Employability” Scroll down to “PDP and Goal Setting” section You will find templates for your PDP and PDP Overview of activities. There are also some other useful resources, especially for those who don’t know what they want to do next – you can take a personality test and a team roles test to help you determine your strengths as well as other useful tools. The forms you need to complete are over the next three pages – you must complete the first two forms – the third may help you to put your plans in to practice.

Essential – You must complete this form (two page document)

Essential – You must complete this form

You may also find it useful to break down your targets and sign off when complete (Optional)