10th April 2011, 04:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 10th April 2011, 04:30 PM by BuntyFlint.)
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.......
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.......