The Landscape Institute has announced the switch to a more supportive, inclusive, fully online continuing professional development (CPD) service for members
✔ New CPD year to run from July to June
✔ Advance notification of CPD monitoring
✔ Extended 18-month cycle for 2019-20
✔ Fully online recording on the way
Following consultation with its members, and as part of our ongoing digital upgrades, the Landscape Institute (LI) has announced some exciting changes to our approach to members’ CPD.
CPD is a vital part of how LI members stay professionally competent and relevant in a challenging, fast-moving environment. As the Royal Chartered Body for the profession, the LI asks all its corporate members to complete 25 hours’ CPD activity per year.
New CPD year to run until 30 June
One of the biggest changes we’re implementing is the 12-month period over which we as a profession review, record and monitor CPD.
From 2020 onwards, the CPD year will end on 30 June instead of 31 December. In practice, this means that:
- the January 2019 to December 2019 CPD year will instead run from January 2019 to June 2020
- we will ask members to record 37 hours’ CPD for this period, rather than 25, to account for the 6-month extension
- 2020-21 and subsequent CPD years will run from 1 July to 30 June
The monitoring period will now begin before the end of the CPD year, with candidates notified in advance – rather than after the CPD year has ended, as is the case currently. We hope that this will be far more helpful to members, giving them a chance to review their CPD record and actively address any outstanding objectives and/or uncompleted hours.
The timetable for 2019-20 will be:
- April 2020: candidates notified
- June 2020: deadline for return of completed CPD records
- July-August 2020: review of returned CPD records
- September 2020: close of monitoring period
Full CPD policy guidance will follow in the new year.
Why is the LI changing its CPD year?
The current CPD year (January to December) aligns with neither the business year nor the LI sessional year. The end of the CPD year in particular is an important period for reflection on the year’s learning and future objective setting, and we feel that the Christmas holiday period might disrupt this.
The current year also doesn’t align with our new #LICPD day calendar, which caters for peak demand in the spring and autumn.
We feel that aligning the CPD year and monitoring cycle to the LI sessional year will better reflect our members’ learning and development experience throughout the year, and help us better support the CPD process.
Who do these changes affect?
This affects all LI members who currently undertake CPD activity:
- Licentiate members
- Chartered members
- Fellows
- Academic members and Fellows
The changes won’t affect affiliate, retired or student members.
Should I change how I am recording CPD now?
No – please continue to use the current CPD recording form to make sure your CPD activity is recorded and up to date. We will be in touch when the new online system launches in the new year. Members will have the option of uploading and completing their CPD records online, or continuing to use the current recording form until 30 June 2020.
From 1 July 2020, we will ask all members to switch to the online service (MyLI login required).
Are CPD hours changing?
For the extended CPD year beginning 1 January 2019 and ending 30 June 2020, we will ask corporate members to record a minimum of 37 hours’ CPD activity:
- 25 hours for January to December 2019
- 12 additional hours for January to June 2020
For 2020-21 onwards, the 25-hour minimum requirement will return.
The nature and structure of these hours, however, will change. Of the 25 hours, we will ask that members devote at least 10 hours to structured, ‘formal’ learning; CPD training events (whether free or paid), webinars or workshops, for example.
We will also require members to dedicate at least 5 hours per year to climate, sustainability and resilience-related topics. This follows the LI’s declaration in June of a climate and biological diversity emergency, and our commitment to arm the profession with the skills needed to face these urgent challenges.
These changes to the CPD policy will not take effect until the next CPD year (commencing July 2020). The LI will publish our new CPD policy in January 2020.
Will monitoring work the same as it does now?
The LI will continue to randomly select a sample of the membership to return their CPD records. The difference under the new system is that the monitoring period will begin before the end of the CPD year, giving members 3 months’ notice to review and complete their records.
I welcome the new approach to CPD and look forward to receiving information about online CPD recording.
However I would like to find guidance on setting topics or skills areas. I suspect that in practices, which employ a number of landscape architects, there will be corporate assistance in choosing topics and areas for development but as I am a Chartered Landscape Architect working for a Local Authority I have only one other person to compare with and she is in a very different role to me.
I also wonder how Branch events will qualify? Do branch committees simply identify CPD on a time spent basis? Will we need to issue certificates, digital or otherwise to members attending events?
How will branches identify CDP value of their events and certify this for members ?