Evaluating learning within professional enterprises: enterprise professional development

Professional development (PD) of professionals is an activity required by regulating authorities; however, the value that enterprises obtain from PD is often unknown particularly when PD involves knowledge development. The paper discusses measurement alternatives and provides a review of established evaluation techniques highlighting deficiencies in these methods for evaluating the on-going long term impact of PD. Enterprises need to understand the risks associated with PD as well as the impact of policies, processes and practices. The paper sets out the factors which affect the value added to the enterprise by PD (EPD) and provides details of the how this may be measured by developing an EPD Profile for a professional enterprise.