What Counts As Continuing Professional Development (Cpd) in Your Industry?

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is critical for career progression, mandatory in many professions, and yet finding the time and motivation to do it are major barriers to adoption. But there are ways to make it easier to access and to stay on track.

Let’s start with a little jargon busting before dispelling a few myths about CPD.

What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?

As the name suggests, CPD is all about ongoing learning to help you to build knowledge and capabilities that may be critical to your role, as well as supporting your career development.

This learning can be measured in terms of points or hours, typically equated to the number of hours the learning takes to complete.

For those of you who enjoy a bit of history, CPD has its origins in the structured and formal teaching in royal medical colleges stretching back centuries. However, the term was coined and the practice of CPD really took off in the decades following World War Two.

Even though many professionals seek CPD to further educate themselves and equip themselves with new and relevant skills, there are some connotations around CPD, one of these being it is a mandatory requirement, and it can in truth be perceived as a tick box exercise.

Now granted, CPD is a mandatory requirement for members of professional industry bodies including the General Medical Council (GMC) and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Some voluntary membership bodies make CPD a condition of continued membership, including the Institute of Directors (IoD), whose members must complete 30 hours per year. 

Staying up to date with best practice, legal and regulatory developments for a specific industry is also a big part of CPD, especially for those working in finance, the law and the medical profession.

One of the lesser-known facts about CPD is that those who undertake it do not need to restrict their learning and development to a specific job role; broader capabilities such as management training or engaging with 21st century practices like business coaching also count as CPD hours and can contribute towards your CPD points total. 

All well and good I hear you say but how do I go about accessing CPD learning and how do I know which CPD is right for me?

Many CPD courses have been available to access online for some time. It took the widespread and rapid changes in how business operates following the pandemic, and the amount of time we now spend in meetings and engaging on screens to normailse online learning for good. (After all, if a GP can consult with their patients on screen, it stands to reason they can notch up their CPD hours in this way too!)

If you are seeking to engage in some CPD, it is recommended that you ensure your provider is an accredited member of the https://www.cpdstandards.com/ a “unique organisation founded with the vision of understanding and enabling positive and successful CPD and learning experiences and a mission to make it better, easier and more affordable”.

Donovan Training Associates is a member of the CPDSO. Our online leadership and management courses are recognised internationally as CPD accredited learning activities. 

We offer two online programmes, each being worth 10 CPD hours or 20 if you complete both.  On completion you may request a formal CPDSO Certificate of Attendance, which can be included within a formal CPD record for a professional institute, regulator or employer.

We also offer a people management programme which can be delivered face to face or remotely, worth 36 CPD hours.

If you would like to learn more about how CPD works or to discuss how to find the right level of CPD for yourself or your team, please get in touch for a chat by calling us on 01295 675506

You can also find out more about our online CPD offering by clicking here