Those of you who work with our Committee Members may be aware that a short while ago we announced the roll-out of certification for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Committee Members who participate actively in our standards programmes. This initiative has been followed closely by the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee and is seen as a welcome further initiative to promote the value of participation in standards work.
We are now a few steps closer to being able to roll this out, subject to some final ‘tweaks’ behind the scenes.
Before we do go live, staff in Standards should be aware of the scheme, how it works and what it means.
Essentially it will be a ‘self-evaluation’ scheme: BSI Standards will merely facilitate the issuing of certificates.
During the next few weeks an online application form will be posted on the BSI website, for members to claim for CPD certification for participation in a given committee for the time period January–December 2008. Using this form, Committee Members will give us a few of their personal details (name, committee reference and title(s) for any relevant committee(s) and their principal BSI contact, i.e. Programme Manager, Committee Manager or CSC). This information will be submitted and collected here.
Following submission of the personal details there will be a simple validation check on our part, i.e. we in Standards will need to confirm that the applicant is known to us and has been an active committee member. This check will be performed by Operations staff in contact with the committees: in many cases the name will be known to you, or you may need just to check the attendance lists in meeting minutes (remembering also that active participation may also happen outside the committee room)!
Following this validation, a certificate will then be issued which certifies simply that the applicant participated in the relevant committee(s) during the time period involved. On the reverse of the certificate there is a check-list, which the Committee Member uses to validate how committee participation contributed to his or her ongoing CPD, in accordance with the relevant professional body’s requirements. This means that BSI Standards is simply certifying active participation in a committee’s work; the validation/assessment of exactly how the participation has contributed to CPD remains between applicant and professional body.
There will be a limited time-frame during which certificates can be requested, after which time the online application form will be closed. This first time will be something of an experiment, so we don’t know how many applications we will receive. We hope to repeat the exercise (and incorporate any key learning from this time) in early 2010 for 2009 committee activity.
Return to Summer 2009 Committee e-newsletter
