IRBPP – Making your life easier:
Published: 08/11/2022
Since 2018 regular CPD (Continuing Professional Development) has been a legal obligation for many commercial bird of prey professionals, however, for many reading this short guide, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a new and possibly confusing activity. Don’t worry – the IRBPP can easily help you to make a start.
You will develop a better understanding of CPD over time, and we will help you develop your understanding with further guides and activities. Working with us you will understand more formal ways of analysing your development needs and appropriate CPD activities in the future. You should be recording a minimum of about 30 hours of CPD each year. You can record more if you wish.
Starting with professional reading is something you can easily do today! Read on.
What is ‘professional reading’?
It really is as simple as it sounds, and at it’s most basic it is simply reading about birds of prey. You probably do that a lot already.
To make your reading into an acceptable CPD activity, you need to ensure a couple of really basic things.
First, is the information from an accepted expert in the field? If you are reading articles or other information within the IRBPP portal, then, yes it will be from a recognised expert. For example, there is an article on viruses in birds of prey written by Neil Forbes and colleagues. Clearly from an expert source. Every quarter new reading material is published.
Professional reading may be articles or books written by internationally renowned falconers such as Jemima Parry-Jones or Nick Fox amongst others. Again, if it’s something we have recommended, then go right ahead and treat it as a CPD activity. You may find other sources beyond our current recommended and published lists – is the author an ‘expert’? If yes, then this can count as Professional Reading, If no, or if you are unsure you can always contact us to ask for the reading matter to be included in our published lists.
What wouldn’t count?
Sadly in these days of easily accessible social media, there are multiple platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc where literally anybody can write what they like. Our simple advice would be to avoid such material unless you are absolutely, and positively sure that the information is from an expert source, and recognised as such by the international community. Sadly, there are far to many self-proclaimed experts whose opinions cannot be guaranteed as true.
Second, your activity needs to be recorded in a formal CPD document.
You should be recording 30 hours every year, but not all of it needs to be professional reading. In other guidance we will explain more about other CPD activities. But for now:
- pick one of our articles (we’ll be adding more material every quarter)
- read it – maybe a couple of times
- make some notes about what you have ready (author/s, date you read it, the subject matter and any new knowledge you have gained)
- put your notes into your CPD folder with a note of how long you spent on the article.
That’s it, you will have completed and recorded your first formal piece of CPD.
Good luck
Psst – before you go… you make your life simpler still by upgrading your account. Get a personal online CPD Record, automated certification of all activities completed within the IRBPP portal, and automatic updates of your CPD activities. Read more..