CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It is an attempt by the IFOA for its working professional students to ensure that they are doing something towards the profession outside of their work. The idea for CPD is to allow students to gain real professional benefits and career development.
CPD is to be filled by the members doing technical actuarial work. There are some exclusions like
- student members (students who are only writing actuarial exam and are not yet working with any company),
- non-practicing (retired parental leave or health issues, pro rata if status changes halfway through the CPD year) or
- listed society members,
For the last two categories you need to fill an application form, whereas student members don’t need to fill any form. Students can register themselves as non-practicing and they do not need to follow the CPD scheme plus membership team.
CPD year for every member starts from 1st September and ends on 31st August every year.
It is mandatory to complete 15 hours of CPD in a year. So these 15 hours have been split into two parts: 13 hours and 2 hours;
You have to submit 13 normal CPD hours that can be acquired by:
- Private Study
- IFOA conference
- Lunch and learn sessions at work
- Reading Articles or Actuary Magazine
- Webinar from another provider (live or recorded as per your convenience)
Apart from these 13 hours you need to do two hours of professional skills training which is also mandatory.
Professional skills training is different skills that IFOA want you to inculcate, like you can find some training and courses from the IFOA website other than that any real time experience in your workplace which gives you an ethical challenge. Every CPD year needs to be recorded by the member.
If you think you will lose the records, IFOA now has a portal called Optional Record keeping wherein you can upload your records, it’s an optional activity but it is preferred. If the IFOA does a random audit you will have those records ready to present.
Apart from this 15 hours, there is a reflective practical discussion which is done after your 15 hours of normal CPD, you can have this discussion with an appropriate member who has knowledge of the actuarial industry, that could be your peers/colleagues/friends or tutor. If you can’t find anyone then you can reach out to IFOA volunteers. The discussion should be of two hours in which you need to discuss the things you learnt in those normal 15 CPD hours.
If CPD is not met, there will no longer be disciplinary consequences for failure to comply with CPD scheme, except in cases where the Actuaries code has been breached. Instead, the IFOA is aiming to better support members in meeting their needs and to assist members in their professional development.
On membership renewal you will be asked to confirm if you have completed your CPD for the previous year.
