Training | PPC96 August 2019
Karen Dawes, BPCA Training Development Manager, takes a look at some great examples of CPD for people at all stages of their careers.
BPCA’s new individual recognition and CPD scheme, BPCA Registered, is well underway.
Under the new scheme, member organisations that are signed up must ensure that all employees working within a technical role achieve 20 CPD points before the end of the year or risk non-compliance of BPCA’s membership criteria.
As we close out the first six months of BPCA Registered, main contacts of the scheme’s member organisations will start receiving a report of all their employees’ points achieved so far.
This is to identify where support may be required to achieve CPD in a methodical and effective manner, and to gain the best outcomes from the activities undertaken.
We thought it’d be a good time to remind everyone on the scheme that achieving CPD doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to take time out of your working day or commit to attending loads of additional training courses or events.
One of the benefits of BPCA Registered is our recognition that learning very often takes place during your day-to-day work experiences and CPD can easily be claimed for this learning activity.
Yes, you do need to input and reflect on these experiences yourself, but BPCA Registered has been set up to make this process as simple as possible.
Here are some examples of what sort of activities and reflection are worth points on the scheme. We hope that you’ll be inspired to record at least 20 points this year!
Newly-qualified Rosie
Rosie was recently employed by a small member organisation.
She has achieved her Level 2 Award in Pest Management and is now a fully integrated member of the team, regularly undertaking site visits and carrying out pest management activities.
Rosie realises that she still has a lot to learn and sometimes comes up against situations she isn’t sure about.
To ensure that she is making the correct treatment decisions she will often have discussions with more senior colleagues.
She uses the learning from these discussions as part of her CPD, below.
I wanted to understand why my approach wasn't working and how I could improve my performance for my customer.
Trapping issues on an office site
12.02.2019
No of points/hours: 1 hour (Note: In this section, the number of points is directly related to the number of hours you have spent learning. In this case, Rosie spent one hour having a discussion with a colleague so this would be 1 hour = 1 CPD point.)
Face to face discussion with a colleague. I chose the person with most experience in this field and discussed how, following signs of a rat infestation at an office building site, I had put multiple traps around the building but on two subsequent follow-up visits hadn’t captured anything. Signs of rat infestation still persisted and I wasn’t sure how to proceed.
I approached Neil and asked him if could offer any advice. I explained what I had seen at the site and what I had tried. He spent some time going over my site visit reports, asking me what I thought the information was telling me and what I thought could be a possible way forward. We eventually came up with a plan of action for my next site visit.
Reflection
Describe source of learning
From the discussion and my colleague’s method of guidance, I learned that finding the root cause of the problem is very important. Often the location of evidence isn’t necessarily where the infestation is coming from. I gained knowledge of tactics with which I could ascertain what caused the infestation, and so be better equipped to choose an approach to deal with it.
What did you set out to learn?
I struggled to understand why what I was doing wasn’t working. I wanted to understand why my approach wasn’t working and how I could improve my performance for the customer and, at the same time, increase my knowledge of how to deal with situations that weren’t easily resolved.
What actions have resulted from the activity?
I am going to use some tracking dust to try to understand better where the infestation is coming from.
Upload evidence: none (Note: No additional evidence is required as the reflection process above is sufficient for this activity.)
Rabbit issues
Freddie, an owner of a medium-sized pest management company, has several young employees.
Aaron had worked for the company for around 18 months and, while he was doing a good job in the core areas of the business, there were some areas where he had yet to gain any experience.
One of these areas was controlling rabbits. When a rabbit job came through Freddie saw this as a great opportunity for his employee to gain some knowledge and experience.
This is Aaron’s CPD entry, but it’s also important to note that Freddie could also claim CPD from any learning he achieved from his mentoring activity.
Rabbit control on a farm site
04.03.2019 - 05.03.2019
No of points/hours: 5 hours
Freddie took me to a job where a farm had an issue with rabbits. He mentored me around behaviours and characteristics of rabbits, what to look for to give me an indication or sign of rabbit activity, and the different methods of control.
I worked with him as we dealt with the activity and he discussed all of the health, safety and legislative issues I needed to think about. At the end of the job Freddie did a practical assessment of the work I had done and asked me why I had carried out certain activities to ensure that I had understood what he had explained to me. We returned to the site the following morning to assess the treatment.
Reflection
Describe source of learning
I found that by actually doing the job with Freddie’s guidance, I learned more than just reading about it. I was able to experience rabbit control in a real environment and learned how to deal with some things that were unexpected.
What did you set out to learn?
I wanted to have a broader knowledge of pest control and a wider experience of pest species. Rabbit control was something I wanted to learn about but had no experience of, so this activity helped me develop my experience in this area and contributed to me achieving my planned development for this year.
What actions have resulted from the activity?
I am now confident that I could carry out pest control activities for rabbits on my own.
Upload evidence: Aaron-at-the-farm.jpg
Moving towards thought leadership
Experienced technician Alicia has developed her skills and knowledge to provide training around pest management.
While she still conducts pest management activities, some of her time is now spent delivering training.
As such, she spends a great deal of time developing courses which require an element of research to ensure that she is utilising up-to-date and relevant information and delivering training in an effective manner.
I wanted to learn how to make sure my training was developed robustly and professionally, covering all relevant areas while ensuring a duty of care to my candidates.
Introduction to wasp control training course development
06.05.2019 - 10.05.2019
No of points/hours: 8 points
I’m in the process of developing my portfolio of training courses to offer to pest controllers. Some feedback from my networking activities suggested that an in-depth wasp course would be well received.
I have a lot of experience with wasps so I felt in a good position to do this. I am still learning about developing effective lesson plans so I knew I would need to research around this.
My plan is to move my focus from delivering pest control services to delivering training to the industry so it is important that I have the right skills and knowledge to be successful.
Reflection
Describe source of learning
My research into lesson plans helped me to understand the importance of setting out course aims and objectives clearly, and ensuring the course could deliver required learning outcomes. I also learned about different assessment techniques and was able to work out the best assessment type to provide confidence that the learning outcomes were sufficiently validated.
What did you set out to learn?
I wanted to learn how to formulate lesson plans so that my training was delivered in an orderly and effective manner. I wanted to learn how to make sure my training was developed robustly and professionally, covering all relevant areas while ensuring a duty of care to my candidates.
I also wanted to show clients that my courses would be effective for their pest controllers.
What actions have resulted from the activity?
I have set up a template that can be used for future training course development. By setting out clear aims and objectives I also have the information I need to promote the courses to the right audiences.
Upload evidence: Lesson-plan-1.pdf; Wasp-course-research.docx
Get recording
If you would like some help in uploading some of your “on the job” CPD, simply email us and we can talk you through the process.
Source: PPC96