CPD is Your Super Power

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an ongoing commitment to learning and growing your professional skills. It is something every engineer needs to do.

It’s not just about the technical stuff, it’s also about how you work with people. It’s a way of life.

Once you stop growing, chances are you are falling behind in your career. Employers expect it. Clients and customers will expect it.   If you hold a licence in Ontario, you should note that PEO (the regulatory body for engineers in Ontario,) have updated their requirements for continuing professional development (CPD) and they require engineers to complete CPD activities every year.

CPD is a process of learning and development.

This means that it isn’t just about learning new skills, but also how to apply them. This can be formal or informal, online or offline, depending on what works best for you.

It’s sometimes called Continuing Education Units (CEU) or Professional Development Hours (PDH). For our purposes we’re sticking with CPD.

Why is CPD important?

First, it’s important to maintain your licence by meeting the requirements for CPD, specific to each region where you hold a Professional Engineer licence. This is because, in order to keep your licence up-to-date, you must be able to demonstrate that you are keeping up with new technology and continuing to practise in a safe and ethical way.

Second, your clients expect their professional service providers to be current in their field, so they will expect you do what it takes in order to stay competitive. Clients are also becoming more aware of the importance of CPD, which means if they know that other competitors have completed relevant training courses or undertaken further study, they may choose them instead as a result.

CPD doesn’t have to be a chore.

There are many ways to earn CPD hours. Here are some suggestions:

Listen to podcasts.

Tip: 🌟 Automatically track your CPD minutes as you listen.  LeanrioCPD.com has a growing library of engaging engineering CPD content you can consume on the go, and never think about how much time you’ve earned. 

•  Take a course or read a book (or both)

•  Attend a conference, seminar or webinar

•  Volunteer to teach a course

•  Take on a mentorship with someone you admire and learn from them how they became successful in their field

Make time for CPD

1. Make a commitment to yourself.
2. Be disciplined about it—it’s not enough to just say, “Yeah, I’ll get around to that.” To be successful, you need a plan.
3. Be realistic about how much time you can commit: Maybe your work schedule and family obligations don’t allow for more than 20 minutes per week or so. That’s fine! Learnio CPD’s modules (or episodes) run between 30-60 minutes and since you can listen hands free and screen free, it’s easy to squeeze in an episode while you commute or walk the dog.
4. Have a plan for how to actually get started: A good place to start is with an article or podcast episode relevant to your field of interest;

Tip: 🌟 Scroll through all the CPD podcast modules or use the search bar until you find something that resonates. 

A glance at the Highlights Tab tells you the scope and focus of the episode.

Taking part in CPD activities can also help grow careers, as they give individuals opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise had.

For example:

▶︎ Listening to the episode on  Understanding the Power of AI with Humera Malik on machine learning and AI, an industrial engineer can learn how processes can be improved in your their own area of expertise; and eventually use them themselves at work as well as having a deeper understanding when discussing them with colleagues and clients alike.

▶︎ If you’re an electrical engineer working for an aerospace company you may find that after listening to NASA’s Eve Wooldridge talk about the process involved in keeping the 10 Billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope clean you’re inspired to find a way to these technologies and systems within your own company.

▶︎Non-technical (sometimes called “soft skills”) are equally important in advancing your career.  So much can be learned about supporting Women in Engineering (with Gina Cody, available Dec 4) and Indigenous Engineering (with Jessica Vandenberghe), both successful engineers and role models.

CPD is your Super Power because it can help you:

✔︎  Get a better job

✔︎ Get a pay rise

✔︎ Get promoted

✔︎ Improve your work/life balance

So what does this mean for you? If you want to get ahead in your career, then CPD is a great place to start. Not only can it give you technical skills that will help your clients and customers, but it can also be your super power. If you don’t know where to start, try checking out some of our resources here.

Get in touch here.