Mark Tickner said:

CPD allocated to the UK-SPEC competence categories, even after you have achieved professional registration

I'll admit that's the way I'd always assumed it should be aligned, it's the evidence that the member's membership category and professional registration category are still relevant - that they're not just paying the fees and claiming the title while not actually keeping their engineering competence honed. 

So personally I'd have thought that leading a physical activity (e.g. running a football team) is potentially evidence of maintaining leadership skills, but it'll be much harder to relate e.g. playing in the football team - or perhaps a better example, solo running?

I do also tend to feel it's normally a bit of a moot point as pretty much any working engineer should easily be able to demonstrate the required hours of CPD just from their day job, I tend to find that many drastically underestimate how much CPD they do without realising it.

Thanks,

Andy

I think you may be pushing the definition of CPD a bit too far.  I don't claim my music lessons.  I may be learning something, but it's nothing to do with engineering.

Simon Barker said:

I don't claim my music lessons.  I may be learning something, but it's nothing to do with engineering.

It does depend what you're engineering...part of the reason I was able to spend a very significant part of my engineering career in the music industry was precisely because of my music training and performing experience. I wouldn't have been able to design equalisers and dynamics processors in the way I did without understanding what they were for. Even listening to music at the time added to it - provided (the reflection bit) I was actually thinking about the way it was recorded (or mixed if live) - which sadly in those days I often was. 

So that's a good point, if, say, your job is designing bicycles then being a cyclist could well be part of your CPD. Or indeed, taking my previous example of running, if I was to now find myself engineering running machines the fact that I use one regularly may be CPD. Perhaps more accurately the act of choosing a new one and getting used to it. I certainly understand the engineering of them a lot more than I did a few years ago.

So thanks for that, you've made me realise I gave a wrong (or at least incomplete) answer! 

Hmm...I'm now wondering if I should claim all my train journeys as CPD! They do give me an insight from a user's perspective of the world I now work in. Maybe if I ever get desperate...

Thanks,

Andy

Yes I am pushing the definition a bit (and why not).

It was the Engineering Council that stated (in a training course) that CPD should go further then the day job. In fact, the CPD statement talks about enhancing professionalism in a wider context than a specific job role

Tio be fair, I far exceed the hours of CPD from just one aspect of volunteering that I do, let alone other forms of volunteering I'm involved with and not counting anything actually directly related to my employment.

I agree with Andy's first point, that many registrants are probably recording a fraction of their actual CPD, in some cases because they don't realise what they are doing is CPD.

But is the CPD return just a tick box exercise - identify 30 hours and be done with it (I'd argue that some do take that approach). No it isn't. It is meant to have some value to the registrant.

So yes, going to the gym probably might not be CPD in itself, however, receiving coaching is probably CPD if the purpose is to learn how I might better coach others.

Hi Mark,

I think you highlight an interesting point on the subjective nature of CPD - I always suggest members focus less on the hours of input and more on the reflection of what learning they got out of it and i think this is reflected in Andy's comments as well.  If, on reflection, you gained some learning from it that relates to your career development you can count it as CPD.

If you think about UKSPEC it covers a lot more than just engineering, and also covers Management, Communication skills and wider commitment such as safety, ethics, risk management etc.  I think this is fairly broad and is why we recognise such a range of CPD activities - I'm not sure if physical activity counts as CPD but as it's up to the individual it's worth considering how it might if you wanted to include it but I'm certain most engineers are doing more CPD than the recommended 30 hours without including their time at the gym or playing Sunday League.

Regards,

Kathryn