WHAT COUNTS AS A CPD ACTIVITY

The activities you record for your CPD will naturally vary in relation to your circumstances, professional needs and your career stage. Often, members engage in activities that will maintain and enhance their competence in their current role. At other times, they may undertake activities that will enable them to start a different role within their organisation or in entirely different fields. These new roles may include more management responsibilities or may extend beyond engineering roles. Members may also undertake CPD to enable them to take on voluntary roles that support of promote the engineering profession. Equally, they may engage in other activities that help them follow a longer-term career development plan or enhance their professionalism in a wider context than a specific job role (e.g. keeping abreast of topical issues, engineering developments, etc).

Activities undertaken in any 12-month period will also be dependent on the opportunities available to you. The focus of an engineer’s learning may shift across different areas of competence from year to year, reflecting the evolution of your career and personal growth. You should also remain alert to any unexpected learning opportunities that may arise, as these can significantly enhance your skills and contribute to your CPD.

The 70:20:10 Learning Model

Research has shown that only 10% of learning comes from formal training. The 70:20:10 model developed from this research suggests that:

• 70% of an individual’s learning comes from activities carried out as part of their everyday work. These activities reinforce and expand existing skills, introduce an individual to new skills and encompass both technical and non-technical competences, ultimately enhancing your effectiveness.
• 20% of learning originates from working with others, such as guidance from senior colleagues, coaching, collaboration on projects, giving and receiving feedback, and mentoring.
• 10% of learning is derived from formal activities such as courses, online learning programmes, private study, attending exhibitions and conferences, involvement in professional body activities, or relevant voluntary work.

When considering which activities to include in your CPD records, the 70:20:10 model is intended as a guide for activities to consider and does not need to be followed carefully each year. The balance between the various categories will depend on your career stage.

Technical vs Non-Technical Activities

It is important to keep in mind when considering what CPD activities to record, that anything you do that enhances your knowledge – whether technical or non-technical – is a potential activity to include in your CPD records. Even learning and putting into practice new knowledge gained from instructional videos can make a worthwhile CPD activity. Regardless of the activity types you record, reflecting and recording the benefits gained from the activity is critical to gaining the maximum benefit for your development.

There is an increased emphasis to consider activities that touch on areas such as ethical principles, sustainability, risk, and where appropriate, security and whistleblowing, for your annual CPD. However, most professionally active engineers may only get the opportunity to experience one or two activities in these areas in any 12-month period. Anything related to your professional development can count as a CPD activity. Deciding to record and reflect upon it will depend on how much you learn from it.

CPD is not just technical development; UK-SPEC also covers non-technical competences and anything that increases your skills in management and communication, or your community involvement and commitment to the profession, can also be recorded as valid CPD, especially if you feel that activity has been beneficial.

Examples of CPD Activities

While not an exhaustive list, the examples provided in the drop-down lists below can help you identify relevant activities that could be considered for your personal CPD records.