When someone talks about professional development, a lot of people will think about training courses, formal education, seminars and qualifications. However on-the-job training can be just as important and positive for your development.

On-the-job training is a part of just about every job I can think of. It happens in every position, nearly all the time. How many times have you asked your manager or a colleague to come over and show you something? How many times has a colleague offered to show you something new?

There is no way that you can be expected to know how a company operates before you work there. So companies have to offer on-the-job training in order to get the most out of their employees.

A lot of people discount on-the-job training when it comes to an interview, applying for promotion or putting together a CV. They go for more certified qualifications ... something with a bit of paper. But when it comes to job applications, employers are looking for a range of experience so on-the-job training can give you the edge.

When I went to work for the UK central government in my early days, the interview was all about my work experience and on-the-job training. It was great that I had a degree and a Masters qualification because those bits of paper helped me get the interview. But what gave me the edge and, later, helped me secure the job was the fact that I'd had the experience and could demonstrate applied 'on-the-job' training. The interviewers were interested in what I'd done, not the amount of paper I had in my job portfolio.

When it comes to thinking about your own professional development, don't discount what you do on-the-job. If you learnt to program HTML websites in your current position - mention it! If you learnt to put together presentations on powerpoint with embedded graphs and pictures - talk about it! You get where I'm going. Mention a few key on-the-job developments and it will make your application a lot richer.