Continuing Professional Development
Continuing professional development, or CPD, describes the activities you undertake in addition to on-the-job training, which contribute to your improvement and development as a scientist.
Examples of CPD activities include attending workshops, seminars and conferences; volunteering and mentoring; reading around your subject; and participating in online and other types of courses.
For professional scientists, CPD is an excellent way of ensuring that people are keeping up with the latest scientific developments and techniques. Making a commitment to regular CPD activities gives confidence to employers and the general public that our scientists are working to high standards.
Registrants are all supported to meet these standards by their professional body.
Science Council CPD Standards for Registrants
Everyone on the Science Council’s registers has committed to the 4 Standards for CPD renewal:
1
A registrant must maintain a continuous, up to date, accurate and reflective record of their CPD activities and be able to provide supporting evidence if requested.
2
A registrant must demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice.
3
A registrant must seek to ensure that their CPD has benefited the quality of their practice and reflect upon this.
4
A registrant must seek to ensure that their CPD has benefited the users of their work (employee/customer/student etc) and reflect upon this.
Your CPD is reviewed by your licensed body if you are called to present your CPD as part of an audit. Each of our licensed bodies (who you hold your registration with) has different ways of recording and reviewing CPD so your first point of advice should be them.