Continuing professional development
The phrase ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD) describes activities undertaken by professionals to ensure their skills and knowledge remain up-to-date. This is sometimes referred to as lifelong learing (LLL).
Continuing professional development is becoming more important in all professions as the rate of change and number of specialisms increases. In the construction industry, CPD has become a vital part of a professional career as a result of; continuous and accelerating changes in technology, regulations and procurement practices; increasing specialisation; and the complexity and integration of the supply chain.
It is no longer adequate to obtain a professional qualification at the beginning of a career and then to work for 40 or 50 years with no further structured pattern of learning. Instead, lifelong learning is becoming the norm, with professionals taking part-time courses and short courses to understand emerging innovations such as building information modelling (BIM) or taking career breaks and returning to full-time education to improve or develop an aspect of their practice.
Many of the industry’s professional institutes require that members undertake CPD as a condition of continued accreditation (such as the RIBA, CIOB, RICS, RTPI, CIAT, ICE, IStructE, and so on), and for some professions (such as architects) it is a statutory requirement.
Some requirements for continuing professional development are relatively loose, for example the Architects' Registration Board (ARB) requires that architects keep relevant knowledge and skills up-to-date, and are aware of the content of any guidelines issued by the Board, but they permit architects to ‘think laterally’ and encourage them to undertake cpd in a number of ways. Similarly, the CIOB states, ‘We think members are in the best position to know how best to brush up their skills‘.
In contrast, others are more prescriptive. For example, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) expect chartered members to participate in a system that focuses on time and gaining 100 CPD points each year, and a core curriculum, requiring that architects undertake at least 35 hours of CPD, with 20 hours coming from the ten topics in a 10 core curriculum topics (with 2 hours on each topic each year). These are: Being Safe, Climate, External Managements, Internal Management, Compliance,Procurement and contracts, Designing and building it, Where people live, Context, Access for all.
RIBA provide a CPD Network of over 550 organisations that provide CPD, as well as core seminars that contribute towards this, alongside various training programmes and volunteering programmes.
Some institutes require that CPD is planned and recorded, and some will randomly check members' compliance.
CPD may be formal, informal, structured or self-directed. Generally, if an activity helps meet a professional development objective (or helps others meet professional development objectives), it may count as CPD. This might include:
- Internal discussions or meetings.
- Training another member of staff.
- Supervising students.
- Attending in-house training events.
- Undertaking short courses.
- Attending conferences, seminars or workshops.
- Taking part in competitions.
- Research for writing articles.
- Distance learning.
- Online learning (such as the CIOB cpd portal).
- Reading government policies.
- Reading technical reports.
- Reading magazines, websites or other literature.
- Researching new products or methods.
There are a number of CPD providers that offer face-to-face, online or distance cpd products which often involve reading materials and then answering multiple choice questions. CPD certificates may be issued on successful completion of a subject or module.
Some professionals see CPD as an unnecessary bureaucratic burden, and claim that they learn throughout their careers during the course of their work. However, CPD should not be seen as a box-ticking exercise. It can provide a formal structure for learning that is happening anyway, and properly planned, it allows professionals to analyse their needs and direct their learning in a focussed way that will be of greater benefit to their day-to-day activities.
NB: There is a degree of confusion between the requirements of the Architects’ Registration Board and the Royal Institute of British Architects. However, the ARB state, ‘if you are a member of the RIBA, and you comply with their CPD requirements (or those of another appropriate professional body) you are likely to satisfy the Board.'
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- 70-20-10 learning model.
- Architects Registration Board.
- Career development for infrastructure leaders.
- CIOB accepted onto register of end-point assessment organisations.
- Construction professional.
- Flexible courses for lifelong learning.
- IHBC 2021 Heritage MarketPlace.
- Initial Professional Development.
- Institute.
- Learning.
- Professional.
- Recognised prior learning.
- Revalidation.
- RIBA approved CPD for crime prevention through design.
Featured articles and news
Women and unequal pay in project management
Main barrier to entering the profession, new study reveals.
IHBC’s response to Parliamentary Committee
On Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill.
Finalists for 2022 CIOB Awards revealed
Over 70 managers and organisations shortlisted for the 14 awards.
Types of building sensors on BD
From biometric to electrical current, chemical and more.
Government mandates detectors in rented homes
Changes are due to come into force on 1st October 2022.
80% of major government projects are rated red or amber
Heed advice and insight of this report IPA tells the government.
The end of the games but continued calls for action
From the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
CIOB respond to the government call for evidence
For the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee.
How are buildings and their occupants responding to extreme heat?
BSRIA's Technical Director reflects on recent weather patterns.
Landownership in England in 1909
A national valuation to fund old-age pensions.
The world’s largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing.
Long after the end of the defects liability period.
BSRIA Occupant Wellbeing survey BOW
Occupant satisfaction and wellbeing in buildings.
Geometric form and buildings in brief
From the simple to the complex.
Understanding the changing nature of insulation
And the UK Government guidelines.
Three year action plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion
Commitment agreed to by major built environment bodies.
The Construction Route – what needs to change?
Electrical skills, low carbon, high-tech and the building services revolution.
Deep geothermal power possibilities
Ultra-deep drilling with millimeter-wave beam technology.
BSRIA Briefing 2022- From the outside looking in
Looking at the built environment from space.
Competence requirements for principal contractors and designers
BSI standards 8671, 8672 and 8673.
Bringing life to burial grounds.
From failed modernism to twenty-minute neighbourhoods.
Design chill and design freeze
The gates process and change control.