ASSOCIATIONS 9
We asked IOPSA to sum up the CPD activities for our industry over the last year and lay to rest the misconception that CPD is only there for a body to make money or excessive amounts of money . The latter is simply not true as the following shows .
The Institute of Plumbing , IOPSA ( www . iopsa . org ) has provided an e-learning platform to the industry . Having completed its first full year of operation ( Feb 2021-Jan 2022 ) we decided to take a close look at the facts , and one may be interested to see what we found .
1 . Eighty-nine percent of the 3955 enrolments on IOPSA ’ s e-learning platform were free CPD accredited courses . The top 10 CPD accredited courses offered are for free . 2 . There were 3955 enrolments for the year . 3 . Forty-three ( 43 ) courses are available on the e-learning platform , of these 40 % are completely free . 4 . Eighty nine percent ( 89 %) of enrolments were for Free CPD accredited courses . 5 . The top ten ( 10 ) most popular courses are all for free . 6 . Eighty one percent ( 81 %) of users are repeat customers . 7 . Five ( 5 ) Training providers have listed courses for sale . 8 . The average cost of a paid-for CPD course is R1 226.71 9 . Total sales for the year between all five training providers amounted to R460 000 , an average of R92 000 per training provider per year or R7 600 per month .
10 . IOPSA earned around R45 000 for the year , about R3 750 per month from the e-learning platform which does not come close to covering the running costs .
11 . The Top 3 free topics were : General plumbing technical , Health & safety and business acumen .
12 . The top three paid-for topics were : Point of use geysers , earthing & bonding , debtor management . 13 . Audiences in nine ( 9 ) different countries use the e-learning platform . 14 . The PIRB ’ s CPD requirement is twenty points per year , the free courses on offer on IOPSA ’ s e-learning platform amount to thirty-four points per year ( yes , you read that correctly ! And that excludes other free CPD activities like meetings and community work ).
15 . A total of seven ( 7 ) points are available via Plumbing Africa Journal . Five for registering and two for submitting the CPD Questionnaire and proof of journal registration annually .
16 . During the year IOPSA has placed 140 free CPD training courses on YouTube ( https :// www . youtube . com / channel / UC6Ujv9HU9DJz5XvVS6vL3gg / videos ) where we have 1841 subscribers and growing . 17 . YouTube advertising revenue amounted to a whopping R892 for the year .
Admittedly , some plumbers may spend thousands of Rands on CPD courses , but this is their choice , there are plenty of opportunities available to achieve all the CPD points needed at absolutely no cost . Plumbers who leave their CPD to the last minute , often end up scrambling to participate in any course available to make up their points , with some planning , which is completely unnecessary . It is interesting to note that of all the industries we have looked at , the plumbing industry is the only one which has such options available . Most industries require a minimum spend of around R20 000 per year to achieve their points . The plumber does need to invest some time and for small businesses that can be a challenge but , in the end , they are gaining valuable knowledge which will benefit them massively .
One cannot place a value on learning and there is NO other industry which makes its CPD more affordable or accessible to its stakeholders .
CPD is by no means a source of income for any of those involved . What it is , is an opportunity for plumbers to uplift and improve themselves . Knowledge is the one thing that can never be taken away from you , absorb it all . PA
“ One cannot place a value on learning …..”
April 2022 Volume 28 I Number 2 www . plumbingafrica . co . za