Industrial Training & Continuing Professional Development for Analytical Chemists – A Personal Viewpoint and Review

So what is the similarity between the following professions – Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Civil Engineering, Teaching, Chiropody, Psychology? Well the answer is that they all include an element of mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) post qualification in order to keep their registration / accreditation current. This then begs the question – why don’t we as analytical chemists, responsible perhaps for public safety, the lives of others, civil defence, the future of the planet (!) etc. also require some kind of mandatory professional development within our careers? This article is intended to outline the current issues regarding industrial training and continuing professional development for analytical chemists and highlight the opportunities, for those who are willing, to seek high quality training and development. For over 10 years I have trained and consulted with hundreds of analytical scientists and in that time I have come to understand a lot of the strengths and weaknesses in the way which deliver post graduate education and industrial training – outlined below are what I consider to be some of the biggest issues and some of the most effective and innovative ways in which these issues have been addressed.