Personal and Professional Skills
The course that guides the student experience
Personal and Professional Skills is a unique course that sets the CP apart from many other pathways. This is a place for a student to develop personal and professional skills that assist their studies, their work outside of school and their personal life as well as prepare for the future. Use whatever analogy for PPS's place in the CP that works for you - the mothership, the house, the glue ... it's all about skill development, self-awareness and embracing lifelong learning.
Creating or reviewing your PPS course
Central characteristics of your PPS course
- Your PPS course must be 90 hours: with the new Programme Standards and Practices this total must be adhered to
- Your PPS course is created by you so make it bespoke to your school. It must be based on the aims, learning outcomes and five themes of PPS
- You can make use of the topics, sub-topics and questions suggested by the IB but are absolutely free to include topics, sub-topics and questions of your own; many schools are going for a project-based approach
- Your PPS outline will include your school's plan for assessment of progress of the specific PPS learning outcomes
- PPS can be used directly to support other areas of the CP; specifically the career-related study, the DP subjects and other aspects of the core
- PPS centres on developing attitudes, skills and strategies that can be applied by students across the personal and professional contexts they find themselves in right now as well as, crucially, in the future
Understand your context
We all approach creating or reviewing a PPS course with different experiences.
You may be:
- New to the CP completely and undergone PPS training
- New to the CP completely and not able to complete training yet
- A new CP coordinator in a school preparing for authorisation
- Taking over the existing provision in your school and wanting to put your own stamp on it
- The CP coordinator in a school that is approaching its 5 year evaluation
- Carrying out a review for the first time since starting the CP in your school
Keep the PPS focused
Whether you are starting from scratch or reviewing your existing PPS course in your school, it is important to keep the key aims of PPS as the backbone of everything you do. Irrespective of whether you have the IB guide right in front of you, your course needs to allow students to:
...develop into adaptable, reflective and lifelong learners
...become self aware and willing to face challenges in practical ways
...be able to respond with understanding and empathy to ethical dilemmas
...commit to the importance of intercultural understanding and different perspectives
...encompass the ten attributes of the IB learner profile.
Creating a course that joins the dots
Once you have been delivering the PPS course for a while, confidence increases in how the course can develop further, make meaningful connections and become even more appropriate for your context. In the final two few months of the school year, attention can turn to developing existing courses. Every teacher knows, that courses are always a work in progress and always something to develop, refine and extend. Personal and Professional Skills is a really great opportunity for a teacher to do this explicitly and intentionally; it cannot fail to create more explicit application of the approaches to teaching and learning in other areas of the course.
With this in mind, the word to keep in mind to develop your course is 'connection' and designing the PPS course to make far more explicit and deliberate connections between the career-related studies, the DP courses and the core elements. It is not about designing a framework that makes the connections for students but creating a framework that allows them to make connections themselves. Included are some perspectives from experienced CP coordinators on what has worked, not worked but also what has surprised them and presented challenges for them.
Designing the core delivery
The CP core is what makes this programme stand out, made up of unique elements. The Personal and Professional Skills course, to use a favourite analogy, is the mothership of the programme. Schools all...
There are five learning outcomes for PPS which can clearly be identified with each of the five themes central to the course. However, each learning outcome can be connected in some way to all five themes. This can be brought out in reflection and dependent on the topics chosen for the course content.
LO 1: identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO 2: demonstrate the ability to apply thinking processes to personal and professional situations
LO 3: recognize and be able to articulate the value of cultural understanding and appreciation for diversity
LO 4: demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of communicating effectively and working collaboratively
LO 5: recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Working with the themes
Get a feel for how the themes work independently but also concurrently by looking at the following pages on our increasing resources for PPS. Then consider the following aspects on 'Understand your context' and 'Central Characteristics of your PPS course' when starting to shape your PPS course.
Personal Development
The personal development of the student is clearly paramount in the CP. This page introduces the theme for students to find their motivation, vision and 'buy-in' they need for their CP course and life...
Intercultural Understanding
Students explore the significance of cultural identity and diversity as the ability to understand and appreciate multiple cultural perspectives leads to highly effective and empathetic people within personal...
Effective Communication
Being an effective communicator is a key capability for the workplaces of the future. This page introduces this theme and demonstrates different directions it can be taken in. New for Autumn 2020 are...
Thinking Processes
Students need to develop and be able to utilise a wide range of thinking skills to be able to thrive. This page introduces this theme and demonstrates different directions it can be taken in. Furthermore,...
Applied Ethics
The IB learner profile characteristic of 'principled' requires students to develop responsibility not only for their actions but the consequences as well. Applied Ethics is most immediately associated...