The Professional Development Directions, Tasmania have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Surveyors Act 2002.
The purpose of these Directions is to ensure the maintenance of every Registered Land Surveyor's competence over the course of their registration at a level at least equivalent to that required for accreditation. They set the minimum level of land survey-related activity and professional development for ongoing registration as a land surveyor, as prescribed in section 7 of the principal Act; and the requirement for every registered land surveyor applying for renewal of registration to provide with the application a summary declaration of that land survey-related activity and professional development.
Schedule 1 of the Professional Development Directions, Tasmania indentifies types of activities under four main categories or classification headings that are deemed acceptable for satisfying the activity point requirements.
These Directions are to be observed by all Land Surveyors registered in Tasmania and failing to do so is a penalty offence in accordance with Sections (10) and (11) of the Surveyors Act 2002.
Professional Development Directions Effective 01/01/2016 (PDF 63Kb)
Professional Development Activity Guidelines
Minimum Professional Development Activity Requirements
There is a minimum requirement of professional development points in both the total (15 points) and Land Survey-related Education category (6 points) for each professional development (or CPD) year, running from 1 December to 30 November. To allow for potential annual fluctuations, less than the minimum 6 Land Survey-Related Education category points or 15 points in total or are able to be accumulated in any year provided a minimum 12 Land Survey-Related Education points and 30 points in total are accumulated in any consecutive two year period. Maximum point limits also apply to every category and activity which are outlined in Schedule 1.
Land Survey-Related Education Category
This category includes two activities that refer to either attendence at or post event study of "..land survey-related education course/seminar/workshop/lectures specific to Tasmania". This means activity that specifically relates to the re-establishment of property boundaries in Tasmania (for example, the operation of the Survey Directions, Tasmania) or more broadly to the Tasmanian cadastral system (for example, the operation of the Land Titles Act 1980 or the provision of the Tasmanian Digital Cadastral Data Base). Activities that are concerned with surveys "on land" that do not have a specific connection with cadastral surveying - for instance GIS, BIM and engineering or construction surveys - should not be claimed under this category but under Service and General Education.
The Office of Surveyor General provides events every CPD year that are suitable to claim as land survey-related education and also provides notifications on other suitable events held by professional bodies such as SSSI or IST as well as the appropriate points to claim, where it is aware of them.
Some interstate events may satisfy the requirement to be land survey-related education that is specific to Tasmania (for instance, discussions on aspects of boundary re-establishment, training on the rigourous propogation of Positional Uncertainty or decisions of the courts on property matters in Australia) as well as some Tasmanian Land Surveyor Accreditation Board activities (for instance candidate workshops). If a surveyor has any doubts about the suitability of an event for claiming under this category it is recommended that OSG advice be sought.
Where appropriate, attendences at events may be split between the Land Survey-related Education and General Education categories. For instance, only a portion of an SSSI state conference is likely to be suitable to claimed as Land Survey-related Education.
Professional Development (or CPD) Register
A register allowing surveyors to document their professional development and land survey practice for a CPD year in the prescribed form is available through the personal LIST login of every registered land surveyor as highlighted below:
The following advice applies to surveyors entering activities:
It is imperative that surveyors complete their entries for a CPD year prior to applying for renewal of registration for the following year as the prior CPD year will no longer be editable after re-registration.
The "Add Activity" entry option (see below) is structured to replicate the Classifications (Category) and activities (Sub-category) in Schedule 1 of the Professional Development Directions, Tasmania including the options in the drop down boxes.
Surveyors should document all points accumulated in each sub-category; the system will automatically truncate point allocation to the maximum allowable for each sub-category. For instance, claiming 20 points for 20 hours service on a professional body such as SSSI or IST will be capped at 5 by the system per the maximum allowed to be claimed as a contribution towards the 15 point minimum in any CPD year per Schedule 1. Surveyors should give some thought to this before finalising their entries, as some activities may be able to be claimed in multiple categories. For example, if a surveyor has excess points able to be claimed in the "Land Survey-related Education" category some of this activity may be claimed as "General Education", meaning it will still contribute to the overall points total for a given CPD year.
In the 'Nature of Activity' drop down box select one description that best fits the majority of your involvement. Free text entry is permittted in the "Name" option, allowing for extra description if required.
Where activities such as mentoring or service on an industry professional body involve all or a large part of the year use 30 November of the CPD year as the date.
The number of survey plans that were examined and approved for registration in the LTO for the previous CPD year will automatically be credited to a surveyors CPD record on 1 December of every year. However, surveyors are responsible for manually claiming the appropriate number of points for Strata and SIO plans.
Where a surveyor achieves the 3 points for 'more than 10 plans registered with no more than a 10% requisition rate' this will be automatically credited to their CPD record on 1 December.
Screenshot of the Add Activity entry option for the CPD register
Audit of Records of Professional Development
The Surveyor General is able to undertake an audit of any or all of the professional development declerations provided with applications to renew registration and in doing so may require a surveyor to provide details of activites undertaken in accordance with Schedule 1.
Application to Vary Requirements of the Professional Development Directions
Where a surveyor demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General that a particular requirement of these Directions is not justified the Surveyor General has discretion to modify or waive such requirements. An application for such an exemption to the standard requirements should be made before the conclusion of the CPD year in which the variation is being sought.