Continuing Professional Development

Since restarting auditing following the pandemic, our Auditors have noted some common errors in recording of SER CPD. Robert Storey, one of the Vice-Chairs of the Scottish Registration Board, has written this blog to address this.

The blog is intended to expand on the requirement for Approved Certifiers to submit Continuing Professional Development (CPD) returns each year and should be read in conjunction with Guidance Note 7 Revision B which provides more general guidance regarding the obligations of Approved Certifiers under the Scheme.

Purposes of CPD

The purpose of CPD is to ensure that as an Approved Certifier you are up to date with the statutory regulations and the appropriate technical guidance that might affect the structural design that you are reviewing.

As an Approved Certifier you are potentially able to certify any building but must only certify those for which you are competent.

Hence it is important that you are able to demonstrate not only that you have kept up to date with developments in your normal sphere of work, but that you have also taken steps to improve your knowledge in wider areas and most definitely in areas where you certify beyond your normal experience.

Issues Arising at Audit

Auditors assess the quality of an Approved Certifier’s CPD returns at each audit to check that they are meeting their obligations under the Scheme. If the Auditors consider the CPD records to be poor, this can affect the overall outcome of the audit resulting in shorter return periods or even a requirement to submit more regular returns.

Feedback from Auditors has highlighted some common errors in recording CPD activity that could easily be rectified by Certifiers to improve their performances at the audit. This note seeks to pass this information on to members.

Appropriate Activities

Some forms of CPD that may be acceptable to professional bodies may not be appropriate for SER Certification.

Most professional bodies accept community activities such as involvement with charitable trusts, social clubs and fund raising or general business activities such as trade networking events or membership of local business groups as suitable CPD. These activities do not necessarily improve the quality of certification.

Similarly mentoring junior staff, although valuable and a great benefit to the engineering profession at large, is not necessarily an indication of learning. Mentoring tends to be about imparting knowledge not receiving.

It is also quite common to see engineers with more general topics listed in CPD such as watching ‘Grand Designs’ (other TV programs are available) or ‘organised visits to foreign countries to look at historic buildings’ (holidays). In SER’s opinion there is rarely sufficient evidence that competence has been increased or maintained by these activities and we are certain that there would be genuine public concern if we were to accept this as relevant to your activities as a Certifier - unless you can provide clear justification in the learning outcomes in your returns.

Appropriate Topics

Members should bear in mind that they are certifying compliance with Standards 1.1 and 1.2, in other words, the structural performance of the building.

Some topics, (e.g. fire protection, waterproofing, environmental issues, energy conservation and temporary works) fall within other parts of the Building Standards, and may not always be considered relevant to certification.  However, they may have an impact on the structural design, so it may be possible to relate some of the learning to your activities as a Certifier. Similarly, a limited amount of time recorded in health and safety type training may be relevant to certification.

However, unless there is clear justification in the learning outcomes, much of the time recorded in your returns is likely to be discarded for the purposes of the Auditors’ assessment.

Poor recording of CPD

Scottish Government Building Standards Division (BSD) requires SER to monitor our member’s CPD. SER are audited by BSD to ensure we are running the Scheme as it has been approved by them and therefore our assessments must be demonstrable.

Vague descriptions and general sweeping statements on CPD returns make it difficult for Auditors to make an objective assessment.

The most common failings are that descriptions for each activity are too general and the learning outcomes are too short.

An example of a poor personal study record might be:

Reading the Structural Engineer throughout the year - 20hrs.

The auditor might agree that The Structural Engineer contains interesting and useful articles and if read cover to cover each month that it may take 20hrs. But how much of this has improved or maintained your certification knowledge?

If you think that reading the magazine has improved your knowledge, you should quote the specific article and what it is you have learned. Let’s face it, it’s the easiest form of CPD and so 5 minutes summarising this is not too difficult a task.

The following is a better example of how to record this type of CPD:

An example of a poor record of CPD gained through working on a particular project might be:

Working on a complex refurbishment of an historic building requiring underpinning, structural assessment and analysis of differential settlement of masonry walls - 50 hrs.

This description contains no reference to technical standards, possible literature that’s been read or even what is new to the Certifier. It is really just a description of the experience gained.

We have all been involved in projects that are a bit cutting edge and where we are proud of the experience gained in these areas. You may well have spent this level of time on the project but presumably you were competent to start with otherwise you wouldn’t have been given the job.

SER recognises that researching and updating yourself for projects is a valuable source of CPD but be realistic. How much of this was new knowledge and how much was just down to completing the project?

A better example of how the above CPD might be recorded with realistic times is:

CPD should be varied

You may be fortunate and have been able to take on board a lot of new knowledge in one year because you had an exceptionally concentrated effort in one area, such as completing an MSc in Advanced Structures. However, remember that Certifiers require an all-round experience and so you should not exclude other forms of CPD if this has been the case.  Also remember that for a typical Certifier who covers a reasonably broad range of projects, SER are looking for 60 hours of relevant CPD over a three-year period.

To Summarise

• Activities which will be counted towards your SER CPD allocation should be appropriate to certification and not just professional or personal development in the wider sense.
• Topics should be relevant to your activities as a Certifier. A topic may be relevant to you as an engineer but may not substantially improve or maintain your certification knowledge.
• Ensure that Activities are sufficiently described quoting articles and technical references where appropriate.
• Ensure that Learning Outcomes are described and that the time allocated to this is realistic.
• Include as wide a scope of topics as possible, a narrow a field may not demonstrate that you are keeping up with the general issues surrounding certification.
• Ensure to include topics that are relevant to any project that included work where you have had limited experience in the past.

Finally

Your SER account on the website includes a CPD Notepad that can be updated throughout the year and then uploaded at a click of a button when your return is due. This is a useful tool and saves spending more time than necessary at the end of the year trying to remind yourself what you have done.

Your SER CPD can also be submitted to the Institution of Structural Engineers by simply clicking the option to do so and hence satisfies two obligations at the same time.

Whilst we have set out above the CPD that is acceptable to SER we would not discourage you from including all CPD on your return. However, please bear in mind that it will be reduced appropriately by our Auditors at their assessment.