Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) has welcomed the Engineering Council of South Africa’s (ECSA) decision to refine its processes for validating programmes.

The ECSA is set to refine CPD Category 1: Developmental Activities (courses, conferences, webinars, etc.) for CPD point allocation.

This was made mandatory following the discovery that numerous unethical training providers in the industry have been falsely advertising CPD validated training courses and conferences that often do not match their CPD points allocation.

“Often the CPD allocation for the training being provided does not match the quality and content requirements for the allocation of the level on which the CPD points were initially awarded,” Brenda Lacey-Smith, Manager CESA School of Consulting Engineering explains .

To improve the governance and quality of CPD training and the points that are claimable, ECSA has implemented new standards and processes by which all voluntary associations and academic institutions offering training or CPD validation services must strictly follow when awarding CPD points.

CESA has aligned its systems with the new standard and has been successfully audited and approved as a recognised ECSA certified License Body, to be a CPD validation agent. It also aims to ensure its quality of training and the CPD point allocations are maintained at a high standard and support ECSA’s procedure.

“We are now in a position to offer this CPD validation service and subsequently ensure that both our training and CPD point allocations can stand up to any scrutiny by ECSA. This will ensure that when registered persons claim such points in the future, they can do it confidently having the CESA CPD validation stamp of approval,” Lacey-Smith concluded.