Continued Professional Development

The CII's current CPD scheme is described in the CII's CPD guidance notes. The completion of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a condition of membership of the Personal Finance Society, Cert PFS, Dip PFS, APFS and FPFS.

Non-compliance with the CPD requirements, specific to each level of membership, will affect a member's right to use designatory letters or a Chartered title which they have been granted. It may also lead to disciplinary action.

Most professions now recognise that the achievement of professional qualifications is not the end of learning at work. Rather, it marks a new stage of professional development which continues throughout working life. Continuing Professional Development seeks to formalise what most professionals are already doing, enabling development to be structured in a way that meets both their, own needs and the requirements of their employer.

The definition of CPD used by the PFS is '... the planned acquisition of knowledge, experience and skills, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout working life.' This wide definition has been selected because PFS members include a wide range of specialists whose development needs vary. Both technical updating and management development are therefore included as qualifying activities along with many others. For many members, CPD is not onerous, representing only the formal recording of activities they are already carrying out.

The scheme is very flexible and is concerned with the professional development of members in the broadest sense. The scheme is self-certifying and if you feel that a specific activity has contributed to your professional development, then points can be claimed for that activity. Activity need not be PFS related. It can, for example, relate to management development, accountancy or IT. Where you are required to comply with the CPD requirements of another institute, regulator or other appropriate body, that CPD is recognised for the purposes of the scheme.

In addition, if CPD records need to be completed for that other body, that record may be used as evidence of CPD to satisfy the scheme. Each year, the CII writes to appropriate members asking them to submit their CPD records for checking. Failure to provide a satisfactory record may lead to disciplinary action and the loss of designatory letters.