The Great CPD Escape

IfL Member John Parkinson, Education Manager for Lincoln College at HMP Ranby, illustrates the essential use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in prisons and how it has benefited his own learning experience and continuing professional development (CPD):

“Working in a prison, we have restrictions on the use of ICT. This has led to innovative developments and made our CPD all the more important.

Learning and skills in prisons have significant restrictions in the use of ICT which is where we differ to mainstream education providers; the use of email, internet and online experiences are mostly exclusively unavailable to offenders in many prisons.

Our CPD this year (and subsequent reflections on it), has helped us to drive forward opportunities for offenders to engage with technology without compromising the security of establishments. As a training prison, my key purpose is to provide offenders with the necessary skills and qualifications to find sustained employment on release, with the prospect that this will reduce re-offending - anyone lacking in these skills is often disadvantaged in finding employment.

I attended an event on the Virtual Campus, a web-based learning and resettlement system, which is intended to allow offenders in custody to search for training courses and apply for jobs. This system means that we can also bring a secure version of e-learning to those who currently don’t have access. The response from the team has been positive, in terms of improved resources for learners, but also the related CPD opportunities to develop their own teaching and learning techniques. I also attended the LSIS e-leadership initiative which brings together people responsible for delivering learning and skills in prisons and probation, to develop information and learning technologies (ILT) strategies and share good practice.

Through peer-to-peer review, colleagues demonstrated how resourceful they had been in finding and using available permitted technological resources to support teaching and learning. The impact for our team has been to further develop our ILT strategy and draw together key people responsible for its implementation. This CPD has not only guided my direction to improve the provision we offer but by sharing with colleagues, there has been a ‘ripple effect’ which has maximised the benefits of the experience.”

CPD Declaration

“Last year I used REfLECT to log my CPD. It took a little while to find out how to use it, however once I did the standard format was helpful. In particular, assessing every piece of CPD by the same criteria has made comparisons more reliable. This year I have updated REfLECT more regularly as opposed to entering CPD for a full year during July and August. Apart from the workload, which can sometimes tempt rushing the task, I was surprised and interested at how many I altered and adjusted them as my thoughts and reflection shifted over time.”