EngineerHer

It should go without saying, but let’s say it anyway: CPD, or Continuing Professional Development, is important for all engineers. However, since this blog is focused on female engineers, that’s what I’ll be focused on here.

CPD can encompass a wide range of activities and I’ll mention some of them here, but just because something isn’t mentioned here, doesn’t mean it’s not CPD.

Why bother?

Well ok, first and foremost, it helps you keep your skills and competences up to date. I’ve written before about the whole “constantly having to prove yourself” and this is a pain. But equally, it is important for any engineer to keep updating skills. If, like me, you graduated 20+ years ago, then the things you learned as “cutting edge” are no longer that cutting or edgy. In fact, there’s a fair chance some of the tech or skills you learned back then are defunct by now.

So, it is important to move and update your skills.

Equally though, there’s a fair good chance that you’re not doing the same job you were doing 20 years ago. Or indeed 5 years ago.

OK, the job title might not have changed, but the expectations surely will have. (And if they haven’t, it might be time to change them for yourself?) And with changing expectations, comes changing skills, mindsets, etc, etc.

What “counts”?

What counts as CPD depends on what you need it to count towards… (I know, never a straight answer…) For example, if you are going for Chartership with Engineers Ireland, there is a dedicated section of the form and the explanatory notes detailing CPD, what counts, what you need to show and so on. I’m fairly certain all the other relevant engineering professional associations have the same.

But for you, what counts on a personal level? Well, what have you learned?

The obvious stuff is easy. Lectures, training courses, conferences… this stuff is the high level, where it’s so easy to tot up hours and log it as training.

Then there’s the less obvious but equally valid options. Engaging in an Engineers Ireland committee. Learning a new system at work – with no training course, because why would you need it? Moving to a new organisation and engaging in the 3 tonnes of training needed to get through induction (minor exaggeration there…)

And then there’s the really difficult stuff. Learning a new soft skill. Or improving an existing one. Like leading a contentious meeting. Giving bad news to senior management. Engaging in diverse stakeholder groups. Learning to write a technical procedure.

The things that you pick up and half the time don’t even realise you’re learning the skill until one day you realise that dealing with that creature over in the other office isn’t half as bad now you’ve done x, y or z….

If you’re starting out and thinking engineering is all hard skills… I’ve got some bad news. As you move on, it’s more and more difficult to avoid the softer skills. It’s people, you have to deal with people.

What makes CPD effective?

There’s a few things in my opinion.

First, it needs to meet your needs. There’s no real point in engaging with a training course on nuclear safety if the last time you thought about nuclear was the latest Sellafield item on the news. Unless of course, it interests you. In which case, fire ahead.

It can be hard to think about CPD in a strategic fashion, but you can do it. Try going for 1/3 hard skills you want to develop, 1/3 soft skills you want to develop and 1/3 just stuff that interests you. I am unlikely to ever use the things I learned in a talk titled “Deep Learning-Based Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Classification and Progression Time Estimation“, but it was interesting to listen to!

And remember, that 1/3 approach is an overall view. You may find in the early years of your career, there is almost 100% hard skills development, and engaging your interest is almost accidental. That’s pretty normal. It’s also normal that as you gain experience and seniority, you need to focus more on soft skills.

And, as you gain experience, you usually get to engage more with things that really interest you as well, instead of taking what your manager decides.

But to really make CPD effective? You need to use it. Otherwise, you’ll forget. Trust me.

We all pretty much remember how to add two numbers together, cos we use it every day, but I’d be pushed to explain or even begin to explain Bernoulli’s Equation these days. (Previous lecturers of mine, if they ever read this, might claim I always struggled to explain it, but never mind…)

How to choose your CPD

Ask yourself the following questions to see if this CPD is right for you:

1. Is this training mandated by my organisation or manager?
2. Does this training fill a gap in my skillset?
3. Will this training help show progression towards my next role?
4. Does this position interest me?

If the answer is “yes” to any of them, then consider completing the CPD. The more “yes” answers you have to the question, the more likely it is you should complete the training.

And look, you will probably engage with training over the years that turns out to be a complete waste of time. I surely have and most people I know have. But at the very least, you’ll have learned what you know and what’s useful for you.

And it still counts towards CPD hours even if it was useless!!

Final thoughts

If your organisation doesn’t fund things, official training courses and qualifications can be very expensive. And we don’t always have the spare funds to pursue them.

However, as far as CPD is concerned, and most engineers if we’re honest, knowing things that help is usually more important that having the bit of paper. (Unless of course that bit of paper is a legal requirement or something!)

So, if you can’t afford to go to the conference and hear the talk, you can still probably read the paper for free. As someone who has published papers, so has both passed on copies of my papers to people who want to read them and written to other authors begging for copies of theirs, this is not that unusual. In fact, I’ve yet to hear of anyone saying no to this!

There are books, papers, blogs, emails lists… all sorts of things can be included in your CPD, so get out there and get learning!