Professional Development

Professional development refers to your ongoing commitment to ensure that your skills and ability to do your job are always relevant and up to date. Some people use professional development to stay current in their present job; others use professional development to gain promotions within their industry. Whichever you choose, it is imperative in today’s workplace to continue to grow and develop professionally.

Professional development opportunities vary from occupation to occupation and employer to employer. Here are some factors to consider: - Some industries regulate and provide professional development for their members, such as doctors, lawyers, and speech pathologists. - Some associations provide optional professional development opportunities for their members at a cost; for example, administrative assistants and marketing specialists may have to pay for part of their education or training. - Some companies pay for professional development courses for their employees. These companies may or may not require a service commitment in return.

To discover the opportunities and support that is available make inquiries with your employer. The company may be willing to subsidize any one of the following forms of professional development:

One-day courses on a specific topic
Conferences (local and out of town)
Workshops and/or seminars
Formal educational opportunities (credit subjects, degrees, diplomas, etc.)
Sabbaticals (permitted leaves from work to pursue training and development)
Exchanges (switching jobs with other employees internally or with another company).

Resources

The Encyclopedia of Associations

Job-Seeker’s Glossary of Key Job-Hunting, Career, Job-Search, and Employment Terms

National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Professional Development Page

Govtjobs.com

Humanmetrics

USAJOBS

HOUSING RELATED OCCUPATIONS

This heading is divided into three sections: occupation category; a summary report of each applicable occupation under that category; and additional resources.

The career opportunities in housing related occupations are many and varied. For your convenience, this section and each of the occupation categories are linked to the U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics online version of The Occupational Outlook Handbook. The Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide a valuable assistance to you in making decisions about your future work lives. You will receive information and guidance on: - The training and education needed. - Earnings. - Expected job prospects. - What workers do on the job. - Working conditions.

Each occupational statement, or description, in the Handbook follows a standard format, making it easier for you to compare occupations. The Handbook is revised every two years.

The second section is a “summary report” of each occupation. Again, for your convenience, each occupation category is linked to ONET, the Occupational Information Network. ONET is a comprehensive database of worker attributes and job characteristics. As the replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), O*NET will be the nation’s primary source of occupational information.

ONET is being developed as a timely, easy-to-use resource that supports public and private sector efforts to identify and develop the skills of the American workforce. It provides a common language for defining and describing occupations. Its flexible design also captures rapidly changing job requirements. In addition, O*NET moves occupational information into the technological age.

ONET provides the essential foundation for facilitating career counseling, education, employment, and training activities. The database contains information about knowledges, skills, abilities (KSA), interests, general work activities (GWA), and work context. O*NET data and structure will also link related occupational, educational, and labor market information databases to the system.

ONET may be used to

Align educational and job training curricula with current workplace needs.
Create occupational clusters based on KSA information.
Develop job descriptions or specifications, job orders, and resumes.
Facilitate employee training and development initiatives.
Develop and supplement assessment tools to identify worker attributes.
Structure compensation and reward systems.
Evaluate and forecast human resource requirements.
Design and implement organizational development initiatives.
Identify criteria to establish performance appraisal and management systems.
Identify criteria to guide selection and placement decisions.
Create skills-match profiles.
Explore career options that capitalize on individual KSA profiles.
Target recruitment efforts to maximize person-job-organizational fit.
Improve vocational and career counseling efforts.

The third section, Additional Resources will be updated on an ongoing basis to provide relevant complimentary occupation-specific information on associations, training and technology.