CIOB and CPD - encouraging ethical practice

The start of this year saw CIOB bring an updated Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Policy into effect. Many members will already know that this was the result of work undertaken over the last couple of years, driven by the 2020-2023 corporate plan’s moral compass theme. Ethical practice now underpins our CPD requirements, supporting our work to help drive culture change in the industry, drive standards up and promote professionalism.

To recap, CIOB’s revised CPD policy requires that members undertake CPD and then focus on the ethical aspects of their learning and practice. For any occupation, reflecting upon and applying ethics in practice, whether in a job or during studies (called reflective learning or reflective practice), is the hallmark of a true professional.

So a few months on from the revised Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Policy going live, where are we?

I am delighted to report that the members I’ve spoken to – from around the world – have been embracing it and are happy to engage with this slightly different way of undertaking and reflecting on their professional learning.

The few questions that I and colleagues do get, in relation to the new policy, are on how to best take this different way of looking at professional learning and incorporate it into their roles.

This blog lays out some of the scenarios used by the working group when examining the new policy last year, to illustrate how reflective learning could be supporting various roles.

After undertaking something that qualifies as CPD – and this can be a variety of things, including webinars, formal training, reading industry publications – the CIOB requirement is now to do “reflective learning”. This is not as onerous as it might sound to some - it is simply asking yourself “what did I learn?” This could be as a direct result of your CPD or something that occurs to you while working and potentially applying your learning.

Let me sketch out an example – these are hypothetical situations from the point of view of two built environment management roles:

Antwon is working as a construction manager with a housing association. Every month he sits down and reads his hard copy of Construction Management magazine. Whilst he may do this just for interest, he can make it his CPD if he reflects on the articles and how he could incorporate any new information into his practice as a professional. Most of Antwon’s time is spent doing things he already knows so small tweaks to his thinking about his role, as a result of his reflective learning, will not take long and will earn a small number of points (1 point).

Brooke is a senior manager at her construction firm, leading a seminar on building multiskilled teams. To do this, she has spent time compiling her materials, checking her sources and finding the specific examples she wants to share. To fulfil her CPD requirements she could reflect upon the findings and ideas she has come across and how she can incorporate them into her role. Most of Brooke’s time is spent doing things she already knows, but she will be synthesising new ideas and working out ways to share her knowledge, challenging her own thinking as she does so, and this will gain her a medium number of points in one go.

There are, of course, many other members in different roles and holding different types of CIOB membership. In my next blog, I will look at how our CPD Policy could work for academics and built environment students.

At this point in the year, people are starting to accrue CPD points and will want to record them. Our approach, when launching our revised CPD Policy, was not to be too prescriptive. Some of our members hold chartered status or membership with more than one professional body and no-one wants to complete two lots of forms with the same information. So if you’re recording your CPD via another institute or perhaps for your job, we will accept that as your CPD record for our requirements.

However, for those who aren’t recording their CPD reflections and points anywhere else, there is a CIOB form for your use (click on the link below to access the relevant page). In the event that a member gets a request for an audit of their CPD points – which will happen to a random group of CIOB members each year – it is the CIOB form which will need to be completed and submitted.

It is worth reminding members that we have a CPD information page on our website which has been updated to reflect the new policy. For more information and answers to some frequently asked questions, take a look at our Find CPD page.