CONTINUING
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT………
WHAT ?
It’s the systematic way of keeping up to date in your field(s) of professional work.
WHY ?
Because working professionals of all disciplines need to refresh and widen their knowledge. All institutions and professional societies require their members to maintain current awareness within their chosen discipline; within the foreseeable future it is likely to be a mandatory requirement of a member of an institution/society in order to continue to practice as a professional.
WHEN?
Start now! Consider your immediate and longer term professional needs, how you can satisfy them, and integrate them into your working life.
HOW?
Follow the guidelines in the accompanying papers. These have the approval of the Society’s Council and are recommended to both registered professionals and non-registered professionals as a systematic and auditable process.
Don’t consign this to the waste bin, it’s too important. Initially, you may find the process a little tedious, this will pass and you will start to see the value in steering your career rather than allowing yourself to go with the flow.
Read the accompanying pages and start now!
Introduction to
A Scheme for the Professional Development of SaRS Members
The Necessity for Professional Development
Today members of professions are expected to maintain an active interest in their profession, learn new associated skills and keep up to date with the advancement of knowledge; furthermore, to do this not only in the specific area in which they work but also more broadly, for the pace of change in today’s world brings not only job insecurity but also new fields of opportunity.
The Engineering Council, now known as ECUK , requires the institutions licensed to enter members on its registers to operate professional development schemes which encourage and guide members along this path. And for those of you who, for what ever reason, are unable to register, professional development remains a necessity for continuing effectiveness in work; the Society’s proposed CPD scheme will welcome members whether registered or not.
To be clear about CPD, it is necessary to understand the distinction between it and what ECUK term ‘Formation’.
Formation
Formation is the term used by ECUK to describe the professional development of an engineer up to the point of acceptance onto an ECUK register.
For many, but not all, the development of professional engineers takes its course typically through university, perhaps with accompanying practical experience in industry, graduation, perhaps a subsequent master’s course, then industry or academia; other routes are also possible.
Development takes place with guidance from a mentor chosen to work with the relevant engineering institute to steer the engineer to Professional Review whereupon, with the attainment and demonstration of an appropriate level of training, competence and responsibility, registration with the Engineering Council can be effected. Although throughout the mentor-guided formation stage the engineer has been developing in knowledge and expertise this phase of development is not regarded as an element of CPD.
CPD
Continuing professional development, sometimes called ‘life-long-learning’, takes the engineer onward from registration throughout his or her professional career. This continuing learning experience can be gained in a variety of ways such as through attending short courses on new or developing areas of professional significance, or through expanding one’s field of experience at work, ‘learning on-the-job’.
Professional development is regarded by institutions as a life-long commitment to professional ‘growth’ and is usually included in the institution’s ‘Code of Practice’ to which all members must adhere.
But for those who, for whatever reason, do not or cannot register, thoughtfully designed CPD is a way of keeping pace with developing technology and maintaining expertise appropriate to the employment market; the Society will offer encouragement equally to them.
The Society’s Plans
The Safety and Reliability Society is working towards acquiring a licence to register its members, but in the interim has entered into an agreement with the already licensed Society of Environmental Engineers to enable suitable applicants to register through the latter’s review processes following an initial screening by SaRS’s Engineering Registration Committee for suitability to proceed. The SEE already operates a voluntary CPD scheme for its own members.
For our members, working in the field of safety and reliability, your Society is best able to encourage and monitor progress in professional development. It is therefore introducing a professional development scheme for members registered through SEE and eventually through SaRS. At this point in time the scheme will be a voluntary one, but the indication from ECUK is that at some point in the future such schemes will become mandatory with the implication of making questionable the professional standing of a registrant who fails to participate and demonstrate satisfactory progress.
CPD in Action
The Society has followed current thinking in avoiding a CPD scheme rigidly based on a point scoring system; instead it requires participants to regularly assess, plan, record and fulfil their development needs as they perceive them; it has flexibility.
Areas for professional development are not wholly confined to technical subjects; man management, project management, computer skills, finance, languages and other subjects may be appropriate choices in some circumstances. The individual has the responsibility to evaluate his or her professional development needs, now and in the foreseeable future, and plan accordingly.
Engineering Council’s UKSpec, ‘UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence’, states that registered engineers would be required to ‘carry out continuing professional development necessary to maintain and enhance competence in own area of practice’.
The Society has concluded that your CPD should be conducted as follows:-
- Reflection – identify training needs
- Planning – decide how to meet those training needs, set objectives
- Action – take part in training activities and learning experiences
- Evaluation – consider achieved performance against action plans
- Aid – assist others with their own CPD
Personal development opportunities are not restricted to formal training courses; technical talks (e.g. branch meetings), novel technical investigations (resulting from personal objectives or work-initiated) resulting in new knowledge, conference attendance are all appropriate.
