Professional Development - Frequently Asked Questions

The following questions deal with the most common questions raised by members and seeks to provide 'standard' answers. However, since CPD is very much a personal matter it is impossible to cover the circumstances for each individual.

• Why should I keep records?

  IGEM's rules of professional conduct require all members to maintain and develop their professional competence as technology is changing all the time. You may no longer be able to rely on your employer to identify and satisfy individual development needs and you may well change your job several times during your working life. You need to take ownership of your career and it's continuing development. In your own best interests, you should be developing a personal portfolio of your professional activities and their relevance to your job competence and your career ambitions.

• How much should I do?

  Every Engineer will have different goals and requirements dictated by their individual roles and ambitions. Only you can decide what is the right amount and type of professional development for you.  Quality is much more important that quantity. The most important aspect of CPD is the depth of knowledge and skill that you acquire, i.e the learning outcome, rather than the number of hours of study which you undertake, i.e the input.

• What sort of things count?

  Everything that contributes to your learning is considered as professional development. Whether you are gaining increased knowledge, developing a new skill or improving your performance or attitude.

  There are no limitations to the range of subjects that can be included, although it is recommended that, in order to develop your expertise on a broad front, you may need to undertake CPD in the following areas:

  • Developing your technical knowledge and skills in your current field
  • Broadening your technical knowledge and skills into fields parallel to your own, thus enabling you to move into another job should the need or opportunity arise
  • Acquisition of non-technical knowledge and skills, e.g Management techniqies, communication and presentational skills and knowledge of law (health and safety, environmental, employment), finance and languages. This prepares you to assume wider or greater responsibilities when the opportunities arise

• How do I go about it?

  Professional Development may be achieved in any of the following ways, depending upon your circumstances, learning style and the opportunities open to you:

  • At home - private reading and study, distance learning, writing technical papers and articles for presentation or publication
  • At work - on the job learning, assisting and supporting others, vocational qualifications in areas such as contract, law, management, IT/computing, safety, technical and languages etc.
  • At events - presentations, lectures, seminars,conferences and also formal courses of study, whether or not they lead to an examination or professional institutional committee work.

• Why should I keep records?

  It is strongly recommended that you maintain a personal portfolio. This will assist you in a number of key aspects related to your career.

  • It will provide you with documented evidence of you commitment to your chosen profession and of your continued competence
  • It will act as an excellent reference, both in the updating of you're your CV and in recalling details of topics you have studied
  • It will be a useful aid in your career development, providing a means by which you can plan, record and review your relevant activities.

• How should I keep my records?

  There are a number of ways by which to keep records but the most usual is using the IGEM PDS system 'MyPath'. This self assessment tool enables you to monitor yourself against agreed competencies by planning and recording evidence linked to competencies or longer term goals. You can also have your assessments, plans, reports and evidence reviewed.

  Log in to 'My Path' the online PDS system

IGEM supports and encourages the continual professional development of all members and organizations in the gas industry and engineering profession. All registered professional engineers and engineering technicians are obliged by IGEM's Code of conduct to:

• Be committed to continuing learning and improvement
• Own their development
• Manage their development in a systematic manner, in particular through the process of review, plan, action and evaluation
• Provide evidence of their development, when required
• Focus development on achieving outputs, defined through professional or other competence standards

The above reflects the Engineering Council Code Of Practice on CPD for registered Engineers by which all registrats must abide. IGEM members are obliged to maintain their technical and professional competence  and support the development of others.

Monitoring of members is carried out by random sampling.