Professional development is the planned, progressive, and lifelong process of education, training, self-development, and experience gained during development. In the fire service, professional development is a critical element of being a leader and being a professional.  When we step up to accept the responsibility of leadership, we also accept the obligation to continue our training, education, learning, personal experience, and growth and work to improve our effectiveness.  Professional development is an excellent tool for meeting that obligation.  As fire service organizations, we must strive to provide continuing guidance to our most valuable resource, our personnel, through carefully crafted professional development plans that meet the specifics of the organization.  This program will help students with developing a model for their organization.