CILIPS Professional Development Fund – don’t delay, apply today!

Category: Blog, Professional Development

by CILIPS Membership Officer Kirsten MacQuarrie

It was thanks to the CILIPS Professional Development Fund that I attended my first-ever CILIPS event: our 2019 Autumn Gathering. Until it was recommended to me by my amazing Certification mentor Val Walker, I had no idea that the PDF was available all year round, offering financial assistance to members seeking to attend an array of professional development activities.

A quick browse at the webpage will give you a sense of the diverse range of opportunities that members have benefitted from with PDF support – from radical librarianship and new professional networking to copyright training, cataloguing seminars and much, more more!

For me, this financial assistance and the unparalleled professional opportunities it opened up marked the very start of my becoming part of the CILIPS community – now the rest is history (or herstory in the case of our wonderful #WINspiration programme, more on that below)! The PDF remains, however, something of a hidden gem when it comes to our many membership benefits, and we want that to change. Read on to learn why you should apply now to the CILIPS Professional Development Fund (and how to do exactly that):

Fear the fund isn’t for you? Apply to combat Imposter Syndrome!

Imposter Syndrome, noun = persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments, accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one’s ongoing success.

The need to advocate for ourselves and champion the essential work we do in our communities has never been more acute, especially for a female-majority sector like libraries in a world where women have been historically discouraged (and even punished) for being confident about their capabilities. That is why we have not one but two autumn #WINspiration online events dedicated to this theme – a free taster workshop at 11am on Friday 27th October as a warmup to our extensive Managing the Imposter Within Masterclass with leading library consultant Jo Walley from 1.30-4.30pm on Wednesday 29th November.

The current call for Professional Development Fund applications covers online and in person events taking place between 1st October and 31st December 2023, meaning that you can apply now for your Masterclass place to be paid for. The deadline for this round of PDF applications is 4pm on 8th September – in the spirit of tackling that pernicious imposter mentality, don’t delay and apply today!

Accessing Accessibility Tools

Since 2022, the Professional Development Fund has also been available for grant applications to a maximum of £600 that support members living with a disability in acquiring the assistive or accessible technology they require for professional development (and at times when you as the applicant feel it would be beneficial to use). Any software or hardware purchased with a PDF grant becomes yours as an individual, not the property of your workplace, and this opportunity is available all year round, following the same deadline system as our general PDF.

From screen readers and audio description software to captioning technology and more, the Accessibility funding stream is here to support our members as they pursue their professional development goals. Again, the deadline for the current callout is 4pm on 8th September.

How to Apply

All you need to know about applying to either strand of the PDF is available on this page of the CILIPS website (accessible anytime from the Events menu heading at the top of our homepage). You will be asked for:

• Your CILIP Membership Number
• The name and date of event/seminar/webinar/course you are applying for – or for accessibility, the name of software or hardware you are applying for the cost of.
• Your reasons for attending the event in question; whether or not you are currently undertaking (or planning to undertake) CILIP Professional Registration; which areas of our Professional Knowledge & Skills Base the event links with; and how the event will assist with your career development.
• For accessibility, you will also be given the option to specify whether, in the event of multiple applications, you are also interested in a partial grant (e.g. money towards the full cost of your required technology) or a second choice (e.g. an alternative version of your ideal item).

Learn more and access the application forms here.

Best of luck everyone, we look forward to seeing you at a CILIPS event soon!