PRACTICING CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ICES 401 AND 402
The
CPD Plan (ICES 401)
The following provides guidance on how to prepare a CPD Plan. These
guidelines are deliberately brief, which puts the onus on you. CPD will
only work if you put in the effort and enthusiasm.
The CPD Plan addresses the following points in relation to your professional training and development:
- Where are you now? - Initial review.
- Where do you want to be in the short and long term? - Development goals.
- How are you going to get there? - Development activities.
- How will you ensure that your objectives are achieved? - Measuring a successful outcome.
Prepare your CPD Plan using the pro forma plan. It should be restricted to a single sheet of A4.
Whilst your CPD Plan is tailored to your own personal training and development needs, you will improve its content and structure by speaking to fellow colleagues, managers, team leaders, personnel and training managers; learning from their successes and failures. Remember also that your employer may have a particular interest in your professional development.
You are requested to complete the Institution's CPD Plan using the following guidelines:
Where
are you now? - Initial review
The
basis of your CPD Plan will be what you determine as your short and long
term career development aspirations and how you propose to achieve them.
Before preparing your professional training and development action plan, assess your current position by:
- Briefly listing all of your current roles and responsibilities, areas where you have to have knowledge and experience, the level of skills and understanding required and identify changes that are likely to occur over the next two year period, or so, that may affect your capability to perform your duties.
- Identifying what level of skills, competencies and knowledge you already have based on your past academic and professional experiences, achievements and performances.
Where
do you want to be in the short and long term? - Development goals
From
the information gathered at the initial review stage, identify what your
development goals would be.
Development goals are defined as your future training and development needs, which would take in to consideration factors such as the requirements for your current employment, career advancement, and personal and professional goals.
Seriously consider any short and long term ambitions that you may have for developing or adapting your career. Be realistic, however, both about your ambitions and the time needed to achieve them.
Having undertaken a self assessment to identify what your development goals would be, prioritise them. Remember that these are not set in stone, but rather as a basis on which to look for and take up relevant CPD activities as they arise.
How
are you going to get there? - Development activities
Select
appropriate development activities that you will undertake to achieve
your development goals.
The range of modes and materials available for development activities are vast and you should be sure to choose those that suit you best.
Activities that may contribute towards the Institution's CPD requirements will normally be related to the civil engineering surveying industry. However, an important part of CPD is also the development of a wide range of interpersonal and management skills that may be required during your career. Therefore, subjects such as management, communication, information technology, health and safety, finance, commercial matters, languages and community work can equally be valid topics for CPD activities, if considered necessary to your professional development.
Don't interpret CPD too narrowly and restrict yourself to the conventional training methods. Be sure to think about the resources available to you, as this will affect your choice of development activities. Training is both costly and time consuming. A CPD Plan should not be a request for unlimited training. An employer may be interested in a business case for your CPD Plan.
CPD activities may be structured, for example:
- In house courses and workshops.
- External courses and workshops.
- Vocational courses and workshops.
- Seminars.
- Conferences.
- Distance and open learning qualifications.
- Technical authorship.
- Preparation of lectures for organised events.
- Service on committees and technical panels.
CPD activities may be unstructured, for example:
- On the job research.
- Experience of new and extended technologies.
- Reading books, journals, professional magazines, technical papers and periodicals.
- Browsing relevant industry websites and participating in e-learning activities and research.
- Experience in the workplace, leading to a significant expansion of your knowledge base.
Members who are in countries or locations where structured CPD opportunities appear to be difficult to access are advised to take advantage of the wide range of unstructured CPD activities that are available to assist their professional development.
You can participate in a wide range of CPD activities available through the Institution, including:
- Reading and/or preparation of a technical article in Civil Engineering Surveyor and other specialist publications.
- Service on Institution committees and panels.
- Attendance of national and regional Institution events.
- Guest speaking at a national or regional Institution conference or seminar.
- Attendance of an Institution training course or workshop.
How
will you ensure that your objectives are achieved? - Measuring a successful
outcome
Consider
how you will measure a successful outcome from a particular development
activity against the desired development goal.
Set target dates for each of the development goals.
Refer to your CPD Plan on a regular basis to ensure that you are on course for meeting your development goals.
Remember to update and adapt your CPD Plan in accordance with changes in circumstances.
Periodic review will vary, but the Institution would recommend that this exercise be undertaken at least annually.
The
CPD Record (ICES 402)
The following provides guidance on how to prepare a CPD Record which is
required by the Institution for monitoring purposes.
It is important that you regularly record what development activities you have, or have not, completed on a CPD Record.
The aim of your CPD Record is to illustrate what development activities you have undertaken over any given period of time, what you have learnt from each activity and how it relates to your CPD Plan. The CPD Record would be used to identify any shortcomings and will influence your CPD Plan for the following period.
In order to complete the CPD Record, you would need to reflect on your performance, particularly on those development activities that you have learnt most from. Assess yourself in terms of new skills acquired, improved levels of competence, overall experience, and development of knowledge and understanding. Particular attention should, therefore, be made to sections titled 'Key Learning Points' and 'Key Benefits' on the CPD Record.
Members must be prepared to justify the learning-time claimed should their CPD Record be requested for monitoring purposes by the Institution.
Members may also participate in CPD activities of other relevant professional organisations. It is intended that the CPD records produced for one professional organisation may also be acceptable to another similar body. Equally, the information prepared for your employers training and development scheme may also be accepted by the Institution as a credible CPD Record. This would be at the discretion of the Education, Training and Membership Committee.
Ongoing
Review
Once you have achieved your targets or circumstances require a change
in your development goals, begin the CPD process again. CPD is a lifelong
process of learning and development. Therefore, this CPD process is continuous.
Periodic review will vary, but the Institution would recommend that this exercise be undertaken at least annually.
ICES
401 and 402
ICES forms 401 and
402 are available to download from this website in pdf format. In order
to view and print these you will need a pdf reader. If
you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click on the below icon to install
it free of charge.
Alternatively, contact Paul Brown on tel: 0161 972 3114 or email for hard copies of the forms to be sent out to you in the post.