At its September 2011 meeting in Zagreb, the Council of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) adopted its first guidelines on continuing professional development (CPD).

In keeping with the IAA’s ongoing mission to promote professionalism, develop education standards and encourage research, one of its strategic objectives is to establish, maintain and promote common standards of actuarial education and common principles of professional conduct. Recognizing that continuing professional development is important to the advancement of the profession, the IAA Education Committee has developed a recommended set of voluntary CPD guidelines.

The recommendations examine the topic of CPD from a number of different perspectives, each of which has a role to play. The guidelines:

examine the importance of CPD as part of lifelong learning and how it might be gained and maintained. In this rapidly-changing world, it is the responsibility of individual actuaries to ensure that they remain competent in their areas of work through continued learning and study;
provide support for actuarial associations when considering the role of continuing development in the context of the association’s professional requirements, and in helping plan a CPD strategy and program for their members. Associations are encouraged to adopt a suitable strategy and to introduce provisions for development requirements; and
review the role the IAA plays in order to support actuarial CPD, including encouragement and assistance to member associations introducing such requirements.

To learn more about the work of the IAA on this topic, contact the Chairperson of the Education Committee, care of the IAA Secretariat.