Professional Development Plan

Through a structured process, doctoral students review past and current learning, and plan and take responsibility for their path to a PhD and beyond, towards research leadership.

Prepare

Referring to the PDP format, each facilitator prepares a short presentation (maximum five
minutes) on the main steps along their own career path.
Prepare a short introduction to explain the role and value of a mentor to the whole group.
In consultation with colleagues, assemble a list of potential mentors for your group of students.

Resources

Share this PDP template with students. Alternatively, design or access another template.
Reading for facilitators:

Outcomes

By the end of the session, students can:

identify their long-term ambitions and the steps necessary to achieve them
develop their own personal development plan

Steps

Time	Step	Who
20 minutes	1. Present: My own career path	Facilitator/s to full group
40 minutes	2. Develop a PDP	Individual students
20 minutes	3. Discuss and compare PDPs	Students in pairs
20 minutes	4. Describe partners’ PDPs	Whole-group discussion
20 minutes	5. Present: What is a mentor?	Facilitator to full group
Afterwards	6. Match students with mentors	Facilitator/s
Ongoing	7. Review and revise PDPs	Individual students

Step 1. Present: My own career path
20 minutes
Each facilitator takes a turn to present their own career path as an example of the logic of a PDP. Demonstrate (for instance) how a particular step early on was necessary to enable you to reach a later ambition, or how missing an important step slowed you down or required a detour.
Step 2. Develop a PDP
40 minutes
Each student answers the questions in the template to create their own PDP. They define their immediate and long-term ambitions and identify what knowledge and experience they will need in order to achieve these ambitions.
Step 3. Discuss and compare PDPs
40 minutes
Each student answers the questions in the template to create their own PDP. They define their immediate and long-term ambitions and identify what knowledge and experience they will need in order to achieve these ambitions.
Step 4. Describe partners’ PDPs
40 minutes
Back in the full group, students take turns to describe their partners’ ambitions and offer helpful suggestions to their partner or ask questions. Allow a maximum of 3 minutes per turn.
Step 5. Present: What is a mentor?
20 minutes
Give a short presentation to the full group on the concept of a mentor. You might use your own experience to explain why a mentor is important for personal development. Invite students’ questions and comments.
Step 6: Match students with mentors
Afterwards
Bearing in mind the students’ own ambitions, contact potential mentors and, if they agree, match them with students.
Step 7: Review and revise PDPs
Ongoing
Encourage students to revisit their PDPs after the session, and then annually or more often. They may find it useful to work together in pairs or as a group to do this. Encourage students to schedule their future PDP review.

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