Find Work-Life Balance, Progress Your Career & Take Your Next Step
Personal Development & Enrichment
As part of our formal curriculum, here at NTG we offer all students information, advice and support through every stage of their personal learning journey and beyond.
Your Personal Development Journey at NTG
Career Development
Where to next? You have the potential to aspire to any career, you just need a plan…
Professional Skills
Learn to become an articulate communicator, master the art of leadership or become a PowerPoint Pro – there’s no limit to the number of skills you can master…
Health & Wellbeing
Climbing the ladder can be hard work, so don’t forget to rest! While you study with NTG, your tutor will help to equip you with strong skills in health, wellbeing and mindfulness that are essential for everyone.
Career Development
What is Career Development?
Career development is the process you go through to progress in your chosen occupation. It involves planning, training and goal-setting.
Professionals will often have the next stage of their career in mind, for example, they may hope to be promoted to manager of their team or department.
Having a clear plan for professional development will help you progress and move forward to obtain better prospects, earnings potential and a wider scope of responsibilities.
What Does Career Development Involve?
There’s a multitude of paths you can take to develop your career. Sometimes you will work closely with your current employer to craft a personalised plan together.
You and your manager will work together to decide how your personal goals can allign with the needs of the business, then together you can look into the courses, training, mentorship and more that might be needed to obtain that goal.
Unfortunately, sometimes employers do not see the value in staff development, and you may need to design your own career development plan.
Through this route you may look into self-funded study, reach out to mentorship programmes or local professional development groups.
The Stages of a Career Development Plan
Self Assessment
Undertake an analysis of your current position. Review strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Make a list of your current skills and those that you lack, take stock of your personal passions, talents and wants – and finally, don’t forget to prioritise your personal needs.
Set Goals
Goals should always be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Timed. Creating goals that you can regularly review will allow you to monitor your progress and keep yourself accountable.
Create Actionable Steps
Now it’s time to get your career ducks in a row! Pop those SMART goals in your calendar, and break them down further into the specific steps you need to take to achieve them – the more steps you can break your goals down into, the better.
Get Going!
They say “there are 7 days in a week, and ‘someday’ isn’t one of them. Your career progress relies on your willingness to get started and stay motivated, so this may be when you require support, mentorship and perhaps even an accountability partner.
Refine & Review
Mark dates in your calendar for regular reviews of your progress along your career development plan. Do you need to change your timescales to something that fits around changes in your life? Did something you learned along the way change your perspective about what it is that you really want? Don’t be afraid to make changes, just don’t let it halt your progress.
