Continuing Professional Development

www.cieem.net

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Introduction The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) aims to promote high professional standards and to ensure public confidence in the professional service offered by all its members. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an important part of this both for individual members and for IEEM as a whole. It applies at all levels of the profession and over the whole range of professional and managerial expertise and skills.

This guidance explains why CPD is important to CIEEM and details members’ obligation to undertake CPD. It:

• defines what activities constitute CPD; • gives advice on how you can meet the CPD

obligation; and • answers some common queries about CPD.

All Fellows, Full, Associate and Graduate members of the Institute have, as members of a professional body, accepted a continuing responsibility for maintaining their professional competence.

Most professions have either adopted or are developing formal CPD requirements. Full members of CIEEM can work towards Chartered status (Chartered Environmentalist) through the Society for the Environment. In order to qualify for this, a full up to date CPD record will be required.

Why CPD?CPD can help you to:

• gain the skills needed to perform well in your current roles;

• develop skills that might be needed in the future. This may include training for additional roles as the nature of your work and the profession changes;

• increase job satisfaction and personal effectiveness; and

• keep up-to-date with professional developments.

Planned Continuous Professional Development is good for you, your employer and the Institute.

What is the CPD Obligation for CIEEM Members?All Fellows, Full, Associate and Graduate CIEEM members are required to:

• carry out a minimum of 20 hours CPD each year; half of which should be structured and half unstructured (hopefully most members will do more than this) (see ‘Definitions of CPD’);

• maintain a record on the official CIEEM CPD form (see ‘Recording your CPD’);

• return the completed forms each year with their membership renewals; and

• prepare and maintain a Personal CPD Plan (see ‘Planning Your CPD’) when they join and every year thereafter.

The CPD should be designed to ensure that, over a three year period, members maintain, develop and add to their skills in ecology and environmental management and in other relevant aspects of professional practice.

Definitions of CPDCPD can be either structured or unstructured:

Structured CPDAny activity which involves a formal and structured learning process, e.g. attendance as a participant or lecturer* at short courses, conferences and seminars, project experience (where this is new to the member concerned and involves a structured learning process), formal home study such as with distance-learning or participation on technical committees.

*members working in education should seek opportunities other than lecturing, researching and teaching as structured CPD.

Unstructured CPDMore informal learning e.g. personal study, research or reading in own time, ‘on the job’ project work which is consciously and systematically undertaken within the work environment and some lecture preparation.

A combination of structured and unstructured CPD is important because each provides members with different learning processes:

• structured CPD involves directed study provided by recognised sources and/or experts in a particular area, therefore guaranteeing a level of quality of information that can be gauged; and

• unstructured CPD shows initiative on the part of members, and often allows them to concentrate their studies on their personal areas of interest, and perhaps specialise in a particular area of knowledge or skill.

Meeting Your CPD NeedsMany members instinctively think of seminars, conferences, workshops and short courses as methods of meeting CPD needs, but there are a variety of other ways of undertaking CPD and members have wide discretion in deciding how to meet their CPD needs.

Ecology and environmental management is a diverse profession. You must yourself decide what topics are appropriate for your own needs, and how best to learn more about these topics (a list of possible topics is given in Appendix 1).

To decide whether a particular piece of CPD is appropriate, ask: ‘Is it likely to make me (or has it in fact made me) more competent?’ As long as members can demonstrate that their CPD is related to the undertaking or managing of the practice of ecology and environmental management it is likely to be acceptable.

You are advised to aim for a mix of ways of undertaking CPD. The balance which is right for you will depend on the availability and accessibility of CPD opportunities, your own circumstances and, most importantly, your individual CPD needs as identified through your Personal CPD Plan.

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Planning Your CPD - Your Personal CPD PlanIn common with most other members, you are almost certainly already doing CPD. You will find it useful, however, to take a fresh look at your CPD needs, and to prepare a Personal CPD Plan. This may differ from the plan you draw up with your employer as it is intended to develop your skills beyond those required for your current role.

Preparing such a plan is in itself useful CPD; it will also be a worthwhile exercise in guiding your choices about CPD, and might perhaps help you to review your career.

To prepare a plan, begin by writing down all the tasks you are expected to do in your current employment, what areas you are expected to be knowledgeable about and any particular skills you already have. Then add any new items and changes you expect or would like to occur in the next year or so. Take into account your longer-term aims, but be realistic about the time needed to achieve them.

From this listing, start to develop ideas about what areas of CPD you need and what priority each has. Do not necessarily restrict yourself to thinking about your current professional responsibilities. Think about what you might enjoy doing.

Then list your CPD priorities for the next three years. The resulting document will be your Personal CPD Plan. It will need to be reviewed regularly as changes occur to your job and to your aspirations.

If you are an employer or manager you also have a responsibility for encouraging and facilitating the continuing professional development of employees and staff. You should ensure that your firm or department allocates adequate resources to training, that training opportunities are made available, and that CPD is accepted as an important and integral part of professional life. It is difficult for an individual to develop professionally without some support and encouragement at work.

Recording Your CPDYou should record your CPD on the official CIEEM CPD Record Sheet (available from the CIEEM website) and return this to CIEEM each year with your membership renewal.

A 10% sample of records will be made annually across the membership. This is to ensure that:

• simple records and standards are being maintained; and

• members are encouraged to be pro-active about personal development and meeting the standard that the Institute sets.

