What is CPD?
Continuing professional development (CPD) is the systematic acquisition of knowledge and skills, and the development of personal qualities, to maintain and enhance professional competence. All members of professional engineering institutions have an obligation to maintain their competence through CPD, and to support the learning of others. Registrants with the Engineering Council, Society for the Environment and under the IED’s Charter for Product Design make a further commitment to recording their CPD. This obligation underpins the value of the professional registration titles as well as serving society and enabling it to have confidence in the engineering and design profession.
CPD can also take a variety of different forms. At its heart is informal learning through the challenges and opportunities of working life, general technical reading, attendance at technical lectures, and interaction with others (e.g. colleagues, customers, suppliers) including professionals from other disciplines. However, this may be supplemented by structured activities such as courses, distance learning programmes, private study, attendance at exhibitions and conferences, preparation of papers and presentations, mentoring, involvement in professional body activities, or relevant voluntary work. These examples are not intended to be exhaustive; registrants should be alert to any and all CPD needs and opportunities.
Why should you do it?
CPD has several purposes, which will vary in relation to your circumstances, needs and their career progression. Very often designers will complete CPD to assure continuing competence in their current role. At other times, CPD may be undertaken to enable a different role within or outside their organisation. Equally, CPD may help you follow a longer term career development plan, or enhance your professionalism in a wider context than a specific job role (e.g. keeping abreast of topical issues, technical or legislative developments, etc). The focus of your learning may therefore be on different areas of competence at different times. Whatever its purpose or nature, learning through CPD should be reflective and should relate to specific objectives even if these are only to maintain professional competence. Having a regularly reviewed development plan will facilitate learning, although there will always be a place for unplanned activities. Members should record both their CPD activities and what they have learned or achieved through them, and relate this to any planned objectives.
Stages of the CPD cycle:
- Identify: Understand where you’ve come from, where you are and where you want to be.
- Plan: Plan how you can get to where you want to be, with clear outcomes and milestones to track progress
- Act: Act upon your plan, and be open to learning experiences
- Reflect: Make the most of your day–to-day learning, routinely reflecting upon experiences
- Apply: Create opportunities where you can translate theory into practice and put your learning to work
- Share: Share your learning in communities of practice to generate greater insight and benefit from the support of your community
- Impact: Measure the overall impact your learning has had on the work you do.
How to plan and record CPD
There are many methods and templates to use to plan and record your CPD – some members will be provided with activity or progression logs through their employment, or through training schemes from other organisations or PEIs, these can be used to submit CPD activity records – we will not ask you to repeat records that you have already completed. A log can be found here (CPD 2025). All IED members are given access to the MyCareerPath platform as developed by the Engineering Council (mycareerpath.org.uk). This is an excellent tool, developed to help registrants plan and record their CPD against professional competencies for a range of registration grades, not just those offered by the Engineering Council. Competencies for all registration grades available through the IED are available on the IED section of the platform to help guide you in your professional development.
Link to CPD policy https://www.ied.org.uk/cpd-policy