5th April 2011, 01:30 PM
Indeed, it is not necessary to attend lectures or go on training courses to participate in CPD (although a good idea to do so, if available, accessible and appropriate). Learning new stuff at work, reading journals and so on i.e. keeping yourself up to date, is all CPD. In all probabilty many, if not most, are doing that anyway. The little forms and PDPs, gawd 'elp us, produced and required by the IfA (and corresponding bodies in other walks of life) are merely a record of what you're probably doing anyway. So in my humble (and having seen it all before for some years in another walk) yes, CPD as such is a Good Thing - not a definitin of, but a prerequisite, of professionalism: the ballyhoo, paperwork and formalism of it is a needless waste of time, yet more hoop-jumping.