Personal Development Planning
In order to be successful in applications and at interview you need to be able to give good examples of your skills. You can fit an awful lot of activities into your time at University and it is important to remember what you've done and be able to show how your skills have developed. Our online PDP (Personal Development Plan) can help.
How does it work?
PDP is available through duo. Think of it as your own personal online diary where you can record your activities. Only you can see the entries, although you can choose to share them with friends if you want to:
- Write a brief description of what you did. Making sure that you include some thoughts on what you feel you learned from the experience. Did you enjoy it, or was it hard work?
- Think about the skills this activity helped you to develop. Use the skills tags already in the system, or add your own tags to the entry
Why should I use it?
- Employers want you to give examples of your skills when you apply for a job and this is a handy way of reviewing and selecting your evidence e.g. your best teamwork example.
- PDP encourages you to reflect on how well an activity went and what you learnt from it. This kind of self-awareness is exactly what employers are looking for. In fact, many employers will expect you to keep a personal development plan once you are working for them.
- If you keep your PDP up to date it is a really good way to spot the skills that you maybe haven't had a chance to develop. You can then do something about this to make sure that you will have an example to use by the time you get an interview.
- If you take time over your PDP you should be able to copy material straight across into application forms or your CV, which will save you lots of time!
Look for PDP in duo and have a go for yourself.
