Skills Development Unit || NPIUB

However, it may not always be obvious how best to go about developing employees’ skills. Fortunately, this guide will go through every step of the process, from defining what a skill development plan is, listing its benefits, and showing you how to create your own. Before we go any further, we need to understand the purpose of a skills development plan, as well as what it includes.A skills development plan can either be completed by an individual, or by an employee together with their manager. When an individual puts together their own plan, it may be known as a personal development plan, while one created within a business is often called an employee development plan. Here, we’ll be focusing on skill development plans for employees.

The purpose of a skills development plan is to help employees achieve certain goals. While these will be aligned with the aims and future objectives of the business, the plan will be primarily shaped around the individual’s professional ambitions. They help to focus the employee’s mind on what they want to accomplish in the short and long term, and enable them to map out the actions they need to take in order to hit their targets.For example, an employee’s short-term goals may be to gain more experience in different aspects of their role with a view to achieving a long-term goal of moving into a managerial role. A skills development plan could recommend a variety of employee development methods, from shadowing other staff members to completing courses.An employee’s skills development plan is not, however, permanently set in stone. Instead, it should be thought of as an evolving document that adapts as their needs and wants grow and change over time. Additionally, the employee isn’t the only person who must take action—it’s also up to any relevant managers to ensure that support and resources are made available so that any objectives laid out in the plan can be achieved.