Staying current in your professional field keeps you marketable, maintains your degree as an expert in your field, and it shows your priorities. This is because staying current in your field takes time and effort- both of which are priceless. Therefore it identifies where priorities are ranked for certain professionals. Some licenses, certifications or job sustainability to require a certain number of continuing education credits, or similar, in order maintain the license, certification, etc. While this is ideal, sometimes life changes. Or priorities change, or job career shifts, or job priorities change, and therefore your professional development changes.
There are many ways to stay current in your professional field- even as your personal and professional life changes- and fortunately, there are many methods to fit almost any lifestyle and degree of flexibility.
CONFERENCES
Personally I love conferences. They are ideal for professionals and experts to interact, learn from each other in the field, network with others, and gain valuable knowledge. Sometimes workshops, certificates, continuing education opportunities can be available as a one-stop-shop while attending and participating.
While conferences are awesome, they also take time and money. Time to travel to the location and money to get there, register for the event, and cost for accommodations. Thankfully some conference hosts have offered discounted accommodations for participants which may include discounted housing at local universities, volunteerism while at the conference, pairing up with another attendee, etc.
WEBINARS
This is another flexible option. While you cannot interact with other professionals face to face, the live- or recorded- ability makes gathering expert, current knowledge feasible. It’s convenient and typically low/no cost.
The beauty of technology makes the world much smaller and accessible to knowledge at our fingertips.
SEMINARS
These “brief conferences” are perfect for the locals. Typically you are not going to travel far and wide for brief, 2-3 hour seminars. However they are perfect for professionals who are local.
PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS, ARTICLES
I find this option most idea for the person who has a busy schedule and enjoys reading, versus listening and visually learning from a speaker/event. A professional can sometimes earn continuing education credits by responding to an evaluation, survey or reflection piece of some sort, in order to gain credit. This may be ideal for professionals who may travel frequently (think: reading on the plane), enjoy late night reading at the end of the day, or someone who just wants a break from the other options.
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Regardless of the method used to remain current in your field, there are ways to maintain and advance yourself. The key is to continue gathering information and listening to other professionals to form an opinion for yourself. Challenge your mind and thinking. Mold expert advise together to form your own thinking.