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Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is personal – it is about your ambitions and development and will, therefore, be unique to you, depending on your role, career stage and your goals. IMechE's approach to CPD is focused on learning outcomes achieved through activities and experience, rather than the amount of time spent on an activity. For this reason, IMechE does not currently support a traditional input-based system of recording CPD, therefore there is no need to record hours or points, nor retain an folder of attendance certificates. What is more valuable is how reflecting on your learning and development can guide your CPD to help you meet your personal and professional goals. Whichever method you choose to record your CPD we recommend that you do so regularly and, where appropriate, apply a structured approach to get the most out of what you are working to achieve. The cycle below is one such way of approaching your CPD.
If you find recording your professional development difficult, rest assured that you are not alone, and even members well practiced in recording CPD complain of the difficulty in assessing and reflecting on ones learning.
A top tip from the CPD Assessment Committee is to treat your learning and development as you would a project. Break down your goals into smaller steps in order to set realistic targets; identify milestones towards achieving these targets, and, like any other project, set yourself deadlines. With periodic reviews you can of course adjust as required, and with this approach increase the chances of successfully meeting your ambitions in a desirable timeframe.
A recent review of the feedback provided to members who submitted their CPD records in recent years has found the most common feedback given to members includes:
The CPD Assessment Committee encourages members to consider the above points when recording their CPD to ensure they are making the most out of the process.
Ideally personal development should be about regularly looking back at what you have done and thinking critically, as well as then looking forward and planning positively towards ongoing and future goals. We call this reflective practice or reflective learning. CPD should not just be about recording activities but rather engaging with what you have done and maximising your personal development. At its core, reflection can be achieved by asking yourself for an activity or goal: What can I do now that I could not do before? The answer to this question, positive or negative, will form a strong basis for reflective learning, and usually provide prompts on where to focus future efforts on learning. Recording your reflection is itself considered a CPD activity.
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