News archive 2010

‘Challenges Faced by the CPD sector'

02 Feb 2010, PR 25/10

The first Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Forum gathering held under the auspices of Knowledge London, has been hosted by Custom Programmes, King’s Business at the King’s College London Strand campus. 

A group of over 20 senior CPD Executives from London universities such as Imperial, SOAS, Kingston, Royal Holloway and Middlesex, attended the event, which explored some of the major current and future issues faced by the sector. 

The group enjoyed a presentation by Dr Angus Hawkins, Director of International Programmes, Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, and a renowned expert in the growing field of life long learning.  Dr Hawkins’ talk explored diverse issues including the intricacies of funding, means of motivating academics to buy into CPD activity and the complexity of tapping into CPD opportunities on a national and international level. 

Demonstrating the efficacy of these analyses, Dr Hawkins then spoke of where and how to position CPD within university structures and explained how Oxford’s three tier approach has profoundly contributed to the success of CPD within his organisation.  The University is one of the largest and most successful providers of CPD in Europe.

After the presentation the event became a platform where the gathered CPD leaders exchanged individual ideas and experiences.  Participants were given the opportunity to share their insights and varying experiences which provided also an opportunity to share best practice and transfer sector knowledge. 

Tayyeb Shah, Head of Custom Programmes, and chair of the event, commented: ‘We hope this forum will become a regular place for those involved in Higher Education CPD and other forms of specialist teaching programmes in London, academics and professional services staff alike, to engage, network, share best practice and explore ways of working together. The fact it was held at King’s is testimony to our commitment to this form of activity and its importance in terms of Impact.’



Notes to editors

Custom Programmes
Custom Programmes is the new unit of King’s Business responsible for developing, professionalising and expanding the College’s short courses activity. The unit works with academics and departments to provide a complete turnkey service for the design, marketing and delivery of short courses and monitors such activity for the purposes of institutional returns and strategic direction. It oversees the development of projects such as the College’s Summer School, Summer Institute, Study India Programme and is currently developing King’s Executive Education as a brand for tailored and open courses for senior professionals working in both the public and private sector.

 

Academics interested in developing short courses should in the first instance contact Dr Cordula Janowski: mailto:cordula.janowski@kcl.ac.uk

Alternatively, please visit: www.kcl.ac.uk/cpd

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

Evening forums will held every other month featuring those involved in CPD from HEIs as well as from government and other relevant areas and are open to everyone with an interest in this area. For further information please email cpd@kcl.ac.uk

Further information
Public Relations Department
Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 3202



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