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Structures and Procedures in Organising College-based Departmentalised Continuous Professional Development Programmes for the Academic Staff of Selected Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana

Benedicta Awusi Atiku

Dambai College of Education, Ghana

Abstract: Houses are built on sound footing and foundation to make them withstand any hardship in times of storms and other external challenges. The case of continuous professional development is no exception. Continuous professional development programmes that have sound footing prosper throughout their implementation. It is based on this universal fact that this research was conducted into discovering the structures and procedures that would favour the conduct of continuous professional development at the colleges of education. The research was qualitative with case study design and pooled participants from 4 selected colleges of education in the Volta Region of Ghana. Interviews were employed in gathering data from 4 Principals and open-ended questionnaire used for seeking information from 4 Vice Principals and 12 College Tutors. In the findings, the major structures needed for effective organisation of departmentalised continuous professional development at the colleges of education were functional departmental heads, professional development committee, academic planning and quality assurance committee, functional department, academic board, and proactive college management. In respect of infrastructure, faculty development fund, departmental conference hall, and internal policy in the domain. The procedures discovered include general sensitization about the programme, need assessment or skill and knowledge audit of staff, identification of competent resource persons, sourcing for funds, organizing professional development sections with effective supervision of components of the programme and conduct of post reviews for further planning. It was recommended that all colleges should have functional departments and departmental heads including departmental continuous professional development coordinators that would see to organisation of sessions of the continuous professional development.

Keywords: procedure, structures, continuous professional development, functional departments and committees, colleges of education, tutors

Received June 24, 2021; Revised July 27, 2021; Accepted August 06, 2021

Citation: Benedicta Awusi Atiku, Structures and Procedures in Organising College-based Departmentalised Continuous Professional Development Programmes for the Academic Staff of Selected Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana. American Journal of Educational Research, 9 (8). 472-478. January 2021. doi:10.12691/education-9-8-2

1. Background to the Studies

The foundation of every profession lies in professional knowledge. Universally, the knowledge hub of every nation is in the educational system where expert knowledge and skills are developed. The curriculum driver, teachers, thus serve as the founding fathers of every profession because the teacher / instructor taught all professionals. If the curriculum driver, the teacher, is to give upto-date goods, he or she must be updated frequently and that can best be done through continuous professional development (CPD). CPD is the cornerstone of quality professional delivery at all sectors as it serves as the engine of further development of the human capital of any working populace. The success of any nation in terms of human development is largely dependent upon the physical and human capital stock in representing the assets each individual develops to enhance economic productivity [1].

CPD situated on strong structures and procedures is efficacious in making the needed impact on the professional life of the worker. A system well situated on legal and professional structures to support the engagement at all levels of operations of organisations provides confidence in the people. Educational institutions in particular are more fascinated when membership discovers the bases upon which professional engagement are advocated. Knowing the value of a productive teacher behoves on all stakeholders to get actively engaged in the processes of instituting fundamental structures and procedures to engage teachers in the continuous development of their capacities. With sound structures in place, educational leaders could assure themselves of better comfort zone in the discourse around CPD emanating from literate populace.

Discovering sound procedures and structures is very important in the success of the programme as it provides opportunity to professionals to undertake and study the profile of the institution in terms of broad educational aims, legal requirements of the system, and personnel interest of personnel in undergoing such CPD programmes [2]. Advocacy for CPD may emanate from intriguing findings of system or institutional performance appraisal, staffs’ skill and knowledge audit, policy requirement of the institution, emerging challenges or transitional mandates, and quality assurance activity and as a procedural tool in promotional activities. Management’s commitment to training throughout all levels of the organisation marked by effective staff involvement in the decision making on CPD are key players to achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation [3]. Mullins [3] reiterated that given ‘ownership and partnership’ to stakeholders in CDP with creation of a clear set of objectives and a defined policy are fundamental elements that every organisation leader wanting to make impact must seek.

Carefully planned programme of training consider appropriate methods of training, effective system of review and evaluation including structures of monitoring of progress, supporting performance management system and effective record keeping for surety of evaluation are essential to developing organizational change-ability in creating a knowledge-rich context for innovation to creating a borderless organisation which stimulate people to sustainable levels of high performance in order for the organisation a value-based organisation [3]. Organisational audit is worthwhile in identifying gaps and disparities between actual performance level and organizational goals as in strategy formulation and policy decisions.

