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WATTnow launches CPD
programme for engineers
WATTnow in conjuction with the South African Institute
of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) has launched an
impressive programme for engineers who need to
meet their professional development commitment
by securing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits. In
terms of the renewal of registration requirements, all professional
electrical engineers must earn five CPD credits a year. Failure to
certify CPD credits, could jeopardise renewal of their registration
According to Jenny Warwick, managing member of Crown
Publications and the publisher of WATTnow, the programme will
mean that engineers can earn the credits they need by subscribing to
the WATTnow CPD Programme.
“First, WATTnow will produce a series of video broadcasts of up to
six lectures annually on topics that have been validated for CPD by
the SAIEE. These lectures will be filmed and edited by a WATTnow
production team and then converted to either CD or DVD disks before
being distributed free-of-charge to members of the WATTnow CPD
Programme.
“A series of appropriate questions will be included on the CD or DVD
and members of the programme can submit their answers directly to
WATTnow by using a simple message system (where appropriate),
by e-mail or by fax if they so choose. The filmed presentation will
qualify the user to claim credits in the Category One section which
makes attendance of a conference at least once a year mandatory,”
she says.
Warwick points out that it can be extremely difficult for working
professional electrical engineers to take time off from their busy
daily schedules to attend a conference simply to comply with the
requirements of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA)
,which stipulates that engineers must acquire at least 25 CPD
credits in their respective five-year cycle prior to the renewal of their
registration.
She says that this is particularly relevant for engineers working in
the small towns and cities around South Africa where conferences are
seldom hosted. For these people attendance at a conference means
that they are likely to lose at least three working days because they
have to travel to the venue, attend the conference and then get back
to their workplace.
“The costs for these engineers is excessive as they must foot the
bill for travelling to the venue, then pay all the accommodation costs
–usually for at least two nights – and then pick up the tab for the
conference registration fees too,” she says.
SAIEE’s director, Stan Bridgens – who has worked with the
WATTnow team to set up this programme – says that the initiative will
mean that engineers throughout the country will be able to improve
their own professional development by gaining access to many more
lectures than they would normally attend and being able to watch all
the published material in their own time and at their own pace.
“The advantage of the WATTnow CPD Programme is that
engineers have a choice of topics relating to their own professional
development. Essentially every engineer will have access to all the
filmed material that is presented over a 12 month period. Perhaps
one lecture is sufficient to provide the credit they need but now they
can watch all the material and this is undoubtedly going to add to
their own knowledge and understanding of engineering in a broad or a
specific context,” he adds.
“This means, really, that the level of personal professional
development should be higher among members of the WATTnow
CPD Programme because they can watch and absorb all the material
available to them from all conferences held around the country that
have been validated for CPD,” he says.
Added to the DVD and CD offerings, WATTnow will be publishing
articles in each monthly issue that will also qualify readers for
Category One CPD credits which require engineers to respond to
in depth questions posed on the articles that are specially designed
and validated to provide CPD. It is envisaged for engineers using
the system will accumulate between 0.1 and 0.3 CPD credits if all
the questions are answered correctly. Furthermore at least ten such
articles will be published annually so that at least one CPD credit
could be obtained by this method.
May July 2008
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