Continuing Professional Development in Australia
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a commitment to ongoing lifelong learning, and identifies opportunities to refresh existing knowledge, improve skills, and keep up-to-date with developments within a profession or industry.
Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience providing CPD accreditation. With over 35,000 CPD providers, courses and events and members in over 100 countries, we advise organisations on how to become CPD accredited for training courses and events.
Introduction to CPD
Continuing Professional Development is a commitment to ongoing lifelong learning. CPD identifies opportunities to learn something new, refresh existing knowledge, improve skills, or simply keep up-to-date with the latest developments within a profession or industry.
Continuing Professional Development combines different approaches to learning that includes training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and events, webinars and online eLearning programs.
Continuing Professional Development enables learning to become conscious and proactive, rather than passive and reactive, helping individuals to log and record their increasing skills, knowledge and experience gained throughout their career.
The CPD Certification Service is a key driving force in the promotion of Continuing Professional Development across the world, with CPD members in over 100 countries and growing.
International growth of CPD
More and more countries are adopting and encouraging CPD as the concept for professional learning within their remit as a recognised international benchmark, where institutional bodies identified a need for structured learning after formal education.
Continuing Professional Development was established by a few UK professional bodies in the 1980s for key industries such as medical and healthcare, finance, engineering, architecture and law. In more recent decades, CPD has continued to grow with international globalisation and the ease of new learning technologies in distance and online education.
The development of Continuing Professional Development in Australia has followed a similar trajectory to that seen in the UK.
CPD accreditation process
The CPD accreditation process is simple and helps organisations in Australia to formalise their training and events into a recognised approach to professional learning.
Step one
Contact our team
Use our simple form to contact our friendly team and tell us about your organisation, training courses and events.
Step two
Discuss your CPD
Our professional team can provide information on the steps to get courses accredited and become a CPD training provider.
Step three
Become CPD accredited
As a CPD provider you can submit your training and events directly to the Assessments team for accreditation.
CPD Requirements in Australia
Continuing Professional Development is increasingly supported in various industries of Australia, some of the different annual CPD requirements can be found below.
Common CPD terminology
Annual requirements for CPD is common across the most important industries in Australia. These requirements often vary regionally, however the importance of CPD in maintaining high professional standards remains a consistency throughout the country.
Common terminology used in reference to CPD in Australia is similar to the standard terminology used in UK:
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Continuing Legal Education (CLE)
- Continuing Medical Education (CME)
CPD for Healthcare professionals
In 1994, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) broke ground in CME by implementing a strategy to promote CPD. This CPD scheme, originally known as the Maintenance of Professional Standards (MOPS) program, included the accumulation of credit points and the recording of those points in a diary system.
The concept of MOPS has since been discontinued and this is now fully acknowledged as mandatory CPD, but this was a key stage in the development of CPD as the universal term for professional development.
As mandated by the new Medical Board of Australia (MBA), medical practitioners must complete a minimum of 50 hours of CPD each year. The MBA has stated how GPs must make up qualifying CPD: ‘25 hours of CPD, categorised as reviewing performance and measuring outcomes – GPs can decide on the best mix for these activities to suit their practice, with five hours minimum of each type. These regulations have been in effect since 1st January 2023.
CPD for Lawyers
Lawyers are required to complete annual CPD in order to practice in Australia. The Legal Profession Uniform Law of New South Wales states: ‘CPD is a statutory condition imposed on all Australian practising certificates.'
Lawyers are required to complete ten (10) CPD units each year. This includes at least one (1) CPD unit in each of the following compulsory fields: ethics and professional responsibility, practice management and business skills, professional skills and substantive law. The CPD year runs from 1 April to 31 March the following year.
CPD for Engineering
As mandated by Engineers Australia, engineering professionals must complete CPD hours in order to practice. The CPD requirements for engineers are: ‘If an engineer is working towards or have Chartered or National Engineer Register (NER) credentials, then CPD is very important. To get or keep these credentials, engineers need to complete at least 150 hours of professional development activities every three years.
