Today I jump started my car for the first time ever. Could this constitute CPD?
I mean, okay, it's fairly straightforward, but I did have to check how to do it, and it does involve a small amount of knowledge about batteries and electricity.
A few points of disagreement:Doing your CPD is ultimately both a waste of time and resources.
I assume (or hope) you mean "logging your CPD on the IET system" rather than doing?
Back to the main point, the IET's pretty clear that it's up to members whether they use the online system or not, if they do use it it will be kept up as it's obviously a useful service and hence worth the money, if they don't it'll get dropped. So that's ok! There's no problem with members keeping their CPD by using their own Excel spreadsheet, writing with a quill pen in a leather bound notebook with vellum pages (assuming they're not vegan), engraving it on stone slabs, or what ever they want.
But the big problem is that historically the majority of engineers have kept no record at all, mea culpa (I keep saying that!). It's pretty awful that we say that the PEIs keep a register of professional engineers when the only evidence they actually have that those engineers are still competent is that they keep paying their fees and any misdemeanours haven't yet been found out such that they get thrown out! To really add value to industry the PEIs should absolutely be ensuring that those registered on their books are still competent, and didn't give up engineering and start running a sweet shop as soon as they got their CEng. Hence, although I seem to be a bit of a lone voice here (because everyone hates doing it), I think without evidence of CPD then professional registration statuses are pretty worthless.
So much though I am against the IET investing in computing power per se (I'm not worried about the fees, they're still ridiculously cheap compared to other professions, but our overall global use of computing power does seem to be becoming a non-negligible factor in climate change*), I think this is quite a good use of it.
Oh, and I don't see CPD as increasing earning power, I see it as not losing it. The world keeps changing, so if you're not changing with it you become of less value - perhaps not running to stand still, but certainly walking to stand still, and running to get ahead!
But apart from those points I 100% agree with your post 
Cheers, Andy
* Don't get me started on Bitcoin mining. Subject for another thread...
A few points of disagreement:Doing your CPD is ultimately both a waste of time and resources.
I assume (or hope) you mean "logging your CPD on the IET system" rather than doing?
Back to the main point, the IET's pretty clear that it's up to members whether they use the online system or not, if they do use it it will be kept up as it's obviously a useful service and hence worth the money, if they don't it'll get dropped. So that's ok! There's no problem with members keeping their CPD by using their own Excel spreadsheet, writing with a quill pen in a leather bound notebook with vellum pages (assuming they're not vegan), engraving it on stone slabs, or what ever they want.
But the big problem is that historically the majority of engineers have kept no record at all, mea culpa (I keep saying that!). It's pretty awful that we say that the PEIs keep a register of professional engineers when the only evidence they actually have that those engineers are still competent is that they keep paying their fees and any misdemeanours haven't yet been found out such that they get thrown out! To really add value to industry the PEIs should absolutely be ensuring that those registered on their books are still competent, and didn't give up engineering and start running a sweet shop as soon as they got their CEng. Hence, although I seem to be a bit of a lone voice here (because everyone hates doing it), I think without evidence of CPD then professional registration statuses are pretty worthless.
So much though I am against the IET investing in computing power per se (I'm not worried about the fees, they're still ridiculously cheap compared to other professions, but our overall global use of computing power does seem to be becoming a non-negligible factor in climate change*), I think this is quite a good use of it.
Oh, and I don't see CPD as increasing earning power, I see it as not losing it. The world keeps changing, so if you're not changing with it you become of less value - perhaps not running to stand still, but certainly walking to stand still, and running to get ahead!
But apart from those points I 100% agree with your post
Cheers, Andy
* Don't get me started on Bitcoin mining. Subject for another thread...