Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

 Introduction

The Institute of Management Specialists has a CPD service to meet our aim of supporting lifelong learning and professional education. This service is included in your annual membership fee. Registration for CPD early each year is recommended although not mandatory, and your annual submission paper should be sent at the end of the year, or early the following year.

CPD is the means by which people maintain their knowledge and skills related to their professional lives. Keeping up to date in our chosen specialist professions is the responsibility of each of us. To be effective in our jobs, we need to both master and implement change, whether introduced through technology, legislation, best practice or simply because of events. To be effective in our career development, we also need to prove to others that we have kept up to date.

It is that proving to others that can be so difficult. Those of us working for large corporations may be helped through attending in-house training courses. We may choose to take further formal education through an academic degree program (in which case proving it is easy) but throughout life we are likely to attend seminars, conferences, do short courses and read extensively. It is these other aspects that are sometimes difficult to recall when you need them. It is also easy to put such ongoing development on to the backburner when other demands seem to have priority.

The aim of CPD is to provide a structure for ongoing development whilst giving you the flexibility of choosing what is relevant to your career and specialism.

Most of us will have also attended learning events where you have brought away the ‘course souvenir’ – all of those notes and power-point slide copies which go away on the shelf. A CPD submission helps you recall what you have taken away from the training and reflect upon how you have introduced new knowledge and skills into your workplace.

Having registered at the beginning of the year for that year’s CPD program you have also committed yourself to ensuring that you do find and undertake personal development during the coming year and can plan your time accordingly.

Having undertaken CPD, your annual submission builds into a library of development that you can share with your own manager and gives proof, should you need it, for your current or prospective employer.

For a professional body whose aims are the academic and professional development of its membership, having such a program is essential as part of its qualification system. The Management Council of the IMS considers CPD as being core to the ongoing development of its members. It is hoped that members at all levels will want to demonstrate that they are leading members of the specialist management community and will want to demonstrate this by progressing through the IMS grades. For example, a Full Member could become eligible for election to Fellowship with six years successful management work coupled with the same number of years completed and recognised CPD. Progression of the same member to Companion could then be a further seven years of experience and CPD completion. The IMS will also confirm a member’s CPD success directly to an employer or future employer if requested to do so in order to support a member’s career progression.

CPD Planning and Recording

So, how can you best plan your year’s CPD? Firstly, let’s agree that a planned approach is stronger than seeing ‘what comes along in the year and recording it’. Planning means that you build time into a busy schedule (and scheduling it is key). Secondly, a plan means that you are developing skills and knowledge that you believe are valuable to you or indeed essential if they are the result of legislation. Finally, a plan lets you find out where, when and how to get the development that you want.

How do you know what you want? Again many answers but some of the popular ones are:

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis on yourself.
From review meetings with your line manager.
Particular interests that are relevant, e.g. Leadership, time management.
As part of longer term career planning.

Most employers encourage personal learning and development and support people attending courses, conferences and seminars that are relevant to the individual’s role in the organization. Private reading is also important as it is time being invested in your future.

Ensure that you keep records of what you have done as you have gone along. It is also worth recording what learning didn’t work for you as well and why. We have all attended training and not changed because of it. If that is the case understand why and be able to support your case – it is just as valid as an experience.

The IMS programme

Registration is recommended at the beginning of the year. Please download and complete the relevant form below and email a copy to: info@instituteofmanagementspecialists.org.uk.

IMS CPD Registration 2017

Completion of 5 separate learning activities through the year (an activity of more than 15 hours learning can count as 2).