REGULATORY
How’s Your CPD Doing? You know that lifelong learning is important. Yet understanding the mechanics and meeting the requirements of APEGA’s Continuing Professional Development program can seem challenging. These hints will help make the process simpler and more effective
Continuing competency is a pillar of the APEGA professions. To safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public, it’s essential that professionals engage in lifelong learning. Knowledge and technology grow and change rapidly, as do the best practices in engineering and geoscience. Also, society’s expectations have changed, particularly over the last decade — the public demands greater and greater accountability from its professionals. To meet these demands, APEGA's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program establishes an annual process and a minimum benchmark for your learning efforts. Meeting the minimum, however, may not be enough. It’s up to you to assess your own needs and plan appropriately, ensuring that your own schedule of CPD maintains or increases your competence. The CPD program provides the flexibility you need to select activities that provide the greatest benefit to you and your practice. In the Professional Practice Department, we hear from some Members who find it challenging to navigate our CPD require- ments. After a conversation with a profes- sional practice advisor, however, these same Members have found they can easily meet the CPD requirements. So, what are our advisors telling Members?
SUBMITTING A DETAILED RECORD? You’ve been asked to submit your detailed activity record to the Practice Review Board. What now? These tips will help you get through the review painlessly. Provide more than just your job title in the Professional Practice section. Without details, such as a brief description of responsibilities, it is unclear to our reviewers what your job duties are and how your CPD activities relate to geoscience or engineering. Be sure to list the provider and specific date for a course or conference activity. A reviewer may do a spot check; if the course or conference information cannot be verified, you may be required to provide additional proof. Don’t rely on your work calendar as the sole source of your CPD information. Members tend to keep their CPD activities listed on their work calendars. But what if yours is not available to you? Employers change, software changes, systems crash — a few of our Members have lost CPD information as a result. Reconstructing information is time consuming and getting detailed reports together becomes difficult. Our suggestion? Print a PDF of your calendar quarterly and keep it at home. 2 3 1
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