Simplifying CPD
February 1st 2008 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an
activity which is misunderstood, misinterpreted
and often made more complicated than it really is.
Although there are many parts to CPD, most people
tend to focus on the administration of the process
rather than on the real concept of CPD
CPD is the activities that a professional person takes part
in to make sure that they remain up to date and develop
the new knowledge and skills required to enable them to
continue to give advice in an effective way. Most
professionals have always undertaken CPD as a normal part
of their working life; if they hadn't then they would no
longer be able to practice.
It is only when required to verify these activities and to
show that a sufficient amount has been completed that
some professionals perceive CPD to be a burden. However,
the majority still recognise that CPD is part of the
commitment to the profession and its recognition.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
(IOSH), like many chartered professional bodies, requires
its members to demonstrate CPD. IOSH requires members
in categories with designations (CFIOSH,CMIOSH,Grad IOSH
and Tech IOSH) to enrol for and complete CPD records.
IOSH actually has quite a long commitment to CPD for
its members as it first introduced CPD for the then
Register of Safety Practitioners (the equivalent of current
Chartered Fellows and Members) in 1992. Following
recognition of the profession with Chartered status in
2005 it has been a requirement for 25,000+ members to
show commitment to CPD.
Scheme extended
The decision to extend the scheme to more members as
well as the Chartered Members was as a result of the
introduction of a full membership structure based on
competence standards - all members have a requirement to
demonstrate not only that they have attained the level of
competence required for the category but that they are
maintaining and developing this.
For many in the Technician and Graduate Member
categories this development is the undertaking of higher
level qualifications, something which IOSH is keen to
encourage as the profession itself develops.
The IOSH scheme for CPD was modified and developed
in conjunction with the membership structure. In a similar
way to the qualifications for all categories and Initial
Professional Development programme (IPD) for aspiring
Chartered Members, the IOSH CPD scheme uses the ENTO
developed competence standards for health and safety in
the National Occupational Standards framework.
Flexible approach
In terms of CPD, however, the scheme moves beyond the
maintenance of core competence and allows members to
recognise what constitutes development by self-reflection.
To allow this very flexible approach to what activities may
be used for CPD purposes there was a requirement to make
the scheme as flexible as possible. This was accomplished
by providing members with an on-line portal to their
membership records with an area for their CPD activities to
be recorded, so no more paper records had to be kept!
The CPD scheme developed by IOSH is a framework for
members to use to recognise and record their activities. It
empowers members to make their own judgements about
what constitutes an activity for their own personal
development. So the allocation of credits is of less
importance to the reflective accounts that are required in
the recognition of development. The framework allows
members to:
Set a development plan for up to three years to allow
for planning of activities;
Recognise those activities which maintain existing
competence;
Develop new technical skills and knowledge and
Utilise activities which develop skills which aid
professional practice such as management skills.
Allocation of credits
To assist in the assessment of the relative quantities of
development activity a system of credits is available for
benchmarking. This roughly equates to two credits for a
day's activity such as a training course but it also allows
members the flexibility to allocate a further credit if the
course has been of particular value or perhaps only one
credit if upon reflection the course did not offer as much
as expected.
This type of allocation can be made to any type of
activity that may constitute CPD and as individuals
complete the scheme they gain the confidence to
recognise development within themselves.
To summarise, any activity can be recognised as CPD if,
on reflection, it is seen to be of value. These activities are
recorded through an IOSH member's portal on the IOSH
website www.my,iosh.co.uk
CPD is a commitment by individuals to their own
development and to the credibility of the profession as
a whole. And remember not doing CPD is not standing
still it's going
backwards. More articles from IOSH: | 
