Professional Development is the systematic maintenance and broadening of knowledge and skills, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional duties throughout the working life. Institute members are under an obligation to maintain and extend their professional knowledge and competencies under the Institute's Membership Code of Conduct.

 

Outline of Scheme

The current scheme aims to encourage members to consider their career and personal development by formulating a personal action plan to help them achieve their objectives. The personal action plan will be individual and may include both technical and non-technical aspects. Members are encouraged to work with their employers in planning their professional development.

When seeking election as MIOA and FIOA, evidence of undertaking CPD is now required to support the application.

Although the IOA scheme is goal based, as a guide, participants should aim for a total of at least 20 hours of CPD activity per year and considerably more for those looking to upgrade membership.

 

Who should take part?

All members of the Institute should take part in this scheme. There is no additional fee for taking part. The Institute will continue to issue attendance certificates at all conferences and seminars for those members who may wish to use them for other professional bodies or for personal record keeping.

Members are able to upload their CPD records to the IOA website by logging in and selecting My CPD.

Accepting election to Institute membership infers a willingness to practice professional development and members who are seeking upgrade to MIOA or FIOA will be expected to demonstrate this. Members who have Engineering Council registration or who are members of certain other professional bodies are also obliged to do so in order to maintain their status.

The IOA professional development scheme has been updated in March 2020 to make the guidance clearer to our members. See the following documents for more information.

Full details of the scheme are provided here: IOA CPD Scheme Introduction Guidance March 2020.pdf .  This document sets out information about the CPD scheme details, the process and the CPD plan and record sheets.

If you need help formulating your CPD plan, the IOA have prepared this example IOA CPD Scheme Getting Started March 2020.pdf

A handy 1-page summary document is available here, to be used as an aide-memoire only IOA CPD Scheme Summary March 2020.pdf

To see examples of completed CPD records click on these links -

Academic - Example Academic CPD.pdf

Consultant - Example Consultant CPD.pdf

Consultant / Director - Example Consultant Director CPD.pdf

Environmental Health - Example EHO CPD.pdf

Junior Consultant - example_junior_consultant.pdf

To download a Excel document containing blank CPD forms for your personal use click on this link,  blank_ioa_cpd_forms_excel_oct_2020.xlsx   If you require the blank forms in a different Excel format, please contact the IOA.

 

Continuous Reviewing

The Institute  aims to review around 10% of members CPD plans annually.  Some of these will be reviewed automatically by the Membership Committee as part of the application process for MIOA and FIOA.  The rest will be chosen from the remaining members of the Institute, this is to include 10% of members who have CEng & IEng status. The selection is done randomly and the committee will meet twice a year to review those selected.