Guide to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) - … · Guide to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) ... 2.8 Writing Reflective Statements ... Guide to Continuous Professional

COM04 Guide to CPD Members version v2.02 Pg 1 May 2016 (Review due May 2017)

Guide to Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

(including the Skills Development Portfolio for CPD)

NZISM Accreditation Project – Guide to Continuous Professional Development

© 2015 NZISM, Confidential

COM04 Guide to CPD members version v2.02 Pg 2 May 2016 (Review due May 2017)

Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION TO CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT .............................................. 3

2 CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) ............................................................. 3

2.1 Benefits of Professional Development ...................................................................... 3

2.2 Recording Professional Development ...................................................................... 4

2.3 Access to the online database for recording CPD ................................................ 4

2.4 CPD database access costs ...................................................................................... 5

2.5 Maintaining membership through CPD .................................................................... 5

2.6 Writing a Development Plan ...................................................................................... 5

2.7 Identifying and Completing Development Activities ............................................. 6

2.8 Writing Reflective Statements .................................................................................... 7

2.9 Examples of a brief and longer reflective Statement ............................................ 8

2.10 Storing of Support Documents ................................................................................... 9

2.11 Three Month Reminder ............................................................................................... 9

2.12 Two Year Skills Development Portfolio (SDP) Associated with CPD .................... 10

2.13 Placing CPD on 'hold' ............................................................................................... 10

2.14 Important Note related to CPD SDP: ...................................................................... 10

2.15 MyCPD Help ............................................................................................................... 10

This document and the information in it, is the property of NZISM. No part of this publication may be used or

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, except with the written

permission of a representative in the employment of NZISM.




1 Introduction to Continuous

Professional Development

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is key to a professional forward

planning their career and improving their knowledge and skills once core

qualifications are obtained. This document describes the NZISM CPD process.

2 Continuous Professional

Development (CPD)

CPD is the process of a professional learning and developing their skills, knowledge and experience throughout their working life. For Health and Safety Practitioners it is the process of actively seeking to improve abilities in areas known to be weak – maintaining their ability in other areas and learning about new developments and issues in the field of health and safety, and beyond, for many years. The NZISM CPD process formalises this into an auditable and peer reviewable record.

2.1 Benefits of Professional Development

“The real test of CPD is not whether you have attended a particular course or read a particular book; nor is it to supply evidence to meet the professional institute’s membership criteria. It is whether the CPD actually improves your professional competence and adds to the achievement of your personal career objectives.” Fowler, A (1996) "How to manage your own CPD," People Management. Effective professional development acts as a practical record of learning over a career. The system permits a health and safety professional to structure development and reflect on their abilities as a whole. It is about acknowledging that there is always more to learn.

CPD helps to maximise potential by linking learning to actions and theory to practice. It is therefore integral to development. The CPD is a tool that enables the member to view their professional development visually and aids the member in the definition of their goals, plan activities accordingly and reflect on those activities after completion.

Constantly reflecting on experiences helps to apply learning to a role and this learning can be reviewed at a later date. Some organisations link their practitioner’s professional development activities with staff performance appraisals.




Completing a professional development record will:

Build confidence and credibility in skills

Permit to earn more by showcasing achievements

Achieve career goals by focusing on training and development

Cope positively with change by constantly updating skill sets

Be more productive and effective by reflecting on learning and

highlighting gaps in knowledge and experience.

2.2 Recording Professional Development

To begin the process of recording professional development, the member applies from their Members section of the NZISM webpage for MyCPD. The NZISM Administrator registers the member’s interest and provides the member with their login criteria to the NZISM MyCPD.

2.3 Access to the online database for recording CPD

All NZISM members have access to the MyCPD application on payment of CPD fee. If a member is a professional member i.e. Technical through to Fellow, CPD is obligatory, or if an Affiliate/Student it is by choice and the member will also be given access to MyCPD. If required, in addition to this document, information about how to use the database can be obtained from branch CPD coordinators. The MyCPD database can start recording development activities when the member logs in. The MyCPD site can be accessed via a link provided on the member’s ‘My Account’ page.




2.4 CPD database access costs

Members that apply for MyCPD will be charged an annual administration fee + GST. The fee will be listed on the member webpage and the member will be reminded via email of impending renewal. This fee covers the charge for the administration of the MyCPD database and for the quarterly auditing of professional development records.

2.5 Maintaining membership through CPD

To maintain professional membership the member is required to ensure NZISM membership is current and paid up. If members cease paying subscriptions or the CPD access costs, professional membership will be cancelled. NZISM will remove the member from the database and the member will lose their CPD record.

If after this the member wishes to re-establish membership with NZISM, the member will have to reapply for assessment from the beginning of the process. Members must complete any CPD or Graduate to Certified processes again and would not be able to re-join at their previous membership level automatically.

2.6 Writing a Development Plan

The first step to professional development is planning. When a member first logs in to MyCPD, the system will prompt to create a development plan. The development plan is the roadmap. It should contain an honest assessment of where the member is in their career and how they plan on moving forward. When planning development, NZISM recommend that members look at least three months ahead. Circumstances can change affecting plans.

