Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is used across many industries all over the world and is considered the primary means by which professionals maintain and enhance their knowledge and skills. With the ever-changing face of VET, on-going CPD is essential to support practitioners in their current roles and assist them in maintaining a pathway of career progression.

The VET industry in Australia is one of constant change and reform. Once again, the requirements for trainers and assessors are set to change as the minimum qualification for working in the industry – the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is updated and integrated into the new TAE Training Package.

The Certificate IV in Training and Assessment means many things to many people. It can affirm existing knowledge and skills, provide the foundation for creating effective training and assessment practice or simple be a piece of paper to enable trainers to continue to work in the Vocational Education and Training sector. Whatever your reason, it is always important to remain current. When it comes to currency, trainers and assessors in the VET sector have dual competency requirements.

I continue to be amazed at how little preparation seems to go into presentations. Outside of our training and assessment space, I do get an opportunity to see a range of presentations via conferences and workshops and whilst the presenters tend to have good subject matter knowledge they seem to lack an ability to plan for an effective transfer of this. Therefore, I thought it was timely to share my seven easy steps for success when session planning.