I'll vote for that! Duty of the New IFA.

[Hal Dalwood]

Hello? Can someone else join in please?


Hal Dalwood

[Oxbeast]

I am sceptical about Local authority CPD schemes in general I'm afraid Hal. Whenever I ask mine for any training (surely the D in CPD), I am told that the training is not essential for my current role (meaning that they won't train me up too much, in case I get a job elsewhere). Instead I am offered timewaster courses like IT skills which I already have and 'stress management'. I fully concur with BAJR's point that there should be a career ladder, or if there is no chance of one, don't bother pretending that there is.

However, I take your point that a CPD folder of stuff could swing you a job at interview; as a sort of adjunct to the CV.

[BAJR Host]

"However, I take your point that a CPD folder of stuff could swing you a job at interview; as a sort of adjunct to the CV."


Thats a given...I should say.

"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers

[gorilla]

Ok... I'll join in.

For me CPD is a laudable ideal (as it should be). But in archaeology (instigated by the organisations that run archaeology, and those organisations that put in place) it appears to be yet another "adopt-a-buzz-word" thing... whereby archaeology adopts the latest trend floating around in the business / commercial / governmental world and tries to put it into practice without necessarily understanding what it is all about, what it's for and why it is necessary. Sometimes, it appears to be a "we [u]must be seen</u> to be doing it" dictum ... sometimes for the right reasons (actual staff development) and sometimes for the wrong (just to ensure RAO status and stay fluffy with the IfA). Sometimes, CPD is geared for what a unit wants (there is a gap in the office / market), rather what the employee would like ot actually needs.

In the past, I wanted CPD in a particular field... something that was of interest to me and (from the way I looked at it) useful for my career development. Instead, I got a "sorry that can't be done because it will cost too much, take you away from the field (ie the job [u]we</u> want you to do) and... anyway... **** (insert name) is already proficient, qualified and employed to do that". Instead, I got to do something much less interesting to me, but much more beneficial to them (ie it allowed them to put in some document somewhere that I was their 'in-house' specialist on said object!). I also know of someone in another unit who really wanted to be a specialist in a particular field (as they actually did it for their BA and Masters). The place was available, the tutors / mentors wanted that particular person... everything seemed right. That is until the employers said... "sorry, we can't let you do it because you'll be away from your actual post for too long and we will loose money".

And no... I'm not going to say who they were.

One question I've asked myself is... just how many units / organisations actually want an fully-empowered, fully-trained, fully-geared up workforce? If you give someone too much information (education), they'll start to ask questions.

To have any clout, CPD has to be part of the curriculum, instigated by the IfA and run by the IfA. Not at the whim of any unit who thinks it is doing the 'right' thing.

This from RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects)...

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) obligations exist to help ensure that qualified professionals maintain their competence to practise. This is true in countless professional sectors in the UK.

At its very basic level, CPD is for consumer protection. It is also a way of ensuring that architects keep up-to-date within a rapidly changing profession. CPD should also enhance an architect's current and future development (professionally, personally and for staff within a business.)

All chartered members of the RIBA are obliged to do CPD every year. This is true no matter where in the world the member lives or what sort of work is undertaken. Only fully retired members are exempt from this obligation.

Chartered members of the RIBA are required to do the following each year:


At least 19.5 hours per year from the RIBA's prescribed core curriculum for CPD
At least 15.5 hours of professional development in other subjects relevant to your own CPD needs
Record activity via the RIBA's CPD record sheet (preferably online)
Plan CPD via the RIBA's professional development plan (preferably online)
The RIBA will, at the end of every year, monitor a random sample of chartered members' CPD. We will ask to see CPD record sheets. It would be helpful to see professional development plans as well.

[BAJR Host]

I like the RIBA style...

"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers

[vulpes]

The RIBA style is fine as long as you're young and not knocking on retirement, at which point I suspect it would just become a nuisance having to find 19.5 hrs of new stuff to learn after 40 years in the trade.

[Sparky]

Foxy, dear chap, one is never too old to learn.

[gorilla]

Fair point... yet after 40 years continuous archaeological employment (yeah, right), I would be glad of the nuisance of learning something new... and hope to have the ability and enthusiasm to remember it. Also, whatever happened to the phrase... never too old to learn something new.

For architecture... the built-world can seem a new place in a matter of weeks (particularly in design and structural engineering). Much the same in archaeology.

[gorilla]

Beat me to it Sparky old bean!

[Oxbeast]

Surely there's enough recent innovation in structural engineering, design and building technology/new legal bumf to spend three days a year learning about it, vulpes? Environmental awareness, for example, did not exist 40 years ago. Besises, if you get to the end of a 40 year career and already know it all, that sounds like a CPD scheme which is performing well.