What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?

CPD Explained

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and is the term used to describe the learning activities professionals engage in to develop and enhance their abilities. CPD is a holistic approach towards the enhancement of personal skills and proficiency throughout a professional's career.

What is CPD?

Continuing Professional Development is a commitment to ongoing lifelong learning. CPD encourages looking forward and identifying opportunities to learn something new, refresh existing knowledge, improve skills, or simply keep up-to-date with the latest developments within a particular profession or industry.

In practice, CPD can mean everything from taking a training course or attending an educational event, to studying for new qualifications or learning new aspects of a job.

Continuing Professional Development enables learning to become conscious and proactive, rather than passive and reactive. It involves an individual documenting and keeping a record of the increasing skills, knowledge and experience they gain throughout their career.

CPD combines different methodologies to learning, which includes training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and events, webinars and online eLearning programs. CPD can also include sharing best practice techniques, thoughts and ideas, all focused towards an individual improving within the work environment.

More about CPD

Engaging in CPD activities ensures that both academic and practical qualifications do not become outdated or obsolete, and allows for individuals to continually 'up skill' or 're-skill' themselves regardless of their occupation, age or educational level.

Continuing Professional Development is an ongoing process of frequently improving skills and competencies to enhance workplace performance and future career prospects.

Different methods of CPD learning

There is no one-size-fits all approach to CPD, however a blended approach to learning that incorporates a full range of different types of CPD can increase chances of knowledge retention and engagement. From experience, we advise that at least 50% of Continuing Professional Development be completed in a structured CPD / active learning environment. The remaining learning can be balanced across both reflective and self-directed types of CPD.

Training Courses

A CPD training course is the most well-known method of completing Continuing Professional Development, and can vary in length from one day up to several days or over several weeks. Training courses will often be specific to one subject or offer skills in a particular area of industry.

CPD training courses can also sometimes encompass others forms of learning such as lectures, seminars and workshops, and can be delivered either in-person such as classroom style, or online, or even possibly a hybrid of both.

Seminars

A seminar is a type of short course and typically only a few hours long up to one day. CPD seminars provide an opportunity to focus on a particular subject matter in detail. They are usually conducted in a group setting with no more than 20 participants.

CPD seminars will typically include group work, activities and interactive discussion, in order to allow individuals to contribute which can lead to better retention of knowledge.

Seminars can also be a chance for individuals to network with others from different areas of their own industry or other sectors.

Workshops

A workshop is an interactive educational group session typically involving between 1 to 3 days of learning. Workshops and seminars are similar, but there are a few key differences.

CPD workshops are less theoretical and tend to offer a more hands-on, practical skills approach to learning which may include practical exercises, breakout sessions and role plays. Workshop groups are usually smaller than seminars.

As CPD workshops are primarily activity and exercise based, it gives the group a chance to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical context and offers a hands-on approach to enhancing skills and knowledge.

Webinars

Webinars are an online learning activity held virtually and attended by an online audience. Often, the main objective of a CPD webinar is to educate and inform professionals in a short and concise manner about new and relevant information.

CPD webinars can provide opportunity to interact and participate, ask questions to the hosts, complete polls or surveys, and share documents between attendees. CPD webinars are useful in that they do not require attendance at an in-person event and therefore provide opportunity for wider, often international, participation.

Events

There are number of different forms of learning that can be considered CPD events. For instance, there could be a live speaker session delivered in the format of a guest presentation or a panel discussion.

Other forms of CPD events includes conferences, usually held at venues, beginning with a keynote session and then offering breakout learning by topic. Seminars and workshops may also feature as part of wider CPD events.

Organisations may also choose to host or sponsor a particular industry trade show which are usually held in large spaces, with hundreds of products and services being showcased, and in doing so may add an educational CPD learning opportunity within the trade show itself.

Online Courses

Online CPD courses are an increasingly popular method of learning, and can offer convenience and affordability, in that there is no need to attend an in-person event and course materials can be shared free online.

Online courses offer flexibility for individuals to participate at a suitable time and schedule around other work and family commitments.

In many instances, online CPD courses can be spread over a period of time rather than requiring participation on a given day.

CPD for Individuals

CPD encourages individuals to maintain consistent and high standards, as well as making it easier to demonstrate commitment and dedication towards a particular job role or profession.

CPD offers a functional platform for individuals to build a career progression plan that supports their objectives towards new job openings, development within an existing role, or even possibly higher earnings opportunities.

CPD can be an excellent self-motivation tool, acting as a reminder of personal achievements and progression over time. CPD provides flexibility and diversity in terms of different methods of learning available so each individual can find a learning style that suits them best. To that extent a professional is able to find much greater appreciation for the positive impact they can make at work.

CPD for Organisations

All organisations that face competition need to find new ways to retain key staff and help differentiate themselves as leaders in their industry. CPD can be used to advance the body of knowledge, skills and technology within an organisation. The application of CPD in the workplace shows a mindful decision and commitment towards both clients and employees that professionalism is important.

Organisations are able to recognise that Continuing Professional Development can be used to ensure quality levels remain high across all departments. CPD can help to identify potential skill gaps in the workplace, and highlight areas where the business can be improved. CPD encourages a healthy learning culture which can lead to a more fulfilled and valuable workforce.

Continuing Professional Development should be used to attract a higher level of candidates when recruiting for new roles, by encouraging better talent towards the organisation. CPD is a tool for improvements in business performance and efficiency, whilst also helping staff with their individual learning requirements.

What is accredited CPD training?

Accredited CPD training means the learning activity has reached the required Continuing Professional Development standards and benchmarks. The learning value has been scrutinised to ensure integrity and quality. The CPD Certification Service provides recognised independent CPD accreditation compatible with global CPD requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a CPD point, unit or credit?

A frequent question about Continuing Professional Development is how CPD is recorded, and specifically the question, "What is a CPD point, unit or credit?" It is often found across all industries that CPD points, units and credits all relate to the same thing, CPD Hours? What are CPD Hours? The definition of a CPD Hour is the time spent for a delegate to be in "active learning".

An individual must keep a track of their annual Continuing Professional Development activities on a CPD record form and must ensure it is correct, up to date and meets the requirements of their professional body or association. The CPD activity is recorded in terms of learning outcomes and practical application of the knowledge obtained. Continuing Professional Development undertaken is recorded by a CPD Certificate of Attendance, CPD Self-Assessment forms and personal CPD Record Cards.

How should I allocate my CPD time?

Most institutes provide their members with Continuing Professional Development requirements generally as a minimum annual number of hours. These targets are defined by the accrual of CPD hours through training, seminars & workshops, events & conferences as well as other structured forms of CPD learning. These CPD hours are sometimes converted to points, units or credits.

What is the process of gaining CPD certification?

The CPD Assessments team will evaluate the materials, review the structure and provide advice to help develop the training courses where required. This process is to ensure the training courses are educational in content, structured coherently, with clear learning objectives and outcomes.

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