In November the Engineering Council organised a seminar for institution staff, with sessions on mandatory recording and sampling of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) records; and accreditation and approval of initial professional development (IPD) schemes. It was led by Board Member Rob Smith CEng FIMechE, who is chair of the Engineering Council’s Professional Development steering group.

During discussions broad consensus was reached that the institutions were making good progress towards sampling CPD records, with the aspirational date for implementing sampling arriving next month, in January 2017. From January onwards, Licensed Members will be expected to monitor a sample of their members’ CPD records every year to provide feedback to members.

Those in attendance at the seminar heard presentations from Darren Byrne, Director of Membership and Education at the Institution of Structural Engineers, and Carilyn Burman, Director of Membership from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, who shared some of their experiences of sampling members’ CPD. Daisy Mortimer, Relationship Manager at the Science Council, provided the audience with a point of view from a closely related profession that has introduced CPD sampling and sanctions for non-compliance.

The seminar was also an opportunity for institutions to discuss accreditation of IPD training schemes. Plans to simplify terminology and share good practice on accreditation processes were agreed at the event. This work would be taken forward by the Professional Development steering group.

The seminar was attended by 36 representatives from 24 Licensed Members. A report on the forum and the presentations will be available shortly on the Engineering Council's Extranet.