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Learning for Life
For many professions, continuing education is simply par for the course in a fast-changing workplace
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Business New Haven
4/29/2002
By: Nancy Barnes
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A former dean of the Yale University School of Architecture, Cesar Pelli and the 80-odd architects in his New Haven firm design buildings for locations as nearby as the southeast corner of Whitney Avenue and Grove Street - and as far-flung as Malaysia and the Hague.
In 1995, the Brazilian-born architect received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 1989, the AIA, a national clearinghouse on resources for architects, awarded Cesar Pelli & Associates its Firm Award in recognition of its standard-setting work in architectural design.
To imbue the architectural profession with such high standards, the AIA requires that its members - whose numbers range between 50 to 80 percent of all architects practicing in the state - take 18 credits of continuing education each year.
“It's part of what the 'AIA' means when it's after your name - that there's ethics behind what your doing, and that you're up-to-date,” explains Kay Lighthill, spokesperson for the New Haven chapter of AIA.
Many of the professionals who occupy New Haven's One Century Tower, the office structure that Pelli's firm designed - continue their education throughout their careers. In some professions, continuing education is mandatory. In others, it is not.
In spite of the negative publicity surrounding the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, LLP, accounting is one of the professions that require continuing education for all certified public accountants. According to Lisa Bugyrn, who coordinates continuing education seminars for the Connecticut Society of CPAs, a certified public accountant needs 150 hours of study for his initial certification and must complete 40 hours each year (24 hours of self-study and 16 contact or classroom hours) to maintain that certification. There are no national mandates that detail the content of continuing education, Bugyrn points out. Each state develops its own.
Among the 200 courses that CSCPA presents each year is a federal tax forum in December, which last year attracted roughly 300 accountants, as well as a second tax law seminar in January that attracted more than 700. “That's the largest number we've ever had for a day,” she says. To satisfy accountants' educational needs, a large percentage of the coursework the society offers is supplied by vendors, Bugyrn says.
In accounting as in other professions, Connecticut is a porous state. While CSCPA spokesman Mark Zampino estimates that as many as 8,000 accountants live in the Nutmeg State, the society's membership stands at roughly 6,200. According to Zampino, some accountants who live in Connecticut may practice in New York or Springfield, Mass. They may also hold positions with companies within the state, such as at Aetna HealthCare Inc., where they do not work as independent brokers.
The same porosity holds in the field of architecture. An architect requires a license in every state in which he practices, even if he is not a resident or earns the bulk of his livelihood within that state. Fortunately for the larger firms which submit bids nationally, many states have licensing reciprocity. But that very fact means that the number of architects who are licensed, living and earning most of their income in Connecticut is hard to estimate.
“We believe that there are 2,000 architects who are licensed in the state,” says Joanne Rees, program director for the Connecticut chapter of AIA, who says the state membership for AIA numbers 900.
Some of the courses offered by the Connecticut chapter are generic, such as those that cover building codes. Others are more specific. While architects in Illinois have a clear need to understand tornadoes, the AIA chapter in Connecticut has offered its members seminars on flood control, Rees says.
Scott DeFilio, who is in charge of continuing education for the New Haven office of the accounting firm McGladrey & Pullen LLP, says that his company began using Webcasting for its continuing education two or three years ago.
“We utilize Web conferences all around the country,” he says. McGladry & Pullen LLP is headquartered in Bloomington, Minn., but has 100 offices throughout the country.
Although DeFilio says that company members still travel to meet specific training needs, the firm finds continuing education broadcasts over the Internet “very convenient. It's a lot more efficient [than traveling]. It's certainly more cost-efficient,” he says.
Jack S. C. Fong, M.D. is chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Danbury Hospital and former chair of the committee on Continuing Medical Education for the Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS). As in many other fields, there are no national standards for continuing medical education, or CMEs. Although Fong says CMEs are not a licensing requirement for physicians, most hospitals do require 50 hours of continuing education annually for staff physicians. He says that HMOs also require physicians serving on their provider panels to fulfill CMEs.
What appears to be a second trend - a professional's desire for credentials and that spur to continuing education - has long been an established practice in England, according to Fong. He says that the desire for credentials may simply have crossed the pond. He also observes that hospitals and other health-care facilities may use credentials to gain a competitive business edge.
“I see hospitals with advertisement that will say, 'All our physicians are board-certified,'” Fong says. “We do that to say we have quality professionals here. I think it's meeting the patients' expectations.”
There is also reason to believe that a litigious society plays some part in professionals' increasing zest for continuing education. “I think it all has something to do with a competency,” Fong observes.
