CPD Advice and Support

Make your CPD simple with helpful tips and advice from 2 of CIWEM's Chartered assessors.

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CIWEM members hold positions of high responsibility, which involve planning, designing, operating and maintaining the national environmental infrastructure and assets on behalf of the wider public.

CIWEM has its own requirements and expectations for CPD. Members who are also registered with the Engineering Council and/or Science Council and/or Society for the Environment (CEng, IEng, EngTech, CSci,CEnv and REnvP), are additionally expected by the external Registration Authorities to be recording, reflecting on, and identifying development needs through their recorded CPD.

In both their everyday activities and in their planned participation at specially organised events and courses, members should:

• keep up to date with technological changes;
• keep up to date with legislative changes.

Members should also seek to enhance their:

• knowledge and understanding;
• skill and aptitude;
• breadth of experience.
• These activities (whether formally planned or informal), may be carried out in order to:
• respond to a specific need;
• prepare for a specific role change;
• follow a particular career plan;
• improve a personal weakness in competence.

It is the responsibility of the individual to define their own learning needs and undertake appropriate CPD to maintain and develop the professional knowledge, skills, and competence they need.

Initial Professional Development (IPD) is the process of developing competence in order to gain professional registration. Developing both short- and long-term goals can help guide your IPD and CPD planning, and decisions you make throughout your career, whether you want to complete a complex project or move to a specific role. A professional development plan can guide you toward reaching those goals by setting out a strategy on how to meet them.

You can download the CIWEM Professional Development Plan Template within the 'My CPD' area of MyCIWEM, this plan will guide you through the stages of developing your plan through a series of activities. It is designed to be a continuous reference or touchstone, and you should update it every time you reach important milestones. Regularly updating your professional development plan allows you to set new goals that help you grow as a professional and individual, supporting your CPD record and reflection.

The minimum amount of CPD activity required by CIWEM is ninety hours, over a three year rolling period.

This flexible approach means that a member’s CPD can take account of how they work, and they can plan their CPD activities to address their changing needs.

In addition to factual details, such as time spent and content of specific activities, CPD records must also contain planning and objectives together with constructive assessment and reflection of the personal professional development benefits gained from each activity, this should include details of how the CPD benefits the quality of an individuals practice and the users of their work.

CIWEM members must make their own decisions about the kind of CPD activity that is relevant to their role and their work. For example, CPD activities could include going on secondment, in-service training, mentoring, or reading or reviewing journal articles etc. Members must demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to their current or future practice.

Members can structure CPD activities around their personal development plan. This flexible approach means that members can plan their own CPD in a way that suits their work, their learning needs, their preferences and the time and resources available to them.

All Chartership, Technician and Fellow applicants are required to submit a three year reflective CPD record containing a minimum of 90 hours of CPD (a minimum of 15 hours should be attributed to a single year during the three year period).

CIWEM members must make their own decisions about the kind of CPD activity that is relevant to their role and their work. For example, CPD activities could include going on secondment, in-service training, mentoring, or reading or reviewing journal articles etc. Members must demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to their current or future practice.

The activities listed below are suggestions for CPD opportunities that members may wish to consider:

• Research, or acquiring knowledge in new technology pertaining to the environmental or water sector: This might be in response to: a new client brief; a change in role within the company; an expansion of duties within a current role; a new post with a new company; a change of specialism within the sector. A maximum of 75% qualifying CPD credit can be obtained from such activity in each year.
• Conferences, seminars and technical meetings organised by an appropriate institution, university, other professional body, course provider and employer: Notes should be made both of the activity itself, and of the time spent in actually receiving professional benefit during the activity. Where a CPD credit is allocated by an organiser, an individual’s claim for CPD time must not exceed this allocation, unless he or she then deliver some further outcome from the event; for example a lunch-time presentation to colleagues.
• Conferences, committees and working parties, in a managerial capacity: Details of the nature of involvement in the event and time spent on the event must be recorded by the individual. A maximum of 20% qualifying CPD credit can be obtained from such activity in each year.
• Private studies that are suitably structured: Before undertaking private study a formal statement of the aims, objectives and source material should be made. Upon completion of the private study the time spent and the benefits gained by the individual can be assessed against the stated aims and objectives.
• Correspondence courses, Open University courses, and other supervised study packages: Records of acceptance on to the course, professional benefits of the course, and the time spent in studying must be kept by the individual.
• Research and post-qualification studies: Records of the professional benefit obtained and the time spent must be kept by the individual.
• Technical authorship and the preparation of lectures for organised events: The time spent on these activities must be recorded. An honest, objective evaluation of their professional development value must also be made by the individual.
• Undertaking a formal role in the running of the Institution at either national, group or branch level: Details of the nature of the involvement in the event and time spent on the event must be recorded by the individual. A maximum of 20% qualifying CPD credit can be obtained from such activity in each year.
• Undertaking the duties of interviewer at professional reviews and/or a professional development mentor: Details of the nature of the duties and time spent in their execution must be recorded by the individual. A maximum of 20% qualifying CPD credit can be obtained from such activity in each year.

