Members' policy

The key requirements of the policy:

• CIMA Professional Development is a condition of membership of CIMA. Members are required to undertake the CIMA Professional Development Cycle, and are required to keep CPD records for a minimum of three years on a rolling basis.
• CPD compliance is based on trust and whilst CIMA offers support to members, it is the responsibility of members to assess their development goals and needs, select the most appropriate activities, and design their CPD programmes accordingly.
• A sample of members’ CPD records will be selected each year for monitoring. This selection may be weighted to include an appropriate proportion of members having high levels of responsibility, including direct contact with the public.
• Members selected for monitoring will be asked to demonstrate that they have undertaken the CIMA Professional Development Cycle, and will be required to provide evidence of their CPD in any of the formats detailed in the Guidelines.
• Members who have not complied with the CPD requirements may be given additional time within which to comply and will, where requested, be given assistance by CIMA, and will be monitored again after the time allowed has elapsed.
• Any member who fails to comply with the CPD requirements will be referred to a Panel of CPD Assessors who will determine what action to take. The Panel may refer cases to the Investigation Committee when wilful and persistent non-compliance is suspected.

CIMA Professional Development Cycle

All members are required to undertake the CIMA Professional Development Cycle. It is for members to assess their development goals and needs, select the most appropriate activities, and design their CPD programmes accordingly. All members are subject to monitoring – please visit the Monitoring process page for more details.

Step 1 - Describe expectations on present and desired roles
Members should define what is expected of them in their current role. They are also encouraged, where appropriate, to consider their career aspirations and to gauge expectations of a future role.
Members should draw up brief descriptions of these roles and expectations. These descriptions should recognise and respond to expectations arising from employers, clients, regulators and the public, as well as expectations on themselves in terms of career development.

Step 2 - Assess development needs and outcomes
Members should assess any capability (knowledge, understanding, skill or attitude) gaps by comparing what is expected of them in their present role, or a future role, against their actual current capability or level of competence.

CIMA will provide support (CPD Planner and other products, sample case studies and profiles) to support members to assess their skills gaps. Alternatively, other methods such as employer systems or discussion with a mentor could be used.

Members should make brief statements of the development outcomes needed to meet the various expectations outlined in step 1.

Steps 3 and 4 - Design a programme and act
Members should design their professional development programme around activities they believe are relevant to their role, which will satisfy their key identified needs and which are realistic. Members should document these key activities.

CIMA will offer a range of online support tools and resources to help in identifying and meeting development needs (CPD Planner and other products). Equally, discussions with appropriate people in their organisations or colleagues may also assist this process.

The following is an indication of the potential development sources and activities members might consider:

• Work-based learning 
• Project work
• Academic and professional qualifications 
• Internal and external training courses 
• Conferences and events 
• Reading technical reports, journals 
• Interviewing and modelling experts 
• Online training 
• Giving new presentations 
• Coaching 
• Mentoring 
• Case studies 
• Delivering training and development 
• Research 
• Discussion groups 
• Observation and feedback 
• Secondments.

Step 5 - Reflect
Members should reflect on the development activity and consider how well it went, what they have learned, how they can apply their learning and any changes they would make next time. They should document the outcome of each key activity and consider any further development required.
CIMA will provide tools (CPD Planner) to support members, but they could equally use conversations with colleagues or peers in conjunction with employer development systems or other recording templates.

Step 6 - Evaluate
Members should evaluate their actual development against their development outcomes and take any outstanding development into the next cycle. They should look at the annual record and verify that it is a true representation of their key development over the year.

Members selected for monitoring will be required to confirm that all steps of the Professional Development Cycle defined above have been undertaken and provide evidence of their CPD activity by submitting a CPD Record documenting activities and outcomes. CPD Records will need to be kept for a rolling three-year period.

What next?
The Monitoring process page describes in more detail the format of CPD Records that members can use to document their CPD activities.