UQ has signalled it’s serious about addressing the continuing professional development needs of the Australian workforce with the launch of the new UQ CPD website.
The Centre for Innovation in Professional Learning (CIPL) has drawn together providers of CPD short courses across the University in the one place for the first time.
The site was launched yesterday as part of UQ’s annual Teaching and Learning Week celebrations.
Established in 2009, CIPL acts as a reference point for government and professional groups who wish to tap into UQ expertise – typically in the form of professional development short courses. The centre also conducts important research into sector and workforce change.
CIPL Director Professor Robert Hendy said UQ drew on the strengths across its schools, faculties and institutes to provide professional development opportunities in areas as diverse as engineering, business and healthcare.
UQ CPD providers include the Corporate Education Unit from the UQ Business School, the Institute of Modern Languages and the Sustainable Minerals Institute.
Professor Hendy said professional development had become a core business for the University in recent years.
“It is important that we have a website that allows corporations, professional groups and professionals to engage with the diverse set of CPD short courses offered by providers across the University,” he said.
“The recognition of challenges facing today’s workforce – to reshape and reorganise their workforces to respond to complex problems – is a trend recognised by UQ CPD providers, who shape their offerings to address these issues.”
Professor Hendy said continuing professional development students were different from other cohorts in that they had a existing body of knowledge, and needed to articulate new learnings into their professional lives quickly.
“More and more people will have two, three or four careers during their lifetimes, and so a formal, ongoing commitment to develop one’s ideas and skills is becomingly increasingly attractive,” he said.
To explore the CPD offerings at UQ, visit www.uq.edu.au/cpd
Media: Professor Hendy (07 3346 3423, r.hendy@uq.edu.au) or Cameron Pegg at UQ Communications (07 3365 2049, c.pegg@uq.edu.au)