Effective organisational audit and performance takes into consideration the organizational ideologies and principles such as organizational values and belief, integrity and trust, ethical leadership, vision, mission statements and motto, and employee commitment, [3]. These philosophical foundations of the organisation give reason for corporate strategy resulting in corporate social responsibility of all stakeholders to the organisation.

Gap analysis and its attendance bench marking with consistent appraisal for feedbacks for improvement on CPD programme are necessary elements in success of CPD programme. Colleges of Education gap analysis could be done by taking into consideration performance in both internal and external examinations could be tracked among students and in the various courses in order to establish if the institution is performing averagely, above average, or excellently.

The programme of training in should include three distinct but practically interrelated phase: awareness raising, information giving, and skill training and must be based on a format that at least include “establishing job descriptions and identifying performance criteria; recording and documenting; methods of assessment; counselling and reviewing [4]. Two most significant methods of measurement of performance of personnel are quantitative and qualitative measures with a third to be derived from the two main is the combination of the two [3]. In quantitative measurement, some form of rating scales, such as, (1) excellent, (2) exceeds expectation or requirement of the job, (3) meet the expectations or requirement, (4) some weaknesses in meeting expectations or requirements, (5) unsatisfactory performance is employed whilst in qualitative, measurement involves unstructured, narrative reports on specific factors or overall level of behaviour and work performance of the personnel in the department of the organisation.

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) is also another method of measuring performance. The use of it is an attempt to overcome difficulties with conventional rating scales and provide measurement scales that are directly related to the job being reviewed [3]. Mullins in detailing the content of BARS, attested that a sample group of managers and supervisors is asked to identify, independently, several key behavioural aspects of the job in question. The responses are then collated and returned to the same or a different group to agree to the rating indicated as ‘good’, ‘average’ or ‘poor performance’ and to allocate a scale point for each. Those responses which are consistently rated at the same point on the scale are used by reviewers as the BARS and guidance against which to assess the expected behaviour of each person being rated.

Achievement of objective could be adopted in crafting the programme. Under this system of performance measurement, the manager sets Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) objectives with members of staff at the beginning of the review period. The review at the end of the period is based on the extent to which these objectives have been achieved. Staff members themselves have a fair idea of how to appraise their own work against the set objectives. In the process of measuring performance by management, conditions necessitating performance or otherwise are identified and together with employees, such factors could be fished out as internal or external and methods of averting them against future performance of the employee. The objectives are therefore reviewed continually and revised realistically to cater for any possible unforeseen occurrences.

The approach of Stein [5] as cited in Mullins [3] on the use of a performance ‘agreement’ or ‘contract’ has the style of engaging staff members in creating a succinct document, agreed with their superior, which sets out the individual’s proposed contribution to the business and CPD plan of the institution. Learning from experience is more likely when a systematic analysis is made after an important activity is finished to in order to discover the reasons for success or failure of the activity [6]. The suitability of the evaluation tool would be based on the characteristics of the programme that might be in view for review [2,7,8]. Judging the impact of the programme, collective-impact analysis could be done which engulfs the entire group of participants and individual-impact where the effect on the individual participant is taken into consideration. In considering all these types of impacts, key characteristics that matter to be put into consideration include but not limited to change in professional characteristics like competences, attitudes, job satisfaction and application of new knowledge, skill and attitude to modifying performance in effectuating positive learning outcomes.

1.1. Statement of the Problem

CPD must be situated on sound structures and procedures to eliminate confusion and mediocrity in its implementation. The subject has been scarcely considered and discussed by stakeholders. The gap exists in the area of sound structures and procedures to implement departmentalised CPD as the theme has received little attention at the sector of Colleges of Education. The Colleges of Education have the mandate in their Act, Act 847 to institute CPD on departmental bases and this calls for discovery of various essential topical elements [9]. The discoveries, if founded on staff contribution and involvement would best receive attention and approval to achieve stakeholder buy in. This necessitated this research to help understand what stakeholders consider important structures and procedures for successful conduct of CPD at the departments of the Colleges of Education.

