Continuing Professional Development in Canada
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.
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.
Introduction to CPD
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.
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.
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
Continuing Professional Development has became a popular way in Canada to maintain professional standards and help individuals develop in their respective industries.
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.
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.
CPD accreditation process
The CPD accreditation process is simple and helps organisations in Canada 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 Canada
Continuing Professional Development is increasingly supported in various industries of Canada, some of the different annual CPD requirements can be found below.
Common CPD terminology
The most common terminology used in Canada is Continuing Professional Development (CPD), although with its geographical closeness to the USA, terms like Continuing Education (CE), Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) will occasionally be used in some parts of Canada - although this is increasingly rare.
Regions can also differ in terminology used when referring to mandated CPD requirements across specific industries. Canadian health licensing bodies, for example, can differ between provinces in CPD expectations for health professionals, but in recent years this has broadly converged in to a national standard for CPD in the health sector.
CME would have been the common terminology for medical bodies up until the 1990’s but, as with other international territories including the UK, a recognition developed that CME was merely a component element of wider CPD.
CPD for Medical professionals
Medical professionals, such as physicians, dentists and pharmacists are typically required to complete a certain amount of CPD hours each year to maintain their professional designation. For example, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada requires its members to complete a minimum of 400 credits over a 5 year cycle.
The regulatory bodies for nursing in each province and territory in Canada have their own CPD requirements. For example, the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia requires its members to complete a minimum of 105 hours of leaning activities over a 3 year period.
CPD for Lawyers and HR professionals
In most provinces and territories in Canada, lawyers are required to complete a certain number of CPD hours each year to maintain their license to practice law. The exact requirements vary by jurisdiction but typically range from 12 to 30 hours per year.
Human resource professionals have CPD mandates to complete to maintain their license in Canada. The Charted Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR) of Canada requires its members to complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD each year.
CPD for Engineers and Real Estate
Engineers must complete CPD to practice their profession in Canada. The provincial and territorial engineering regulation in Canada have varying CPD requirements for their members. For example, in Ontario, professional engineers must complete at least 30 hours of CPD per year.
Real estate professionals usually have to complete Continuing Education (CE) courses to maintain their license. Again, this varies by jurisdiction. The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) requires its members to complete a minimum of 24 hours of CE courses every two years. These courses cover topics such as ethics, legal issues and professional standards.
CPD for Teachers and Accountants
In many provinces and territories in Canada, teachers are required to complete a certain number of CPD hours each year to maintain their teaching certification. The exact requirements vary by jurisdiction but typically range from 20 to 35 hours per year.
The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) requires its members who hold the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) qualification to complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD per year for license renewal.
Thousands of CPD training providers are sharing their skills with the world
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.
