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Planning your learning
This badge recognises understanding of effective learning planning in social services. Badge holders should be able to take ownership of their professional development and use a learning plan to support their career growth.
Planning your learning might feel like a big task, especially if you haven’t done much formal learning since school. Where do you start? How do you decide what to learn? How do you make time for learning when you’re already busy?
Our Planning your learning resource helps answer these questions. It shows you simple ways to:
- look at your day-to-day work to spot what learning would help most
- turn big learning goals into smaller, manageable steps
- use different ways of learning – not just training courses
- plan your time so learning fits around your work
- keep track of your progress using MyLearning.
Whether you’re new to social services or have years of experience, good planning makes learning easier and more useful. This badge recognises your ability to plan learning that works for you and helps you do your job better.
You can earn this badge by completing our Planning your learning resource and showing how you’ll use what you’ve learned to develop your skills and knowledge.
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To achieve this badge, you must:
- complete the Planning your learning resource and pass the knowledge check at the end
- tell us why it is important to plan your learning and explain how you will do this (50 words minimum)
- tell us about the three most important things you learned from the resource and why you feel these are important to you (150 words minimum)
- tell us about how you intend to share you plan with your manager/supervisor/mentor/tutor, why this is important and how often you will do this (50 words minimum)
- think about a challenge that could get in the way of planning your learning and tell us how you intend to overcome it (optional)
The total word count for your evidence submission should not exceed 600 words.
Your application will be returned to you with a request for further evidence if it does not meet all the above criteria or is unclear which of these questions you are answering within your evidence.
There are no prerequisites for this badge.
You need to write between 250 and 600 words answering the questions in the criteria. You can write directly on the badge application form or share a link to your own blog or portfolio.
When writing your answers, think about:
Why planning is important (50 words minimum)
- How planning helps you develop in your role.
- Ways that planning makes learning more effective.
- How planning helps you provide better support to people.
Three most important things you learned (150 words minimum)
- What these things are and why you chose them.
- How they connect to your work.
- How they will help you learn better.
- Why they matter for your professional development.
Sharing your plan (50 words minimum)
- Who you’ll share your plan with and why.
- What you hope to gain from sharing.
- How often you’ll discuss your plan.
- How sharing will help your learning.
Optional – Overcoming challenges
- What might make planning difficult.
- Practical steps to handle these challenges.
- How you’ll stay on track with your plan.
We also accept audio or video submissions if you prefer not to write.
Remember: The evidence you submit will be viewable by anyone you show your badge to. Don’t include private or confidential information.
Badge issuer
Scottish Social Services Council
Our work means the people of Scotland can count on social work, social care and children and young people services being provided by a trusted, skilled, confident and valued workforce.
Badge standards
Use of knowledge, research and evidence in practice
CPL core learning element for Social workers (including NQSW) and Care Inspectorate authorised officersKnowledge for your role
CPL core learning element for Social care and children and young people workforceSubmit your application
Terms and conditions
1. I have read, understood and completed all activities listed in the badge criteria. The evidence I have provided answers each question from the criteria.
2. I confirm that the evidence I have submitted is free from personally identifiable information of others. Nobody can be identified, directly or indirectly, from any examples I provide.
3. I wrote or recorded my evidence, and I have not copied it from anywhere else. The core content, ideas and examples are my own original work. I agree that I will only use AI tools under the rules outlined by the SSSC, and if I do so, I will explicitly declare this use in my submission and provide a valid link to the chat history for the assessor to review.
4. I give consent for the SSSC and the people I share this badge with to use plagiarism and AI detection tools to validate the authenticity of the evidence I have submitted.
5. I understand that it may take up to 28 days to assess my application and that feedback cannot always be provided if it is unsuccessful.
Your evidence, name, and email address will be sent to the organisation who issue this badge