What is Personal Membership? What does it mean to be an Accredited MIPA? How would it benefit me?
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The IPA, incorporated by Royal Charter, supports and empowers agencies and individuals working in the advertising, media and marketing communications industry.
Personal Membership is for individual practitioners seeking to underline their commitment to learning and development and enhance their professional credentials in the eyes of clients and industry peers. Personal Members can use the title Accredited MIPA after their name and have their own profile on the register of Accredited MIPAs on the IPA website.
To become an Accredited MIPA you would need to do two things:
1. Accumulate five stars of IPA learning.
You can earn stars by completing relevant IPA courses or qualifications as well as by authoring papers entered for the IPA Effectiveness Awards.
The IPA offers a wide variety of courses and qualifications, spanning its four learning levels of Foundation, Essentials, Advanced and Excellence, which are worth one or more stars.
Regarding Effectiveness Awards entries, one star is given to the principal and contributing authors of all papers entered and two stars are awarded to the principal authors of shortlisted papers.
2. Achieve CPD compliance in each of the most recent three consecutive years.
Continuous Professional Development compliance requires you to record in your free IPA CPD diary at least 24 hours of learning each calendar year (adjusted pro rata if your role is not full-time).
The third of your most recent three consecutive years can be the current year, if you have achieved the required 24-hour learning level. So, by way of an example, if you were to have recorded at least 24 hours by the end of October 2023, your three consecutive years of compliance would be 2021, 2022 and 2023. CPD compliance need not be achieved in consecutive years in the event of maternity, paternity or long-term sickness leave or a career break.
Learning is a broad term by which we mean anything you do to develop yourself or other people. This includes, for example, relevant courses, qualifications and events from the IPA or other providers; internal learning and development initiatives; industry books, publications, websites, webinars and podcasts; as well as mentoring, coaching, appraising or on-boarding of others.
Yes. Any advertising, media or marketing communications practitioner can become an Accredited MIPA.
If you’re not employed by an IPA member agency or an IPA Accelerator agency, you’ll first need to sign up as an Associate of the IPA for an annual fee of £240 including VAT. As an Associate, you will be able to access IPA qualifications and courses, events and conferences, publications and case studies at the discounted member rates.
The main benefits are being able to use the Accredited MIPA title after your name, to have your own profile on the register of Accredited MIPAs on the IPA website, and to access IPA courses and qualifications, events and conferences, publications and case studies at the discounted member rates.
Accredited MIPA status is free if you are employed by an IPA member agency or an IPA Accelerator agency. If you aren't, you would need to maintain your annual IPA Associate subscription at a cost of £240 including VAT per year.
In addition to paying the annual Associate fee mentioned above, if applicable, all Accredited MIPAs are required to maintain their CPD compliance annually by recording on their IPA CPD diary at least 24 hours of learning and development activity in each year.
Any Accredited MIPA who fails to maintain their CPD compliance for the previous year, and/or to pay the Associate fee, will be removed from the register of Accredited MIPAs. However, in such circumstances an individual can regain their Accredited MIPA status by subsequently completing their CPD diary for the previous year and/or paying the Associate fee, as necessary.
Yes, all Accredited MIPAs are required to use the IPA’s CPD diary system to log their learning and achieve compliance annually. There is no cost to having an IPA CPD diary.
Given that Accredited MIPAs are Personal Members of the IPA, they are requested to provide their personal email address to link to their account rather than their work email, which will change in the event of moving roles.
In this scenario, you would be required to subscribe to the Associate scheme for an annual fee of £240 including VAT.
Your Accredited MIPA status would be frozen and then reactivated upon your return to work. However, if you were to return to work not in the employment of an IPA member agency or IPA Accelerator agency, you would need to pay the £240 Associate subscription fee before the reactivation could take place. Regardless of whether or not you were with a member or Accelerator agency, following reactivation you would need to submit for CPD accreditation for your first full calendar year back in work.
The IPA offered Personal Membership for many years before the Accredited MIPA scheme was launched in 2015. Legacy (i.e., pre-2015) MIPAs will not appear on the register of Accredited MIPAs, and should they wish to do so they would need to qualify as an Accredited MIPA in the manner outlined above (see “Q. How could I become an Accredited MIPA?”).
All Accredited MIPAs are required to comply with the terms and conditions of the IPA Rule Book. Please refer specifically to Section B re: Personal Members.
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