As a professionally registered scientist, you are expected to engage in CPD each year. There are several things you need to consider when planning your activities:

1. Is this relevant to your current or future scientific practice and work?
2. Will it contribute to the quality of your practice?
3. Will it ultimately benefit the users of the service you provide? (such as customers, students, colleagues etc.)

In order to retain your CSci status, all registrants who wish to renew their registration, must make an annual declaration that they comply with the Science Council CPD standards. This statement will normally be captured at the time of renewal and in any case, by 31st December each year, we will get in touch about completing this statement in the Autumn. Please note this must be done in addition to a full, reflective CPD record.

Annually the CIWEM membership team will request the CPD submissions from a number of Chartered Scientists who will be selected at random as part of our annual audit. If you are one of the selected members, we will arrange for all your CPD submissions to be checked and assessed, this process will start in the Spring, you will then be notified of the outcome of the assessment of your CPD submission and we will also notify your additional licencing body(ies) of the outcome.

Further details on the CPD requirements of the Science Council, including FAQs can be found here.

All Engineering Council registrants make a commitment to maintain and enhance their competence. In practice, this means undertaking Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

The requirement is set out in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC) and the ICTTech Standard, and the obligation is explained in the Engineering Council CPD Code for Registrants.

Annually the CIWEM membership team will request the CPD submissions from a number of Engineering Council registrants who will be selected at random as part of our annual audit. If you are one of the selected members, we will arrange for all your CPD submissions to be checked and assessed, this process will start in the Spring, you will then be notified of the outcome of the assessment of your CPD submission and we will also notify your additional licencing body(ies) of the outcome.

Further details on the CPD requirements of the Engineering Council can be found here.

The Society for the Environment regards the development and enhancement of CPD critical to the ‘environmental’ profession and expects Chartered Environmentalists (CEnv) to ‘take responsibility for personal development and work towards and secure improvements for a sustainable future.’ (CEnv Practice Direction Competency D2)

Annually the CIWEM membership team will request the CPD submissions from a number of Society for the Environement registrants who will be selected at random as part of our annual audit. If you are one of the selected members, we will arrange for all your CPD submissions to be checked and assessed, this process will start in the Spring, you will then be notified of the outcome of the assessment of your CPD submission and we will also notify your additional licencing body(ies) of the outcome.

Further details on the CPD requirements of the Society for the Environment can be found here.

Members must keep their own record of CPD undertaken each year. In addition to factual details, such as time spent and content of specific activities, CPD records must also contain planning and objectives together with constructive assessment of the personal professional development benefits gained from each activity.

The precise format of this record can suit the individual’s own preference, for example in long hand notebook and/or excel files or via the Members area of the CIWEM website, members.ciwem.org with the stipulation that, either electronically or via hard copy, normally three years’ worth of experience, as appropriate, is immediately available upon request by the Institution.

The Annual CPD Audit takes place in March. Each year, a randomly selected sample of professionally active members are contact via email and requested to submit their CPD records.

For members using the CIWEM members’ area to record their CPD the Institution will access their record via the database server, rather than asking them to produce a hard copy. For those who are not using the member’s area for recording their CPD the option to request them to produce a hard copy will remain.

If there is anything you think we could improve or if you would like to contribute, please contact us.