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RIBA CPD Through The Eyes of The Specifier

RIBA CPD Through The Eyes of The Specifier

As a building product manufacturer, it’s useful to understand exactly what architects want out of a CPD, in order to create and provide one that meets those requirements. If your CPD is valuable, engaging and memorable, the greater chances you have of your building products being specified.

This article sets out to help you align your construction CPD with the wants and needs of RIBA architects, other construction professionals and specifiers.

What are the CPD Requirements for RIBA Architects?

According to RIBA, any relevant learning activity, whether structured or informal, can count towards an architect’s CPD hours. As directed by RIBA, architects must undertake a minimum of 35 hours of CPD a year (around 45 minutes a week).

Structured CPD is classroom-based (whether face to face, distance, or online). It will be taught by someone who gives you learning aims and outcomes. Informal learning is usually short and self-directed.

But your CPD counts for more to architects than just hours clocked. RIBA obligates architects must acquire at least 100 learning points from the CPDs they complete. These learning points are self-assessed by the architects depending on their reflection of the value they gained.

The points range from one to four – one meaning they learnt very little and four meaning they became experts afterwards. The ‘four-point worthy’ CPDs are normally ones that take a couple of days to complete.

Creating Educational Value with your RIBA CPD

From the above section, you will see that your building product CPD should provide educational value to the architects who take part. The better the CPD, the more ‘learning points’ architects will receive so as they will want to get good value for the time spent to take part you want to aim for as high value as possible.

However, this is subjective. As the points are self-assessed this puts the onus on the architects to choose CPD that they know is relevant to their professional practice and architectural projects.

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Should You Talk About Your Product in Your CPD?

The key benefit of delivering CPDs for construction and building product businesses is the opportunity to showcase your project and its uses to a wider audience of architects.

CPDs are also a great way to share your knowledge and expertise on an industry-specific topic, generating trust and authority for your brand.

When talking about your building product or solution within your CPD make sure to focus on how it benefits your audience e.g. specifiers. Go over the key features and uses as well as how it meets regulations and fire safety guidelines.

This is the sort of technical information they need to know in order to make educated decisions on specifying your products for their projects.

Another key aspect that can make your CPD appeal more to architects is focusing on showing products in-situ. Not only does this highlight the aesthetics of your product, but also provides architectural inspiration for specifiers’ upcoming projects.

At the end of the day, the cardinal sin of any CPD is turning it into a sales pitch. By doing so, you’re discrediting your entire seminar. Construction professionals who attend CPDs aren’t there to be sold to - their main aims are to improve their professional practice. Keep that in mind!

Conclusion

When it comes to CPDs for RIBA architects, it all about educating and creating value for your audience.

People are much more likely to engage with something if they know they’re not being sold to.

How Can Insynth Help You with Your RIBA CPD?

A RIBA CPD is a great way for building product manufacturers to deliver something of value. However, getting your CPD approved can be quite a complex process. This should be closely considered before deciding to gain RIBA approval.

At Insynth, we can help you to create a highly effective, well-structured digitised CPD session in line with the RIBA CPD requirements. If you’d like any more information on how we can transform your CPD, allowing you to gain trusting relationships, promote your expertise and ultimately – increase specification, talk to an expert at Insynth today.

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About Insynth

At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.

We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.

As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.

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