At the end of 2018, Insightrix Research Inc., on behalf of APEGS, conducted a member satisfaction survey to gain feedback on how members felt about APEGS and its operations.
One section of the survey asked members for their opinion on the continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities offered by APEGS. Based on the feedback received, the Professional Development Committee (PDC) was asked to provide a response.
PDC Chair Bob Cooper, P.Eng., shares his thoughts on the results of the survey.
With the new Continuing Professional Development Program taking effect January 1, 2019, what initiatives the PDC taking to help members obtain their CPD credits?
An online ethics module is available at the APEGS website that, if completed, provides an ethics refresher sufficient to satisfy the annual training requirement.
The committee is working to add new modules annually to keep the content diverse.
The PDC also decided to rotate the Spring Professional Development Days around the province. This gives members more opportunities to obtain professional development credits as well as greater interaction in exploring the difficult decisions involved in maintaining an ethical approach in our professions.
Finally, free in-person ethics presentations are offered to companies and other organizations to help members obtain their annual verifiable ethics credit for the year. Since January 2019, 14 organizations have arranged for this presentation.
Based on the 2019 Membership Survey, it appears that members want APEGS to offer more technical courses. Will APEGS be offering more technical courses as part of its professional development offerings?
It is encouraging that the survey confirmed our members want to learn ways to do their job better. The committee is considering developing a system to make information more readily accessible regarding technical training opportunities. This may include partnering with other technical associations, universities and others.
At the most recent committee meeting it was determined that the 10 P.Eng.s and P.Geo.s present collectively belonged to more than 15 technical associations.
We hope to make members aware of training opportunities provided by technical group to make cross training available and improve overall access to technical training that is of interest to all members.
What are the challenges in offering technical courses?
The diverse nature of APEGS members’ careers makes selecting of appropriate technical training opportunities difficult. The committee recognizes that most career specific technical training takes place on the job, through mentoring and job specific training courses.
At this time, the committee believes the best approach is to maximize awareness of training opportunities offered by technical societies and educational institutions, while providing professional development opportunities of a more general nature that are of interest to all APEGS members.