1.2. Purpose of the Study

This research was conducted to discover the structures and procedures very important for the successful conduct of college-based departmentalised CPD for the academic staff of the colleges of education in the Volta Region of Ghana. The success of every professional engagement depends largely on the stakeholder buy in achieved at the planning stage for the implementation. It is therefore necessary to seek the views of principals, vice principals, tutors who form the core of the academic board of every Council of the college of education system. This research therefore viewed these various individuals as very relevant in producing information to help harness the success of CPD and that has been considered in the study to help elicit the relevant information to achieve the aim of the study.

1.3. Research questions

1. What structures exist in the colleges for organisation of college-based departmentalised CPD for the academic staff?

2. What procedures are viable to be adopted in organising college-based departmentalised CPD programme for the academic staff?

2. Methodology

2.1. Design of the Study

The study was qualitative approach with case study design. Qualitative research is naturalistic enquiry as it studies a group in their natural setting [10]. The approach was chosen to help source relevant information from participants in their socio-cultural environment. This was for participants to be understood and discovered in the socio-cultural context within which they live. Aside, inductive analysis could be more possibly made as the researcher has to deduce some meanings from the feelings and expressions of the research participants. Additionally, qualitative research belongs to the interpretive paradigm in search for knowledge which is consistent with the ontological stance chosen, nominalist school of thought, that social reality does not exist externally rather created and allows for creativity to be a driving force through adoption of processes that are open-ended and incorporates the human experience very well in its findings [11]. The case study design also allows the topic to be delved into from the perspectives of the participants at their respective sites. Case study design uses multiple methods to collect data thereby enabling findings to be validated through triangulation, a characteristic that has enormous benefit in domain of reliability of findings of a qualitative research Denscombe [12] and Yin [13].

2.2. Population

Population is an aggregate or totality of all the objects, subjects or members that conform to a set of specifications [14]. Johnson and Christensen [10] maintained that research population is generally a large collection of individuals or objects that is the main focus of a scientific enquiry, and usually this well-defined collection of individuals or objects have similar characteristics in relation to the focus of the research. In this regard, the population for this research consists of people who had similar features in terms of their experience in the colleges of education system and specifically, in the domain of professional development practices of tutors. The constituent of the population were Principals, Vice Principals, and the Tutors of the Colleges of Education in the Volta Region.

2.3. Sample and Sampling Procedures

Patton [15] holds the view that there are no specific rules when determining an appropriate sample size in qualitative research, rather the size would best be determined by the time allotted, resource available, and the study objective. However, Morse [16] suggests 30 – 50 participants for an ethnographic study and same figures for grounded theory whilst he suggested at least 6 participants for the other types of qualitative study. Creswell [17] recommends 5 to 25 as the sample size in a phenomenological study. Yin [13] suggested 15 to be the least sample size. The number of tutors was estimated to be 210 from the seven colleges. The estimated tutor population of each college was 30. Four colleges put together would have an estimated population of 120. In a large populated research environment, 10 percent was recommended by Johnson and Christenson [10] for case study design because saturation point would have been reached with the ideas of that chosen population about a case in point. Thus, any additional participant would just lead to repetition of the same ideas, an incident that creates excess load or burden on the researcher and can also lead to boredom. The 10 percent of the estimated 120 population of the tutors is 12. Therefore four (4) Principals and four (4) Vice Principals have been added to the 12 to give a total of 20 for the research population. They were all selected through homogeneous purposive.

2.4. Instruments

The interpretive research acknowledges the feelings, experiences and viewpoints of research participants [18]. The research gathered data through semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed for Vice Principals, and Heads of Academic Departments (Tutors). Semi-structured interview was used to gather data from Principals. Section A demanded knowledge on structures existing in the college to harness the institution of college-based departmentalized professional development programme and the Section B was on procedures that could be followed in the conduct of college-based departmentalized CPD. The last section, Section C, sought information on the background of the research participants.

The Semi-structured interview guide was designed and used in interviewing Principals to help the research in eliciting information to buttress, confirm or disconfirm earlier responses of Tutors and Vice Principals and to also help generate any additional information for beefing up the findings from tutors and the vice principals. This was designed in the same pattern as the questionnaire but probing for further information happened within the interview process itself. For instance, whilst interviewees had the opportunity to express their views, feelings and experience freely, the interviewer got the freedom to divert from the items in the schedule to seek clarifications through probes during the interview [10,19].

