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Introduction
Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) is defined as ‘the systematic maintenance
improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill
and the development of personal qualities necessary
for the execution of professional duties throughout
working life’. CPD describes how professionals
maintain their own competence in the workplace. All
members of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science
and Technology (IMarEST) should maintain and develop
their competence in the workplace as a matter of course
but CPD is the recommended way of achieving this.
If you are going to maximise your potential for life-time
employability, it is essential that you maintain high
levels of professional competence by continually upgrading
your skills and knowledge.
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CPD comprises updating particular
areas of competence, developing personal and management
skills and broadening experience leading to new opportunities.
The challenges and opportunities of the work experience
provide the central mechanism for maintaining CPD. The Institute
of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology encourages
and supports its members to maintain their CPD.
The following sections deal
with the most common questions raised by members and seek
to provide illustrative answers. However, since CPD is very
much a personal matter it is impossible to cover the circumstances
of each individual.
Why should I take CPD?
The job market is changing
all the time. You may no longer be able to rely on your
employer to identify and satisfy individual development
needs. Additionally, you may well move jobs four or five
times during your working life. Therefore you need to take
ownership of your career and its continuing development.
These changes have increased
the demands on people in all walks of life to keep documented
evidence of their continued competence; and nowhere is this
greater than in engineering, science or technology which
are advancing so swiftly. In your own best interests you
should be developing a personal portfolio of your professional
activities and their relevance to your job competence and
your career ambitions.
By undertaking CPD you will
be:
a) demonstrating your continuing commitment
to your profession;
b) developing the good practice of regularly
reviewing your professional needs and selecting appropriate
learning activities.
How much should I do?
There is no simple answer
to this. It varies from one person to another. The demands
of your job and the extent of your personal ambition will
determine how much you should do.
Always remember that quality
is much more important than quantity. The most important
aspect of CPD is the amount of knowledge and skill that
you acquire, i.e. the learning outcome, rather than the
number of hours of study which you undertake, i.e. the input.
If you are to maintain sufficiently
high standards of professional competence to keep yourself
employable you will need to undertake significant CPD. However,
when you consider all the activities, particularly at work
and in the form of private study that add value to your
knowledge, skills and experience, you will realise that
quite substantial amounts are readily achievable.
What should I do?
Again, this will depend upon
your job and your personal ambitions, but in simple terms
the answer is anything that adds to your personal store
of relevant skills, knowledge and experience.
Marine engineers, scientists
and technologists are employed in a very varied range of
jobs and at all levels of responsibility and it is recognised
that this will be reflected in their continuing learning
needs which will be equally varied.
Therefore, there is no limitation
to the range of subjects that can be included, although
it is recommended that, in order to develop your expertise
on a broad front, you may need to undertake CPD in the following
areas.
a) Developing your technical
knowledge and skills in your current field.
b) Broadening your technical
knowledge and skills into fields parallel to your own, thus
enabling you to move into another job should the need or
opportunity arise.
c) Acquisition of non-technical
knowledge and skills, e.g. Management techniques, Communication
and presentational skills, Law (Health & Safety, Environmental,
Employment), Finance, Languages, thus preparing you to assume
wider or greater responsibilities when the opportunities
arise.
How do I go about it?
Professional Development
may be achieved in any of the following ways, depending
on your circumstances, learning style and the opportunities
open to you.
a) At home – private
study, such as distance learning; special projects or structured
study, which may involve reading, watching TV and video
tapes and / or listening to radio programmes and audio tapes;
writing papers for presentation or publication.
b) At work – where,
simply by day to day activities, relevant knowledge and
skills are acquired by on the job learning and / or company
provision.
c) At events – such
as presentations, lectures, seminars, conferences and also
formal courses of study, whether or not they lead to an
examination.
Remember, the activities
that count are those that are relevant to your learning
needs.
Why should I keep records?
