Aspirants desiring to become a CPEng keep hearing and reading the acronym ‘CPD’ or Continuing Professional Development. What it is and how does it help candidates? Let’s know this in this blog. Besides that, we will also acquaint you with other necessary information relevant to this.
What is a CPD?
A CPD helps can help you expand your knowledge, maintain technical skills and progress your career as an engineer.
CPE activities are to increase and update your knowledge, skills and judgment in your engineering practice area. Apart from that, it will make you able to:
- Maintain technical competency.
- Retain and improve effectiveness in the workplace.
- Help, influence and lead by example.
- Serve your community much better.
- Successfully and easily cope with changes in your career.
CPD requirements for CPEng and NER registrants:
CPD is necessary to become an Engineers Australia CPEng and to maintain your Chartered status and NER registration. If having Chartered status or registration with the NER, you must know your obligations under the Continuing Professional Development Policy. This need also extends to NER registrants who are not Engineers Australia members.
Minimum requirements:
Your CPD records have to document at least 150 hours of structured CPD for three years.
For engineering academics and teachers, the case is different. Besides the 150 hours, the practitioner must show at least 40 hours of industry involvement in any period of three years. If the industry involvement fulfills the other CPD criteria, it may become a part of the submitted CPD hours. Otherwise, the industry involvement is an extra need.
Specific needs:
For every practitioner, of the 150 hours, a minimum of:
- 50 hours have to relate to your Practice Areas.
- 10 hours have to cover risk management.
- 15 hours have to address business and management skills.
- The remaining has to cover various activities related to your career and interests.
Your CPD record:
EA automatically creates partial CPD records for most training activities and events that undertake with it. All you have to do is to finalize these records with some more details. These details include the knowledge earned from the activity and the split of time against the CPD needs.
Registration and watching data from the EA events platform, EA OnDemand and Engineering Education Australia will be brought into the recording system daily. It means there may be a late between the activity and the appearance of a draft record for you. It will help you to add and claim your CPD record.
You can also utilize the quick form to add records for CPD you have taken on somewhere else. It may include mentoring activities or on-the-job learning.
Your CPD record has features and graphs. They can help you easily track your progress and offer reports for audit or application purposes.
For your CPD record access, you need to:
- Login to your Engineers Australia account
- Go to the ‘MyEA’ tab
- Choose ‘Record CPD’ from the ‘Manage Profile’ menu
Keep in mind:
eCPD is not available anymore. All records were automatically transferred to your new CPD record. You can wish to check and adjust if you want.
Applying for attaining Chartership:
An application to become a CPEng must show at least 150 hours of CPD for three years. It must be up to the date of the Chartership application.
Candidates can also apply through a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) pathway not having a CPD recording requirement. In this situation, you may need to show your current CPD records.
CPD types:
- Any tertiary you took up as an individual course for a formal post-graduate award.
- Workshops, short courses, conferences, seminars, meetings and technical inspections.
- Workplace learning activities that help extend competency in your area of practice.
- The private study extends your skills and knowledge.
- Services to the engineering profession
- Tertiary academic or teaching research
- Structured activities that fulfilling the objectives of the CPD policy.
- Preparing and presenting materials for courses and conferences.
CPD for more than one area of practice:
If having more than one Area of Practice, you need to record a minimum of 50 hours for each area. Let’s take an example:
If you are registered or Chartered in the Civil and Structural Areas of Practice, record at least 50 hours. These hours must be relevant to Civil and at least 50 hours related to Structural. Some technical CPD activities might overlap. In this situation, you can label the activities as both Structural-related and Civil-related CPD.
Apart from that, 65 or more hours of CPD satisfying other needs should be recorded. It is because the CPD hours will be 150 hours or more over 3 years.
The 65 hours need to include:
40 hours of any CPD activities.
10 hours that cover risk management.
15 hours that address business and management skills.