(Article from Journal 2023/01 Vol141 Pt1)
Members of our Professional Development Committee have reviewed the results from this years’ CPD Audit and the overarching message coming from it is this: it’s all about you. Many seem to approach CPD as a chore. A time-consuming, laboursome job that has to be done, but which presents very little benefit.
Often records seem to contain activity that relates only to the current role. Maybe that’s you – hurriedly creating a record at the end of the year and desperately trying to recall just one key learning from that presentation you dialled into many months ago. Or attending a Lunch and Learn, or reading a Journal article just because you ‘need’ CPD hours.
That’s not how it needs to be!
When you put you at the centre of your development, the process becomes meaningful and valuable to you.
HOW DO YOU PUT YOU AT THE CENTRE?
It’s in your PDP. Your Personal Development Plan.
This is the record of your objectives – the things you want to achieve or do in the next 12 months, to 3 – 5 – 10 years ahead. How you want your career to progress. The next role you’d like. Not just the things your employer wants you do. Once you know what you want to achieve – a professional title, greater knowledge of alternative sustainable solutions, improving presentation skills, mentoring a junior colleague – you can then focus your CPD activities to help you achieve them.
Let’s take improving presentation skills as an example.
To do this, perhaps you might watch other presentation styles you like on the PWI YouTube channel, or TED Talks. Maybe you’d talk to a colleague you admire and ask them how they approach it. You could commit to volunteer to deliver a presentation to your team, or at a Section meeting, or at a conference.
These activities go into your CPD record. You reflect on that activity – I liked it because the presenter did not just read from slides. You evaluate the activity – I will ensure my slides only have key points and headlines, and I have separate notes to talk to those points.
You review your PDP – to know I have improved my presentation skills, I need to put this into practice. When you review and evaluate the CPD activity of delivering a presentation with less cluttered slides, the objective can be closed.
By regularly updating your CPD record, you can see the progress you are making toward your objective and identify next steps.
Once you start to approach CPD in this way, it becomes of value to you. You have invested in you. Your CPD record is now no longer a list of things you’ve done, but a record of activity which has helped you develop into the engineer you want to be.
CALLING ALL FELLOWS!
You are leaders in this industry. You know what good development looks and feels like. We need you to support your colleagues! Share with them how to do good CPD.
We plan to hold a series of short online sessions for Fellows on how you can help. Keep an eye out for further communications – and please commit to support both us and your colleagues.
And there’s a ready-made objective for you, for 2023!
Every year, the Engineering Council require us to audit a sample of our registrants’ CPD records. We also invite our general members to participate, so they too can receive individualised feedback on their records. So everyone can benefit, we also commit to share the learnings with our entire membership. We hope you can take something from this article to help your development.
The PWI is here for your journey and we would love to support you in your career aspirations. Professional registration is open to any competent practising engineer or technician. Different levels and pathways to registration are available, depending on your experience, training and qualifications.
HELP FOR YOUR CPD