New Technology for a New Century
International Conference 
FIG Working Week 2001, Seoul, Korea 6–11 May 2001

Abstracts

Key words: Professional practice, CPD, development, certification, quality protection.

The education of surveying engineers at the universities and universities for applied science in Germany are officially recognized and find themselves at a high level. The standard of qualification is known as uniform and transparent. Essential for this kind of development is the fact that different sectors of the German Surveying have managed to develop a uniform structure of profession. By self-contained professional outgoing effect and grouping of available forces, the array of profession was able to attach great importance to.

Concerning the area of "Continuing Professional Development CPD", the preservation of the standard of quality used to leave to the individual, personal initiative of each surveying engineer. You can already see that this procedure will not suffice in European comparison with it as well as in competition to other kind of structures of profession for the future. Not only the education of engineers but also the further training has to be structured, standardized and determined uniformly. It is the only way for the German surveying engineer

• to fuse the special qualification level;
• to maintain the ability of management; and
• to enlarge the self-contained area of profession in a steady way.

Without a structured, standardized Continuing Professional Development (CPD), we run the risk of losing the functions of management and control. This would implicate a professional meaninglessness.

CPD should not compete to the education of the universities. It has to be prepared in another way. The education of the universities should not loose their worthiness and image. Both parts should be seen as two complemental components of the professional quality fallback system surveying engineer.

The CPD contains about

• components of further training, created by the developed, professional practice and
• components of education, created by the current teachings of the universities

The CPD and its basic-elements:

1. Structured publication of the given, permanent offer of postgraduate professional training (DVW-Advanced Education Platform )
2. Backup of the needed pallet of offers for courses (CPD-offer-initiative)
3. Backup of the quality and level for the courses (CPD-check)
4. Backup of the unified confirmations of participation (CPD-certification)
5. Standardization of the verification of postgraduate professional training (CPD-proof-book) for each surveying engineer.

It is absolutely necessary for these basic-elements to become contractual for getting a minimum on professional closeness. Nevertheless it has to be exposed that the CPD is based upon the principle of voluntariness. What may be seen as a contradiction, but the readiness for further training of each results in the self-developing CPD-standard-measure. Therefore, the CPD has a formal meaning of offer, for the organizer and for the participants. The necessary and developing CPD-management is seen as a binding mediator between "supplier" and "demander". It is not profit-oriented and it is engaged by the area of profession „surveying engineer". The implementation of CPD has to be quick and gradual. Therewith, formalities are not able to hamper the necessary initiative.

The strategy of implementation arises directly of the content predefinition and organizational structures as follows:

• Realization of the Advanced Education Platform and presentation of the model-structure
• Extensive information for the special publicness
• Resummons of the DVW-board of directors

This has been executed and realized.

• Implementation of the five CPD-basic-elements after establishing the CPD-Commission

Endurance of this phase: about five years

The model-structure for this phase of implementation has already been determined.

• Project-continuation and –development by an external CPD-Control-Appointment or by the CPD-Commission, beginning in 2003/2004.

A CPD- Department has been established at the DVW to accompany all phases of the project. The project should not offend the liberty of decision of each and should preserve its offer-character. It has to be implemented as straightforward, flexible and fast as possible. Therefore it is necessary to take further differentiation of the five CPD-basic- elements carefully. Then, it is possible to honour the social development, the European development and the development of the faculty permanently without a hitch.

Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Gebauer, (53) has studied in Hanover 1968-1974. He has worked in the administration development in Hanover 1974-76 and as a surveyor in the civil service in Celle 1976-79, as a surveyor in the municipal corporation of Bremerhaven 1979-83 and as a public surveyor with an own office since 1983. He is the leader of the DVW-working group 1 and member of the enginieer society in Lower Saxony. He lives in Langen, Germany. 

CONTACT

Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Gebauer
Öffentlich bestellter Vermessungsingenieur
Debstedter Str. 12a
D-27607 Langen
GERMANY
Email: [email protected]

23 March 2001

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