MANILA, Philippines – An engineer recently shared a photo taken during an allegedly overpriced Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminar where participants were sitting on the floor; understandably, it angered a lot of netizens who are already dismayed over this requirement for Professional Regulation Commision (PRC) license renewal.
The CPD Act of 2016, authored by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, has been met with much criticism though it had excellent objectives.
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One of the primary concerns raised by licensed professionals is that the seminars are not just too expensive for them but also offer too little points. Participants often need to pay as much as Php3,000 to Php 9,000 for the seminar, not to mention the amount they need to raise for transportation, accommodations, and food.
What’s worse, while there are companies that do shoulder the expenses for such seminars for their employees, there are a lot of professionals who have to pay for the seminars out of their own pockets.
On top of that, many professional believe that the seminars are overpriced.
Recently, blogger Thinking Pinoy shared a photo from a reader who wanted to remain anonymous. The said reader is a civil engineer who works as Chief Operations Officer for a company in the Philippines.
According to the engineer, they paid Php3,500 for the seminar but were shocked by what transpired in the said seminar for civil engineers. He claimed that there were so many people attending the event that many spent 1-2 hours queuing before they finally got inside. This led many to miss several portions of the seminar.
Once inside, the engineer was dismayed when the topics were either not related to their profession or stuff they already knew. He claimed that you could learn more from TED talks on YouTube than from the seminar he attended.
This engineer also slammed the organizers because there were many participants who were sitting on the floor because chairs were no longer available. Moreover, despite the Php3,500-seminar fee, snacks and meals were not served.
Those who didn’t have chairs had to sit on the floor because they can’t go out as attendance is checked every session by scanning your ID. But the engineer alleged that he saw several ‘handlers’ who were holding many IDs to be scanned; and the scanners allowed them to scan multiple IDs, perhaps for compliance.
The said engineer did not mention what seminar they were attending or the name of the organizers but several netizens confirmed what the engineer claimed, saying they were also at the same seminar and felt the same way.
One participant also shared in the comments section that aside from not providing snacks for the attendees, there was no food for sale inside the venue. Since the participants can’t go out at any time because their ID won’t be scanned if they were late for a session, many had to deal with hunger pangs until the seminar finally ended.
PRC: Guidelines are being prepared to standardize seminar fees
Due to clamor of the majority of registered professionals, PRC and the Professional Regulatory Boards said they have put in place initiatives to address issues of affordability and accessibility.
In addition, PRC said that from the enactment of RA 10912 (CPD Law), employers and government agencies are encouraged to be CPD providers so that existing capacity building activities could be part of CPD compliance by the personnel/employee.
— Joy Adalia, The Summit Express
The CPD Act of 2016, authored by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, has been met with much criticism though it had excellent objectives.
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One of the primary concerns raised by licensed professionals is that the seminars are not just too expensive for them but also offer too little points. Participants often need to pay as much as Php3,000 to Php 9,000 for the seminar, not to mention the amount they need to raise for transportation, accommodations, and food.
 |
| Photo credit: Facebook / Thinking Pinoy |
What’s worse, while there are companies that do shoulder the expenses for such seminars for their employees, there are a lot of professionals who have to pay for the seminars out of their own pockets.
 |
| Photo credit: Facebook / Thinking Pinoy |
On top of that, many professional believe that the seminars are overpriced.
Recently, blogger Thinking Pinoy shared a photo from a reader who wanted to remain anonymous. The said reader is a civil engineer who works as Chief Operations Officer for a company in the Philippines.
 |
| Photo credit: Facebook / Thinking Pinoy |
According to the engineer, they paid Php3,500 for the seminar but were shocked by what transpired in the said seminar for civil engineers. He claimed that there were so many people attending the event that many spent 1-2 hours queuing before they finally got inside. This led many to miss several portions of the seminar.
Once inside, the engineer was dismayed when the topics were either not related to their profession or stuff they already knew. He claimed that you could learn more from TED talks on YouTube than from the seminar he attended.
This engineer also slammed the organizers because there were many participants who were sitting on the floor because chairs were no longer available. Moreover, despite the Php3,500-seminar fee, snacks and meals were not served.
 |
| Photo credit: Facebook / Thinking Pinoy |
Those who didn’t have chairs had to sit on the floor because they can’t go out as attendance is checked every session by scanning your ID. But the engineer alleged that he saw several ‘handlers’ who were holding many IDs to be scanned; and the scanners allowed them to scan multiple IDs, perhaps for compliance.
The said engineer did not mention what seminar they were attending or the name of the organizers but several netizens confirmed what the engineer claimed, saying they were also at the same seminar and felt the same way.
 |
| Photo credit: Facebook / Thinking Pinoy |
One participant also shared in the comments section that aside from not providing snacks for the attendees, there was no food for sale inside the venue. Since the participants can’t go out at any time because their ID won’t be scanned if they were late for a session, many had to deal with hunger pangs until the seminar finally ended.
PRC: Guidelines are being prepared to standardize seminar fees
Due to clamor of the majority of registered professionals, PRC and the Professional Regulatory Boards said they have put in place initiatives to address issues of affordability and accessibility.
"Guidelines are being prepared to standardize seminar fees, crediting of professional activities and online courses," PRC said.
In addition, PRC said that from the enactment of RA 10912 (CPD Law), employers and government agencies are encouraged to be CPD providers so that existing capacity building activities could be part of CPD compliance by the personnel/employee.
— Joy Adalia, The Summit Express
