To help you when recording your CPD activities and the learning that results, we have created four different personas. We hope that these people provide an insight into the type of activities that can be counted as valid CPD.
For each persona, short reflections have been written for one or two activities. However, you may find reading all the examples useful as the writing styles are different in each, as are the types of activity being used as examples.
The personas are:
- John – a senior author in a large organisation
- Amira – a technical communicator in a small organisation
- Susan – a freelance technical communicator
- Martin – a technical communication manager
John, a senior author in a large organisation
John works as a senior technical author in a large organisation. He usually attends Technical Communication UK (TCUK), local area groups and takes advantage of training sessions offered by his employer.
As well as being a Fellow of the ISTC, John is a chartered engineer and must complete a minimum amount of CPD to maintain that status.
In the example CPD record created for John, you can see typical activities covering a two-year period, together with two short examples of the type of writing required to provide evidence of learning and an outline of other evidence he could provide.
Amira, a technical communicator in a small organisation
Amira is a technical communicator in a small organisation, where she has been working for the last four years. She cannot attend training courses or conferences. Over the years, Amira’s role has grown and she now produces all customer-facing information. Amira is currently investigating the use of a wiki to provide customer support information to internal staff.
Until very recently, she was the sole technical communicator, but she is now supporting a junior team member who joined the organisation last month.
In the example CPD record created for Amira, you can see typical activities covering a two-year period, together with two short examples of the type of writing required to provide evidence of learning.
Susan, a freelance technical communicator
Susan is a freelance technical communicator. She works part-time and cannot attend training courses or conferences, both for financial and personal reasons.
Susan has a lot of experience, and gets the majority of her work through recommendations. She usually works alone, but occasionally joins an existing team, either to provide an extra pair of hands or because she has some specialist skill. She works across a wide range of industries and enjoys the variety as she is constantly using techniques and tools that are new to her.
In the CPD example created for Susan, you can see typical activities covering a two-year period, together with two short examples of the type of writing required to provide evidence of learning.
Martin, a technical communication manager
Martin manages a team of technical communicators in the London office of a US-based firm. His time is split between staff management and project management. Martin’s people-management skills are regularly reviewed and he receives appropriate in-house training.
Before staff appraisal meetings, he reviews examples of work and discusses them during the meeting.
In the example CPD record created for Martin, you can see typical activities covering a two-year period, together with two short examples of the type of writing required to provide evidence of learning.