For engineers who work in one area of practice, breakdown of the specific hour requirement is as follows: 50 hours must relate to your area of practice, 10 hours must cover risk management, 15 hours must be about business and management skills, 75 hours must cover a range of activities relevant to your career interests.’
CPD for Education in Australia
CPD requirements for teachers differ by region in Australia. Many areas have generally applied CPD mandates, however some areas allow schools to set their own CPD requirements for their teachers. An example of CPD requirements for teachers in Australia is seen in Queensland:
‘For members of the Queensland College of Teachers, CPD is an annual requirement with full registration whether their situation is teaching full-time, teaching part-time or doing supply or contract teaching. Teachers must complete at least 20 hours of CPD for any calendar year in which you teach 20 days or more.’
There are more industries with CPD requirements, such as accounting (150 hours of CPD over a 3 year time period) and real estate (requirements vary in different regions; In New South Wales, real estate agents must complete 9 hours of CPD every year). These mandates help professionals in Australia maintain consistency and high standards in their respective industries.
Benefits of CPD Membership
Becoming a CPD accredited provider and certifying your training materials follows a simple process. The CPD Certification Service provides different membership levels to suit needs and budgets.
Becoming a CPD provider can help to distinguish organisations from their market competitors, as well as meet the right target audience and help increase delegate bookings for events and courses.
- Provide review and advice on organisational CPD requirements
- CPD accreditation for courses & events, from 1 - 250+ activities a year
- Licence to use CPD Member logo on company marketing materials
- CPD Certified symbol on approved CPD training courses materials
- Presence in CPD Member Directory for user validation and searching
- Ability to publicise CPD certified events on industry Event Calendar
CPD providers are able to utilise key features of membership to help support their business, marketing and training objectives. Please contact our team to discuss in more detail.
What activities can be CPD accredited?
Continuing Professional Development accreditation covers a whole range of different learning methods. Our Assessments team review thousands of CPD courses, workshops seminars and events every year.
TRAINING COURSES
CPD training courses are the most well-known method of completing Continuing Professional Development. They vary in length and will often be specific to one subject or offer skills in a particular area of an industry.
SEMINARS
Seminars are a type of short course and are typically a few hours long, but sometimes last up to one day. CPD seminars provide an opportunity to focus on a particular subject matter in detail and they are usually conducted in group settings with interactive discussion allowing individuals to contribute.
WORKSHOPS
CPD workshops are interactive educational group sessions which are similar to seminars but with a few differences. CPD workshops are less theoretical and tend to offer a more hands-on, practical skills approach to learning.
WEBINARS
Webinars are a method of online learning which is 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.
EVENTS
There are a number of different forms of learning that can be considered a CPD event. CPD events include conferences held at venues, often with keynote sessions and breakout learning by topic. Seminars and workshops may also feature as part of wider CPD events.
ONLINE COURSES
Online CPD courses are an increasingly popular method of learning that offer convenience and affordability. As in-person event and course materials can be shared free online, there is no need to attend.
About The CPD Certification Service
Our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured. Tens of thousands of training courses, events, eLearning programs, conferences, workshops and seminars have been formally CPD certified by us, adding significant value every year for both professional audiences and training providers alike.
Why get your training CPD accredited?
Continuing Professional Development is a powerful learning tool that professionals from across all industries can apply to their lives to remain focused on improving skills and take an empowering approach to career progression.
CPD encourages looking forward and identifying opportunities to learn something new, refresh existing knowledge, and improve skills, making learning to be proactive throughout an individuals career.
Working with The CPD Service
We have over 35,000 CPD providers, courses and events in over 100 countries, and more than 27 years' experience advising organisations on how to get training courses and events accredited for Continuing Professional Development.
CPD accreditation benchmarks learning to the highest recognised industry CPD standards. Our Assessments team provide feedback and recommendations to make improvements where suitable. CPD accreditation offers reassurance and peace of mind to individuals undertaking the learning for their Continuing Professional Development requirements.
Apply for CPD accreditation today
Next Steps - Talk to our team
Find out how CPD accreditation can add value to your training and events. Support the millions of people who complete Continuing Professional Development each year.
