Career development template

Everyone has career goals and ambitions.

But sometimes it can be hard to see how to get there without planning & defining goals and committing to a career development plan.

Investing in your people by helping them achieve their career development goals will help employees to feel valued in the organisation, along with boosting morale and motivation levels.

Helping people achieve their goals could also help to fill a skills gap within your business, too.

Who is this career development template for?

This template will help HR teams to structure career development planning within SME organisations.  

Feel free to use this template in conjunction with (or distribute to) people managers.

Disclaimer: This template has been provided for informational purposes only. 

Initial assessment

What have I already done?

Assess strengths & areas you feel you could improve on.

What have you learned from previous work? What competencies have you added to your skillset during your current role? 

Objectives

What do I want/need to learn? Where do I want to get to?

Actions

What do I need to get there?

Break down the steps of how you’ll achieve your overall goal into smaller ones that you can monitor.

Short-term actions:

Mid-term actions:

Long-term actions:

Resources

What do I need to help me achieve this objective?

What resources or tools can help you achieve your goals?

Is there any training that could help you to achieve these? 

Tips

Here are some examples of development actions that could be used in your plan:  

Formal training and self-guided learning

• Training course (in-person or online

• Attending an event

• Podcasts

• Webinars

• Reading (books, blogs, websites etc.)

• TED talks

• Research

People-based learning

• Coaching

• Mentoring

• Obtaining feedbac

• Job shadowing

• Building new relationships

• Internal/external influences

Job-based experience

• Gaining new experience or responsibilities

• Completing a project or piece of work

• Implementing a new process

• Creating a report

• Delivering a presentation or webinar

• Objectives

• Training other team members