Members are to consider and review the nature of their current practice and career path, and evaluate past goals and achievements. Useful questions to consider include:

Do I have sufficient skills in areas other than health and safety?

What are my current main duties and responsibilities?

What knowledge, skills and expertise am I expected to demonstrate?

What are my career objectives?

Which skills, areas of expertise or knowledge do I need to update?

Do I need any formal training?

Are there any foreseeable circumstances that may affect my ability to carry out CPD?

Which development activities do I need to concentrate on?

Where do my strengths and weaknesses lie? Members are to review and update their development plan on a regular basis. Ensure that the plan is still fit for purpose and update if required. No matter how long the member spends planning their development, it is likely that unplanned activity will form a significant part of their professional development in any year. The important thing is to recognise this for what it is and capture it as they go along.




Screen grab of the relevant section of MyCPD can be seen below.

CPD Home Page

CPD Development Plan

2.7 Identifying and Completing Development Activities

Having completed their development plan, members will need to identify the activities to be undertaken. Remember:

An activity is anything undertaken that is felt to update or maintain a member's skill set, or provides knowledge

The activities undertaken should work towards the goals set out in their development plan; unplanned events should provide an important development.

Professional development isn’t all about receiving new training and attending conferences. There’s a large variety of different activities that can be included, such as:

Familiarising with new or existing H&S legislation




Contributing to a consultation process

Reading health and safety research papers or industry articles in magazines/newspapers

Researching for and presenting at a meeting or seminar. Members can even include activities that don’t relate to health and safety, but are vital to their career development such as:

Managing budgets

Building communication, presentation and negotiation skills

Managing the performance and development of others

Building technical skills in related areas. Once the member has undertaken an activity, they are required to reflect on it and review how effective it is in achieving their goals. It is this reflective statement that forms the greatest part of professional development. Screen shots of the relevant section of MYCPD can be seen below.

Activity type and file upload option

Activity tracking

2.8 Writing Reflective Statements

When members record or update a completed activity, a reflective statement must be added to the notes section of the record to outline what they have learned from the activity.

Self-reflection is a personal attribute and there is no correct or incorrect way to undertake this type of exercise. Reflective practice can help a member to gain




a valid insight into why something went well, or was unsuccessful. The act of reflection helps the member to maximise the benefit they get from development activities and recording those reflections provides evidence that development has taken place.

When writing a reflective statement the member should consider:

Professional objectives in undertaking the activity

The approach and the reasons for it

Details of the completed activity, including where relevant, the contribution of others

The results of the activities and the extent to which their objectives were achieved

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken, and learning points for the future

An explanation as to how they think it may impact on their future role as a professional Health and Safety Practitioner.

Members are to take time to organise and structure their writing. There is no set length for a reflective statement, but it should be proportional to the size of the activity and what they have gained from it. Tip - Reflection is best done before they forget the critical details.

2.9 Examples of a brief and longer reflective Statement

Short example




Longer example

2.10 Storing of Support Documents

Documents supporting member's activities can be stored on the NZISM MyCPD site. Examples of documents to be stored include certificates, certificates of attendance, scanned notes etc.

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2.11 Three Month Reminder

Professional members are reminded that continuous development is obligatory to retain professional membership. To assist with this NZISM will perform an audit every quarter. Where no activity is recorded NZISM will send a courtesy reminder email to the member.




2.12 Two Year Skills Development Portfolio (SDP) Associated

with CPD

Every two years NZISM professional members are required to combine their two year records of CPD into a Skills Development Portfolio (SDP) which can be reviewed by NZISM to ensure CPD is occurring in a controlled and effective manner. If CPD has been regularly maintained as expected, the task of producing a SDP will not be too onerous.

The SDP starts with a brief Executive Summary paragraph. The body of the SDP then details the Two Year Development Plan, activities undertaken over the past two years along with the reflective statements already made. The SDP is to describe whether the objective of the development plan was met and how.

Note should also be made of what the next two year main objective will be. If the objectives of the previous two year period have not been met, mention is to be made of what adjustments/additions will be made to continue the development.

2.13 Placing CPD on 'hold'

Due to CPD topics being so broad in coverage and the recording requirements so minimal, there is no reason seen for a member to place their CPD on hold. Transferrable skills can be recorded as learning over any period where the member may not be actually working in the health and safety field.

2.14 Important Note related to CPD SDP:

The CPD SDP differs greatly from the SDP required by Graduates wishing to progress from Graduate to Certified level. A separate document 'Guide to the Skills Development Portfolio for Graduate to Certified Level Membership' describes the comprehensive elements required for this SDP.

2.15 MyCPD Help

MyCPD contains a number of online tools such as PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents describing how to use MyCPD. Members that read these will familiarise themselves with the workings of the MyCPD in a shorter timeframe than those that elect not to read the material. This will reduce the involvement of other staff to assist with queries.

MyCPD Help Page




Slide from ‘How to use NZISM CPD’ Power Point If members require further assistance they can contact NZISM administration at [email protected] .

mailto:[email protected]