[Skip to content]

  • A / A / A : Change text size



Log in
The Marketer logo
The Chartered Institute of Marketing logo
Search our Site
Search help
The Marketer Magazine current issue cover
Subscribe to The MarketerSubscribe
to magazine
Subscribe to the FREE e-newsletter Subscribe
to e-newsletter
View a sample digital edition View a sample
digital edition

The Marketer is the official magazine of The Chartered Institute of Marketing.

The Institute offers marketing training and qualifications, including a continuing professional development (CPD) programme leading to Chartered Marketer status. Read more about training and qualifications.

On the Institute's website members can access an archive of articles from the press, case studies, directories, market reports and other resources at the Marketing Resources, find out more about what's on for marketers and purchase course books and more at the marketing shop.

Contact the Institute in the UK, its overseas branches or market interest groups for more information for members, or contact the membership department to find out how to join.

.

David Thorp on continuing professional development and the Chartered Institute of Marketing

October 2009

 

The Institute’s Chartered CPD Programme for continuing professional development can lead to chartered marketer status. So should CPD be compulsory for members?

 

It is worth considering whether or not The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) should come into line with some other professional bodies that make CPD a core part of membership commitment.

 

Perhaps every member of CIM should automatically be registered for CPD each year in order to demonstrate their personal commitment to developing professionally – a commitment members could opt out of rather than in to.

 

Continuing professional development is the cornerstone of chartered marketer status. At present it is an entirely voluntary commitment for members of the Institute, and while not all members may wish to become chartered marketers, anyone who considers themselves a professional in what is a fast-changing discipline should wish to demonstrate that they are adapting their skills to keep up. This is why CPD recognition is one of the most valuable services any professional body can offer its membership – and their employers.

 

If employers were able to rely on the fact that membership of CIM comes with an automatic obligation to undertake a minimum period of professional development each year, CIM members would be in even higher demand in the employment market. The words “Chartered Institute of Marketing” on a CV would, over time, become shorthand for someone who has gone beyond academic qualifications.