About this course
CPD can sometimes feel like another job to manage. There are points to collect, records to keep, reflections to write, and requirements to remember, often alongside an already busy workload. It can also be easy to think of CPD as something separate from everyday professional practice, rather than recognising the learning and development that is already happening through the work you do.
This session looks at how to make CPD more manageable and more useful. We’ll explore current NRCPD and RBSLI requirements, what can count towards CPD, and how points can be collected through a range of activities rather than relying only on formal training courses.
We’ll also look at ways of planning and recording CPD as you go, so that you are not trying to remember everything at the end of the year. The aim is to find approaches that fit around your own work, interests, and professional priorities rather than making CPD feel like an additional administrative task.
Through practical examples, discussion, and activities, participants will explore:
Current NRCPD and RBSLI CPD requirements and what they mean in practice
Different ways of collecting CPD points, including activities that may already form part of your professional life
How to identify learning within everyday work, reading, discussion, supervision, mentoring, training, and other activities
Ways to create a CPD plan that reflects your own priorities and the areas you want to work on
Straightforward approaches to keeping records and evidence up to date throughout the year
How reflective practice can help you recognise what you have learned and what you might want to focus on next
How learning cycles can help connect individual activities into a wider pattern of professional development
Ways to identify strengths and areas you would like to develop without turning the process into a long list of weaknesses
Activities will give attendees opportunities to look at their own CPD, ask questions about what may count, and consider practical ways of organising and recording their development that fit with how they actually work.
Who is this session for?
This course is designed for qualified and trainee sign language interpreters and translators who want a clearer and more manageable approach to CPD.
It may be particularly useful for anyone who finds CPD recording time-consuming, struggles to keep track of activities and points, tends to leave everything until revalidation is approaching, or would like to make better use of learning that is already happening through their work.
Learning outcomes
- Gain a clearer understanding of CPD requirements and how points can be collected
- Recognise more of the learning and development already taking place within your professional life
- Find practical ways to keep CPD records organised without creating unnecessary extra work
- Develop a CPD plan that reflects your own work, interests, and priorities
- Use reflection in a way that is useful rather than simply completing it because it is required
- Make links between different CPD activities and identify what you want to work on next
- Leave with a more realistic approach to managing CPD throughout the year
Live, interactive and supported
This is an active learning session with explanation, structured discussion and practical work. A useful course handbook or supporting materials are provided, together with a CPD certificate for each attendee.
Participation and cameras
Participation is encouraged. Cameras help people connect with those they are learning and working with, while recognising that there may be circumstances where having a camera on is not practical or appropriate.
Not recorded
This course is delivered live and is not recorded. Please book only if you can attend at the advertised time.
About the trainer
Stephen Ellis-Menton
Stephen Ellis-Menton is a registered BSL/English interpreter, trainer, assessor, and mentor with more than 20 years’ experience in the interpreting profession. He is an NRCPD Senior Practitioner and Practice Assessor, as well as a qualified teacher and qualified assessor. For 12 years, Stephen was the lead tutor and assessor on the Diploma in BSL-English Interpreting, supporting trainee interpreters through their professional training and assessment. He has also worked across a wide range of interpreting settings, including community, workplace, healthcare, education, conferences, and VRS/VRI. Through BSL Interpretations, Stephen provides CPD, mentoring, supervision, and professional development for interpreters and translators across the UK. His training is grounded in professional practice and focuses on helping practitioners think carefully about the decisions they make, how theory relates to real interpreting situations, and how reflective practice can support ongoing development. Alongside BSL Interpretations, he is a co-founder and organiser of The Together Conference, an annual professional and academic conference for sign language interpreters and translators.