Keeping up is a professional responsibility
Hands up if you have a communications or marketing degree. 🙋
And hands up if you’ve not done any further study since entering the profession, beyond the mandatory organisational e-training. 🙋
Hands up if you go to a conference every few years when there’s some spare L&D budget to use up. 🙋
Right. Lots of hands.🙋🙋🙋🙋
What we hear over and over again is that there is no money and no time for professional development – even if you put it in your performance plan.
Here’s the thing. While we all learn ‘on the job’, the pace and nature of change in communications now demands more.
Professional practice in communications now depends on being visibly current, highly competent, and accountable in a fast-shifting environment. The value of the communicator to an organisation is increasingly defined not by output, but by strategy, judgment, ethics, complex problem-solving, and risk management.
Global workforce research from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report reinforces this shift, showing that technological change is reshaping roles and placing a growing premium on continuous learning, analytical thinking, and adaptability, with employers expecting significant skills disruption by 2030.
In this environment, the expertise we have today is quickly becoming outdated. Falling behind on new tools, platforms, or audience behaviours is no longer a benign gap—it creates organisational risk and undermines a communicator’s credibility as a trusted advisor.
Maintaining professionalism now requires a growth mindset and a deliberate commitment to ongoing learning – not just a line in your development plan.
For government communicators in resource- and time-constrained settings, this means being proactive and creative in pursuing development opportunities. Continuous learning extends beyond formal courses or conferences. It includes micro-learning through online resources, mentoring and shadowing, experimentation with new tools, and fostering team cultures that encourage knowledge sharing across roles and levels.
This shift may feel significant for some of us who have been in the profession for a long time. But it is fast becoming essential to demonstrate credibility and the value of skilled communication expertise. If we don’t understand it, we can’t advise on it.
In a low-trust, rapidly changing digital landscape, one expectation is clear: communicators must actively seek new knowledge and stay at the leading edge of their practice so they can guide others through change and uphold public trust through high-quality, ethical professional communication.