The benefits of CPD – Diego Russo Juliano

A good engineer never stops learning. At the Institution of Mechanical Engineers this is one of our core principals and at the heart of our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) service.

Professional development shouldn’t stop with registration as a professional engineer but continue throughout your career, helping you achieve goals and retain the good habits you learned along the way. For those on a graduate scheme, such as the Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS), the structure provided by regular reviews and reporting can be extremely useful in forming a life-long habit. The only difference is you’re accountable to yourself instead of a mentor in terms of tracking and recording your development throughout your career.

It’s something that Chartered Engineer, Diego Russo Juliano, learned in his developmental journey. “The transition from recording MPDS to CPD was relatively easy,” says Diego, a Senior Subsea Systems Engineer with Shell in Brazil. “I reused the structure that I had before and it got me into good habits of recording what I’d been doing and helped develop me through my targets at Shell.”

In his role leading research and development projects to find new technologies for Shell, Diego keeps constantly up to date with current standards – an important part of his CPD. But he has found that doing his CPD in line with UK-SPEC has given him tools he can apply to much more than just the technical aspects of his development. “The benefit of UK-SPEC is it comes with a structured way of going beyond what you’ve been doing just technically,” he says. “It covers ethics and compliance and all the health, safety and environmental aspects as well.”

Another benefit was in his transition from mentee to mentor. “The experience I’ve received is really helping me mentor younger engineers,” says Diego, “like how often to engage or what best topics to approach or sometimes just how to get out of the day-to-day work and reach out for those longer-term goals.”

Diego has found mentoring younger engineers a valuable source for his own continuing development, giving him a fresh perspective on new ways to tackle problems. It is also an important networking tool and a way of learning about different cultures. “It helps me develop more of the diversity and Inclusion skills much needed to the sustainable growth of ourselves and our company,” says Diego.

Diego believes CPD shouldn’t be viewed as a chore but a powerful tool to achieve the personal targets you set yourself. “CPD has a long-term view as well,” he says. “Where I want to be in five or ten years’ time and what types of learning and training I need to reach who I want to be – these are the real benefits of CPD.”