I can see a number of advantages to undertaking Revalidation early.
- Beat the rush, and in doing so choose your own Revalidation year. I'm guessing lots of us will be working to a calendar year, but is that the most convenient for you? Academic librarians may choose to revalidate over an academic year, with submission perhaps planned over the summer vacation. Let the choice be yours!
- If you submit prior to January 2016 then there is strong likelihood that your submission will be appraised. You will received valued and often very complementary feedback from staff in CILIP. This will give you confidence for future years, and may assist you in supporting your colleagues in their revalidation processes. Once Revalidation becomes obligatory then only a small sample of submissions will be monitored and appraised. So if you leave submission until 2016 then you may not get this personal touch of feedback.
- Early Revalidation is one further demonstration that you are a committed, enthusiastic and conscientious professional - someone who takes their personal development seriously. In the current turbulent job market this may serve you well and may just be the factor that places you above other candidates.
- In starting to plan for your Revalidation you will discover if you understand the submission protocols, if you have accrued the 20+ hours for the year, and if you can craft a reflective statement that cuts the mustard. The reflective statement is, for me at least, the most challenging aspect of the process. Reflective writing doesn't come easy; it's definitely a skill to practice and develop. An early start will take the pressure off you if you discover inadequacies in any areas. You will have time to seek help, to take further training, or to develop your reflective writing skills .
- If you have a development plan through you work then do use this in your Revalidation. This plan, or the discussion that went in to formulating it, will prove useful in providing an a priori statement of your identified development needs. If your work-based development plan doesn't meet this purpose then use the PKSB (Professional Knowledge and Skills Base), or similar framework, to map out a formal evaluation of your training and development needs. Updating this annually will help you to identify your development needs, and so spot, plan for, or create the development opportunities that meet these needs. It will serve you well, in providing you with a more structured approach to your CPD.
In the last week I have received the fantastic news that my Revalidation submission has been approved. And so I have a promise to fulfil: sharing my reflective statement more widely! I'm sure this isn't a top notch example, but at least it may inspire and provide confidence to some of you in that challenging task of turning a year's worth of learning and development in to a 250 word reflective statement. I hope that this assists and possibly inspires some of you!
Personal performance
Marketing and customer focus were identified priorities for development in 2014 - needs associated with new responsibilities delivering the Ministerial Decisions (MD) upload into the Library Management System, promotion of the Welsh Government (WG) Publications Catalogue (PC), and introducing a new corporate legal information subscription. Presentations at CILIP Cymru Conference and CLIC successfully marketed the PC to stakeholders and receive their feedback. I also developed effective dialogue with legal information service users: increasing training attendance, provide feedback to the product provider, and creating FAQs. These raised the profile of the Library Service but evidence for this was diffuse. On reflection upfront marketing plans with planned measures of success, would have been helpful.
Organisational context
The delayed delivery of the MDs demonstrates the need for project management (PM) for on-time delivery of information, especially where progress is dependent on others within WG. PM would have provided greater importance, a strict timeline, better resource allocation, and exception reporting / intervention mechanisms. I have learned that PM not only supports delivery through its structured framework, but comes with a perceived organisational kudos.
Wider professional context
GIG Committee work provided me with greater awareness of challenges more broadly within the government sector, especially shared service developments. Event attendance, together with professional reading, have provided wider understanding of professional issues from other sectors (e.g. Public and education sector libraries).
Marketing and customer focus were identified priorities for development in 2014 - needs associated with new responsibilities delivering the Ministerial Decisions (MD) upload into the Library Management System, promotion of the Welsh Government (WG) Publications Catalogue (PC), and introducing a new corporate legal information subscription. Presentations at CILIP Cymru Conference and CLIC successfully marketed the PC to stakeholders and receive their feedback. I also developed effective dialogue with legal information service users: increasing training attendance, provide feedback to the product provider, and creating FAQs. These raised the profile of the Library Service but evidence for this was diffuse. On reflection upfront marketing plans with planned measures of success, would have been helpful.
Organisational context
The delayed delivery of the MDs demonstrates the need for project management (PM) for on-time delivery of information, especially where progress is dependent on others within WG. PM would have provided greater importance, a strict timeline, better resource allocation, and exception reporting / intervention mechanisms. I have learned that PM not only supports delivery through its structured framework, but comes with a perceived organisational kudos.
Wider professional context
GIG Committee work provided me with greater awareness of challenges more broadly within the government sector, especially shared service developments. Event attendance, together with professional reading, have provided wider understanding of professional issues from other sectors (e.g. Public and education sector libraries).
Congratulations on such a good news and thank you for sharing your experience and how you reflected upon your work. This will surely help the revalidation for doctors abroad as well as in our country.
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