Recording Skills Development in LIS Work - Session Review

This session by Alan Brine outlined a current project developed by LTSN-ICS at Loughborough University looking at how tools for recording skills development in another profession (the RAPID database for engineers) could be adapted to use for LIS students; CILIP Chartership Candidates; and CILIP Members for use in recording their CPD.

This is particularly relevant at a time when current Chartered Members of CILIP must all be deciding: a) whether they're going to opt in to periodic revalidation of the Charter (see earlier article by Watson & Huckle in this issue re) and; b) if so, how best to go about planning, evaluating, recording and evidencing their CPD so that when the time comes to submit their application they have all the materials to hand that they need to do so.

While the majority of the delegates attending this session were Chartered it occurred to me that if the question asked had been extended to 'And how many of you also currently consistently log your CPD in any manner' a lot of hands, including my own, would have promptly been taken down.

The ILS Skills Portfolio which LTSN-ICS developed to aid the recording of CPD (or, to give it it's full title the Recording Skills Development for Information and Library Skills Portfolio) can be viewed at http://www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/ILS/recordingilsskills.htm

Approaching this from a practical point of view of a solo one-person library department in a commercial environment I found the ILS Skills Portfolio to be rather too academic for my liking, and it didn't assuage my major concerns about the sheer amount of time and paper that could have to be involved in such things or what happens where things are not easily adaptable into evidence (do we all start writing up things we just 'did' before so that we have a bit of paper that outlines it and is this really a good use of our time; even if we do, how can we guarantee that such an approach is always going to be objective self-assessment).

The ILS Skills Portfolio does allow you to assess and develop your skills and to evidence this, and it's structure around the key processes of: Survey; Plan; Execute; Evaluate; Document is necessarily cyclical and a useful way to think about skills development for a strategic purpose - 'what am I seeking to achieve here and why and how far have I accomplished my objectives, and do they satisfy the aim I had in mind' etc. - which is what personal skills development is all about.

The ILS Skills Portfolio is split into consideration of:
Key Skills (from the Qualification and Curriculum Authority key skills)
Personal Skills (generic skills)
Professional Skills (skills specific to LIS)

Within these area's are listed specific skills and competencies e.g. Time Management under the Personal Skills section and boxes allow you to tick your level of competence against various outlined levels from 'Start of ILS Degree' to 'Working towards chartered membership' - which is currently the highest level. As obviously anyone using this for revalidation is beyond that level... perhaps this could do with a bit of re-thinking.

The Portfolio allows you to match your skill level against a number of example statements for the different levels and explains their meaning and includes sections for giving supporting evidence and location of that evidence. The examples on what type of learning event constitutes evidence for what level are useful; as is the ability to draw up Action Planning for remedying perceived gaps in practice found through use of the Portfolio, which can then be entered into the Portfolio to up-date the information on that skill.

All in all the session was interesting; however I feel that anyone who opens something up for the first time and notes the over hundred pages of it is going to be put off (even though there's no need to fill in everything applicable all at once as it's a continuing tool). There's a lot of reading involved; there's a need to cross-reference (at least until you know the Portfolio structure fairly well); the categories are, naturally, going to be more user-friendly to some types of jobs than others. My own feeling is that it's currently a better student tool than it is for a continuing professional.

Have a look and see what you think!

For those currently interested in the ever varied world of Revalidation mechanisms elsewhere also worth looking at are:

Australian Library and Information Association CPD Scheme
http://www.alia.org.au/education/cpd/guidelines.html

HM Prison Service Nursing Portfolio
http://www.doh.gov.uk/prisonhealth/pdf/nursingportfolio.pdf

Isabel Hood
Joint Honorary Editor, Impact