Non-achievement of a particular objective, when it occurs, may not be serious, some blocking mechanism may have intervened. There may have been a change in work or aspirational direction for whatever reason, and perhaps new objectives have replaced the original ones.
In other words, the scheme has in-built flexibility, but individuals remain responsible for their own development, and a lack of development may be questioned during review.
The Society does not have a formal mechanism for providing mentors. Participants who need advice will usually be able to seek it from a more experienced colleague or perhaps the company training officer, but in the absence of such help the Society may be able to suggest a suitable contact, perhaps through one of its branches.
Outline of the Scheme
Members wishing to take part in the scheme should obtain details from the office.
In outline:
- Initially there will be no charge, with experience in running the scheme a small administration fee may be found necessary
- the scheme will be initially voluntary although the Society may consider making the scheme mandatory at some time in the future, depending on a variety of factors.
- members will assess and record areas for their personal development on a year by year basis
- members will record progress in their declared areas in a clear and verifiable manner
- participants’ CPD progress will be reviewed by random selection, but with certainty when a change of membership grade is applied for
- any participating member may be called upon to give an account to the Society of his or her progress
- the scheme will be subject to audit and appeal
- guidance notes and pro-forma will be made available on the web site or on application to the office
A note entitled ‘Continuing Professional Development in the Safety and Reliability. Guidance to Participants’ describes the processes to be followed.
Continuing Professional Development in the Safety and Reliability Society.
Guidance to Participants
Preamble
The approach being taken by the Society to CPD is outlined in the leaflet ‘Introduction to A Scheme for the Professional Development of SaRS Members’. By opting for professional development you will be taking control of your career.
This guidance offers a practical approach to compliance with the Scheme. Where this proves insufficient for the individual help can be obtained through contact with the office.
The basis of the scheme is a cycle:
REFLECTION
EVALUATION PLANNING
ACTION
Reflection
This is key to successful development. Look ahead to where you want to be and what you want to be doing in the foreseeable future. What ‘tools’ do you need to be equipped to do that role? How can you position yourself to take on that role?
Are you fully equipped to do your present role? Can you broaden your present role thereby deriving more satisfaction from it? Are you keeping up with the new developments that are taking place in your field of work?
Remember that work is most enjoyable when you are fully capable of it and a little stretched by it; if you feel able, discuss your ideas with your line manager.
Learning from your own experiences is very useful; perhaps a task arose that you found beyond your capabilities, a further skill was needed; perhaps a work challenge pointed you in a new and interesting direction which you would like to pursue.
These are just some thoughts that may help you to work out the development path you should follow.
Set down your objectives, be specific about what goals you want to achieve Some will be long term, some short term; they can be small or large.
Make measureable your learning objectives so you can test whether you are meeting them.
Set achievable goals; take account of constraints such as time, cost, support.
Have relevant goals, by following the above approach.
Set deadlines for achieving your goals and be sure to record them when planning.
Relate your goals to what you are engaged in currently, revision, extension or new direction.
Record your deliberations; keep them concise.
Planning
Prioritise your goals; how urgent is your need, and how important is it that you meet it? Pace yourself and don’t make unrealistic demands on yourself and those supporting your work. Separate the immediate from the longer term.
How will you gain that goal? There are many possibilities, including courses, symposia, work shadowing and so on.
Who will enable you to pursue your goal, yourself, your boss, your family? If you have a mentor keep him/her in the picture and reflect on his/her counsel.
Where can you attain this goal, in your company, in your office, on site, in academia, abroad?
When. Separate the immediate from longer term, then set realistic timescales.
Record your planning concisely.
Action
Simply act upon the activities you have set for yourself.
Evaluation
How did you fare? Not all plans are achieved despite good endeavours.
Success will be satisfying, summarise what you have learned.
Failure will also be a learning experience. Was your goal unrealistic, were your efforts frustrated by some external unforeseen influence? Summarise what you have learned and plan again, CPD is a cyclic process.
Records
Records must be kept, but the process must not be tedious. Use an A4 ring binder to contain your record sheets formatted with the above headings. While it may take some time to decide what each goal should be, once you have decided on one spend up to 30 minutes on recording the salient points. Remember, not only are you writing this down, but someone will want to evaluate this in the future!
CPD Record Sheet
This is an example of the format required. Other formats may be acceptable but the content must conform.
Participant’s Record Sheets must be saved in a suitable binder and offered for review when requested.
Start now. Record your information as you reach each stage. Don’t save it up to the end as this will not produce an accurate record of your progress.
For each single identified objective provide the following details:
Identified training need
In what area(s) will this advance your career development?
How will you fulfil this training and by when will you need to complete it?
Having trained, how much time did it take, and what have you learned?
In what aspect, if any, did your learning fail?
What will you do next?
If any other points are relevant to this course of action please outline:
Full Name SaRS Membership No. Signature Date