Maintaining your professional registration

In order to retain the RSci, RSciTech and CSciTeach status, all registrants who wish to renew their registration, must make an annual declaration to ASE as the Licenced Body that they comply with the Science Council CPD standard. This statement will normally be captured at the time of renewal and in any case, by 31^st December each year.

4 Standards for CPD revalidation

Standard S1 A registrant must maintain a continuous, up-to-date and an accurate and reflective record of their CPD activities and be able to supply supporting evidence if requested. This standard is met if you have provided a record of CPD activities in which you describe and reflect upon those undertaken. You will be keeping this record continuously but your Professional Body may ask to audit a 12 month period. You should be able to submit evidence which supports your participation in your CPD activities in circumstances where it is requested. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to certificates, articles, training materials or feedback.

Standard S2 A registrant must demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice. The standard is met if the registrant’s CPD includes activities in at least three (exceptionally two) of the following categories and that there is evidence that the registrant’s CPD activities are relevant to their current or future practice.

S2.1.    Work based learning (e.g. supervising staff / students, reflective practice)
S2.2.    Professional activity (e.g. involvement in a professional body, mentoring)
S2.3.    Formal / Educational (e.g. writing articles / papers, further education)
S2.4.    Self-directed learning (e.g. reading journals, reviewing books / articles)
S2.5.    Other (e.g. voluntary work, public service)

Standard S3 A registrant must seek to ensure that their CPD has benefited to the quality of their practice and reflect upon this. The standard is met if  throughout your CPD record you reflect upon the ways in which your CPD activites have or will improve the quality of your work. Be sure to say why you think that your work has been or will be improved by your chosen CPD activities. There might be some cases where you had expected your CPD activities to improve your work but this did not happen as planned, you may discuss these circumstances also. How will you change your approach to planning CPD activities to reduce the chance of this happening in the future.

Standard S4 A registrant must seek to ensure that their CPD has benefited the users of their work (employee, customer, student etc) and will reflect upon this. The standard is met if  throughout your CPD record you reflect upon ways in which your CPD activities have or will benefit the users of your work. Be sure to say why  you think that these activities have already or will provide this benefit. You can provide evidence of a direct benefit, for example feedback from a student. You may also describe indirect benefits, for example your enrolment on a training course may indirectly benefit clients through changes in your approach to interactions with them.

Professional Review Tips

There is no set way of presenting the evidence of your professional expertise and competence, but a CV or list of achievements will not suffice. Applicants could, for example, address each of the criteria as a series of bullet points with examples of impact, or combine them into a reflective narrative using a case study to show evidence of impact. 2 sides of A4 is the average length for a professional review.

Impact on teaching & learning The Registration Board is looking for evidence that those applying have engaged with reflection/scholarship/research that translates into an impact on teaching and learning in science. Eg “Because we introduced X, most teachers now do Y and in subjects/topics A and B, standards have risen” Evidence of impact can be qualitative or quantitative. Ask yourself the question “So what?” 

This is one of the most important sections on the application form and should draw on evidence from section A. This is a section the Registration Board will pay particular attention to in looking for evidence of impact.

Applicants are encouraged to make explicit references to examples of articles or papers written, leadership and development of others, a CPD diary, examples of analysis of particular aspects of practice, etc.

You may find this supporting information useful from the Science Council with answers to some commonly asked questions (and a template for recording your CPD) Link to https://sciencecouncil.org/registrants/meeting-your-annual-cpd-standards/

Note for CSciTeach:

The assessors need to be shown clearly that those applying for CSciTeach have engaged with overarching reflection, scholarship and research that translates into impact on teaching and learning. CSciTeach is a Masters level equivalent award. If you would like someone with CSciTeach to help you complete your Professional Review before submittimg it to ASE, please contact csciteach@ase.org.uk

Renewing your award

There is an annual fee to renew your professional registration.

1. Request CPD submission form - email registers@ase.org.uk
2. Renew your Professional Award online. Alternatively you can pay by direct debit with your membership or over the phone on 01707 283000.

Please note that those who do not renew their award annually will be removed from the register after due notice has been given.