Unless you are a Student member or a non-practising member, or your employer participates in the QAS CPD scheme, you must complete 15 hours CPD, two hours of which should be professional skills training. Practising Certificate holders have extra CPD requirements to meet.
You can find useful information about the new CPD Scheme below.
Any activities that involve learning relevant to a member’s actuarial work (current or future) or professional development, which address a personal development need and have an identifiable learning outcome. Those activities can be wide ranging and include, for example, lectures, seminars, workshops, webinars, personal reading and research. It could also potentially include carrying out actuarial work where that has a relevant learning outcome.
As there is no longer a requirement to record CPD with the IFoA, it is no longer necessary for the IFoA to recognise the CPD schemes of other bodies. In most cases, if you are currently carrying out CPD under the requirements of another IAA body, it is very likely that you will be able to count those activities towards your IFoA hours too. During your reflective practice discussions, you would be required to reflect on the CPD that you had carried out during the year, as a member of the IFoA.
If you are required to prove compliance with the IFoA Scheme to another body, we would be willing to do that for you. Please contact the Membership Team to discuss this.
All activities must have a learning outcome relevant to your current or future role. Therefore any learning that builds on an area you are considering moving into can be counted.
It is up to you to determine your learning and development needs depending on your current or future roles, and which activities are right for you. We encourage members to try to obtain CPD from different sources so that they benefit from a range of different perspectives. External events can be helpful in providing those alternative insights and perspectives.
There will no longer be disciplinary consequences for failure to comply with the CPD Scheme, except in cases where the Actuaries’ Code has been breached. Instead, the IFoA aims to better support members in meeting their needs and assisting members in their professional development. However, members are still required to comply with the Actuaries’ Code and this requires members to develop their knowledge and skills in a manner appropriate to their role.
You must keep a record of activities to facilitate your reflective practice discussions but this can be in whatever form you choose. You no longer have to submit the record to the IFoA every year or use the IFoA’s recording facility. If selected for a reflective practice discussion with the IFoA, you will be asked to provide your record to the IFoA team in advance. This is simply to inform the discussion. The CPD recording facility will still be available for those who would like to continue using it. It has been updated to reflect the requirements of the new Scheme and allows you to record your objectives, activities, and learning outcomes.
Exemptions are available for students, those with Non-Practising status, and members working for organisations that adopt the QAS CPD Scheme.
Any member can apply for Non-Practising status if they are not currently involved in technical actuarial work. This might include members who have retired completely or it might include those members who are working but not involved in technical actuarial work, such as those acting as Non-Executive Directors or Trustees. Whether work is paid or not is not relevant to your eligibility. Applications can only be made where a member has or intends to have, that status for 5 weeks or more (other than in relation to absence for parental or medical reasons where there is no such limitation).
If the work that you carry out is technical actuarial work, you will not be eligible for Non-Practising status for as long as you are carrying out that work.
You can apply for Non-Practising status by completing a short online application form. This will be reflected in your entry in the Actuarial Directory.
The requirement for the rest of the year will be on a pro-rata basis according to the number of weeks that your status is no longer in place (rounded down to the nearest week). The hours requirement will be rounded to the nearest minute. The Membership Team will be able to confirm this.
No, the status does not have any bearing on your membership, other than to exempt you from the CPD Scheme. Your category of membership, subscription, and access to member benefits all remain the same, as do your professional requirements such as compliance with standards and the Actuaries’ Code. You are not obliged to apply for Non-Practising status even where you are eligible for it. For those members not carrying out any technical actuarial work, you can, of course, elect not to apply for Non-Practising Status and to remain in scope of the Scheme, if that suits your particular circumstances better. In those circumstances, Members will not be noted as Non-Practising in the Actuarial Directory. You should contact the Membership Team if you have any questions about your Membership category or the subscription rates that would apply to you.
During this period you will be treated as being Non-Practising. You do not need to apply for the status, but you should notify the Membership Team by email so that they can mark this in your record and confirm your pro-rata requirement. Members who are on parental leave or are absent from work for health reasons, will be deemed to have Non-Practising status for the period that they are away from work. The Actuarial Directory will not reflect any change in status if the reasons for absence relate to parental or medical leave.
Please notify the Membership Team. Your CPD requirement for the year would be pro-rated from the time of the change of status. If you are unclear about what that means in practice then the Membership Team can help.
Reflective practice discussions are a conversation in which you reflect on what your learning needs and objectives were for the year and the outcomes of your CPD activities. You consider what you learned and whether you fully addressed your needs. The two-way exchange may also help to identify any gaps in your learning and allow for suggestions of further topics to explore. It’s also an opportunity to talk about your development, future plans, ambitions, and goals.
To get the most out of the discussion you should ensure that the individual you have the discussion with understands the nature of your actuarial work, your development and the outcomes of your CPD activities. It could be a peer, a colleague, a line manager or a volunteer of the IFoA. The person does not need to be a member of the IFoA nor an actuary. If you cannot identify such a person, the IFoA has set up a pool of volunteers to assist.
The discussion can take place any time after you have completed your CPD activities for the year. This will allow you to reflect on all your activities and whether you met your learning objectives for the year. If you complete your 2020/21 CPD on 30 August 2021, for example, you should have the discussion after that, even if it takes place after 1 September in the 2021/22 CPD year.
It may be useful for you to keep a record of the discussion which may help you to help reflect on the past year and to help plan your future learning activities, however this is not mandatory.
Some members will also be selected for a Reflective Practice Discussion with the IFoA’s specialist team. You will be asked to submit your record of activities in advance of this to inform the discussion.
If you are experiencing problems with the VLE, please try clearing your browser’s cache or using an alternative browser (Internet Explorer or Edge, Firefox, Safari, etc). If you continue to have difficulties with accessing IFoA video content or recording your CPD, please contact us.
You will be asked to declare your compliance with the CPD Scheme in your membership renewal notice beginning in September 2021. This will be an online declaration in your own member record. Once you have declared compliance with the CPD Scheme you will be able to renew your membership in the usual way. Those who are exempt will be able to confirm that their details are correct and that they are still eligible for that status.
If you have any further queries, please contact us.