CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) GUIDELINES
for CPEng (current year) and NPER Registration
(including pro-forma record sheet and example record)
1 What is CPD?
Broadly speaking, Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) includes any activity that
extends or updates your knowledge, skill or judgment
in your area(s) of practice and enables you to:
be more productive
understand and apply advances in technology
face changes in career direction
better serve the community.
Professional engineers undertake CPD activities in
order to maintain and extend their knowledge, skills
and judgment. One of the main functions of CPD is
to equip you for your planned career path. CPD
should not normally be undertaken on an ad-hoc
basis, although there will always be exceptions as the
job dictates, but it should be planned along with work
and career path.
For an activity to qualify as CPD it must be related to
your career as a professional engineer. For many
engineers CPD activities will include both technical
and non-technical topics. Non-technical topics
include management, accounting, law, economics,
and foreign languages in which you carry out
business. If you are undertaking non-technical CPD
you should also maintain and update your knowledge
in your area(s) of practice. Over a three year period it
is expected that a substantial proportion of your CPD
should be in your area(s) of practice. If the non-
technical CPD you are undertaking is of significant
content (eg a law degree), then you must still
continue to undertake some technical CPD in your
area(s) of practice and be able to indicate future CPD
plans on completion of the non-technical CPD.
Functions that you routinely perform as part of your
employment are not normally claimable. For instance
university lecturers cannot claim, under Presentations
and Papers (see Section 7 ) the lectures they present
as part of their employment. On-the-job learning is
claimable (see Section 5), but you must be able to
demonstrate how the activity contributed to your
knowledge, skill or judgement and how it was
acquired.
2 CPD requirement for Chartered status
(current year) and registration on NPER
The CPD requirements for maintaining current year
endorsement for Chartered status and registration on
NPER are identical in scope. On an ongoing basis,
you need to undertake at least 150 weighted hours of
CPD activities during any three-year period, keep
records of the activities and make the records
available for audit when required.
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For many engineers, the most convenient method of
recording sufficient detail for audit will be through
brief entries in their professional diary. However,
you may prefer to maintain a spreadsheet in
accordance with the layout of the attached pro-forma
sheet so that your records are easy to produce when
requested for audit.
Six main types of CPD activities are discussed below
for which different time weighting factors apply.
Engineers in academic positions must also show that
they undertake a minimum of 40 hours of industry
involvement in any three years.
The weighted hours of CPD for any given activity are
obtained by multiplying the actual hours spent on the
activity by the relevant time weighting factor. For
example, participation in a formal short course, for
which there is some form of assessment, attracts a time
weighting factor of 2 (see Section 4). Hence, if 16
hours were actually spent on the short course, this
would convert to 32 weighted hours.
3 Types of CPD
The six major types of CPD are:
A Formal Education and Training Activities
B Informal Learning Activities
C Conferences and Meetings
D Presentations and Papers
E Service Activities
F Industry involvement (per academia)
If you believe you are undertaking other types of
CPD that comply with the general definition in
Section 1 above, you should make a submission for
this to be recognised. In your submission you should
state how you think it has complied with the intent of
CPD and explain the content of the activity and how
it was provided.
4 A - Formal Education and Training Activities
(time weighting factor = 2)
Such activities include formal face-to-face education,
distance education and short courses. They may be
external to your employment or conducted in-house,
but will always include time spent in preparation
and/or follow-up, either through lectures and/or self
study and will always involve some form of
assessment.
A special case relates to the undertaking of the entire
course work for a higher degree or post graduate
diploma, either by the face-to-face or distance modes,
which will cover the CPD requirements for the rolling
three-year period containing the course. However,
you should continue to record other relevant CPD
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 activities to show that you are continuing to keep up
to date throughout the period of higher education
study and beyond when completed.
For formal face-to-face education the time claimed
can include the actual hours of lectures attended
and/or research undertaken. For distance learning, the
simplest approach is to estimate the equivalent
number of hours of formal face-to-face education that
would have been involved if this mode had been
utilised instead of the distance mode. A time
weighting factor of up to 2 can then be applied.
Short courses are defined as involving presenters who
are external to the workplace. They include courses
at tertiary institutions that are not taken for award
purposes, but still involve some form of assessment.
Training activities within the workplace that do not
involve some form of assessment are classed as on-
the-job learning (see Section 5).
Note: You must provide evidence of the award (eg
copy of certificate or academic transcript) when your
records are requested for audit.
5 B - Informal Learning Activities
(various time weighting factors)
There are two different forms of informal learning
activity, namely on-the-job learning, that takes place
because of workplace requirements, and private study
where you can exercise complete discretion. On-the-
job learning requirements usually arise when you
undertake a new project and areas are identified
where you need to extend your competency base. It
almost always involves another person training you
rather than self paced learning. Exceptions could be
learning from videos or structured software based
training. On the other hand, private study is self
paced and is an opportunity for you to direct the way
in which your professional career develops. Typical
private study activities are the reading of books,
journals, manuals, etc and familiarisation with the
operation of technological aids, computer programs,
equipment, etc.
In both cases any activity claimed must pass the
simple test that it contributes to the development of
your career as a professional engineer. A time
weighting factor of 1 applies to on-the-job learning
while a factor of 0.5 applies to private study. In both
cases, the maximum number of "weighted" hours that
you can claim over a three year period is 75 hours.
Although you can meet your 150 hours CPD
obligations if you are able to justify the maximum
allowable claims for both on-the-job learning and
private study, you are encouraged to broaden CPD
activities to include some formal activities. At least
some of your CPD activities should be planned in
advance to further develop your competency no
matter what stage you are at in your career.
Informal learning activities must be supported by
sufficient detail to allow a proper assessment when
requested for audit. It is not sufficient just to list
books, journals, manuals, standards, software etc.
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without supporting information. Details of the
chapters, articles, papers or other relevant information
must also be provided so as to give an indication of
the new knowledge that was gained.
6 C - Conferences and Meetings
(time weighting factor = 1)
Conferences, symposia, seminars, workshops,
inspections and meetings run by acknowledged
experts can be claimed as CPD provided that the
content relates to the development of your
professional career. This includes those events run by
Engineers Australia Divisions, Societies and other
groups to provide information relating to the
profession of engineering.
The hours claimed should be only those for the
formal technical presentations, inspections and
meetings that you attended at such events. and must
not include social or travelling time.
7 D - Presentations and Papers
(various time weighting factors)
The preparation and presentation of material for
conferences, seminars, symposia and courses can be
claimed if these activities contribute to the
engineering related competencies of engineers and
associated professionals.
For the preparation and presentation of papers a time
weighting factor of 10 should be applied to the actual
duration of the presentation if the paper is not
published.
Material published in journals and conference papers
can be claimed as follows:
40 hours per paper for technical papers or
research reports for conferences; or
50 hours per paper for papers subject to critical
peer review prior to publication.
For the preparation of material for courses that are not
part of your normal employment (eg visiting lecturer
from industry) the preparation time can be claimed
where it extends your knowledge in your area(s) of
practice. A time weighting factor of 1 applies to all
such activities.
The preparation and presentation of material designed
to promote awareness of engineering, membership of
Engineers Australia and benefits of registration to
potential members and the community can be
claimed. A time weighting factor of 5 should be
applied to the actual duration of the presentation.
You may claim up to 30 weighted hours of this type
of CPD in any three-year period.
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8 E - Service Activities
(time weighting factor = 1)
Service to the profession may be allowable
particularly where it contributes to the continuing
professional development of others. Within Engineers
Australia, this includes contributions as a College
Membership Reviewer, member of a course
accreditation team, participation in CPD audits,
review of technical papers prior to publication, and
the technical aspects of work undertaken on or for the
Boards and Committees of Engineers Australia,
including national committees and technical societies.
The time involved in mentoring of graduate engineers
during their time of professional formation can also
be included, particularly where it is part of a graduate
development program. A time weighting factor of 1
applies to all such activities.
CPD allowable under this heading is limited to 20%
of your total in any three years.
10 Example: Summary Record of CPD Activities
The example below is a summary record of CPD activities that may be expected for a Chartered Professional
Engineer practising as a structural engineer.
9 F - Industry Involvement
(for engineers in academic positions)
(time weighting factor = 1)
Engineers employed in academic positions are
expected to foster links with industry to the benefit of
engineering education, research and practice in
Australia. This requirement also ensures that they are
exposed to developments in engineering practice
outside their university.
Industry involvement will normally be in the form of
consulting services. However, where you have close
ties with industry, you can include supervision of
industry sponsored research.
Supervision of design projects carried out for industry
and field trips may also be counted if they have
contributed to the above objectives.
Professional engineers in academic positions must be
able to show they have had at least 40 hours of
industry involvement every three years in addition to
their 150 weighted hours of CPD.

