Summary
This two-day career development program enables front-line employees to direct their own development in ways that maximize their value to their company and their satisfaction from their job and career. This program provides opportunities for participants to explore their interests and job competencies and prepares employees to communicate with their manager about their performance, talents and development interests.

Everyone is ultimately responsible for their own individual development and satisfaction. If we don’t manage ourselves, someone else will and probably not to our liking. Of course others can and do assist each of us by providing opportunities for advancement, by encouraging and mentoring us, by creating variety in the work place, by suggesting or providing educational opportunities or classes, etc. Certainly our agency and our managers or mentors play an important role in our professional development, but they can’t be of much assistance if we don’t do our part. It is in everyone’s best interest to work as closely as possible together so we all benefit from each other’s growth and learning, but most often we have to take the initiative and direct our own development. 

Course Outcomes
The overall purpose of this seminar is to assist participants in directing their own development and in preparing individual development plans. The seminar is designed to help them find more effective ways of gaining the experience and competence needed to make progress toward their goals, recognizing that their goals may involve increasing the satisfaction and rewards gained from their present position, building qualifications for advancement, or both. Specifically, the objectives are to assist participants in:

• Learning development planning goals, roles and responsibilities;
• Analyzing the factors that create satisfaction in their present work setting and planning for ways to increase the satisfaction they gain from their current position;
• Identifying opportunities in their present position and other steps that will enable them to make progress toward performance and development objectives;
• Completing a self-assessment on relevant competencies and preparing themselves for a development review meeting with their manager;
• Examining various ways they can take the initiative needed to increase their current and future job satisfaction and performance; and
• Preparing to reach agreement with their manager on their strengths and development priorities and to gain the support needed to carry out development plans. 

Guided exercises enable each participant to inventory their development needs and specific challenges and opportunities, identify key individual development goals, and build a unique Individual Development Plan (IDP) that enables them to identify ways they can demonstrate their readiness for development.