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  • Examples of OPD
  • Example of maintenance of knowledge and skills
  • A record of maintenance of knowledge and skills
  • Example of maintenance of practice and experience
  • A record of maintenance practice and experience
  • Sample Referee Letters
  • Example of a Work history or CV
  • Example of a Record of On-going Professional Development (OPD)

Examples of maintaining your knowledge and skills

Those seeking to maintain CPQS or CPQM status must complete at least 30 hours of knowledge and skills maintenance per year, calculated over a rolling period of three years, and review their OPD annually. You might gain 40 points in one year and 20 in the next with 30 in the following year, and this will be an average over the three year period of 30 hours a year.  Remember that this 30-hour requirement relates to knowledge and skills maintenance; you will also have to maintain your practice or experience.  A minimum of ten (10) of the 30 annual average OPD hours required must be in IQA-based activities.

However, it is not likely that you gain all 30 points a year by attending only IQA dinner meetings and weekend seminar.  A dinner meeting is normally worth one point unless you are presenting at the dinner.  Normally a weekend seminar is worth eight points.  If you attend six dinner meetings and one weekend seminar, you’ll normally earn 14 points – which is nearly half your annual quota – and you have exceeded your requirement of a minimum of 10 points in IQA-based activities.

The annual quota of 30 points normally requires you to attend some formal training each year or a three-day course every three years.  Courses where you are examined or assessed are weighted three times; an eight-hour course that involves an assessment is 3x8=24 points.  By way of example, once every three years a person might attend a formal course where they are examined during or at the end of the course; examples might be attending a computer software course or a risk management course.  The course runs for two days of eight hours a day, so the time spent is 16 hours.  Because the course involves an examination or assessment, it is weighted as being more difficult than sitting in a seminar or conference so the weighting brings the OPD points up to 3 x 16 = 48 (hours).  This is more than a year’s worth of OPD requirements in knowledge and skills maintenance so the following year might involve less.

At the same time, however, that individual might attend two IQA dinner meetings a year and gain a point for each occasion, gaining two OPD points a year.  He/she might also read six editions of Quarry magazine a year, spending an hour each time, but because of the weighting this gains only half of six hours = three OPD points a year.

The individual also attends an in-house technical session of eight hours every year, gaining eight OPD points a year.  Alternatively, the person may be employed at a small-scale operation where there are no in-house technical sessions, but they are able to attend every year a one-day workshop run by the IQA or by the mines inspectorate so they gain eight OPD points.  Occasionally there is a busier year than normal and the individual misses out – relying on excess OPD points gained in other years.

Over a three-year period the individual attends two weekend seminars involving an eight hour session half of which might be in a conference room while the other half might be out visiting a site connected with the extractive industries.

See an example of a record of maintenance of knowledge and skills