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+--- Thread: CPDs (/showthread.php?tid=3857)
CPDs - BuntyFlint - 10th April 2011
I guess the IfA wants people to keep them in the interests of trying to make archaeology more accepted as a profession like chartered surveying or architecture, at least I presume that's why they are so hot for PDPs and CPDs. I love learning new stuff, and would love to work for an employer that actively encouraged it but right now the CPD seems a real pain to fill in, having to analyse exactly what you've learnt, in how many hours and how you'll follow it up (and then what you learnt in the follow up and how you'll follow that up), and as the invisible man says above, all the cross referencing malarkey (I'm also wanting to upgrade my IfA status).
When I am working, I work for an employer that doesn't provide any training for permanent staff let alone for temporary staff. There, for example, I work with ArcGIS alot - my boss showed me the basics a few years ago, if I don't know how to do something I can ask him, but he's often not available so I usually find solutions online, and that's pretty much how I've taught myself. But how can you put that in a CPD log? It's impossible to keep a running total of the minutes spent finding a solution, testing it, finding it works, or doesn't so back again to the internet....yet I've gone from a very basic level of knowledge to a pretty good one, which is fairly important as far as PDP/CDP goes. Likewise, last summer the boss went sick, I got made up to field supervisor and spent the next two months learning something new everyday, including staff management skills, how to run an excavation etc etc - but have no idea how to quantify the time I spent doing that, or where to begin writing down exactly what it was that I was doing every minute of every day.
Though as the IfA only need 50 hours in one year (I think), I could ignore the above and just put in everything I've read, which would keep them happy but seems to defeat the purpose of the log being a useful tool for personal development/self analysis of where you are/what you want to do more of/ what you need to do more of.
Anyway, I should go and tackle my CPD log now......Oh dear.....I feel the enthusiasm leeching out of me.......
CPDs - the invisible man - 13th April 2011
Don't worry about precision to the last minute, just shove in a reasonable or even indicative estimate, rounded to the nearest half-hour or hour as you see fit. I think the IfA appreciate that this is not always an exact science, and the spirit of the thing is more important than the letter.
CPDs - troll - 13th April 2011
I have a CPD log-it`s called a detailed c.v.
Just to stir the water here a bit........why are IfA members asked to account for 50 hours a year on a CPD log when a registered IfA org is only visited every six years? And why does that visit involve an assessment about as comprehensive and probing as Doctor David Kellys` post mortem? To be fair-most practising archaeologists would embrace an opportunity to further their skill-sets through recognised and structured training. To be even fairer...most practising archaeologists with a goodly few miles under their belts become realists and accept that any new scheme has to stand on its merits. Sadly-the CPD idea in archaeology is a bit of a non-starter for most and for a wide range of reasons.
CPDs - Jack - 14th April 2011
I wonder who is benefiting from the IfA monitoring of the CPD's? Is someone in the IfA being paid to monitor CPD's? Is someone creaming off project management fees from it? Who is running courses targeted to fulfill the requirement to do CPD's? Are the courses free or do the diggers have to pay? Who is that money going to.
I'm probably being far to cynical and seeing conspiracies in the shadows.:face-stir:
CPDs - Betts_Fan - 14th April 2011
Risking asking a stupid question... what exactly is a CPD or a CPD log?
CPDs - the invisible man - 14th April 2011
A detailed CV is not quite the same thing as a CPD log, as a Health and Safety Plan is not the same as a Risk Assessment...
Jack, training courses are not essential to CPD - it's anything that you might do might to keep yourself up to speed or enhance your knowledge etc. Not that there is anything wrong with a training course provided it's a real one, not a fake thing that people ar econned into paying for in the mistaken belief that they need it for CPD, which I presume is what you're alluding to. In the construction industry, where CPD has been around for architects and surveyors for years, all sorts of suppliers and manufacturers came up with little "CPD seminars" on a topic related to their field - often they will visit your office at lunch time and provide sandwiches etc while giving a Powerpoint talk on their latest products. This all counts as CPD! I recall a lunchtime one on brick parapet copings, and a happy afternoon at White Hart Lane learning about fire extinguishers....... so yes, it is all a bit of a con and waste of time, but doesn't necessarily cost anything.
CPDs - kevin wooldridge - 14th April 2011
Well I do have some sympathy with Troll's view, but also agree with Mr Invisible that a CV and a CPD log are not the same.
I think there is a problem though in that the IFA suggests initiates have a detailed Career Development plan, but quite often archaeological training comes up at short and unexpected notice. I mean I have spent the last day and a half attending a site specific H&S course (yesterday) and a first aid update course today. Both would have appeared on my forward plan, but I only found at the end of last week (as did everyone else) that the courses were happening. But having been and 'passed' so to speak they will of course appear on my CV. Likewise I could attend any number of seminars, lectures, conferences arranged through my university, but (as I am not directly involved in the academic department), sometimes these only become apparent at short notice. Then again I guess I have an advantage over many of my more commercially employed associates in that at least I am on the edges of that milieu and have the possibility of being able to adjust my workday to attend. That said if I were just to put on my CPD forward plan 'Attending occasional unspecified university lectures', it would be as ridiculous on my CPD plan, as it would if a first-year undergraduate wrote the same.
I am guessing that the IfA (if checking my CPD) would have some sympathy with that particular dilemma (and they are nice people so I know they would), but I suspect that isn't reflected in the wording of the scheme on the IfA web-site. I wonder if a rewrite of the specification taking into account FAQ that actually seem to fit the lives of most working archaeologists, might help to promote the scheme as more user friendly.
CPDs - Sith - 14th April 2011
Jack Wrote:Who is running courses targeted to fulfill the requirement to do CPD's? Are the courses free or do the diggers have to pay?
English Heritage for one run a number of free day courses on a wide variety of subjects. They are indeed free at the point of delivery but I imagine that some folk might have to take a day's leave to attend.
CPDs - BAJR - 14th April 2011
@ Mr Invisible.. well put.
@ Sith where can we find these courses?
@ kevin... wise suggestion
CPDs - BuntyFlint - 14th April 2011
Betts_Fan Wrote:Risking asking a stupid question... what exactly is a CPD or a CPD log?Continuing Professional Development - have a look here http://www.archaeologists.net/development/cpd and all will be revelaed!
kevin wooldridge Wrote:I am guessing that the IfA (if checking my CPD) would have some sympathy with that particular dilemma (and they are nice people so I know they would), but I suspect that isn't reflected in the wording of the scheme on the IfA web-site. I wonder if a rewrite of the specification taking into account FAQ that actually seem to fit the lives of most working archaeologists, might help to promote the scheme as more user friendly.
I did email the IfA once with a question on filling in the CPD and they answered really quickly with some detailed advice, which was very nice. To rewrite the specification, or even have an actual FAQ section, to make the scheme seem less daunting to people with somewhat random employment/training opportunities (i.e. quite a large number of archaeologists!) would be really excellent.