Continuing your learning journey: PLD in 2025

Professional learning and development (PLD) is key to making sure teaching remains up-to-date, fit-for-purpose and engaging.

Besides ensuring the best outcomes for your class, professional development is also crucial for career growth. Whether that’s taking on leadership positions, specialising in a subject or otherwise, PLD can catalyse career advancements.

Read the latest print edition of School News HERE

As an education leader, thinking about opportunities to grow your team’s skills and confidence is paramount. School leadership should think about their team’s capacity, and the school’s strengths and weaknesses. How could your school better serve the community around you?

Appropriate PLD can plug the gaps in staff learning and help to accelerate students and teachers. Investing in professional development and appropriate prioritising of staff learning can ensure employee loyalty, satisfaction and confidence. These benefits will in turn ripple out to ākonga, and then the wider community. 

PLD provision can take several formats, and can help to achieve various individual and collective aims for teaching staff and the wider school.

Non-teaching staff can also benefit from professional development opportunities, to boost their work practice and expand their knowledge. Make sure all school staff are encouraged to pursue PLD to strengthen all aspects of your school.

In-school PLD

One popular format with many providers is in-school workshops. This is a whole-of-school approach that creates strong ties and encourages collaboration between colleagues. These in-school workshops are also beneficial as they target your school’s specific needs. Providers are available in certain subjects, such as Maths or English, and can help meet your school’s targets around educational achievement. 

Besides subject-specific workshops, these PLD sessions can target less tangible aspects of school life, such as equipping teachers with pastoral care strategies, understanding of specific student groups or cultures, and more.

In-school workshops have the benefit of being able to be tailored for your individual kaimahi (staff) needs. Staff may even be split into groups to encourage wider learning. Whether your school wishes to strengthen their assessment practices, certain teaching methods or school culture and wellbeing, an in-school workshop could help to meet these needs. 

In-school workshops provide options to suit your school’s timetable and needs. Providers may be able to come to your school during organised teacher-only days, during term holidays or even during release time during the school day. Many providers also offer ongoing support after workshop courses are finished, ensuring consistency of implementation and supervising the development of best practice in your school until the PLD is successfully established.

Microcredentials, maximum results

Educators may also investigate available “microcredentials”. There are an increasing number of providers who offer these qualifications, defined by NZQA as “small, stand-alone awards with set learning outcomes”. 

Microcredentials have the advantage of being relatively low commitment with regards to time, with potentially high payoff for educators. There are a range of courses available to upskill educators in particular areas such as integrating new technology into the classroom or fostering collaborative approaches to teaching.

Providers often have flexible delivery options such as hybrid in-person and online courses. Microcredentials also have the benefit of providing a tangible qualification that can benefit educators when thinking about and making career choices or progressions. 

Post-graduate study

Educators who wish to make a stronger commitment to PLD may be interested in post-graduate qualifications offered by many tertiary institutions. Education programmes are often targeted toward teachers and have provision to enable study and work at the same time.

Post-graduate programmes for teachers often have flexible delivery options which enable educators to manage their own time, balancing existing workload with study commitments. These tertiary qualification options may be attractive especially to teachers who learn by doing, as the hybrid flexible model enables educators to implement practice alongside theory.

Post-graduate study can range from NCEA Level 4 to Master’s level study and different options will be appropriate for different educators depending on desired outcomes. For those looking for lighter commitments and strong pay-offs, Level 4 courses are available in subjects such as assessment practice and using standards to assess performance.

Higher level study such as a master’s degree in teaching offers candidates the opportunity to explore their own interests, whether it’s curriculum design, culturally responsive pedagogy or more. Educators who attain master’s qualifications often specialise in a certain field, making them experts and valuable resources for their teaching colleagues. 

Besides the usual Ministry-funded PLD pathways, scholarships and financial aid are available for educators and schools interested in pursuing educator PLD. This is especially true for educators looking to study in priority areas and education settings such as science, technology or maths.

Educators thinking about pursuing post-graduate qualifications should investigate available scholarships and pathways, as they may make further study more achievable than previously thought