The Professional Development Institute was created in July 2006 to enhance the Bloustein School's commitment to the profession of and professionals in planning and public policy. It was created by integrating existing continuing education programming of and at the Bloustein School, including the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program and The Leading Institute. The Professional Development Institute sits within the Center for Government Services, the Bloustein School's largest provider of continuing education.
This includes everyone working to revitalize, maintain, strengthen and preserve communities and the built environment. It includes the fields of environmental planning, historic preservation, social policy and advocacy and community and economic development.
We serve the fields of planning and public policy by:
Improving the quality of professional practice
We work toward this goal by:
- Offering continuing education programs that serve an unmet need or address gaps in professional development in planning and public policy. Such initiatives include Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program and the leadership and management programs offered by The Leading Institute.
- Providing technical assistance to Bloustein centers or institutes and external organizations that want to improve the quality of their professional development offerings.
- Conducting research and providing knowledge that addresses issues of continuing education in planning and public policy.
- Challenging the Planning Education Industry <<PEI>> to reflect on and improve its approaches to continuing education.
Making high quality continuing education accessible to a wide variety of professionals
We work toward this goal by:
- Employing efficient and effective management practices to offer reasonable fees to participants of our training programs.
- Providing high quality continuing education at affordable prices.
- Providing technical assistance in resource management to continuing education providers, so they can serve more participants while working to improve the quality of their programming.
Developing the capacity of ethical professionals to become leaders or be more effective leaders in their fields, communities and organization
We work towards this goal by:
- Offering leadership programs, such as Leading from the Middle, that provide more than training - they help professionals become more creative and productive.
- Providing advice and ideas for leadership and professional development through PDI News and other publications.
- Focusing on the critical competencies facing our leaders in the 21st century - emotional intelligence, cost-effective collaboration, and cultural competency.
PDI is committed to meeting the highest standards in professional development. We explore and apply best practices in adult and continuing education. While other organizations start by asking "what do we want to teach and how do we want to teach it?," we start by asking "what do our clients <<our colleagues>> want to learn and how do they want to learn?"
PDI is committed to developing professionals who are sophisticated in matters of diversity and cultural competency. In the diverse and dynamic world of 21st century of planning and public policy, it is simplistic to "just be nice" and obey the golden rule. <<As George Bernard Shaw said, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you isn't effective if others don't share your tastes.>> We developed a special initiative, Diversity Works, to build the capacity of planning and policy professionals, organizations and associations that work to be more culturally competent and equitable.
PDI is committed to serving the diverse needs and interests of professionals who are learners. We see our clients and students as our colleagues. We may be teaching our colleagues one day, and listening to them speak at a conference the next day. We believe adults learn best by a combination of learning from and sharing information with their peers. Our programs are designed to respect the knowledge of our colleagues and encourage them to share that with their peers.
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