Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Start by outlining your aims and objectives for the year, record your CPD activities and, at the end of the year, add an annual review to reflect on what you achieve.

Each CPD activity should have:

     ✓  an event date
     ✓  a CPD category
     ✓  a brief description of the event, including a note of the provider (if it is a course)
     ✓  the time spent
     ✓  evidence of participation - keep a record!

Your completed CPD should have:

     ✓  a statement of planned goals and objectives
     ✓  a summary of hours gained in each CPD category
     ✓  a short reflection on what was achieved
     ✓  an indication of which objectives were not achieved, and why
     ✓  a brief discussion of events undertaken that were not in the plan

Consistency simplifies the process and updating CPD while activities are fresh in your mind ensures robust records and maximises learning outcomes.

For Chartership candidates: There is a separate CPD upload field on the application form and you can upload your CPD in any format as long as your record follows a 'plan → act → reflect' approach.

For Chartered Fellows: A number of Chartered Geologists and Chartered Scientists are selected each year for an audit of their CPD records in order to ensure that they are maintaining their records. If selected, you will be required to present a written account of your CPD activities.

If you are copying from another document, such as Word, use Notepad or TextEdit to strip out any formatting before pasting into the sections.

Do not use special characters in Activity and Goal title.

There will be a CPD Term tab for each year.

Start by adding Personal Development Goal(s), then add activities associated with your personal goals.

Target hours are based on your employment status, which can be edited in your profile.

If you are recording CPD elsewhere you can notify the Society by selecting the check box.

If you have recorded CPD using the previous online system (pre-2016), your activity will be in read-only format.

You can record CPD activity for the previous year until June of the current year.

First steps

Personal Development Goals:
To start recording activity, you need to add at least one 'Personal Development Goal'. Select the Personal Development Goal button, add a title (do not include special characters) and a description. Save the goal.

Activities 

To add an activity, click the ‘Add Activity’ button. Your Personal Development Goals and the list of Activity types will show with associated radio buttons. Select the relevant fields to associate the Activity with your Personal Development Goal, then add dates, description detail and relevant documents. Save the Activity. 

You can add more than one goal, and more than one activity against each goal. 

To view the activity logged, navigate to the 'Your personal development goal' panel by selecting the downward arrow on the right-hand side. You can also edit or delete the activity detail. 

The graphs and targets track your progress and are updated each time an activity is added. 

Overall reflection

To add an overall reflection for the year, navigate to the bottom of the page and select 'Add' in the 'Your overall reflection for CPD Term YYYY' panel, and save.

Work status of Fellow

Min. annual CPD, total hours

Min. total CPD hours in on-the-job learning

Max. annual carry-over over excess hours

Early career (pre-Chartership) Fellows

>90

>30

20

All Fellows in full-time employment, or on sabbatical leave

>90

>30

20

All Fellows in part-time employment (e.g. work sharing)

>50

>16

10

All Fellows on extended leave (careers, parental leave, prolonged illness, etc) (but with special pre-arranged GSL dispensation, 50% of these hours may, exceptionally be allowed)

>40

>0

8

Retired Fellows offering occasional professional services or who wish to retain their chartered status, and unemployed Fellows

>50

>0

10

Retired Fellows not offering professional services or who do not wish to retain their chartered status

Optional

>0

-

Top tips for planning your CPD and for completing your CPD records from Chartership Assessors

From David Lawton, BSc MSc CGeol FGS

1

Your CPD is key to demonstrating how you as a professional geoscientist maintain and develop the standards of technical and professional competence required for your work and for your selected field of competency.

2

As well as broadening your own knowledge, CPD gives assurance to your employers, clients, partners, peers and to society in general, that you as a Chartered person are professionally competent.

3

Your CPD record is primarily your record. It is not just for the assessors or the Chartership team. It should not be viewed as something just for your Chartership application, but it will need to be continued in the years to come. Keeping CPD records is a requirement of maintaining your chartered status.

4

CPD helps you steer and monitor your own training and personal development. It should demonstrate that you have planned your training needs for the year, then acted on the plan and finally reflected on the learning outcomes on what you have achieved and what impact this might have on your professional work (plan → act → reflect).

5

Activities recorded should address across the chartership competencies and will also reflect the stage of your career progression. It should include a range of activities (not just geoscience learnings) but also things like industry awareness, technology developments, business skills, management skills, HS&E learnings, coaching and mentoring.

6

It should include any mandatory training, certification or recertification that is required as part of your professional role.

7

CPD records for ‘on the job’ activities should include things that are new to you, for example where you have learnt about a new area or stratigraphy or have done something new such as taken the lead on a project, used a new evaluation technique or presented at a project meeting or conference.

8

Maintain your CPD records via ‘My GSL’ which is accessible from the society website. If you are storing your records elsewhere, you still need to complete the CPD section and ‘tick’ the box for stating that you are storing your records elsewhere.

9

You are likely to be questioned on your CPD and CPD plans during your Chartership interview and so be prepared to talk about your recent activities and plans that you have for the future.

10

There are number of Geological Society training courses available along with thematic conferences, all of which contribute towards CPD.

A CPD record should not be simply a work diary – although such a thing is very useful for other purposes – but it should reflect work that is new for the candidate; presents a challenge; is an expansion of professional experience; or includes contributions to the profession outside of the paid employment. Carrying out a routine task, for instance a drilling project, but in a completely new geological environment offers valid CPD.

Linked to the above, there is a judgement required as to the time claimed as an area of work moves from new and challenging to routine. For a new experience or project it will be valid to claim almost all of the time involved, then for the second and subsequent similar projects a reducing hours claim until by the fourth or fifth project a candidate is less challenged by that area of work.

It is good to see an interest in geological fields outside of candidate's paid employment and for that to be demonstrated by reading or attendance at meetings or active involvement. This could include anything from keeping informed about planetary geophysics to promoting the earth sciences at schools.

- Duncan Wardrop BSc, CGeol, CEng, CSci, MIMMM, FGS