Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP)

Your investments of time and expense in professional development will be most effective when you know what you want (and need) to learn, and when you get involved in active learning activities that center on your own interests, needs, and goals. To make the most of the time that any professional has for continuing learning, it is highly advisable to create an Individualized Professional Development Plan, or IPDP.

IPDPs have been an integral part of Vermont’s public education system of teacher licensure for many years, and their application elsewhere in the field of early childhood makes perfect sense. Since no 2 people are identical in their interests, skills, or knowledge, no single plan for professional growth will work for everyone. Instead, the IPDP process offers you, as an individual, an effective means for designing a plan that can guide you toward your own goals.

The IPDP is more of a process than a single document. Guided by a framework for professional development, it becomes a personal plan for improving your knowledge and skills as you address 4 aspects of professional growth – each of which you continue to address, in an ongoing cycle:

1. Assessing your current interests, knowledge, and skills.
2. Identifying specific areas for improvement.
3. Developing strategies and resources.
4. Creating opportunities to reflect on and demonstrate how you have grown professionally.

You may get additional information and resources through the Northern Lights Career Development Center.