Unlike architects, who renew their licenses annually, the work that other professionals do is tied not merely to Connecticut, but very tightly to the municipalities where they serve.
The New Haven Department of Police Service, for instance, has a residency requirement for the 454 police officers who comprise its force. All must live within 20 miles of the city's borders.
Each member of the police force must renew certification every three years after leaving the state Police Officers' Standards and Training Academy. Although the state requires 45 continuing-education credits for re-certification (28 of them are specified courses; the remainder are electives), New Haven ups that number.
“We go above and beyond that to 80 to 110 hours every three years, depending on where you work,” explains Sgt. Nicholas A. Proto, an executive officer at New Haven's Police Academy on Sherman Avenue. New Haven's academy, Proto notes, is one of a handful of satellite training facilities in the state.
Proto says that New Haven tailors its police training to the municipality's explicit needs. So, for example, the state requires two hours of review training in patrol procedures - yet New Haven officers may receive 10 to 12 hours. Review training in the realm of gang violence may exceed state requirements because, according to Proto, “Gang violence is an issue here in New Haven.
“Bias crimes,” he notes, “is another big need in New Haven.” Domestic violence, he continues, seemingly well versed in the litany, ranks high as well.
Proto says that he, New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing and Kay Kodish, the force's training director, meet weekly to discuss the specific training that Elm City police officers need. “We have to know what the symptoms are,” he says.
In addition to his or her continuing-education coursework, each police officer must take three hours of training in department-issued weapons - again, at the Police Academy - annually.
“Right now we're doing three days of training for every veteran officer each year,” says Proto, referring to the total review training that New Haven provides. Typically, the department schedules such training when the force has low calls for service and low vacation time.
Proto says that the police train in every area from firearms to human relations, to learning what to do if they are stuck with a needle when patting down a suspect to the blood-borne pathogens that a criminal or other situation can emit.
According to Proto, the events of September 11 “sent earthquakes and tremors throughout the country. We use that [experience] for some of the foundation of our training [now].
“The job of a policeman is 90 percent policing and ten percent law enforcement,” the sergeant continues, “and we have to be prepared.”
Firefighters who with the police officers gained such praise since last September, also must meet continuing-education guidelines, according to New Haven Assistant Fire Chief Ronald Dumas. All firefighters who join the New Haven force must possess certification as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).
This certification must be renewed every two years. Although the command conducts its EMT training in house to defray costs, its paramedics - Dumas says there are 15 among the city's 358 firefighters - receive their 32 hours of continuing medical education at a collaborative venture between Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Hospital of Saint Raphael's that is known as the New Haven Sponsor Hospital.
Dumas notes that paramedics have such a high level of medical training that some states, among them Florida, have begun using them as technicians in hospital emergency rooms. This use of the paramedics' skills, he says, began because of the country's nursing shortage.
According to Dumas, the idea of expanding paramedics' responsibilities in Connecticut has received some “talk,” especially as it might apply to areas of the state where the nursing shortage is most acute. But he adds that he does not expect to see such an extension of the paramedics' service in Connecticut in the very near future.
Within the field of professionals' continuing education, some trends are evident: one, an increase in mandatory education (firefighters gained their second responsibility as EMTs, with its concomitant need for recertification training, only in 1995).
A second is a desire for credentialization and a third is the use of Webcasting as a tool to satisfy continuing education requirements.
Curiously - or perhaps not - lawyers are one of the few professions that, historically, have not mandated continuing education on a state or national basis.
While the New Haven County Bar Association schedules seminars on a voluntary basis, there is no requirement for mandatory legal training in Connecticut, according to the bar association's executive director, Carolyn B. Witt. “It [mandatory legal training] varies from state to state,” she explains. “The state of New York has mandatory continuing legal education.
“In Connecticut,” she continues, “many attorneys voluntarily attend Continuing Legal Education [CLE] programs, offered or sponsored by the county or state. And some malpractice insurance companies provide discounts for attorneys who complete legal education programming.”
Increasingly, however, Connecticut is in the minority in not requiring mandatory continuing education for lawyers. Forty states now require practicing attorneys to complete continuing education requirements, according to the Chicago-based American Bar Association.
The Connecticut Bar Association's Chris Blake sees no mandatory legal education for Connecticut lawyers in the immediate future. “It's something that's been talked about from time to time,” he says. However, he adds, “There is no pending legislation concerning mandatory continuing legal education at this time.”
But perhaps the AIA's Rees best summarizes the reasons why professionals continue their educations. “The fact of the matter is that, even without a licensing requirement, architects and other professionals have to keep current in business,” the program director says.
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