Paying for Your CPDYour CPD, and any action which you need to take to maintain your professional competence, is your responsibility as a member of CIEEM. This may involve some costs.

The Institute takes the view that the professional competence of their members is very much in the interest of all employers, and that employers should, as a matter of standard good practice, offer as much support as they reasonably can. However, not all employers may be willing or able to accept their share of responsibility for your CPD, and if this is your experience you must be prepared to find any costs from your own pocket.

Such costs need not be excessive. CIEEM runs a programme of short, low-cost training events each year, the details of which are circulated to all members. Alternatively, you might, through CIEEM, set up or attend local low-cost or no-cost CPD opportunities, such as lunch-time or afternoon meetings with other Institute members living nearby. You may find that some of your CPD expenses are tax deductible.

The attitude of employers and the level of support which they offer is a major concern of the Institute. Many employers are very good in this respect, but others are less dependable. A copy of this guidance document should be given to your employer. This may help you obtain support for CPD.

What Happens if a Member DoesNot Meet the CPD Requirements?Where members are found not to have achieved the standard required i.e. not followed the recommendations given here, they will be asked to provide an explanation. If this is not satisfactory, they will be referred to the Professional Standards Committee.

How Does the CPD Obligation Affect Particular Groups?

Remote membersMembers who live in remote areas may have difficulty in getting to CPD events. There are many other ways of undertaking CPD and these members may need to concentrate on alternatives such as distance learning, or setting up local inter-professional networks.

Part-time employed membersIf you are in part-time employment you need to be as competent as those in full-time work, and will be expected to fulfil the Institute’s requirement for CPD.

Members working in the voluntary sectorIf you work for a voluntary organisation which has limited resources to support structured CPD activities, you may feel that you are facing particular difficulties in fulfilling your CPD obligation. Remember that CPD does not have to involve expensive training courses. Many other opportunities are available. You could, with other colleagues in the sector, organise low-cost workshops which enable structured exchanges of experience on relevant issues.

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Members working overseasIf you are working overseas you may have difficulties in undertaking CPD. The CPD plan should help you to realistically define what you are likely to achieve, and identify subject areas that you will need to address when you have an opportunity.

Academic membersIf you are an academic you may have to adopt a slightly different approach to CPD. CPD acquired purely through teaching and research is not sufficient to retain professional competence as an ecologist and environmental manager. The work of many academics involves learning new skills, in-depth study of new areas of expertise, and developing new areas of knowledge, all of which is CPD. For such members there should be no problem in fulfilling the CPD obligation. However, academic members may have fewer opportunities than others to develop practical skills and should endeavour to ensure these skills are included in their CPD. For example, job exchanges and work for voluntary bodies may be helpful in meeting their CPD needs.

Unemployed membersIf you are unemployed you are still required to undertake CPD, subject to the exercise of the Governing Board’s discretion in exceptional cases. This may seem an onerous requirement, but it is in your interest to keep your knowledge and skills up to date, and evidence of CPD undertaken, and your CPD plan, whilst unemployed, should stand you in good stead when seeking appointment to a new post.

Members in Abeyance or temporarily not practisingYou may have ceased practising on a temporary basis, but with the intention of returning at some time in the future. If so, you may be facing particular difficulties arising from lack of contact with the profession. It is worth bearing in mind that members (other than students) who have resigned or put their membership into abeyance and later seek reinstatement have to provide evidence of CPD before being reinstated, especially in the year before returning. CIEEM would like to encourage people to return to membership and is keen to offer advice and help to meet your CPD requirements.

Members who consider themselves to be no longer practisingFinally, you may consider yourself to have left the profession altogether, and have no intention of returning to it. Remember that in order to re-apply to CIEEM in the future you must continue to maintain your professional competence, and you will be expected to have complied with the Institute’s CPD obligations for a minimum period of three years.

AcknowledgementsCIEEM gratefully acknowledges the help of Susan Cross of TellTale and the members of the Professional Standards Committee and Training, Education and Career Development Committee in the development of this guidance note.

Cover photographs (left to right) taken by: Mick Green, wildstock.co.uk and Stephanie Peay.

APPENDIX 1The following is a non-comprehensive list of appropriate CPD topics:

• field identification skills for appropriate plant and animal groups;

• biological survey and monitoring techniques; • analysis of field data and application of quality

assessments; • practical site management for habitats and species; • habitat and species restoration techniques; • legislation and policy frameworks; • institutional roles and function; • environmental Impact Assessment; • advocacy and communication skills; • project management; • tendering and financial management especially of

contracts; and • staff and organisational management.

APPENDIX 2The following can all be acceptable forms of CPD:

• home-based learning such as distance learning packages, systematic study on a theme, or structured reading (rather than just routine reading of the technical press);

• teaching, for those in non-academic practice (e.g. part-time lecturing, presentations to colleagues);

• practice, for those in education; • technical authorship such as the preparation of

material for courses and technical meetings or for publication in the technical press;

• supervised research; • aspects of practice with CPD value such as in-

house training, secondments, staff exchanges; • activities of a technical or professional nature

such as involvement in specialist working parties or panels, voluntary work (e.g. as a voluntary warden/manager for a nature reserve), or acting as a consultee on topics of professional interest;

• project experience, where this is new and involves a learning process; and

• courses, conferences, seminars, workshops and other technical and professional events and meetings.

Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management43 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9EH, UK.Tel: +44 1962 868626 E-mail: enquiries@cieem.net Web: www.cieem.net

© CIEEM APRIL 2013