Continuous Professional Development is something that divides people into two camps. In one hand it can seem boring, a waste of time and energy or simply a ‘bureaucratic' thing that the Engineering Council imposes on you.
Or on the flip side you could see it in a more positive light – a good reason to get out there and enjoy learning something useful for your career.
A minimum of 30 hours per year is used as a guideline for professionally registered members, while 60 hours is stated for graduates. You will need at least 180 hours before you sit your professional reviews with either the IStructE or ICE.
To make life easier, I recommend the following strategy. Just spend 15-30 minutes one lunch break per week watching an informational YouTube video, and it is incredibly easy to fill up 10-20 hours of learning from YouTube.
In particular, you should be able to pick up good information on:
- Health and Safety
- Commercial aspects
- Sustainable Development
- Quality management
- Communication, Management and Leadership
To set you on your way I have embedded some videos which helped me in my IPD. I would encourage under-graduates and graduates at the early phases of IPD to watch these. Feel free to leave a comment with a link to any other videos which would be useful to others.