Here I give you five reasons to go ahead and join.
1. It's simple to do
As a scheme member, all you have to do is:
a. Use Career Manager to record your CPD online
i. Add any CPD you are planning in advance to your CPD objectives.
ii Record your CPD activities (both planned and unplanned)
iii. Create your CPD Activity Report at the click of a button
b. Undertake a minimum of 30 hours per year (a minimum of 10 hours if you are retired). For more details, please see our CPD Policy web page
c. Declare your CPD at the beginning of each year for the previous year
d. You may then be selected to have your CPD records reviewed by a Volunteer CPD Advisor
Recent developments to Career Manager have made recording your CPD quick and simple to do. An example of a typical CPD Activity entry can be seen in the attached screen shot.
"This level of recording and reflection is not at all onerous, and the CPD section of Career Manager is very easy to use. In my opinion, this combination of requirement and support removes many of the barriers busy professional engineers may perceive as preventing them engaging fully in a CPD scheme. I think most engineers would agree with the principle of recording and monitoring CPD (quite apart from their obligation as Chartered professionals to do so). Many would agree that it has positive benefits that transcend the administrative effort. But it is the amount of that effort (real or perceived) that has to compete with so many other time pressures in an increasingly busy professional environment. Looking back at the cumulative picture produced by the Career Manager report, I was very pleasantly surprised at how easily and quickly such a record can be produced.”
Brian Thorne CEng MIET
2. The benefits are worth a (little) effort from you
The scheme has been carefully designed to ensure it provides you with benefits beyond meeting the requirements of the scheme.
In addition to the many benefits that you will personally gain from undertaking a range of CPD activities each year to increase your knowledge and skills, by joining the scheme you will also benefit from:
- A lifelong record of your CPD to draw on throughout your career, that beyond the CPD scheme can be used as evidence to support appraisals with employers, to support job interviews, and indirectly perhaps to illustrate professional competence to clients.
- Generic feedback allowing you to benchmark yourself against how much and what type of CPD is undertaken by other members of the scheme.
- Individual, tailored feedback on your CPD records through peer review (if selected for monitoring).
- Being able to demonstrate compliance with the IET’s CPD requirements to your employer, colleagues and clients.
3. If it's right for you, it's right for us
The IET recognises our members work in a wide range of roles, sectors and circumstances and that you are best placed to decide what CPD is appropriate for you. Therefore, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to the type of CPD you are doing. If it meets your professional development needs and is relevant to your professional job and interests, then it’s valid CPD.
The IET recognises both structured and less structured activities as valid CPD. These may include:
- Training courses
- Work experience
- Academic study
- Volunteering
- Events and seminars
- Self-study (e.g. reading and internet research).
4. Nothing 'bad' is going to happen
The aim of the monitoring scheme is to provide support and constructive feedback to help you meet and demonstrate your CPD commitments, rather than to police it.
If your CPD record is selected for peer review, you will be given individual, tailored feedback against a set of criteria aligned to the requirements of the scheme such as: the CPD you have undertaken is linked to your development plan, the CPD you have undertaken is relevant to the competences required to perform your job, at least 30 hours of CPD has been undertaken during the year, etc. If it is believed that improvements can be made then you will be offered suggestions as to how you might do this.
The outcome of your review remains confidential and will not be shared with anyone other than the small number of IET staff and volunteer CPD Advisors carrying out the monitoring process.
5. Help is at hand, whenever you need it
Why not have a go at creating your CPD record in Career Manager?
We provide a step-by-step guide to recording CPD activities in our Career Manager CPD Quick Guide. I wrote a blog post with screen shots on how to record your CPD using Career Manager. You can also register your interest in attending a Career Manager CPD webinar.
Contact our Career Manager Support team, Holly Jones and Kerry Lamacraft, if you need help with any aspect of using the tool, by email to: career-manager@theiet.org or telephone: 44 01438 767356
If you have any queries about your CPD or the monitoring scheme, please contact Caroline Shipp by email: cpd@theiet.org or telephone: 44 (0)1438 767302.
And finally….
Join the CPD Monitoring Scheme
All TMIETs, MIETs and Fellows are invited to join the CPD scheme. To become a scheme member, please send an email to cpd@theiet.org with “Opt-in to CPD Monitoring Scheme” in the subject line and include your name and membership number in the message.