Continuing Professional Development in Ireland
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 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. 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 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. The development of Continuing Professional Development in Ireland has followed a similar trajectory to that seen in the UK.
CPD accreditation process
The CPD accreditation process is simple and helps organisations in Ireland 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 Ireland
Continuing Professional Development is supported in various industries of Ireland, and some of the different annual CPD requirements can be found below.
Common CPD terminology
Similarly to UK, the most common terminology used in Ireland for further learning is Continuing Professional Development (CPD). CPD is the term most used by professional bodies when describing further learning activities and presenting CPD requirements.
CPD points, CPD credits and CPD hours are commonly used terms referring to measurement systems applied to CPD participation. Usually, one CPD point, or CPD credit, equates to one hour of structured CPD participation.
Other, lesser used terminology includes Continuing Education (CE) and industry specific terms such as Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Legal Education (CLE), however these terms are subsections of the wider CPD category and are rarely used in isolation.
Annual CPD requirements
There are a variety of professional bodies in Ireland tasked with the governance of key industries. Many of these bodies were founded through Royal Charter prior to 1922 when much of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom. Many other professional bodies were established as smaller governmental departments.
These professional bodies provide Irish professionals with institutional support in key industries in order to maintain professionalism and high standards. An important method for maintaining standards is CPD participation, and many members of professional bodies in Ireland are required to complete a minimum amount of CPD each year
CPD for Lawyers
The Law Society of Ireland ensures its members participate in a certain amount of CPD each year in order to continue practicing as a lawyer in Ireland. Most lawyers are required to complete a minimum of 25 hours of CPD in a year.
The Law Society of Ireland highlight professional development, solicitor wellbeing, client care and professional standards as important facets of their CPD requirements.
CPD for Engineering
Engineers must complete CPD to legally practice in Ireland. Engineers Ireland requires its members to complete at least 35 hours of CPD each year, with a focus on achieving learning goals and developing professional knowledge, skills and expertise.
CPD for Doctors in Ireland
In order to practice in Ireland, all doctors are required to register with the Irish Medical Council and be enrolled on a Professional Competence Scheme. To comply with the requirements of the Professional Competence Scheme over the course of a year, Doctors must complete and record 40 CPD credits in four distinct categories: external, internal, personal learning and research or teaching. Doctors must also complete one audit or quality improvement project over the course of the Professional Competence Year.
Accountants CPD requirements
Chartered accountants in Ireland are required to complete CPD within a yearly cycle in order to maintain standards in the accountancy profession. Chartered Accountants Ireland offers its members two different approaches in its CPD requirements.
The input-based approach requires members to completed 70 hours of CPD each year, with 20 of those hours being structured CPD. The output-based approach requires members to follow a method of assessing what is expected in current and future roles, deciding on and carrying out development goals, reflecting on the effectiveness of CPD activities in meeting training and development goals and recording all the prior steps.
CPD for Teachers
Teachers in Ireland are required to participate in CPD under individual staff training policies, which differ across teaching establishments. Staff training policy is governed by the Department of Education and encourages teachers to participate in CPD regularly.
Property land and construction surveyors
Surveyors are required to complete annual CPD, which is governed by the Society of Charted Surveyors Ireland. Property, land and construction surveyors are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD every year. 10 CPD hours must involve formal CPD and a minimum of 1 hour every 3 years must be spent on ethics.
CPD for Actuaries and Brokers
CPD is used to promote high standards within the actuary profession in Ireland. The Society of Actuaries Ireland requires most of its members to participate in a minimum of 25 hours of CPD each year, with 2 hours being dedicated to professionalism CPD.
Insurance and finance brokers are required to complete CPD to comply with industry standards in Ireland. Brokers Ireland works closely with the Department of Finance and requires its members to complete 15 hours of formal CPD each year. 1 hour of CPD each year must relate to ethics.
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.
