b'Member News March 2022 17Professional DevelopmentContinuing ProfessionalDevelopment monitoring:Five years onIts now five years since the IET started reviewing the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) records of a random sample of MIET, FIET and TMIET members CPD records. This initiative was instigated by the Engineering Council and applies to all of the UKs Professional Engineering Institutions.We are encouraged by the results so far. While the IETs recommendedBy sampling a statistically significant number of members, weve obtained minimum yearly number of CPD hours a picture of what our wider membership are doing in terms of CPD.is 30, the average number of hours ofWe now know: experience into a useable format for those being reviewed is 120, which isyoung engineers and technicians.very positive. Weve seen a high levelThe vast majority of our members of compliance with our requests: inare undertaking activitiesMost members are not including our first year we saw less than 4% ofwhich would count as CPD a CPD Plan along with their those selected for sampling being non- They do not necessarily considerCPD records. Including a Plan compliant and so unfortunately enteringthese learning activities aswill allow the engineer to more the Disciplinary Process. This takesbeing CPD, more as a meanseasily take charge of their career into account those people who wereof self-improvement development and aspirations considered not professionally active andThese activities are often notand allow us to see the rationale so are exempt. Given that this was inbehind activities undertaken.the first year of the process, we hoperecorded or submitted to usthis figure will fall in coming years. Other things weve learnt include: In a similar vein, Reflection statements are not routinely The COVID pandemic has made theMost of our members arent involvedincluded, either. These will recording of CPD more challenging,in volunteering: the perceptionallow you and us to learn of any with the cancellation of numerousstill remains, incorrectly, thatbenefits gained by undertaking face-to-face courses and events andvolunteering is an end-of-careerthe activities and are also useful not everything being able to be movedactivity. However, when donein that they can act as an aide online, however, many engineers haveearlier in the career, much can bememoire for the Engineer when taken advantage of being on furloughlearned by trying to distill your ownlooking back on previous CPD.to explore online and library content.We hope that, in future, more of our members will routinely plan and record their CPD, ideally using the IETs newly updated and improved Career Manager system. Being able to show that they are striving for continuing improvement and professionalism would surely be a benefit to any engineers career. Find out more at theiet.org/cpd or head to theiet.org/careermanagerto start your CPD journey.'