2.5. Validation of Instruments

The researcher and her peers read through the instruments to purge detect any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, ambiguity, inconsistency and supper-fluidity for face validity. Piloting was done at one college on similar samples of the actual study. Corrections were made and the instrument were restructured before administering for the actual study.

2.5.1. Data Collection Procedure

The researcher carried out the data collection with the questionnaire in three weeks’ duration. The administration of the questionnaire happened by the researcher visiting the various sampled colleges and with immediate permission from the college management, she shared the questionnaire to the participants. After each sharing session, she asked permission and left the college on the agreement with participants that she would be coming back to collect the filled questionnaire in a week’s time.

The researcher went back for the filled questionnaires as agreed upon and she at such meetings expressed her appreciation to all the participants and the college management before departing from the colleges. The researcher conducted the interviews in two weeks. On reaching agreement with the Principals, the researcher issued messages of confidentiality to interviewees by telling them the step-by-step procedures being adopted to secure their identity in the process. She mentioned the estimated duration of the interview session in each case. The researcher was directly involved in a face-to-face interview session with all Principals by making use of audio tapes for recording the responses as a support system for data protection management. The interview sessions lasted between 45 to 50 minutes.

2.5.2. Data Presentation and Analysis Framework

Qualitative research produces language-based data and the methods of analyzing such data are many [20]. These authors maintained that the technique a researcher chooses to analyse such data must be in line with the philosophical world view that underpins the study, the researcher’s own skill and preferences. Ward [21] pointed out human coders (manual analysis) and computer assisted analysis as options in analysing qualitative data. Kusi [19] corroborated Ward [21] when he stated that qualitative data can be analysed either by using software such as Nvivo or manually (by hand).

Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson [20] described six main methods of analysing qualitative data as follows as thematic analysis / content analyses, grounded analysis, social network analysis, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, and conversational Analysis. Thematic through the following processes. Preparation of data was done where I immersed myself in the data by reading the questionnaire scripts over and over to familiarize with the presentations. I then took time and wrote on sheets of paper the main ideas presented by the participants for further familiarization for categorization. In the case of the interview data, I transferred the audio information onto sheets of paper by listening to the audio tapes over and over and writing exactly what the participants said in the interview. After this stage, I defined the themes for the analysis to get my coding regime / framework. I pre-tested the coding scheme on samples of the data. I also engaged a colleague researcher to co-code with me so I could compare our codes to verify for consistency and inter-coder reliability. After this stage, I concluded based on the consistency that resulted in our joint coding. Thus, coding of the rest of the data was done. I proceeded by drawing inferences from the results of the codes based on comparisons among the responses of the participants. Following this stage was results presentation.

3. Findings and Discussion

1. What structures exist in the colleges for organisation of college-based departmentalised CPD for the academic staff?

Apart from one tutor, the rest of the participants identified functional departmental heads and professional development committee as the main structure that exist in the college system which could make easy the process of conducting a college-based departmentalised CPD programme for the academic staff of CoE. The quality assurance committee, the vice principal’s office, the units in the departments, the academic departments, the academic board, the college management and the Council were also enlisted by majority of the participants in the issue of the organs available in the conduct of the CPD at the colleges. For example, during the interview, a Principal maintained that:

If the appointment committee appoints quality members of staff, academic board filled with quality personnel, they can come out with quality policies and the quality assurance committee also with the right calibre of people to do the work, it would help, so I would like to strengthen the Appointment Committee, Academic Board and the Quality Assurance Committee for the work. (IRP2)

The various organs identified by the respondents are statutory in the college system. For instance, the Council is a highly powered representative of the President of the Republic of Ghana with the mandate to take all major decisions in approving policies with respect to the quality of work to be done in the colleges. The College Management implements the decisions of Council and gets all units functioning accordingly. Once the Council approves such capacity building programmes as CPD within the academic programmes of the college, no tutor, department and unit in the college can ignore it. This could become the main driving force for the College Management and the Academic Board to see to the organisation of CPD at the departments. The CoE Act, 2012, (847) gives the green light to the College Governing Council for the consideration of such matters as CPD within the academic and professional programme of the college. The Section 3 and Sub-Section (b) of Act 847 mandates that the colleges build the professional and academic capacities of serving teachers through regular continuing education. The Act in considering the general powers of the Council, reiterated in Section 7 that the Council of each college of education has the powers that are necessary to enable it function effectively as the governing body. Within the mandate, the Council is to determine the policies of the college and have control over the general programmes of the college (Section 6.1). Hence, with the academic board, the sub-committees of the academic board working out their various mandates, the departmentalized continuous professional development could be structured to succeed [22].

