Hi Andy, if you go to the CPD Tab and select "Get Mentor Feedback" you should then be able to create a CPD plan for set dates - for a DAP it's a good idea to include future dates, as any CPD is likely to be represented in the Career History - hope that helps.

Hi Kathryn Bain, are there any articles or webinars that can explain how to get the most from setting goals and an action plan in Career Manager. I'm not exactly sure how the best way of doing it is, so any advice would be appreciated.

https://engineering-jobs.theiet.org/careers/ - the E&T area has a great amount of articles about career and development, I think it's one of the areas that we don't talk as much about - and of course if there are articles areas you would like to see do let me or the team know and we can consider blogs around this area.

Thanks Kathryn for getting back to me, but I may have misled you with my question. I would like to know more about how Career Manager can be used for planning CPD i.e. how do activities, goals and plans all tie in with one another?

I've just gone in and had a look, I'll admit it took me a while to remember how it worked, and I agree, I couldn't find any guidance on it anywhere. (Not to say there isn't any, I just couldn't find it.)

However it is very easy (or very basic depending how you look at it).

• Your Goal is what you are trying to achieve, In IET Land e.g. "obtain IEng" or "obtain Fellowship", or in the day job e.g.  "achieve promotion to senior engineer", "be recognised as a competent Inspector"
• Then it makes more sense, your activities are individual tasks that move you towards this goal, so taking "be recognised as a competent Inspector" as an example, maybe "attend inspection training course", "obtain secondment as deputy inspector", "learn how to use the inspection test equipment" and so on 
• The Plan is (as I understand it) all this put together

Personally, and this is nothing specifically to do with Career Manager but just general career advice, I'd suggest Goals should typically be points you want to reach in not less then six months and not more than two years, and Activities are best planned to be within the next year (although they may complete later than that).

But don't get too hung up on which are which, it only really matters when you're trying to work out how to manage big goals - breaking them down into individual activities makes it easier to tick them off one by one rather than having one apparently insurmountable goal.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,

Andy

I've just gone in and had a look, I'll admit it took me a while to remember how it worked, and I agree, I couldn't find any guidance on it anywhere. (Not to say there isn't any, I just couldn't find it.)

However it is very easy (or very basic depending how you look at it).

• Your Goal is what you are trying to achieve, In IET Land e.g. "obtain IEng" or "obtain Fellowship", or in the day job e.g.  "achieve promotion to senior engineer", "be recognised as a competent Inspector"
• Then it makes more sense, your activities are individual tasks that move you towards this goal, so taking "be recognised as a competent Inspector" as an example, maybe "attend inspection training course", "obtain secondment as deputy inspector", "learn how to use the inspection test equipment" and so on 
• The Plan is (as I understand it) all this put together

Personally, and this is nothing specifically to do with Career Manager but just general career advice, I'd suggest Goals should typically be points you want to reach in not less then six months and not more than two years, and Activities are best planned to be within the next year (although they may complete later than that).

But don't get too hung up on which are which, it only really matters when you're trying to work out how to manage big goals - breaking them down into individual activities makes it easier to tick them off one by one rather than having one apparently insurmountable goal.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,

Andy

Ah right, thank you. It is starting to make sense now. The plan appears to collect the goals and planned activities that fall within the timeline of the plan.

I exported the report for the plan I'd made for 2024 and it contains the two goals I have in there and the activities for each.

As an example, it appears to work like this:

-------------------------------------------

Create a plan:

Become professionally registered, time frame 01/01/2024 - 31/12/2024

Add some goals:

Create a first draft application, due 30/4/2024

Add some planned activities:

Watch IET webinar on professional registration process, due 01/03/2024

Speak with a Professional Registration Advisor, due 28/03/2024

-------------------------------------------

If you then export that pla, it creates a nice report with all of the dates, goals and details etc that you can then share with a mentor or employer, for use in an appraisal or one to one for example. It is nice in that at the end of the period, if you add your reflections to the activity it will capture quite a lot of detail.

It is quite simple as you say, but not clearly documented.

THanks, this is useful feedback and I'll ensure we send it to the team to consider if we can provide additional guidance in this area.  Andy's points are on point, and I'm glad you found it useful.