Phase 3 · Complete your IPD
Continuing professional development
What IStructE means by CPD, how it is assessed at the interview, and the mandatory reporting that follows election.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage ·Mentors
Your commitment to CPD is assessed at the Professional Review Interview, and reporting it does not stop once you are elected.
What IStructE requires
Institution of Structural Engineers
- CPD is defined as the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner's working life.
- At the Professional Review Interview you will be assessed on your commitment to CPD.
- Evidence can be demonstrated by regular use of a development action plan, a CPD record or diary, and keeping a portfolio of your work and responsibilities during your IPD.
- You can update and submit your annual CPD record via My Account on the Institution's website.
- The Institution operates mandatory reporting: each year 2,000 members are selected to submit a CPD record for the previous year.
- Every newly elected Fellow, Chartered Member, Associate, Associate-Member and Technician is obliged to submit a CPD record on request, or be removed from membership.
- Members sampled for CPD each year
- 2000membersEvery newly elected Fellow, Chartered Member, Associate, Associate-Member and Technician must submit a CPD record on request, or be removed from membership.
From IPD Guidance — Chartered Member, Institution of Structural Engineers.
What counts, and what is assessed
More counts than most people record. Technical meetings and seminars, in person or recorded. Reading a standard properly for the first time. A site visit where you finally understood how something is built. A difficult project post-mortem. A language. A management qualification. Activities outside work, and outside structural engineering, can contribute.
What is assessed is not the tally. It is whether the learning was planned, whether it was relevant to maintaining and broadening your competence, and whether you can say what it changed.
This connects directly to Core Objective 1, which asks for knowledge of the importance of CPD, the Institution's requirements for it, a record of appropriate training, and a plan for an ongoing commitment.
The reflection is the part that matters
"Attended a two-day course on robustness, 14 hours" is a row in a spreadsheet.
"Attended a two-day course on robustness. I had been treating tying provisions as a detailing exercise applied after the frame was set. I now understand that the key element check can change the frame, and on the Eastgate scheme I moved a transfer column at concept stage because of it. Next: I want to understand the accidental load cases better, which is in my plan for next year."
The second one takes two minutes longer, evidences Core Objective 1 properly, and is something you can actually talk about when a reviewer asks.
Fictional example
The same activity, recorded two ways
Fictional example — a one-day seminar on embodied carbon
Weaker
14 March. Embodied carbon seminar, 7 hours. Organised by Regional Group. Certificate attached.
Stronger
14 March. Regional Group seminar on embodied carbon, 7 hours. Objective from my plan: be able to run a scheme comparison without relying on the sustainability team. Benefit: I had been comparing schemes on material quantity alone and treating all concrete as equivalent; I now understand how much of the difference sits in the cement replacement and the transport assumption. Applied on the Latham options study in April — resetting the baseline to the do-minimum case changed which of the two schemes came out lower. Next: I want to understand the uncertainty in the factors we are using, which is now in my plan.
Why — The second version shows a planned objective, a change in understanding, an application with a consequence, and a next step feeding back into the plan. It evidences Core Objectives 1 and 6, and it survives being asked about at interview.
CPD that will stand up at the interview
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Related pages and tools
- Professional standardsThat you understand what it means to belong to a profession — the Code of Conduct, the limits of your own competence, the habit of keeping up to date, and some genuine involvement in the Institution beyond paying a subscription.
- IPDWhat IPD is, how it is described in Core Objectives, and what all experience can count towards it.
- Individually managedManaging your own training with a personal mentor: the records, the meetings, and the forms at the end.
- The PRIWhat the interview is for, who conducts it, how long it lasts, and what it is your job to demonstrate.