There are six main academic departments operational under which various courses are being organized in the colleges within the research year: Education Department; Mathematics and Computer Studies; Languages Department; Vocational and Technical Department; Science Department; and Art and Social Sciences Department. All these departments have heads and belong to the Academic Board in implementing vital decisions in the college’s academic and related issues, ([22], pp 15, 19, 53, & 54). The requisite step to be taken in helping these departmental heads is to get them agile towards the actual organisation of their departments in planning the CPD. The Academic Affairs Committee of the Academic Board is responsible in coordinating all the professional development of the various departments. In conjunction with the Professional Development Committee and the Executive Committee, the departments would be better empowered in dealing effectively with the CPD of the colleges ([22], pp 46, 51, & 52).

QRVP3 held the view that availability of faculty development fund is a necessary component of CPD programme in the CoE. This claim is consistent with a provision in the Harmonised Statutes of the Colleges of Education. This document spells out that the Staff Development and Research Committee of the Academic Board is responsible for conducting examination on issuance of grants for research, conferences and scholarships as may be approved by the Academic Board and see to the approval and disbursement of the funds allocated for the purpose ([22], p. 47).

Apart from functional departmental heads and other relevant committees identified, other participants stated other available structures that will make it feasible for the institution of a CPD programme for the academic staff of CoE. These include: availability of infrastructure and facilities such as conference room for staff to come and share their experiences at conferences, existing authority of college administration and teacher promotion being tied to attendance of continuous professional development programmes. It therefore behooves on the Works and Physical Development Committee to work assiduously with College Management in providing conference halls for their colleges. The recommendations of these various committees as concerning the physical infrastructure would have to be featured in the annual composite budget of the Finance Committee of the Council for consideration and approval of the Council [22]. Without this, the programme would not have a room to accommodate it, staff members would not have their little comfort to concentrate on the programme neither would resource persons have the urge to honour invitations adequately for delivery of such programmes and the principals would not feel comfortable in mandating such professional ventures.

2. What procedures are viable to be adopted in organising college-based departmentalised CPD programme for the academic staff?

Participants enumerated various procedures that could be followed in organising a college-based departmentalised CPD programme for the academic staff of the CoE. Many of the participants identified sensitization of staff about the programme as a procedure to be adopted in college-based departmentalised CPD programme for the academic staff of CoE. This ideology is consistent with the practice of University of California, Riverside (UCR) staff professional development policy which in its procedures considered discussions with staff for sensitization on need for professional development goals of the university’s performance review meetings. Similarly, Mullins ([3], p. 760) also had the view that sensitization activities should achieve full and genuine participation of all staff concerned as early as possible. The responses of the participants in this context is similar with the findings of Oduro [4] in a research on the theme “moving from teacher accountability to teacher development: lessons from teacher appraisal”, who maintained that generally, the programme of training in appraisal skills as a CPD activity should include three distinct but practically interrelated phases: awareness raising, information giving, and skill training.

The view of respondents and authors might be so because without developing the necessary consciousness about the programme, staff might not buy into it and if forced down their throats, they might not develop ownership for it and that could jeopardise the success of the programme. For example, Mullins maintained that the importance of corporate strategy and the goals of the organisation give rise to the consideration of corporate social responsibility and ethical business behaviour and the goals of the organisation may be pursued in accordance with an underlying ideology, or philosophy, based on beliefs, values and attitudes. Another instance was an evaluation study conducted by Haramaya University and Mekelle University in 2009 in Ethiopia on school-based CPD which recommended that a new CPD programme to be implemented should consider the importance of awareness based on understanding of all stakeholders on the essence of CPD; active involvement of teachers in planning and implementing the CPD programme; and relentless effort to bring change in students’ learning through continuous improvement of teachers’ teaching methodology.

