Final Reflections on the Stage 2 Training Process

It seems such a long time ago that I began this journey.  It has taken me 6 years and 10 months in total.  I remember after finishing my masters I felt that I had accomplished something, and that I had an experience that, whilst difficult and stressful, had been very rewarding. Finishing my Stage 2 did not feel like that, at least not at first.  I had a sense of relief that the work was finally over: no more practice diaries, no more placements, no more submission or re-submissions.  I just felt plain relieved.  Even when I received my BPS certificate and my HCPC certificate, I felt little joy or elation at my achievement.

Fast forward 6 months and I agree to attend the DFP Conference to accept my certificate in a more formal setting.  My partner and I decided to treat it as a small family holiday with our 6 month old and we drove to the conference.  My supervisor was there to greet me with hugs and congratulations and her old supervisor was also there and did the same.  I lined up with my peers who had also qualified and we sat in the front row of the conference hall waiting to be called on stage to collect our certificates.

As we waited, we whispered to one another our relief and confessed the length of time it had taken to complete, 6 years 10 months for me, some others shorter and some others longer but all of us united in the sense of gladness that it was finally over.  We collected our certificates and smiled for the obligatory group photo and then we all dispersed, back into the crowd and off back to our roles wherever we are, no one so much as looking over their shoulders.  But when I do look back at the event, I remember one thing very clearly. My little boy was the centre of attention and one lady, a senior psychologist, commented that despite the chartership, children are the greatest achievement.  And this really did place everything in perspective.

Before this, all I saw were the times of failure and the re-submissions. I had still held on to the feeling of being under constant stress and strain trying to complete the work and felt resentful of that.  I have since been able to let go of that burden, and that alone is an achievement.  To hear my peers express similar experiences and relief helped me recognise the enormity of the task we set ourselves and we came through it, slowly but surely.  More a case of the tortoise and hare than any prodigal speed to win a race but complete the race we did.  And also, if that lady was right and my little boy is my greatest achievement, then completing that chartership was an achievement along the way and I should acknowledge it as such.

I think what I am reflecting on now is that this was one of the toughest journeys I embarked upon and I know that peers on the BPS route and the doctorate are experiencing the same stresses and strains.  It is natural to feel relieved and want to push away all thought of the emotional challenges and feel bitter, but actually getting through is an achievement and each one of us should feel proud (although you won't see me applying to do any further studying for a while now, if ever!).

And also, this is one achievement, in a whole list of many that we will experience, some of which are not career related.  This profession and training can be all consuming, but it has helped me to remember that it is one part of what defines me and putting my achievements in context and in perspective has helped me take true enjoyment out of what I have done so far.

So to all of you still training, stick with it, you will get there, be brave and work through the failures - we all have had them.

To those of you starting out, don't just think about finishing fast. Think about the training route that will help you qualify, that is cost effective and that fits with the life that you want to live outside of your career. If that means choosing a slower route so that you can afford holidays and to travel and have children, then do just that; the training routes aren't going to disappear if you don't get it finished straight away, and neither is the profession.

And from me, this is my last post here as I move on to the next stage of my life.  Thank you to all those who have read, glanced over or accidentally clicked on the blog.  You have been a source of catharsis for me over these years.

Farewell.

My experience of Core Role 4

Looking back at Core Role 4, I feel this was actually the Core Role that I enjoyed the most.  This was because it took me past my nervousness at public speaking and gave me the confidence to present myself well in all aspects of my life.  It also taught me about my learning style and also my teaching style, which, I have to say, is probably a little informal.

There were aspects of this Core Role that had particular challenges in terms of the assessors.  Sometimes developing a rationale for training can be as problematic as developing a rationale for research.  Although it is understood that as a trainee you need to provide exemplars, there is no room for developing training "for the sake of it".  Assessors will pick up on this and will question whether the training was really needed by your organisation, and this in turn will suggest to them that you might not entirely understand how to identify learning and training needs in the context of working within your organisation.

On the other hand, sometimes you identify a need and there is little appetite for meeting it within the organisation.  I found that exploring literature around change and growth in organisations can help in this situation.  It can help you understand any resistance you meet and can help you develop strategies to get past this.  What you must do is provide evidence for the assessors to prove that you understand how to identify learning and training needs and that you can bring the organisation on board.

Another hurdle that you might need to overcome might be in the case of your organisation directing you to deliver training and the training is mandatory.  In these cases it is harder to demonstrate why you have identified the training needs and how you select appropriate participants for your training.  Instead, you might have to reflect on what you could do under different circumstances or perhaps you could do some additional work to check the need within your population.

With mandatory training it is vital that you consider the motivations to attend and what this might mean for people's willingness to engage and learn. It is important to consider what will affect a person's motivation to learn and how you will account for this and address this in your training.

Finally, a focus for the assessors is how you evaluate training.  They will want to see that you have used literature and research to develop evidence-based methods of determining if people have learnt from your training session.  Usually this is a form of questionnaire but you will have to have clearly demonstrated through your evidence why you have chosen this method and your reflections on your chosen method.  A final part to this will be evaluating your evaluation method through reflection.  Did your evaluation really test what you wanted it to?  What could you have changed?  What would you do next time?  They will also want to see how you have learnt and how you have applied these changes to your next training programme or seminar.

I should note that whilst a reflection on learning styles and how you have catered for them in your training is often wanted by the assessors, there is a huge amount of literature available recently which rejects the theory of learning styles.  You may want include and consider this when you are developing your training.