The Evolution of CPD for school business professionals

In her latest piece, Val Andrews reflects on the current SBL CPD landscape in 2024, its relevance, and speculates on future needs to remain effective beyond 2024

Over the years I’ve written many pieces about the importance of CPD for school business professionals. Those of you who know me will also know how passionate I am about this because we need to keep our skills fit for purpose. In this piece I want to reflect on what’s available in 2024, how relevant it is for our ever-evolving role in schools and then do a bit of crystal ball gazing and speculate on what we may need in the future to remain viable and effective beyond 2024.

Traditionally the structured CPD route has featured a mix of general qualifications, leading to more specialist programmes for those looking to pursue a particular area of expertise. Courses start at Level 4 (Foundation Degree level) and go through to Level 7 (Masters/Postgrad level). Some are apprenticeship routes and others are not. The new generation of business professional in our sector are exploiting the DSBM Levels 4 and 5, which provide a very general introduction to the many facets of the role viewed through both an operational and strategic lens.

Outside the realms of structured courses leading to specific qualifications, there is access to networking through both regional and national groups, conference and training sessions offered by DfE/ESFA and other organisations. Increasingly people in the school business profession are turning to independent mentors and coaches to support them and supplement structured CPD which helps tailor development to individual needs.

The characteristics of good professional development include being rich in content, relevant to personal and professional needs, practice focused, with a degree of challenge and focus on sustainability. Most providers offer a mix of virtual and face-to-face sessions, and the emergence of more online training has certainly played to our advantage in terms of being more financially efficient.

The above is a brief overview of the current offering – suffice to say it’s probably meeting the needs of aspiring, new and experienced school business professionals in 2024.

The DfE report published last December “Building school and trust business professional capacity” would support that view and states that there is a commitment “to achieve excellent school resource management for every school and academy trust”.

But what about the future?

As SBPs we are focused on planning for the short, medium and long term for our schools. So, why should planning our CPD be any different? It looks as though in the short term at least there will continue to be a range of professional development options underpinned by the ISBL professional standards and the desire to ensure schools are efficient and managing their resources effectively.

However, when looking further ahead there are key questions to consider.

The rapid emergence of technology and AI has the potential to impact significantly on the education sector and those who work within it. Controversially, there is the real potential for the delivery of education to change significantly as we embrace what AI has to offer.

Notwithstanding there are certain risks that must be addressed, isn’t it about time we shook up the way we deliver education for our children and young people?  When you compare what a classroom looked like in 1924 to what it looks like now sadly there are many similarities. It’s inevitable that advances in technology are going to impact on the education sector and, as part of those communities, this is bound to impact on us too.

There’s a tendency to be negative about embracing technology because it’s scary – sometimes happening too quickly and not least because we are afraid we will become redundant. I don’t subscribe to those negativities and am prepared to put my trust in the system to gradually adopt new ways of working to improve the quality of education we provide.

There may be elements of our roles that are given over to technology but there will continue to be a need for good adult role models who support learners, providing them with relevant resources and guiding them to embrace sustainability in a plethora of contexts. The challenge will be how to embrace the potential benefits whilst managing the many pitfalls, and that plays to the strengths of our profession perfectly. We are very good at problem solving and options analysis!

Looking ahead…

So, when we think about the professional development we are going to need in the medium and longer term (and how we should ensure our skills are fit for purpose) this exposes a whole new area of research. Refusing to accept change isn’t an option – but we need to think about the things that we excel at that cannot be replicated by AI – for example the potential for critical thinking and problem solving. I subscribe to the theory that human intelligence far outweighs the potential for any AI system but with workloads quickly reaching unmanageable proportions, what wouldn’t you give for technology to take on some aspects of your work so you can concentrate on creative thinking and strategic planning!

I am going to be writing a series of articles based around CPD for school business professionals which I hope will dispel some myths, provide clarity about where to access the right information and hopefully help you choose the best route for you. Look out for my next piece about the benefits and impact.