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Report on CPD Survey 2008

Introduction

This is Echelon Learning’s third survey about the provision of CPD within professional bodies. The survey is undertaken every two years.

The survey was sent to 240 professional bodies in July 2008. The response rate was just over 8%.

The results of this survey are compared to those of our 2006 survey.

Is CPD mandatory?

With the general recognition that professionals need to keep their skills updated for their own benefit and for the good of the reputation of their profession, there is considerable pressure for professionals to undertake CPD. Given this, however, the proportion of professional bodies that make CPD mandatory remains stuck close to the 50% level having shifted up only slightly on the 2006 figure. It remains true, however, that of those professional bodies that do not make it mandatory most place a firm obligation on their members to undertake CPD.

Whereas in 2006, among those bodies where CPD was not mandatory, there did seem to be a trend to make CPD mandatory for members, the 2008 survey seems to reverse this – if only slightly. This may indicate that the increase in mandatory CPD in future may be a slow one. There continues to be a sense amongst those professional bodies that do not intend to make CPD mandatory that this goes against the ethos of their profession. Members of such professional bodies are seen as ‘responsible adults’ capable of recognising the importance of CPD for themselves without the need to force them into such activity.

Will CPD requirements grow in the future?

Although CPD may not be a mandatory requirement in all professional bodies, a clear majority of those in this survey considered that the requirements placed on their members to fulfil their CPD obligations will grow. However, this belief is slightly less strong than was the case in 2006. Despite this it seems clear that CPD is going to play an increasingly important role in the life of the professional.

How is CPD activity measured?

A large majority of professional bodies have some means of measuring the amount of CPD activity of their members. The main ways in which this is done is shown in the graph below. The results for 2008 are broadly similar to those of 2006, although the use of a points system seems to have declined. The use of the numbers of hours spent on CPD activities – an input measure – is used by around a quarter of professional bodies. The ‘Other’ category has grown in significance and reflects the increasing emphasis on output measures. These are more difficult to categorise but often include identifying in what ways a CPD activity contributes to personal or job performance. About 20% of professional bodies do not monitor CPD activity at all. This again might reflect the attitude that, as responsible adults, professionals should be trusted to undertake CPD without having someone looking over their shoulder and in some organisations the culture of professionalism is so strong that CPD is built into its fabric.

Where hours of CPD activity undertaken are measured, about two-thirds of such professional bodies require between 20 and 40 hours of such activity per year. Between 2006 and 2008 there does seem to be a shift taking place to requiring less hours. This might fit with the shift to a greater focus on output measures as seen above.

As would be expected, most of those professional bodies that have in place a system for measuring CPD activity also monitor compliance with their CPD requirements. This is often done through a system of sampling a percentage of the CPD records of the membership each year. However, in comparing 2006 with 2008, there does appear to have been a slight diminution of monitoring activities taking place. It is possible that as the criteria for measuring CPD activity become more complex so the ability to monitor such activity becomes more difficult.

Are there sanctions for not meeting CPD requirements?

The results of this question closely match the result for the question asking if CPD is mandatory. If it is mandatory, there are usually sanctions for non-compliance.

Of those that responded to the survey almost two-thirds reported that an individual’s membership could ultimately be suspended or withdrawn if CPD requirements were persistently not complied with. Normally the process went through an escalation from advisory letter, warning letter to suspension or withdrawal of membership.␉

What constitutes CPD?

All professional bodies regard a broad range of activities as being legitimate for CPD purposes. As would be expected almost all regard learning to enhance professional and technical skills as a part of CPD. However at least 75% of those surveyed also saw developing management, business and personal skills as important. Results for 2008 are broadly similar to those of 2006. However, reflecting some of the changes already seen above, there is greater variety creeping into the mix. For example, one respondent reported that ‘any learning activity which is relevant to their current role or future career aspirations’ would be acceptable as part of an individual’s CPD.

