5th September, 2010
On first viewing there can seem to be an almost overwhelming number of sites dedicated to learning and development. Getting a clear view of those that are of use and those that will not give you much of an insight into tools and techniques or your own learning and development is a real struggle. So we would like to use this site to provide a few pointers to one or two well respected sources of information plus would welcome feedback from anybody using this site as to whether they think those sites were valuable and more importantly actually provided a useful resource and would recommend it to others.
Without a doubt the Chartered Institute of Professional Development (CIPD) is a prime source for information and ideas and programmes on learning and development.
If you want to get involved in a more interactive framework and meet fellow professionals across a range of industries you could start by joining the Learning & Skills Group (which has many sub-groups and social groups allied to it based around topics such as Social Learning Group, Assessment and groups drawn from a particular part of the industrial landscape such as central and local government. There is also a sub-group on Learning and Development in Broadcasting set up by the BETR. If your interest is broadcast industry specific and you want to have a dialogue with like-minded professionals on L&D issues in the industry as well as make a contribution to the Learning and Development Conference in October 2010, why not join the linkedIn group that BETR has set up.
As for courses, two good places to start are the BBC Academy website and Skillset.
Finally take the test and do a self-assessment of your organisations capabilities in learning and development by using the BETR Self Assessment tool on the web. Using this tool you can have a look at how well you measure up against industry norms and high performers and we hope might encourage you to help your organisation improve its performance.
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