Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Explore CPD: Framework, Tips and 2027 Opportunities

What is CPD?

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the planned acquisition of knowledge, experience and skills and the development of personal qualities throughout the working life of an individual. CPD should be a normal part of every professional’s work in order to maintain competence and keep abreast of new developments.

Ideally, CPD programmes should be promoted and managed on a departmental basis within places of work, perhaps as part of a wider Professional Development Record (PDR) or similar, and should encompass, where appropriate, scientific, technical, clinical, and more general matters.

Carrying out CPD enables you to manage your own development at work. It helps you to document and review your progress. One advantage of this is that it can help identify gaps in your knowledge which you can address with further learning and development. It also means that you can identify and celebrate your achievements.

The most important aspect of CPD is the outcome of the activity for an individual rather than the length of time engaged in it. Learning outcomes and, where relevant, their application to practice should be recorded for each piece of CPD undertaken. Individuals should choose CPD activities that contribute to the quality of their practice and service delivery, and benefit the service user, whether patients, colleagues or students. In addition, CPD activities should cover a mixture of different learning methods.

Do I need to do CPD?

CPD is linked to registration and it is compulsory for IPEM members who are registered with the Science Council/Engineering Council and those registered with the RCT to maintain a record of CPD in order to stay registered. These bodies require a random sample of CPD records to be audited annually. The IPEM CPD Audit Scheme, which these registrants will be part of, has been designed to fulfil the requirements of these regulatory and registration bodies. Registrants will be required to submit a declaration each year confirming they've undertaken CPD in that year and may be randomly selected to take part in the annual audit.

The audit process is intended to encourage engagement with CPD and personal accountability for learning, rather than to police registrants. Learn more about the CPD Audit.

Additionally, IPEM members without a professional registration can voluntarily opt into IPEM’s CPD Audit Scheme. IPEM members who do not currently hold a professional registration but are working towards one may wish to do this as a way of maintaining CPD standards and receiving feedback on CPD submissions.

How can I track my CPD?

IPEM members now have access to our CPD portal where you can add and track the CPD you've completed both within and external to the Learning Management System (LMS). This has replaced mycareerpath®. Historic data has been migrated from mycareerpath® to the CPD portal; migration of media files can be requested as required.

RCT registrants who are not IPEM members will be given temporary access to the portal, should they be selected for audit. More information for RCT registrants, including record-keeping templates and examples can be found on the RCT website.