Education month: The foundation of a business continuity career
The BCI’s education month, the Institute’s annual global celebration of learning, development, and connection in the profession, got off to a great start.
The month’s overall theme is ‘One profession. Three stages. Your pathway’ and is designed to look at roads that a career in business continuity and resilience can follow.
The BCI Learning Pathway is a clear, stage-by-stage route through your professional development in business continuity and resilience, from your first qualification to advancing your practice to leading at the highest level of the profession.
Career Foundations
Week one took a closer look at the foundations of a career - good practice.
The opening webinar ‘Maximising Your CBCI Journey: Five Skills Every New Practitioner Should Build,’ explored five key skills that aspiring continuity and resilience professionals should develop alongside their certification and training to confidently apply good practice in real-world environments.
It also explored the value of communication, internal networking, project management, stakeholder engagement, and AI literacy. Through practical guidance and real-world examples, it showed how to build these capabilities while studying and preparing yourself to add value from the start of your resilience career.
The webinar ‘You Don't Plan a Career in BCM... Until BCM Finds You’, started by acknowledging that few professionals begin their careers intending to work in business continuity. People come in via other routes such as emergency management, IT, operations, risk, security, audit or other business functions, often by chance rather than by design.
Gary Ng shared his own journey into BCM, how the CBCI provided a solid professional foundation, and why continuous learning and BCI Membership matter. Designed for newcomers and aspiring practitioners, this session also provided practical guidance on taking the first steps into the profession, understanding the BCI learning pathway, and building a meaningful and rewarding career in business continuity.
Where to start
The session ‘The Beginner's Roadmap to Business Continuity & Resilience Journey’ gave a practical, step-by-step introduction to establishing the foundations of BCM and building organizational resilience.
IT services continuity specialist Tiburcio Ramos dos Santos Junior discussed the key areas of understanding the organisation to produce good BIAs, getting the right approach for policy & strategy, development & implementation, and the vital role of testing, including exercising, maintaining and reviewing the system.
This practical session analysed the real barriers encountered, the benefits realised, and the tools, documents and best practice recommendations that helped along the way.
Roll on Week Two
The theme for week two is ‘Application- Apply Good Practice with Confidence.’ Having laid the foundation with CBCI, the week looks at what comes next, turning certification into practical experience, and understanding what the next stage of the pathway can open up for your career.
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