By CPD we usually mean development after obtaining one of our professional qualifications - CEng, IEng, EngTech or ICTTech. Professional development is an obligation through the professional engineering institutions' (PEIs') Codes of Conduct, and professional engineers and technicians must ensure that their competence is maintained and enhanced. They are expected to:

• be committed to continuous learning and improvement
• own their development
• manage their development in a systematic manner; in particular through the processes 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 PEIs may require members to provide records of their CPD.  They will also directly offer opportunities for CPD, such as seminars and meetings on engineering topics, publications, special interest networks and the like.

The Engineering Council and CPD

The Engineering Council Standards - UK-SPEC and ICTTech Standard - state the requirement for all professionally qualified engineers and technicians to undertake CPD. They also require all licensed PEIs to have policies to support and monitor their members' CPD. To support this, the Engineering Council has produced a Professional Development Code for individuals and a statement on Achievement and Monitoring of CPD for the PEIs and their members.