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Learn what is expected of you as a professionally qualified ICE member when planning, managing and recording your CPD.
What is CPD?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a way for you as a professional to show that you're keeping your skills, knowledge and experience up to date and recording what you learn and then use in your job.
In a fast-moving world, CPD supports you both to work safely, legally, and effectively, and to develop your career. It also shows you're committed to lifelong learning and is a way of demonstrating professional pride in what you do.
As a corporate member (MICE and FICE), you must manage your own professional development and keep a written record of your CPD. If requested to, you should be able to send us an annual record of your past year’s CPD.
ICE is here to help you develop your career successfully by supporting you at every stage. To encourage your lifelong learning and help broaden your technical and professional capabilities, ICE has brought together a wide range of further training and career development options, including qualifications, courses, recorded lectures, books, and other publications. For further information, please visit our Engineering resources section and our Careers & Learning section.
We have developed a tool to record your CPD. It allows you to create, record and track your own development objectives and record your learning activities.
CPD framework
In 2022 ICE launched a new framework of key CPD topics that professionally qualified members are strongly recommended to undertake as appropriate, in addition to their personal learning as part of their ongoing development.
You are advised to include the topics in the framework as part of your CPD.
Monitoring CPD: the ICE approach for professionally qualified members
The Engineering Council, which licences ICE to operate as a Professional Engineering Institution (PEI) requires all PEIs to ensure that their members’ CPD is recorded and available for audit when requested. This is monitored through ICE’s annual CPD Audit. Since 2011, ICE has audited a random sample of professionally qualified members’ records each year.
As a PEI registered with the Engineering Council, we consider effective CPD to be important.
If a member fails to submit their CPD records or, provide an adequate reason for exemption, when requested as part of the annual audit, they will be removed from the membership roll and Engineering Council register.
The CPD Panel responsible for overseeing this annual audit has prepared the following Q&A regarding CPD and the CPD audit for professionally qualified members and invites you to get in touch with further suggestions.
We recommend you review and update your Development Action Plan (DAP) at least once a year and log all learning activities in your Personal Development Record (PDR) regularly throughout the year. This will make the task less onerous if you are asked to submit your records as part of ICE’s annual CPD Audit.
The templates and platforms on which your CPD is planned and recorded is your choice, however ICE strongly recommends that you adopt the templates found within the CPD guidance. This will enable you to better focus the planning, recording and reflection on CPD required to fulfil your role in accordance with the CPD cycle (plan, act, assess, review).
If you have regular performance appraisals with your employer, you can use these to monitor your development. If you're self-employed, the CPD process will help you to keep your skills current and to stay competitive in your field.
No. As long as it meets the ICE CPD cycle (Plan – Act – Assess - Review), then we will accept alternative records providing they demonstrate your continuing commitment to professional development.
Anything that has contributed to your learning and development can count towards your CPD including courses, seminars, conferences, reading relevant publications, web-based research, and personal development activities. Please see appendix D of the CPD guidance for examples of development activities.
We believe it is. A DAP helps you to identify the areas that require development so that you can proactively maintain, enhance, or improve your knowledge and skills.
Your records are peer-reviewed by a pool of volunteer civil engineers with a range of skill sets. All have significant industry experience and can provide feedback to help you improve the planning and recording of your CPD.
“Professionally active” means that you are involved in activity that entails the application of engineering competence; this includes being a current member of an ICE committee or panel, or volunteering as an ICE non-panel assessor.
We recommend you maintain your active learning whatever your circumstances, but there are instances where the requirement to submit your CPD is waived; for example, when you:
- Are on parental leave
- Are retired and not an active ICE volunteer, nor involved in activity that entails the application of engineering competence e.g., consultancy work
- Are suffering from any illness or disability which prevents you from undertaking CPD
- Are on extended leave
If you feel you may be exempt for any reason, please contact [email protected] or 020 7665 2334 and an ICE member of staff will be happy to advise.
Your CPD should be about undertaking relevant development and therefore about effective outcomes. Your professional development should actively add to your knowledge and skills – this is not dependent on how long it takes you to acquire that knowledge.
ICE does not set a minimum CPD hours requirement for professionally qualified members. The number of CPD hours that a member completes will vary based on their registration grade, level of experience, role and responsibility and future career plans.
Got a question?
If you've got any questions about CPD, or experience any problems using our online tool then please let us know.