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Membership

About IPD

Important information

From Thursday 1 April 2010, the Initial Professional Development (IPD) registration fee will increase from £100 to £120.

All registrations received after this date will be charged at the higher rate.

IPD

There's only one fair way of assessing whether someone meets the criteria for Chartered membership. We use your qualifications and a clearly structured assessment procedure to measure your knowledge, commitment and experience. The procedure we use is called Initial Professional Development (IPD).

Working through IPD can take around two years, but there is no time limit. If you can sucessfully complete the asessment and the interview, you will transfer to Chartered membership at the next available opportunity. Alongside IPD, all members must join our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme, using our specially designed online programme. Throughout your professional working life, CPD will help keep your knowledge and expertise fresh and up to date.

There are three routes through IPD. The route you take depends on how you became a Graduate Member.

Route 1 is for Graduate Members who have an accredited degree or diploma. In this route you achieve Chartered status by:

completing a skills development portfolio (SDP)
maintaining your CPD
successfully completing the peer review interview.

Have a look at a diagram explaining Route 1.

Route 2 is for Graduate Members with a level 4 NVQ or SVQ in Occupational Health and Safety Practice. Here you achieve Chartered membership by:

maintaining your CPD
successfully completing the open assessment and peer review interview.

Have a look at a diagram explaining Route 2.

Route 3 is for Graduate Members with cognate degrees. In this route you have to:

complete a skills development portfolio (SDP)
maintain your CPD
successfully complete the open assessment and peer review interview.

Have a look at a diagram explaining Route 3.

Getting help with IPD

When you enrol on IPD you will be assisgned an IPD officer to help you through the process of becoming a Chartered Member. Your officer will be able to advise you about the tools available to help you complete IPD.

The IPD tools include free interactive workshops, one-to-one sessions where necessary and access to trained mentors.

Your IPD officer will advise you when access to a mentor is the right option.

If you are currently completing IPD and feel you would like the support of an IPD mentor, contact your local IPD officer. It may be a few weeks before the next mentor is available, but we'll be in touch as soon as we can with details.

Find out more about our mentoring scheme.

Is there any other way I can become a Chartered Member?

No – we aim to give a clear and unequivocal signal to employers and others that there's a minimum level of expertise and experience that they can expect from a Chartered Member of IOSH. So there's no quick way to gain Chartered status. We believe that it should be earned in word and deed – only by working to strict standards at all levels can we hope to maintain the value of IOSH membership for our members and the people who trust them.

It's this rigorous process that makes Chartered status so valuable to employers and members alike. We therefore don't allow shortcuts or 'fast tracks', as these would devalue it and remove the very reasons most people have for becoming Chartered – recognition and employability.

IPD – getting started

When you become a Graduate Member, alongside your certificate we'll send you an IPD registration form. You need to fill this in and return it to us to start your IPD. If you don't want to start your IPD straightaway, please tick this option on the form and return it to us. We won't contact you about IPD until you let us know you want to start.