One thing I was determined to keep up as a freelancer, if not do more than I did in employment, is invest in my continuing professional development (CPD). But naturally one of the biggest changes is the lack of an organisation behind you providing the funds, and the paid time, to do anything. So the challenge is how to invest in my CPD in a cost-effective but impactful way.

I’ve tried a few options over the last 6 months and what I’ve settled on so far is:

  • Committing to undertaking CPD every week – it can be any style, length, intensity, medium or topic, but every week I’ll do something.
  • Being accountable for that commitment but doing a weekly LinkedIn post about whatever it is I’ve done that week for my CPD, in the hope that a) it means I make good choices about what to do, since my choices will be public, and that I do some reflection of what I’ve learnt, as that’s the only way to create good social content
  • I’ll take the broadest possible view of CPD I can – gone are the days (at least temporarily) of big conferences, multi-day courses or significant qualifications, I need cheap, accessible, short but valuable content

To be honest, I didn’t know what I was going to find. I worried that I’d be scraping around, trying to find content to learn from and that taking big funding out of the equation would equal a huge drop in quality, but there are mountains of great content out there to be had. Like most things online, you always been to have a critical eye on the source, but overall I’ve been spoilt for choice of things to work through. Here are some of my top picks for charity freelancing so far.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a phenomenally rich source of content. There are tons out there and what I love is their format makes them really accessible – listen at home or download and listen on the move. I’ve listened while I’ve sorted the house, been on train journeys or done longer-distance driving, it adds a certain extra level of smugness when you’ve nailed some CPD while doing something else. Also, and quite crucially, most are free!

My favourites so far are:

Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak, at last count racking up over 600 episodes on almost every management and leadership topic out there. I love Dave’s open and curious interview style and how practical the experts make their content

Being Freelance by Steve Holland. Started in 2015 to chart some of his own experiences of being freelance, it’s a wonderful, warm, funny, down-to-earth podcast capturing right-now questions, challenges and celebrations of a community of freelancers.

TedTalks

So good they deserve their own category – who doesn’t love a TEDTalk?! I love how short and impactful they are – delivering high quality, thought-provoking content through passionate and expert speakers. They’ve often introduced me to new topics, challenged my way of thinking or pushed me to investigate an issue further. They’re the sort of inspiring videos I need regularly as an antidote to politics and media some days – to keep reminding me how many incredible people there are in the world, determined to make a difference.

Free Training

The Cranfield Trust support the voluntary and community sector through free mentoring, consultancy and a range of resources, including training. A little known gem I think. They regularly run live webinars but also host a library of previous ones on their website which are free to access. Aimed at charities, they usually last an hour so are more a “settle down and watch” type of CPD. I’ve valued the range of topics they cover, that they’re sector specific and I’ve found they’re a useful way to also get some insight from others in the sector on the particular topic because they feature audience participation and question and answer sessions.

Third Sector Lab are a digital and design consultancy organisation, specialising in the voluntary and community sector and they regularly host Digital Skills Lab, free 90-minute training sessions on digital and design topics. In my experience digital and design skills are sometimes the top ones for needing more investment in charities so it’s great to see such specialist advice available for free, particularly when its sector specific.

The Open University, yup the actual Open University, the one that lets you do distance-learning degrees, they offer a huge array of free courses. I stumbled across this absolute goldmine of free courses one day and I think it’s one of the best-kept secrets of higher education. Set yourself up with a free account and browse all the categories for a course to suit you.

The Art of Brilliance are a training and development company focuses on happiness and wellbeing. I was lucky enough to enjoy their founder Andy deliver a session at a management training session when I was straight out of university, and I’ve never forgotten it. While they deliver paid-for training to a host of sectors, they occasionally deliver free bite-sized sessions that are worth their weight in gold.

Enterprise Nation are a small business support organisation and offer a brilliant selection of free online training. I’ve attended a couple of their “lunch and learn” sessions which do exactly what they say on the tin – an hour’s worth of expert content while you take a break from the to-do list. Another great resource to explore for anyone looking for free options.

Books

A higher time investment but what you get is a really in-depth exploration of a topic, and time to really mull over what the author’s presenting. Top ones for me are:

Be a Free Range Human: This was the book that nudge me over the edge into freelancing – an absolutely inspiring read by a woman who built a very flexible career doing what she loves, and is determined to inspire others to do the same


Skills for Freelancers: If you’re new to the freelancing world or are considering making the leap – this book by is a great place to begin. It’s practical, packed full of examples and real-life stories and written by someone who tried it and survived it!


Phosphorescence by Julia Baird: A wonderful collection of science, philosophy, memoir, wonderings and wisdom. A hug in a book and a fantastic accidental almost textbook for building resilience, being present and remembering the important things in life (and it’s rarely work!).

Client Training

Not one I expected to experience but one of the clients I’m working with has invited me to join several of their all-staff training days. It’s meant I’ve had bonus whole-day CPD, often in topics I wouldn’t necessarily have sought out myself and ones that would be harder to source and fund as an individual rather than through an organisation. I’m also due to join a conference another charity client is running as a speaker, and get to join other sessions across the day while I’m there.

Paid Courses

I’ve found a couple of courses I would absolutely love to do, but with a bit of an eye-watering price tag attached. These really bring home the difference of having an organisation with a corporate CPD budget behind you or not. I’ve held back from investing in any of these while I’m still finding my feet and determining whether I think I’m going to go down any particular specialist routes. Also whether I’m brave enough to back myself with my own hard-earned money, because I’d have to be absolutely sure there was going to be a substantial return on investment. One to come back to.

Networking Events

I’ve found loads of these, both online and in person. While I’ve debated joining the local Federation of Small Businesses, local business networking breakfasts etc, I haven’t quite bitten the bullet. I’m not sure how much CPD would be on offer, and presume the focus is much more on building local connections. For the type of work I’m doing at the moment, I think this is a “nice to have” maybe one day in the future, but not essential right now, especially given they’re all paid-for events and in-person which takes a chunk out of your day.

Next Up

I’ve been seriously impressed with the quantity and quality of great CPD out there, that’s free and accessible to all. There’s everything from light-hearted fun topics to the make-or-break stuff that you can’t avoid, and in so many formats you can’t argue there isn’t one to suit you. I’ve found committing to a weekly investment has forced me to carve out time to give to it and publicising it on LinkedIn has proved a great way of holding myself to account, as well as hopefully providing some useful content. Next up is trying to keep this up for the next six months and deciding whether I’m brave enough to invest my own money in myself through a more formal route.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash