CPD meaning and the importance of Continuing Professional Development

This article was provided by Adam Thwaites, Head of Marketing at The CPD Certification Service. Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service is the world's leading and largest CPD accreditation organisation working across all industry sectors.

Introduction

In today’s world there is an increasing expectation for individuals to undertake some form of professional development regardless of industry sector, career level, job role and responsibilities. Whether it is in our professional or personal lives, the need for ongoing education has never been more important. Employers are increasingly taking a proactive and supporting role with the CPD required by their employees. Organisations can see the benefits of a more highly skilled, motivated and committed workforce and want to encourage this development.

CPD meaning

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and is the term used to describe the learning activities that professionals engage in to improve and enhance their abilities. It combines different methodologies to learning, which includes training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and events, webinars and online eLearning programs, all focused towards improvement within the work environment. On a fundamental level, it is about the individual and their commitment to ongoing lifelong learning.

What is CPD accreditation?

Providing training courses and events with CPD accreditation can help businesses demonstrate a commitment to recognised learning standards. The process takes an impartial and objective overview of structure and value to ensure full conformity to Continuing Professional Development guidelines. The CPD ‘Member’ and ‘Certified’ symbols make a CPD activity instantly recognisable to millions of individuals across the world as an indication of learning quality and professional credibility. Each CPD activity is benchmarked against a proven assessment criteria to ensure that the required standards are met across a number of key areas that The CPD Certification Service has developed over the past 25+ years. Training is reviewed and assessed by our Assessments team using a practical framework and checklist; it must be educational in content, structured coherently, with clear learning objectives and outcomes.

Benefits of Continuing Professional Development

CPD is a recognised approach to helping individuals, organisations and industries keep skills and knowledge up to date. For individuals, engaging in CPD activities ensures that both academic and practical qualifications do not become outdated or obsolete, and allows them to continually ‘up skill’ or ‘re-skill’ themselves regardless of their occupation, age or educational level. For organisations, Continuing Professional Development supports raising standards and benchmarks in line with increasing globalisation and consumer demands. CPD can often help to increase delegate interest and create a an opportunity for competitive advantage in the market.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across the World

Whilst CPD originated in the UK it is now progressively being valued and undertaken in in many different international regions as it becomes a standard for professional learning. Over recent decades the commitment to CPD reaches far beyond traditional industries and institutional bodies, and is being embraced across the world. Similar concepts have historically already been adopted, such as Continuing Education (CE), Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) for example. The CPD Certification Service is a key driving force for CPD across the world with members in over 100 countries and growing.

How to log your CPD - myCPD portal

Most professional bodies and institutes will provide individuals with Continuing Professional Development requirements, generally as a set number of CPD training hours to achieve each year. A CPD record creates the basis for recording and reflecting on professional development completed throughout the year. It enables individuals to track progress, think about their experiences, and identify skill gaps where relevant.

myCPD Portal is a free online tool that helps to professionals to record their learning outcomes and objectives of each training activity attended, store certificates of attendance, as well as the name of each training provider and number of CPD hours completed for each record. This makes it easier to reflect on knowledge and skills that have been obtained and download records for CPD purposes.

For more information go to myCPD Portal

About The CPD Certification Service

Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service is the world’s leading and largest CPD accreditation organisation. We work with organisations from all industries, ranging from training providers to large employers, conference & events organisers, universities, further education colleges, as well as local authority and Government departments. Our unique experience and history enables us to support organisations seeking CPD certification for their training and events. Tens of thousands of training courses, events, e-learning programs, conferences, workshops and seminars have been formally CPD certified by us, adding value for both professional audiences and training providers alike. Find out more about CPD.