CPD:
why it matters
Continuing Professional Development, Life-long Learning, Continuing Education – all phrases
that are interchanged and used widely within the professions – but what do they actually mean?
We at the IED use the
acronym CPD to describe
the process of planning,
tracking and documenting
the skills, knowledge and experience that
you gain both formally and informally as
you work, beyond any initial training. It’s
a record of what you experience, learn
and then apply.
So, why do we ask our members to do
CPD? As a professional designer and a
member of the Institution, you will have
signed up to the IED’s Code of Conduct
– which includes the following statement:
“A member shall take all reasonable
steps to maintain and develop their
professional competence by attention to
new developments in science, technology
and design relevant to their fi eld of
professional activity and shall encourage
persons working under their supervision
so to do.”
The aim of this clause is to ensure
that members of the Institution maintain
their professional competence by
appraising themselves of new legislation
and other recent developments in their
specifi c fi eld of design. This is to ensure
that our body of members can be relied
upon at all times to be at the forefront
of their profession, ready and able to
act in the best interests of the public,
the law and their employer. In addition,
CPD can be used as a tool to plan and
execute your career progression – using
CPD to measure your development
against competencies for the next grade
of registration as a professional product
designer, CAD specialist, engineering
designer or environmentalist.
CPD AND PROFESSIONAL
REGISTRATION
IED members who are professionally
registered at CEnv and CTPD grades
are required, as part of their Chartered
registration, to complete CPD annually
– this is a requirement of the Charter
as established by the Privy Council.
Persistent failure to submit CPD records
will lead to removal of the professional
registration. Additionally, and to
bring engineering into line with other
professions, the Engineering Council
now require all licensed bodies (such
as the IED) to monitor and record CPD
of their registered members – hence
the introduction, in 2018, of random
sampling of all registered members within
the IED, including CEnv, CTPD, EngTech,
IEng and CEng. Again, persistent failure
to submit CPD records could lead to
removal of registration.
HOW TO ÔDOÕ CPD
The vast majority of members within the
IED already ‘do’ CPD – the nature of the
role of designers means that individuals
are at the forefront of new technologies
and have to be aware of changes to
legislation, use of new materials, design
tools, manufacturing systems and so
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