In October 2016 the CPD team at Engineers Ireland carried out a Training Needs Survey of members. In an organisation that represents more than 23,000 individuals of all engineering disciplines working in industries ranging from construction, transport and utilities to manufacturing, pharmaceutical, medical devices and many more, the challenge will always be to identify, develop and deliver CPD training to meet the diverse needs of those many individuals. The Training Needs Survey is a means to hear directly from our members and discover their CPD training needs. This year we decided to adopt a new approach. Working with the committees representing the different Engineers Ireland divisions and societies, we created bespoke surveys for each division and society. Members were then asked to complete a survey according to their division and/or society. What’s more, we were able to include some suggestions that we had received from different sources including the divisions and societies’ committees. The goal was to gather more detailed, qualitative and actionable information. The division with the highest number of responses was the Civil division, followed by Structures and Construction, Energy and Environment, Mechanical and Manufacturing and, in fifth place, Chemical and Process Engineering. With respect to the societies, the Water and Environmental Engineering society had the highest number of responses followed by Roads and Transportation and, in third place, the Project Management society. For the Civil division, the most popular demand for CPD was in the area of Building Control Regulations, followed by BIM and then topics such as design for safety in construction, project supervisor construction stage and project supervisor design process. For the Structures and Construction division, the Eurocodes and structural masonry design were joint top of the list followed by protection of reinforced concrete structures, masonry arch repair techniques and concrete flooring (check out the joint Engineers Ireland/Irish Concrete Society seminar on concrete flooring on February 7, 2017). For the Energy and Environment division, Solar PV was the most in-demand topic along with building fabric energy upgrade. energy auditing, LTHW system design and CHP sizing and design were also high on the list. For the Mechanical and Manufacturing division, CE marking and mechanical building services ranked high. For the Chemical and Process Engineering division, clean facility design, CE strategies for projects, laboratory/process/layout optimisation and formulation and packaging were all top of the list. For the other divisions, the most popular request for CPD was building control for the Fire and Safety division, HVAC for the Biomedical division, software development with IOT and robotics for the Computing division, lighting design for the Electrical and Electronic division, procurement for the Local Government division and product and process value engineering for the Agriculture and Food division. For the Societies, Water and Environmental Engineering respondents looked for CPD in wastewater design, environmental law (check out our Introduction to Environmental Law course) and hydraulic analysis and modelling. For the Roads and Transportation society, road and junction design, temporary works design, pavement design and drainage design including SUDs were the most popular. Using the information gathered from the Training Needs Survey as well as other sources, such as the CPD Standing Committee and networking with members and client organisations, the CPD team is working on developing suitable interventions to meet those CPD needs. If you have any further suggestions feel free to contact the team by email, cpdtraining@engineersireland.ie or phone, 01-665-1305.