In Office Training Groups is a type of CPD Activity.

They are a regular forum for on-going professional learning and development with an office or architectural practice. The material discuss in the group can be very broad and wide-ranging, but must be of value to the on-going professional development of Registered Architects.

In Office Training Groups are private groups in the sense that only members can attend the meetings. Any person may be a member of the group, but for the purposes of CPD only New Zealand Registered Architects can be given points through the CPD website. Also, for the purpose of gaining points, an architect may only belong to one In Office Training group at a time.

Each group is self managing and has a coordinator. The role of the Coordinator is to manage the group’s meeting dates, time and venue, complete the minutes, allocate the Unit of Competency to the meeting and confirm the member’s attendance. All of this can be done on line and in real time. The coordinator is able to edit all information about the group and set up the members of the group.

Minutes are taken for the purposes of CPD audit, but these minutes are not intended to be resource material for members. This sort of information needs to be stored elsewhere. The minutes can be written either as a full continuous page, or as separate notes. The meeting minutes are confidential to the members, but because all minutes are open to audit no sensitive commercial or personal information should included in them.

In Office Training Groups are intended to enable all Registered Architects to achieve the 100 points minimum in each of the four units of competency (Design, Documentation, Project Management, Practice Management and Core Professional Development) after five years. This group also allows practices to run professional development courses during work hours.

In Office Training Groups are allocated 120 points per year. These are given in units of 5 points per hour, 10 points for two hours or 15 points for three hours. Points can only be gained in one of the four Units of Competency (Design, Documentation, Project Management and Practice Management) per meeting. Once an individual member has reached their yearly allocation any subsequent meeting points will show as 0. All members of the group receive the same allocation of points, irrespective of whether they are presenting or participating, to encourage dialogue and sharing of professional knowledge. Outside presenters, who are Registered Architects, may apply for CPD points for themselves by using the Individual Activity: Presenter Form found on the website.

Note that you can be a member of a Practice Support Group as well as a IOT Group, though there is a restriction that in total you can only claim at the most 120 CPD points per annum from these activities.

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