Let’s Celebrate Volunteers: Professional Development Team

The Professional Development team delivers the Institute’s professional development activities which includes our training, conferences and webinar programme, links with universities and higher education institutes, career advice, and the annual CPD audit.

The team works closely with the Training, Education and Careers Development Committee (TECDC) who have oversight of the activities and contribute to the development of these programmes. Committee members recommend themes for the annual conferences and to approve topics put forward by Geographic Sections; identify hot topics for webinar and training courses; and act as auditors by undertaking the annual audit of members’ CPD records.

Members of the Student and Early Careers Focus Group have been providing feedback to the team on the early careers pages of the CIEEM website to help improve theses as well as contributing ideas for webinars. Several members been interviewing senior members about their role and career to date, to produce articles for In Practice.

We currently have over 100 members volunteering as mentors through CIEEM’s Mentoring Platform, supporting over 300 mentees. Each mentor is helping to provide invaluable support to other members.

In addition to this, over the past year volunteers have also been supporting the team by realigning the Degree Accreditation Programme with the CIEEM Competency Framework and a panel of volunteers presented a webinar on how to become a STEM Ambassador.

The CIEEM Professional Development Team Staff at the Secretariat says: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers across the various committees, working groups, focus groups, STEM ambassadors and our mentor for your continued contribution and enthusiasm to the Professional Development team over the years. With your expertise and support, the team have been able to continue providing a range of opportunities for those working in the ecology and environmental managements sectors.”

We are currently recruiting for more volunteers to join our Professional Development Team!

If you would like to become involved in shaping the future of the Professional Development programme, then we do currently have a few vacancies available on the Training, Education and Careers Development Committee (TECDC). In particular, we would welcome applications from members who are at Qualifying grade, are working for an NGO or charity. If you would like to find out more about this role, please have a look on the Volunteer Opportunities Page in the MyCIEEM area on our website.

If you would like to know more about how to volunteer as a mentor, then do have a look at our recent blog ‘Could you be our next Mentor’.