Some participants also explained that supervision of the programme, and record keeping for further review of the programme, are two cardinal procedures to be pursued in organising CPD programmes in CoE. This view was also expressed by Oduro [4] when he maintained that establishing job descriptions and identifying performance criteria; recording and documenting; methods of assessment; counselling and reviewing are important in staff development. Mullins [3] in his submission consistent with the findings, recommended strongly systematic supervision of staff development programme and advocated for ‘360° feedbacks’ which normally involves feedback from different groups within the work situation-peers and subordinates as well as bosses, and possibly internal and external beneficiaries. He proposed the use of questionnaire even by individual employees to assess their own performances and behaviours even before the organisation also comes in with central emphasis.

In summary, the view held by majority of respondents about the procedures as being useful in instituting the programme include: formation of professional development committees, staff need audit and identification of areas for support, identification of members who need support, identification of competent resource persons, funding source identification and organizing professional development sessions for staff members who are in need, reinforcing the implementation with motivational packages, evaluating the impact of CPD and formulation with enforcement of policies governing CPD for tutors.

In line with the findings of fishing out people who need training, what they need, and who should be trainers, how to supervise the training and coming up with policies on training, James Madison University’s practical approach as a referent point had recommended the following: tertiary institutions should have a policy to have all academic staff members establish Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP). As a referent point, at James Madison University IPDP which is an individualized document, was used to record an employee's current training needs or desires and short and long term career goals.

The plan is a written document for developing knowledge, skills, and competencies that support both the organization's objectives and the employee's needs and goals with the ultimate purpose of improving performance in current work assignments, employee acquisition of or sharpening of professional competencies and preparing the employee for positions of change or greater responsibilities. The IPDP was integrated into organization's general training needs and plans. In Ghana, the special government project, T-TEL, for the colleges of education also emphasized the need for IPDP in their training manual for college leaders unit 4 which is on leading curriculum, training with learning at page 87-89. The type of professional development and training being advocated for include new employee orientation; basic skills training; continuing technical and professional education and training; retraining for occupational changes and supervision; and managerial and executive development. The duration of achievement of this training programme included: short - term which spanned within 1-2 years for accomplishment; and long-term for 3-5 years for accomplishment.

In line with who should give the training, James Madison University IPDP model had supervisors who are double tracked as care givers and facilitators assigned to helping individual personnel in coming up with the IPDP and who also review and discuss the employee's strengths and weaknesses in performing the current work assignments; identify specific gaps between current competencies and those required to perform in the current job, work assignments and performance plan; identify the activities that will address these gaps; and prioritize the activities. The supervision should help the supervisor at this point to keep close track of planned activities with the employee especially when he or she is new to the organization or to the work. The supervisor should meet with the employee regularly to review the plan, progress, and identify changes with alertness towards changes in work, resources, technology, or the work environment that make it necessary to adjust IPDPs.

4. Conclusion

The success of any departmentalised CPD depends largely on the availability of sound structures and well aligned procedures.

5. Recommendations

1. College Management should ensure that all statutory committees are functional at CoE to enhance effectiveness of CPD activities. As a matter of mandate and necessity, all CoE must have their Councils put statutory committees in place and make them very functional. These boards and personalities make decisions and policies in respect of the running of professional and academic programmes of the college and hence if any is dysfunctional, it would be to the detriment of the institution and making the college system a kwashiorkor tertiary institution soon outliving its usefulness in the tertiary educational spectrum and provision of outdated academic goods to the public.

2. College Management should have the following procedures in organization of departmentalised CPD programmes: the conduct of whole-institutional performance audit against parameters set by NAB / mentoring university; publish results of audit; conduct intra/inter departmental staff audit; publish audit results/inform individuals of their standing; human resouPrce management unit and academic board plan filling gaps by benchmarking; departments develop and discuss CPD programme proposals; proposal forwarded to management; funds sourced and competent resource persons searched for; organization of CPD sessions; reinforcement done using motivational packages, supervision, evaluation and record keeping; and the conduct of post-reviews.

3. Adoption of bottom-up approach to designing CPD programmes: Open discussion among staff on departmental and unit bases help change any mindset resistant towards CPD programme. In this regard, bottom-up approach to decision making in issues of CPD at the colleges is advocated for against up-bottom approach that often alienates participants to the programme.

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