Career Development
The Australian AOD sector is well served by quality conferences, training and workshops. However it is important to ensure that the training you attend is what you need for your present job or is building your skill base to meet your own professional goals. A good way to ensure this is to formulate a professional development plan.
Steps for creating a professional development plan:
Set goals – write down personal, professional and career goals that are specific, measurable and can realistically be achieved. Include long-term goals but be sure to incorporate short-term goals and monthly targets as practical stepping stones along the way. Your goals can be shared and arrived at with the help of your manager or can be personal.
Identify opportunities – identify any additional training, educational requirements or skills you need to meet your goals such as formal study, mentoring or joining a professional association/committee. When an upcoming conference is announced read the programme carefully to see if any of the presentations are related to what you want to achieve or learn about. By demonstrating that the conference is part of your plan your managers may be more inclined to allow you to attend.
Take action – record the actions you will take to achieve your goals in a written professional development plan. Here are some templates from other organisation which might help you get started.
Review progress – make time to review your plan. Re-evaluating your goals and actions as needed keeps you in tune with what you want to achieve.
A draft professional development template for you to amend to suit your needs.
More information
PARTICIPATE
- Churchill Fellowships allow you to design your own research project, travel the world and further your knowledge in your chosen field, before returning to make a real contribution to Australian society.
- DANA, ADFQ -Winter School, APSAD and ATCA all have alcohol and drug conferences. If you have something to share these conference offer a supportive environment to do so. Here is some help to: write a conference abstract [pdf - 197kB] and presentation tips [pdf - 306kB].
- Would you rather die than speak in public? Organisations such as Rostrum or Toastmasters will help you become more comfortable with public speaking.
- Consider writing a paper for a professional journal. If this is new to you then start by writing a short article for an AOD newsletter (try an AOD peak body). When you are ready look at this powerpoint [pdf - 144kB] by Peter Wenderoth of Macquarie University for tips to starting your paper.
READ
Reading professional literature be it books, journals or reports is a great way to keep up with the latest advances. If you are a member of ADCA you can borrow books and items from the National Drugs Sector Information Service. You can also visit the Drug database and view recent acquisitions. Visit the Professional Toolkit part of this site for more resources.
Subscribe to BioMed Central for free access to online journals such as Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy.
Short on time? Try Of Substance E-bulletins
Expand your reading to develop new skills:
- Volunteering Australia have a useful guide to Work effectively with culturally diverse clients and co-workers [pdf - 837 kB]. This learning guide is designed to assist you to develop the skills involved in working in an organisation which includes culturally diverse clients and co-workers. You don't have to be a volunteer to learn something from this great resource. Queensland Council for Social Service has produced some solid resources for Working effectively with interpreters.
- Respecting the difference- An Aboriginal cultural training framework - NSW Health [pdf - 822 kB]
WATCH
Who has time to attend a course on MS Word or Excel? Instead watch a video and learn how to use Word, Excel, One Note, Powerpoint and all the other Office applications. Visit MS Office Videos.
LISTEN
This itunes link will display a list of free podcast downloads on a wide range of alcohol and drug topics.
Page last updated: 24 Oct 2011