Continuing Professional Development in Malaysia
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 35,000 CPD providers, courses and events and more than 27 years’ experience, advising organisations on how to become CPD accredited for training courses and events.
Becoming a CPD accredited training provider in Malaysia means the training and events that you offer have reached an industry recognised standard for Continuing Professional Development.
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
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.
From its beginning, Continuing Professional Development was then 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. Malaysia is one country that has prioritised CPD for industries to thrive and stay up-to-date with new developments and industry recognised standards of learning.

CPD accreditation process
The CPD accreditation process is simple and helps organisations in Malaysia to formalise their training and events into a recognised approach to professional learning.
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Malaysia CPD Requirements
Continuing Professional Development is increasingly supported in Malaysia with various industries now encouraging professionals to complete CPD Some of the different annual CPD requirements can be found below.
Common CPD terminology
The common terminology relating to Continuing Professional Development in Malaysia reflects the standard terminology used in UK, which includes:
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Professional Development (PD)
- Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
- Continuing Professional Development hours (CPD hours)
- Continuing Professional Development points (CPD points)

CPD for Medical professionals
The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) encourages medical practitioners to participate in CPD. Medical professionals receive an annual practicing certificate from the MMC, which has been a requirement for practicing medical professionals since the introduction of the Medical Regulations 2017.
The MMC puts emphasis on ethical responsibility, public safety and public trust as the main reasons for the introduction of the regulations. Medical professionals in Malaysia are required to complete 20 CPD points per year from 1st July to 30th June. Extra CPD points can be carried over to the following CPD year.

CPD for Engineers
The Board of Engineers Malaysia use CPD to maintain high standards within the industry. CPD activities must be completed with the intention to, (a) maintain engineering and technical knowledge and skills (b) stay abreast with developments, advancement and innovations as well as in general engineering knowledge, and (c) to keep up-to-date with changes in engineering codes, regulations and guidelines.
Practicing engineers in Malaysia must CPD annually, depending on the job role and qualification, ranging from 25 hours per year to 50 hours per year, which are recorded and submitted every 3 years.

CPD for Malaysian Accountants
The Malaysian Institute of Accountants have regulated that practicing accountants in Malaysia must complete a minimum of 120 CPD hours every 3 years.
The Institute also states that: ‘at least 60 CPE credit hours should be structured and verifiable, and at least twenty (20) CPE credit hours of such structured and verifiable CPE learning should be obtained each calendar year.’ These policies help to ensure high standards are maintained within the Malaysian accounting industry.

CPD for Architects
The Board of Architects in Malaysia have state that CPD participation helps to support the development and quality of Malaysian architectural projects. Both architects and graduate architects in Malaysia are required to complete at least 10 CPD points per year to practice.

CPD requirements for Lawyers
Lawyers in Malaysia are required to complete Continuing Professional Development within a CPD cycle of 24 months, starting 1st July and ending 30th June. Lawyers in Malaysia complete a minimum of 16 hours of CPD per cycle.
After the minimum requirements are met, up to 5 CPD hours/points can be transferred over to the following CPD cycle period. This helps to ensure that lawyers in Malaysia are kept up to date and aware of changing laws and standards.

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.
CPD membership is determined by an initial dialogue and recommendations for your most effective routes to market. 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.
About The CPD Certification Service
With members in over 100 countries, our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured.
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.

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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.
