I was in a department store last week and overheard a conversation between one of the sales assistants and her manager about career development. The sales assistant was expressing her desire to get on in the company, and was explaining the extra responsibilities that she had recently taken on and how she was enjoying the experience. Her manager replied that her enthusiasm was great, and that all she needed to do for her career was keep working hard as she was doing.

I was so annoyed I nearly interrupted her because I felt the managers advice was just plain wrong. I think staff development is a combination of hard work, continually increasing experience by taking on new work and studying for qualifications. Studying enables employees to stretch their own thinking about how best to perform their role, see links between their role and other parts of the organisation and identify how they can make a wider contribution and increase their career satisfaction.

I think the discipline of studying and gaining qualifications is so important that I don’t even think it always has to be directly relevant to the role that an employee is currently performing. Studying is about stretching the mind and developing an ability to analyse and process new information and draw conclusions. These are skills that are transferable in any role.

If this has prompted your own interest in gaining further qualifications, you might find the paper I have written about project, change, programme and risk qualifications of interest - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/whitepapers/

Let me know your thoughts