CIOB CPD Policy: Academics and Students

This is a period when people have time to reflect on the year, their achievements, their learning and development and the application of learning in practice. It is therefore a good time to inform you that the CIOB Board of Trustees have approved our new Continual Professional Development (CPD) Policy. You can learn more about this policy here Find CPD | CIOB

The CPD Working Group

We revisited our policy back in 2018 in response to Dame Judith Hackitt’s Review. Dame Judith identified a number of issues in her report including issues of patchy competence but more importantly issues around gaming systems and not being accountable or thinking about the ethical implications of decisions. 

A subgroup of the previous Education, Qualifications Standards and Practice Board, now simply the Professional Standards Committee was formed and carried out a thorough review of our CPD approach and policy, benchmarking against a number of built environment and non-built environment professional bodies. The aim was to introduce a clear, transparent policy that puts ethical practice at the heart of CPD.

The CPD Working Group findings

There can be no doubt that practitioners need to consider the ethical implications of their decisions, but this also applies to academics and students. Someone taught some of the professionals involved in the Grenfell project and their learning did not give them a strong sense of ethical responsibility or empowerment. 

The working group found that the industry and to a large extent education in construction focuses very much on the technical or management aspects of activities and not so much on the ethical aspects. We need to develop students who are empowered to call out poor practice and for this, we need to foster a strong sense of ethical responsibility in our learners. That is why our new policy is very much focused on applying learning ethically in practice. 

I give the example of a heart surgeon learning a new surgery technique. Although the learning may be very technical in nature, it also requires that the surgeon is able to outline any risks to the patient and to be clear where this type of surgery would and would not be beneficial as well as any possible complications.

We hope that by adopting ethical practice, construction will become a profession worthy of respect like nursing or medicine.

The requirements of the new policy

In 2023 all members including students and academic members will need to accrue 10 points of CPD and CIOB is committed to providing relevant content to members free of charge. The points are assigned depending on the type of activity and how active it is in terms of learning. For example, reading articles in a magazine will give only 1 point, while attending CIOB conferences or learning events will give 3 points. If you are delivering learning at a conference, that will give 5 points. For most students on an accredited degree, just completing their learning modules will give them 10 points of CPD. However, all members will be expected to produce a reflective account of their learning in terms of its ethical practice.

This will be audited in 2024 and a template will be provided to support members in this process. This is a big change for our members but a necessary one and we will be working hard to support all members in their compliance with the policy.

To get you started in your CPD activity in 2023, we have our Academic Summit taking place on the 26th January 2023. Please visit the Academic Summit event page to register your attendance.

If you have any questions about our CPD policy, do send your email to: [email protected] 

Thank you to all our academic community for your invaluable support in 2022. Have a great break and a happy new year.