Background to the Development of SGDP

Personal Development Planning (PDP) has enjoyed mixed success since it was introduced in 2004. In 2008, a group of representatives from the students union, careers service, academic departments and learning and teaching services was convened to conduct a survey on current practice and explore ways forward resulting from the survey. A telephone survey of all academic departments was undertaken during the summer of 2008 which highlighted the following issues;

• PDP was seen as a ‘bolt on’ activity that fails to enhance programmes of study
• A lack of joined up thinking - PDP and the Sheffield graduate implementation were seen as very similar approaches but ‘competing’ with each other
• Students did not engage with the PDP process unless it was embedded within their programmes of study

However, student feedback (from those who had participated in the PDP process) indicated that they valued support for personal development and guidance in demonstrating how their skills, knowledge and experience were transferable. Where this was found to be most effective, the common factor was that the department had found a way to tailor their approach to PDP so that it fitted with the ethos, aims and importantly, the delivery of their courses. Nearly all departments were, in many cases, already engaged in promoting the Sheffield graduate, but that it wasn´t being made clear to students where this was taking place within their programmes of study.

The survey also found that there were several models of delivery in departments and that these frameworks could be used to better cater for individual departmental requirements. During the past year, support materials, resources and examples of good practice have been collected for academic departments to access via a dedicated website. Encouraging the sharing of resources and discussion forums is seen as valuable in assisting departments to embed their own practices.

The Centre for Recording Achievement has, for a number of years, been leading on developing good practice in this area and it has a wealth of materials from other institutions which can be used to support departments. A link to case studies provided by the CRA can be found on the right hand side of this page.

The Higher Education Academy also provides case studies, including materials sponsored or collated by its network of Subject Centres. You can access this material using the link at the top right of this page.