Continued Professional Development (CPD) – A Year On

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) was introduced by the MRS a year ago in a bid to help members progress through their career and provide clients with a quality benchmark.  So far, approximately 300 individuals have enrolled, which is slightly lower than hoped. The ICG member’s survey told us that 33 of our members have signed up for CPD (as in August).

CPD accreditation is available through the MRS, but also through accredited events held by associated organisations including the ICG (a full list of organisations is provided below). The ICG is committed to supporting this initiative, and as far as possible we ensure that our events – evening seminars, webinars etc. – are accredited by the MRS.  This means it is easy for ICG members to register and accumulate points – simply by doing what you always do and supporting the ICG programme of events. The process is simple – attend the event, and then download your certificate from our website. This can then be used towards your CPD accreditation.

Although increasing the levels of participation is the main challenge, particularly for the MRS, CPD should increase the demand for affordable MRS Accredited Training. This represents an opportunity for the ICG by publicising and welcoming our training events to the broader community of researchers as well as to the other organisations – the profile of the ICG will gain wider traction generally, and we can attract more members. For example, at our meeting in March ‘Online Qual and how it fits in – Ken Parker’ we had two attendees from P&G. This can only benefit the ICG and its general presence amongst a wider (client?) audience. 

Apart from the MRS, accredited CPD training is also provided by:

• APG – Account Planning Group
• AQR – Association for Qualitative Research 
• Aura – Association of Users of Research Agencies
• BHBIA – British Health Intelligence Association
• ICG – Independent Consultants Group
• LARIA – Local Area Research + Intelligence Association
• CIM – Chartered Institute of Marketing 
• IDM – Institute of Direct Marketing
• The Marketing Society
• ASC.

We are currently considering a more proactive approach – develop a rolling 6 month programme where each event is MRS accredited, then inviting participants from client organisations as well as promoting the events more widely through our inter-organisation connections. This maximised the benefit of the scheme for our members as well as promoting the ICG.  For some of the events we may need to have a small charge, but webinars will probably remain free.

For more details, or if you have further questions, please visit the MRS website (www.mrs.org.uk/cpd) or contact Ed Newton – enewton@prospectconsulting.co.uk.