It is strongly recommended
that you maintain a personal portfolio. This will assist
you in a number of key aspects related to your career.
a) You will be able to
provide documented evidence of your commitment to your chosen
profession and of your continued competence.
b) It will act as an excellent
reference, both in the up-dating of your Curriculum Vitae
and in recalling details of topics you have studied.
c) It will be a most useful
aid in your career development, providing a means by which
you can plan, record and review your relevant activities.
How should I keep my records?
There are number of ways
in which this may be done but the most usual is, quite simply,
an A4 ring binder containing
a) your Professional Development
Plan – based on your identified needs;
b) your Professional Development
Record – detailing specific activities that have contributed
to your CPD.
c) certificates showing
the competencies or qualifications you have gained; examples
of work which demonstrate your competence; of projects /
courses etc you have undertaken and your resultant developing
etc.
d) other relevant CPD documentation.
Section 3 of this document
explains the CPD process whilst a template Professional
Development Plan and Record Form is provided in Section
4. This will enable you to maintain, by a series of brief
entries, a simple record of your learning activities for
each year and plan for the next.
Maximising the benefits
Like many things in life,
CPD can be organised so that it is carried out [almost]
automatically. The Institute can help in advising you how
to maintain your CPD effectively. The important thing to
bear in mind is that it is a continual
process of planning, completing activities, assessment
of those activities and review/feedback back to the plan.
You will need to set up a
system that encompasses these four core stages. Many employers
have a bespoke system in place that performs this function
satisfactorily; members can adopt such a system or use the
system provided by the Institute. Members are encouraged
to include their employers in the CPD process, ideally it
should be a partnership that will benefit employee, employer
and the company. The annual appraisal interview is the ideal
time to plan development targets and assess progress. Notwithstanding
it should always be remembered that the detail of CPD is
very much the individual’s property and one should
not rely on the Company (Personnel) system, it may not be
maintained properly and is of no support if you no longer
work for them.
Section 3 explains these
four core stages in detail. However, when completing your
CPD plan [in order to achieve the necessary knowledge, skills
understanding and attitudes that need to be acquired or
developed] you must take into account:
a) your employer's business
objectives
b) your own career intentions,
short and long term,
c) your relevant personal
interests
d) the requirements of
the Institute.
You will also need to consider
the actions that need to be taken, with responsibilities
and time scale, to meet the identified needs. The plan should
be developed, where possible, in conjunction with the employer.
Account should be taken of the guidance provided by the
Institute for the preparation of CPD plans. Record CPD activities
and achievements so that progress towards implementing the
plan and maintaining professional competence can be demonstrated.
The benefits should be evaluated. The plan should be reviewed
regularly (at least annually).
How can a Mentor help?
A mentor is a more experienced
and knowledgeable person who gives dispassionate and objective
support and guidance to a learner [or mentee]. To be effective
the mentor should not be in a position of authority over
the learner. The most important functions of a mentor are
to provide positive feedback, offer encouragement and adjust
expectations.
Contact with a mentor can
be useful in that he or she is someone you can turn to who
has knowledge and experience of your situation and no interests
to consider other than your own. Being a mentor can be very
rewarding and a valuable CPD activity in that it provides
a valued outlet for all the wealth of knowledge and experience
that has built up over a career and provides an occasion
to help others take advantage of some of the opportunities
and avoid some of the pitfalls that you as a mentor may
have encountered ‘along the way’.
In terms of Continuing Professional
Development, a mentor can be particularly helpful with the
following;
a) Conducting a Skills Audit/Gap Analysis
b) Determining the knowledge
and skills required for a particular job or role
c) Setting development
objectives
d) Assessing learning
experiences
e) Deciding what should be the next steps
f) Offering encouragement
and providing motivation to persist with a CPD activity
g) Suggesting alternative
CPD activities
h) Identifying CPD providers
Individuals should
initially seek access to a mentor within their own workplace.
Alternatively, the Institute may be able to provide a useful
contact who can advise you on how to go about planning and
achieving your professional development objectives. Both
of these sources of support have advantages and disadvantages
and you should consider carefully what you require from
a mentor. It is expected that mentoring will be particularly
useful to those taking responsibility for their own CPD
for the first time, those in the early stages of their careers
and those contemplating a career change
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