Although school managers, teachers and support staff had access to various paper and web-based resources, they were not necessarily linked to one another. Some staff had an array of user names and passwords to access different websites, while other groups, such as childcare workers and supply teachers, had little chance to browse the courses offered in the prospectus sent to schools.

The authority’s CPD team has used the expertise of XPT Solutions, Learning Curve Software and Aberdeen University to provide a single web-enabled system for all school staff that will go live in August.

The cycle begins with the self-evaluation process using Pathways CPD, a software package which helps staff to assess themselves against an appropriate professional standard or set of competencies and then build up a personal training plan. They can search the CPD prospectus for links to training and development activities which match their action plan for the year and use the online booking system to apply for courses. The evaluation of CPD and its impact completes the cycle.

Some of the features of the package that have been best received during the pilot are the automatic generation of the induction year profiles for the General Teaching Council for Scotland, the prompts for a wide range of CPD activities, the ability to subscribe to email notification of relevant in-house courses and the amount of policy and curricular information in one site.

For further information, contact Gillian Brydson, the CPD education officer, email gillianbr@dumgal.gov.uk