As part of the Engineering Council’s work on Professional Development, outlined in the current Strategic Plan (2015 to 2017), a Professional Development Steering Group has been established, chaired by Engineering Council Board Member Rob Smith (IMechE). The group has met twice this year, and its purpose is to steer work in the area of Initial and Continuing Professional Development (IPD and CPD), and support professional engineering institutions in ensuring that the competence of potential and existing registrants is developed, maintained and enhanced.

The steering group comprises eight nominees from different professional engineering institutions and has a strong employer representation. Input from further institutions is secured via their representation in a corresponding group.

Reporting through the Registration Standards Committee, the group will consider IPD and look at the accreditation of employer training schemes, with the aim of sharing good practice among the professional engineering institutions. There will be consideration of how to support the IPD of employees without access to structured schemes. The group will oversee the collation and sharing of CPD case studies and explore how the Engineering Council can further support institutions as they put systems in place for sample monitoring of CPD records. The Engineering Council's Board has also asked the group to consider the matter of mandatory recording of CPD.

The steering group has the benefit of research carried out by the Engineering Council in 2015. The research looked at what practices institutions currently have in place to support their members in their IPD and CPD, as well as good professional development practices in other UK professions.