TRAINING | PPC113 November 2023
BPCA’s Head of Technical and PPC Editor, Dee Ward-Thompson caught up with Training and Professional Development Manager Karen Dawes, to talk about reflective learning, unstructured CPD and how you might be gathering CPD points without even realising it.
It’s that time of year again and CPD will be on many people’s minds – or at least, it should be!
While many of you may worry about how to keep up with your job AND record CPD, we’re here to explain how you can easily do both.
It’s a common misconception that only formal training counts as CPD, when in fact everything you learn throughout the year can count towards your 20 points. BPCA Registered not only recognises, but actively encourages on-the-job learning.
DWT With the launch of the BPCA Registered App, it’s easier than ever to log CPD. As head of the technical department, I’m particularly interested to know if you’re seeing an increase in members recording their own CPD for things like technical calls.
KD It’s still an area we’re looking to improve on. People tend not to automatically recognise that things like technical calls can be counted as CPD but, of course, if you make a technical call you generally have a question.
If that question is answered, then you’ve learned something new. It’s all part of keeping your knowledge up-to-date, and we see that as really valuable. How many technical calls would you say you generally get in a week?
DWT Depends on the time of year, but our phones are always fairly busy.
KD Okay, so if each call lasts 30 minutes, that’s a lot of CPD that could be recorded across the board. And many people will call the technical helpline more than once, so those points could add up for individuals too.
For those readers who are on BPCA Registered: the system allows technicians to open a diary entry for technical calls and to add to it each time they speak to an advisor. They can even do it on the BPCA Registered app as soon as the call is done. They just need to keep the entry open as a draft, and add to it as and when they seek advice.
When the end of the year rolls around, just publish it and the points will automatically be added.
DWT We do tell members on calls that they can do this, as this type of CPD is so valuable and you don’t need to be on a course to get it.
KD That’s exactly right, not every bit of learning is done on a formal training course. Technical calls are really valuable because what is discussed is specifically relevant to the caller and the issues they have. They can ask questions, have a discussion and get points clarified by your team, so the learning is really individual to them.
Out of interest, what kind of questions do you get asked?
DWT The calls are so diverse, we get insect and rodent control queries, questions about how to do method statements and environmental risk assessments (ERAs), the list goes on.
KD ERAs are a great case in point, as there are many different elements to the learning that takes place here. First of all, just understanding when and how to complete ERAs is a learning curve that everyone has to travel along. Then, every time you complete one, there’s always something different that you have to think about, to consider and reflect on.
DWT So someone can claim CPD whenever they complete an ERA?
KD Wherever and whenever you are learning something new, that can be counted as CPD so, theoretically, yes. CPD can be recorded for completing ERAs, and health and safety assessments are the same because the very nature of contemplating specific risks requires you to learn more about the products, the site or the species.
DWT It’s great that BPCA Registered recognises on-the-job learning and has the function to accept unstructured learning like this; I know first-hand how busy being out on the road as a pest technician is. I do still find that some people don’t fully know what unstructured CPD is all about though, I guess it’s a fairly new thing to the industry?
KD Well, we’re in our fifth year now and we do get more people taking control of their own CPD in this way, but there’s still loads of work to do to get the word out there. To put it another way: unstructured learning is also known as ‘self-directed’ CPD – it simply means learning that is driven by the individual and it can be quite broad in terms of the activities completed.
It can include reading news articles, technical articles, blogs, books, or checking your BPM manual, watching relevant videos and informal discussions such as technical or networking chats.
DWT So basically, it seems like anything you do in your role, if you’re learning, is valuable CPD.
KD Yep, absolutely. As I said before, if you’re learning something – anything – then that’s continued professional development.
I think the misconception comes from the fact that historically CPD was more formal and required you to attend training courses (or more recently, webinars). But it’s one of the reasons BPCA Registered was developed; we recognised that professional development is not generic, it’s personal to every individual and CPD should always reflect the goals and objectives of individuals.
How better to do that than through the use of unstructured learning that’s relevant to how you want to develop your skills and knowledge?
DWT Ah, so as long as we can demonstrate we have learned something, even if it’s just where a certain product can be used by reading the label, or seeking technical advice, this can be logged as CPD?
KD Yes, the only caveat being that you include what we call ‘reflective practice’ when you add your points.
For example, when you see a training course being promoted on BPCA’s website, you will see a number of things that you will learn on the course listed: these are called learning outcomes. It’s what you will learn by doing the training.
Reflective practice is simply saying what you have learned as a result of what you have done, so your learning outcomes. So if you have completed an ERA, you will be asked “what did you set out to learn” and you might answer “I needed to understand the environmental risks that affected this site”.
You will then be asked “What have you learned as a result” and you might answer that “I now understand the risk hierarchy and how it relates to this site, which is a pub by a river”.
DWT What about if I’m on a site and discussing pest control requirements with my client? Could that be CPD?
KD Absolutely, if you are learning about the site and evaluating the best methods to monitor and manage that site, then that is extremely valuable CPD.
DWT So, we just need to make more people aware that there are tons of ways to get your CPD. It’s not a point gathering exercise, it’s about recording your learning journey and development experiences.
KD Exactly! I prefer to think of the CPD requirements in hours rather than points. I think points just encourage us to think in terms of numbers rather than value. If you think that you need to record 20 hours of development, and that development can take place while you’re out in the field, it suddenly seems less formidable. And the BPCA Registered app allows you to record it in the moment, so to speak.
And the CPD team is always happy to guide members through the process of logging unstructured CPD; we find that once people see how simple it is, they see CPD in a whole new light and understand the value of it.
Having heard from Dee and Karen, are you beginning to see CPD in that new light?
CPD shouldn’t be seen as a chore to be completed by the end of the year. In an ideal world it should be a collaboration between employer and employee – carefully planned to make sure that both are reaping the benefits of better knowledge, better skills and better long-term outcomes. Make your CPD count, and not just by collecting points; make it count by understanding that learning is always going to be part of the job. We hear pest controllers say time and again that no two days are ever the same in this job - well, you’d be surprised by how quickly and easily that can add up to 20 hours of CPD!