Time (hours)
Ref Date Type CPD activity / topic / provider actual weight weighted
factor hours
1 2002 A Seismic Design of Building Structures (one unit) UNSW 48 2 96
MEngSc
Type A Sub-total 96

2 Jul00 B AS3600 Concrete Structures - updates revision (see attached) 4 0.5 2

3 2000/ B EA Magazine Engineers Australia (see list of topics) 6 0.5 3
01/02
4 2002 B The Structural Engineer UK (see list of topics) 4 0.5 2
5 Mar02 B Spacegass software in-house training (see attached) 20 1 20
6 Jun02 B MYOB accounting software (see attached) 12 0.5 6
Type B Sub-total 33

7 Oct00 C Design of Purlins BHP Building Products w/shop 2 1 2

8 Feb01 C Full Penetration Butt Welding KB Engineering w/shop 2 1 2
9 Nov01 C Concrete Design Standards Australia Seminar 8 1 8
Type C Sub-total 12

10 Aug01 D Engineering House A Structural Challenge 40 40

Engineers Australia Structural Engineering Conference
Type D Sub-total 40

Total CPD activities (Goal 150 hours/3 year period) 181

Planned CPD Activities

2002 A Completion of MEngSc - UNSW
2005
Sep02 C 2nd International Structural Engineering Conference

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 Continuing Professional Development

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES CLAIMED AS CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. Referring to the

types of CPD described in the preceding pages, use the table below as a summary of those records. Attach
additional pages to provide supporting detail, particularly for Type B activities, and use the line reference number to
cross reference the supporting detail. List the CPD by Type and sub-total the weighted hours for each. Also include
any CPD activities you have planned for the next 3 years.

Time (hours)
Ref Date Type CPD activity / topic / provider actual weight weighted
factor hours

Total CPD activities (Goal 150 hours/3 year period)

Name Signature Reg. No.

If you have recorded your CPD in another format, please submit that with your statement of experience. Your record must be comprehensive, and include,
as a minimum, the details as shown on this pro forma.

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