Continuing Professional Development

How can CPD be achieved?

Personal development is achieved in a number of different ways, for example:

intuitive - through the natural process of absorption of information
incidental - by chance from activities that make us review what we normally do
retrospective - reviewing previous activities and highlighting what was gained
prospective - planning a development activity and then reviewing it

In practice, gaining new knowledge and skills or developing those we have already is likely to take place at work and 'on the job'. Clearly some ways are more beneficial than others. The best results are achieved if development is approached in a structured, conscious manner which allows you to gain as much as possible from the activity. Nevertheless it must be recognised that all personal development activities should have some benefit, and the CQI's CPD scheme aims to provide the flexibility to acknowledge most activities within a reasonably structured framework that will enhance the development opportunities.

A wide range of training and development activity is valid for CPD purposes:

Structured:: Interactive and highly participative training courses and seminars, branch and regional meetings with formal lectures, active participation in standards development for example
Semi-Structured:: Non-interactive lectures; talks; informal branch and regional meetings of a more social nature; the research, preparation and delivery of lectures; publishing articles; and forms of open and distance learning leading towards a new qualification or formally assessed
Unstructured:: Distance and open learning study which is not assessed and does not lead to a qualification; the reading of professional and technical journals; books and other publications; relevant aspects of on-the-job training where specific outcomes have been planned and identified

Members must use common sense when recording CPD activity to ensure that the value of any given activity to the individual is sensibly assessed.