“Achieving Personal Success While Advancing Organizational Performance”
Computer Sciences and Information Technology
“Achieving Personal Success While Advancing Organizational Performance”
The professional development of IT personnel is a vital aspect directed towards enhancing quality and productivity among the employees. The management needs to ensure that the IT personnel are professionally and academically improved to enhance their capability to work due to additional skills and knowledge. Professional development entails the process where professionals are involved in getting and improving their professional credentials through getting informal learning opportunities, attending workshops and conferences, acquiring academic degrees and certifications related to their profession. The professional development needs to be implemented from well thought and developed plan. The plan needs to consider different vital factors, challenges, barriers to ensure that the plan can be implemented with ease in the interest of attaining the desired goals and objectives in their professions and organization. Equally important, professional development ensures that one is in a position handle all aspects of life such as social, political, cultural and economics that appear in the course of general operations. Professional development enables the professionals to fine-tune their skills and knowledge in their profession and it can be achieved by having a detailed and implementable plan.
IT Professional Development Plan
A professions plan needs to be implemented in steps and stages that are detailed and implementable. Applying the plan in steps ensures the success is steadily achieved by completing one process after the other. First, the plan needs to be implemented by assessing every member of staff to determine their strength and weaknesses in the course of their profession. Having the information on the strengths and weaknesses of the IT professionals ensures that the organization know the professional needs of their employees (Hayes and Robnolt, 2006). The assessment of the IT professionals is conducted by issues employees with self-assessment forms get information on values, personality, and skills. In the process, the person tasked with assessment needs to keep in mind the skills, technologies, career opportunities, organizational goals and objectives as well as short term and long term goals. Information on the professional needs of the employees enables the organization to enrol an appropriate plan founded on the professional needs of the IT personnel.
The second step of the professional development assessing the individual skill level of all the IT personnel to evaluate the individual professional development need. Every IT personnel need to be evaluated individually based on their work record, observations in the course of their operations to determine their skills. The IT professionals are observed for a considerable period noting their strengths, weaknesses and their success levels in meeting the organizational needs (Council, 2013). The gaps, inefficiencies and areas that need to be improved in their skills are recorded so that they can meet the organizational, goals, objectives and needs. Equally important, the IT professionals need to be individually evaluated and assessed from various categories that include Technical skills (skills needed to get the job done), social skills (how it personnel work with others), aptitudes and natural talents (the unique capabilities, and the ability to learn) and their attitude (the outlook, emotions, way of thinking and points of view). This approach enables an organization to determine the individual professional development needs and enrol the appropriate programs to attend to their needs.
The third step in the implementation the professional development is assessing the departmental and organizational needs. The success of professional development is highly dependent on the needs and interest of the staff members need to be addressed and applied in line with the organizational objectives (Stone and Coppernoll, 2004). The career path of the IT personnel needs to be aligned with the organization workforce needs. Therefore, the professional development plans need to feature different goals such as individual, team, and departmental goals. Therefore, the goals are aimed at ensuring that members of staff needs are addressed alongside those of the organization thus drawing a path for the implementation of professional development.
The fourth step of the professional development plan is to address the various development opportunities for IT personnel. The IT personnel need to be subjected to the most appropriate professional opportunities based on personnel needs and the effectiveness of the different methods. In this case, the IT professional can be enrolled in the Professional Development Academies. Professional Development Academy is tasked with the provision offering training programs and resources that staff (McTighe, Jay and Grant, 2004). The academy will offer long-term and short term training programs that are tailored to meet the IT personnel needs. Consequently, the IT personnel can be booked in seminars and workshop to enable them to sharpens their skills. The IT field is highly dynamic and thus the IT professionals need to be engaged seminars and workshop to update their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, IT professionals can be subjected to educational opportunities in colleges and universities that offer an IT-related course. Universities and colleges offer deferent courses that are directed towards increasing the knowledge and skills of the IT personnel thus enhancing professional development. Moreover, IT professionals need to be engaged in volunteer opportunities in other related organizations. The volunteer opportunities offer effective spaces and opportunities for members of staff to enrich their professional skills. The IT personnel get the chance to learn, implement and practice new skills. Finally, the IT personnel can be enrolled in mentorship programs to ensure they are subjected to several activities that are geared towards their professional development such as tutorials, shadowing and information interviews. Therefore, the IT professional can be subjected to different professional development opportunities to ensure that their knowledge and skill are enhanced.
Finally, the professional development plan needs to have a recording and analyzing session to evaluate and assess the progress in professional development. The management needs to collect feedback from the IT personnel on their progress in developing their profession (Oliver, 2005). This approach ensures that problems and barriers arising can be effectively and efficiently addressed in the interest of achieving the highest levels of success in developing their careers. The assessment is gathering feedback from members, recording and tracking the progress. In the recording, one records the impact of every step, expectations, events and date. Additionally, one needs to note the personnel application of new skills and knowledge, attainment of goals and objectives.
In conclusion, the professional development plan is conducted in parts that include the preparation stages, action stage and the review stages. These stages are further divided into five stages that include assessing the professional development needs, assessing the individual skill and knowledge, assessing the organizational needs in terms of the goals and objectives to be met, the implementation of various implementation opportunities, and finally conduct the progress recording and assessment. All the professional development plans need to sufficiently implement as they result in cumulated success in enhancing the professions in the information technology field.
References
Council, G. D. (2013). Continuing professional development. Online information available at http://www. gdc-uk. org/Dentalprofessionals/CPD/Pages/default. aspx (accessed December 2011).
Hayes, L. L., & Robnolt, V. J. (2006). Data‐driven professional development: the professional development plan for a reading excellence act school. Literacy Research and Instruction, 46(2), 95-119.
McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 1703 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA 22311.
Oliver, R. (2005). Helpant Principal Professional Growth and Development: A Matter that Cannot Be Left to Chance. Educational Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development, 17, 89-100.
Stone, B., & Coppernoll, S. (2004). You, Extension and success: A competency-based professional development system. Journal of Extension, 42(2), 4.
