CPD - What do I need to do?

Chartered Members and Chartered Fellows are required to undertake and keep records of the following key minimum requirements for CPD:

• Identify personal learning objectives for the coming year
• Plan and record learning activities and outcomes
• Assess the extent to which learning objectives have been achieved over the past year.

The CQI planning sheet (Word document) can be used for this purpose.

How you assess your needs, plan and undertake the learning, develop the skills, reflect on the extent of your achievement and keep records is an individual choice. The following is the CQI's recommended approach:

1. Your long-term development assessment

If appropriate, start by carrying out an assessment of what you wish to achieve during the medium/long term.

2. Your CPD plan

Review the requirements of your employer or your clients and your own personal needs and determine the skills and knowledge you will need to meet them. Assess the gaps in your current skills and knowledge. Identify your personal learning objectives for the coming year to start filling those gaps and your proposed actions for achieving those objectives. You may decide to develop learning objectives to cover a three-year period instead of one. In either case, your CPD plan (Word document) should include measures for success, resources required and target dates for review and completion where appropriate. As a minimum, address the following key areas:

1. Changes in the quality approaches and the BOQK which affect your work as a quality professional
2. Changes in your work that may require you to develop new knowledge and skills
3. CPD and development required by your employer(s) or your clients

3. Your CPD planning and activity log

The CPD log (Word document) has been designed to help record the activities that you have completed during each 12-month period. It should have an explanation of what you learned, the extent to which you achieved your learning objective and how you applied this learning to your work as a quality professional.

4. CPD review

You should review your CPD plan (Word document) annually to maintain the currency of the objectives and validate that you are meeting them.

How much CPD?

There are no rules for how much CPD you must complete each year and you should note that this is a needs-based system, not an hours- or points-based system. However, your CPD plan must reflect the learning that you require in order to maintain your professional competence. The most important aspects of your CPD are the outcomes from your learning activities, not the amount of time or type of activity input. The extent of the outcomes you achieve should be proportionate to the needs of your employer or clients. For guidance, an active quality professional would expect to spend at least 25 hours a year on CPD and would probably have three to four key learning objectives.

What kind of learning activities will support CPD?

Almost any professional activity can be used for personal development. The important factor is that you can describe what you learned from each activity in your CPD log. Examples of evidence include:

• Work experience (particularly new projects or initiatives that stretch your knowledge and skills)
• On the job training (either given or received)
• Completion of qualifications
• Completion of short courses and workshops
• Informal learning (e.g. reading, focused discussions with colleagues, online research, study of regulations and standards, researching a particular type of issue related to your role, researching legislation applicable to your role)
• Attending events and conferences

Validation of your CPD records

100 per cent validation of your CPD records is not required but you should provide some validation of achieving your learning objectives. For example, ask a colleague, supervisor or manager to validate your CPD activity log (Word document), include copies of reports you have prepared and include certificates of events you have attended. Consider what you are trying to achieve in validating your CPD. Provide more validation if you are using your CPD records for transferring from MCQI to FCQI or for a job interview. For Chartered Quality Professionals we would expect to see 30 to 40 per cent of your activities validated.

Other CPD Schemes

We recognise that many members maintain CPD for other professional memberships and certifications. We will accept CPD records submitted on forms provided by other such bodies provided that you can demonstrate that you are identifying your own development needs as a Chartered Quality Professional and planning and carrying out appropriate development to meet those needs.

In turn, the CQI CPD log (Word document) provides two columns for recording hours or points so that it can be used to record details for different CPD schemes with differing rules, ie CQI and IRCA, IMechE or IEE. It must be remembered that when completing CPD for another body, the CPD criteria and rules of that body must be observed in full. If appropriate, obtain permission to record CPD for the other body on the CQI forms before committing significant time to the task.

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