In a similar way, professional bodies accept a very broad range of development activities as being legitimate for CPD. Nearly 50% of respondents accepted all of the CPD methods listed in the survey as legitimate as well as indicating a broader list of activities. These included undertaking pro bono work, undertaking any leisure activities with a personal development benefit or anything that helps maintain professional competence – however achieved. Overall results for 2008 are broadly similar to that of 2006; although it is noteworthy that membership of professional networks seems to have grown in importance as a CPD activity.

Why do CPD?

When considering what professional bodies considered to be the greatest benefit to their members of undertaking CPD activity, the 2008 survey shows some marked differences to that of 2006. While career advancement/promotion remains very important, results from this survey indicate the importance of improved personal effectiveness has grown substantially and that this is also true, if to a slightly lesser extent, in regard to improving an individual’s ability to cope with change. Does this in any way reflect perhaps that professionals increasingly see themselves as autonomous and entrepreneurial and, therefore, personal effectiveness is a key area of competence?

How are individuals supported in meeting their CPD obligations?

Almost all professional bodies provide some form of support to their members but some go much further than others.

Almost all of those surveyed offered members a means of recording their CPD activity. However, while in 2006 less than 40% of professional bodies offered this facility on-line, in 2008 this has increased significantly to just over 70%.

When asked if an on-line system would be of value to members, nearly all those who did not currently have such a system in 2006 thought it would be valuable. However, the result is rather different in 2008 with a clear majority saying that an online system would not be of benefit to their members. It is possible that in 2006 the development of on-line CPD management systems were in their ‘adopter’ phase and by 2008 we are left with the ‘late adopters’.

Most professional bodies (over 90%) do offer access to at least some CPD resources via the Web. This shows a slight increase over the proportion in 2006 (around 85%). It can probably be said that this has now reached saturation point.

However, it remains as true for 2008 as it was in 2006 that for the considerable majority it is access to static material, i.e. repositories of articles, journals and reports rather than more dynamic and interactive material that is provided. Having said that, there does seem to be some growth in more dynamic material such as online diagnostics and other interactive resources and there appears to be a slight reduction in the concentration on static material.

Although most professional bodies provide some means of recording CPD activity relatively few provide a means by which their members can assess what their CPD needs are so that they could plan their CPD activity to meet those needs. The situation has shown some positive development since 2006 and given that most professional bodies that responded to the survey do now provide the means for recording CPD activity online, it will be interesting to see if this area becomes a focus for professional bodies in extending their CPD support to their members.

One of the big potential advantages of providing resources via the Web is the ease of extending and updating it. However the more resources become available in this format the bigger the task does actually become. The graph below shows how frequently material is updated. About 75% of professional bodies update their material at least quarterly. However it is noticeable that in 2008 almost 20% of respondents recorded that material was updated less frequently than annually. The correct frequency, of course, depends on how volatile – subject to change – the material is.

The graph below shows that reliance on the Web for providing CPD and learning resources is likely to continue growing. There has been a significant switch round in sentiment between 2006 and 2008. While in 2006 only about 30% of respondents who did not currently offer learning material via the Web thought this would be of value to their organisation’s members in the future, this figure had grown to 70% by 2008.

How do professional bodies publish their learning and development resources?

Most professional bodies that responded to the survey do provide learning materials for their students to gain their professional qualifications. The figures for 2006 and 2008 are very similar.

The survey also asked how professional bodies provided learning resources for their members. The graph below seems to show a marked shift between 2006 and 2008. While in 2006 approximately 35% of respondents did publish their own material, in 2008 this figure had risen to over 70%. This might well reflect the greater ease with which professional bodies can now do this using content and learning management systems (CMS and LMS).

Of those that do publish their own material, 50% of those responding to the survey do indeed use some form of content management system as part of the publishing process. Although this figure was 60% in 2006, it was 60% of a much lower total. This would seem to indicate that the use of CMSs is likely to grow in future as those bodies that are now publishing their own material catch up with the use of digital technologies.

The likely growth in the use of CMSs in the future is also indicated by the graph below that shows that, in 2008, the proportion of respondents who see the future value of using CMS technologies has risen considerably over that for 2006.