My first thought is it’s Wednesday! But I have learned about a useful feature of WordPress which is ‘scheduling your posts’. So you can schedule a post! Yay! It is apparently for people who can’t bear to be missed while they’re on holiday, or have a regular post they do (like say.. a Thursday Thought or Friday Film post, for example 🙂 ). So as I a) can’t bear to be missed, haha, and b) have a regular Thursday post, I am taking advantage of this useful feature.
I’m going away tomorrow, so won’t be here to post on the day. I’m off to somewhere I’ve forgotten for a work thing. Brenda my boss is picking me up and footing the bill for the hotel as we have this thing called ‘CPD’. Continuous Professional Development. The National Health Service staff all have it too, so Phil also goes through all this. It means that if you work in health matters, you keep doing training and courses all the way through your working life, so the public/patients/clients can be kept safe with your wonderful array of underpinning knowledge. Basically if you’re in the NHS you attend a course of some sort, in the learning facilities of the hospital, sometimes do a test of some sort, and then ‘reflect’ in writing, on how this will affect your practice going forward. For the NHS staff this is a complete bind, as they are already overworked and overstretched, (and underpaid). So , lots of them give up home time with the family and stick their heads in books, or online training, or writing, etc etc. For some, like Phil, CPD came into effect when they’d already been doing the job for 20-30 years, so being taught to suck eggs by a fresh faced ‘educational facilitator’ elicits Orc-like feelings, commonly known as ‘stress and bloody incensed’. But they still do the work, have to, in case they’re audited – their job depends on it.
In the Private sector, CPD is the same, but not. Your company pays for you to stay in a nice hotel, manufacturers give lectures on the tech of their latest products in a nice conference room and give out free notepads and pens with their logo on, and a choice of sparkling and spring water bottles free coffee and pastries at break time, and nice lunch provided. They’ll also pay for lush dinner out in the evening and sometimes that includes drinks, which is not a good idea really for my profession, they like a drink or two. Or several when it’s free. You still do the work, have to, in case you’re audited, your job depends on it.
I know lots of my colleagues will love the chance to get together and talk shop, it’s a nice break from the norm for them, independent private sector audiologists are usually one man bands, and the weekend training sessions with extra’s are a chance to be with their peers, and do a bit of networking. For me though, I’d rather be at home with my hubby.
I haven’t any new photo’s, but one of my pals says, if in doubt, do a cat, so here are a couple of pictures of my boys Herky and Yoyo, they’re both in the pet cemetery that is known as ‘the garden’ now, one day I’ll tell their story.
Fraggle's Otherverse 
I’m with Phil. They instigated compulsory ‘refresher training’ after I had been in the LAS for some years, later calling it Personal Development Training. Some lazy instructor who had got off the road to work in the classroom, justifying his rank, and earning twice as much, by telling you what you already knew, in ‘Newspeak’.
Later on, in the Met, we had to do it all via Online Learning Modules. Ticking boxes, and getting immediate scores. Those pointless exercises contributed to your annual ‘Personal Performance Review.’
At least you get the free night out, and the bags of ‘goodies’.
(I was told how to schedule posts by Olga, but have never done it…)
Best wishes, Pete.
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Glad the scheduling worked, 😊 the free night out was OK as it was free 😊 but so far no bag of goodies!
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Oh, love Herky and Yoyo…..in my last job we had to regular training but didnt get to go away, we’d just get tests and lectures with slides….one year it was all about polar bears and how we should be more likethem..there was even a slide of a polar bear with blood all over its face(I was working in a contact lens factory)…no one knew what that was about…the next year it was ducks and how we ere alll supposed to fly together in a V Formation(what?!)…all made up by a fresh faced ‘educational facilitator’ somewhere in the organisation…mad.
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So far no polar bears, bloody or otherwise, no V formation ducks either, but there is still time! 😊
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If needs be maybe reenact something yourselves! 😀
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Enjoy as best you can your CPD.
I too was with Phil (oh sooo good to be retired! Mrs J doesn’t do CPD but I still get the meals and coffee!!).
Cute cats. And…your blog post reminds me…ages since I did one 😔😔😔
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Cheers John 😊
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Us lawyers in the States have Continuing Legal Education. It varies how much you need to do depending on which state you’re in, but it really runs the gamut – free online courses to fun getaways. Unfortunately for us, we typically have to pay for them (or have our firms pay for them), so the fun getaways are not cheap.
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No this one isn’t cheap, my boss must be near enough spending £1000 for the weekend!
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Ouch!
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Pretty kitty! I have a lot of contact with some dentists over there, and it sounds like the NHS is slowly crushing them all. It’s making the practice of dentistry pretty miserable. Sounds like that is an across-the-board issue.
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I know, I am currently undergoing dental treatment and am worried my dentist feels that way! I’d rather she was happy when she’s digging about in my gob!
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