Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

A staff member's CPD record offers evidence of the effort they have employed throughout their career to keep their skills current. Collectively, staff CPD records provide proof of the competence level of a company. Analysis of a staff member's individual CPD portfolio is often an essential component of their annual review. Moreover, A CPD record may well be reflected in a company's skills matrix, which in turn may determine the staffing specifics of future projects. Therefore, maintaining accurate CPD records is essential to the career of a staff member and essential to ensure an accurate skills audit for their company.

In HPS LightTouch™ CPD is managed both manually, allowing staff members to enter their own training initiatives, and automatically whereby training courses, managed via HPS LightTouch™, take account of "outcomes" and will automatically update an employee's CPD record.

Part of a CPD record is the number of "CPD hours" attained. CPD hours is the critical measurable level of attainment which gives value to the CPD record. Public training courses are often rated by the number of CPD hours they represent. So, for example, a 5-day course (9.30-1230; lunch; 1330-1630 daily) may typically be rated as a 30-CPD-hour event. On completion of the course an attendee will have attained 30 CPD hours in addition to any other outcomes (such as a certificate or award).

When providing CPD records manually, a staff member must estimate the number of CPD hours achieved. In HPS LightTouch™, manual records may be verified by another staff member to give the record validity.