Your Guide To Getting Started With CPD Courses

If you want to boost the career prospects that you have, you need to take into consideration the importance of CPD. It has become an awarding body that plays a major role in career progression as well. In this blog today we will be talking about what CPD is and how you can enjoy the benefits of CPD in order to further your career.

What does CPD stand for?

CPD stands for Continued Professional Development because as the name suggests, it is mainly sought after by individuals who want to gain professional qualifications that will help them grow in their career. It’s a proactive and conscious form of learning which uses various methods to help individuals either learn new skills or develop existing ones.
As the name suggests, it is an ongoing learning process. It is also a self-driven form of learning. So, it would be you, rather than your employer, who decides to undergo additional training.

What are the benefits of CPD?

There are many great benefits that CPD will give both the people who learn from them and also their employers. As a professional once you have completed their programmes you will have access to all the following benefits.

• Your skills and knowledge will be up to date
• The professional standards of your registrations and qualifications will be maintained.
• When an employer hires you, they know that the standards of their company will also be maintained consistently.
• You will be able to add value to the job role you are assigned.
• You will have better confidence in the role that you play at work.
• You will have better employability with prestigious organisations and better negotiating position. Research shows that those who get certified with CPD have a much more significant chance of getting promoted in their job, as compared to those who do not.
• You will have a chance of earning lucratively.

Benefits of CPD for organisations

There are many benefits that organisations can enjoy if they do offer CPD accredited trainings for their employees. These benefits include the following.

• It introduces a healthy learning and improving culture for the organisation.
• Helps you have a more fulfilled workforce and therefore retain more staff.
• It helps you maintain high standards of professionalism in the workplace.

What to consider when choosing a CPD certification?

If you want CPD to further your career, there’s a number of factors you need to consider. Ensuring you’re undertaking the correct type of CPD to fit your goals is crucial in helping you minimise any disadvantages. It’s not enough to simply find a course which matches your industry. You also need to consider whether or not the training matches your end goal. Thinking about the importance of CPD suiting your chosen industry might potentially save you time in the future.

Have you got the time to commit to the CPD course you’re considering? If you’re already working, you’ll need to find a part-time course which also fits around your family and budget commitments. You’re also going to want to consider the type of study you prefer. Do you thrive in studying with others? If so, you’ll want to look into in-venue courses and seminars. If your sole purpose is to study alone at your own pace, an e-learning CPD course would be a better option.

What does accredited CPD training mean?

Two of the most commonly asked questions across industries would be ‘What is CPD?’ – Which we already answered above and ‘How to become accredited by CPD?’ when you have an accredited CPD Training, it means that the learning activity has fulfilled the standards and the benchmarks of CPD. The learning values in this case would undergo thorough evaluations to make sure that they do live up to the mark, and the right integrity. The CPD Certification Service offers recognised independent CPD accreditation that will be compatible with the global requirements of CPD for standards. Global Edulink offers programmes and trainings which are accredited by CPD. Outsourced CPD providers are typically training companies, online learning resources, events & conference organisers. They are experts in their field and provide practical learning opportunities through CPD events, seminars and accredited CPD courses. Some CPD courses are just 1 or 2 hours long, delivered in a seminar or classroom-style environment. Other accredited CPD courses can be a full 6-10 weeks program, split into structured bite-size modules.

What industries does CPD provide accredited trainings for?

CPD offers a vast array of accredited certifications in various industries including,

1. Agriculture & Veterinary
2. Business
3. Construction
4. Design
5. Education
6. Energy
7. Engineering
8. Finance
9. Fire
10. Healthcare & Medical
11. Hospitality
12. Human Resources
13. Information Technology
14. International
15. Legal
16. Marine
17. Media
18. Military
19. Politics
20. Property
21. Public
22. Retail
23. Science
24. Security
25. Social Care
26. Sport
27. Telecommunications
28. Tourism
29. Transport

What are CPD points, units and credits?

So what is a CPD point, unit or credit? How do CPD points relate to CPD Hours? With the increasing number of professional bodies in the UK and their varying annual requirements of Continuing Professional Development, a natural split in common language terms and expression will arise. Different professional bodies use the terms ‘CPD points’, ‘CPD units’ or ‘CPD credits’ diversely depending on preference, typically for historical reasons when initially implementing their CPD policy, rather than from a modern day strategic perspective.

The definition of a CPD Hour is – “the time spent for a delegate to be in “active learning”. Active learning is the amount of time that you spend studying with CPD.

A good example of this would be 1-day accredited CPD training course. If the training starts at 9 am and ends at 5 pm, with a 1-hour break for lunch, the CPD Hours would be 7 CPD Hours.
It is estimated that 95% of all professional bodies use CPD Hours as their Continuing Professional Development measure and that where the terms CPD points, units or credits are used, these are in a typical 1:1 ratio with CPD Hours. By this, it is meant that typically 1 CPD point equals 1 CPD Hour.

Is the CPD certificate a recognised qualification?

CPD or Continuing Professional Development was established in 1996 and is an independent accreditation service that is recognised. This body appraises the educational programs according to the highest standards and their accreditation is a symbol of quality and credibility. They have also developed a universal checklist that is impartial or non-biased and is also objective. It lays out strict guidelines that have to be met (no exceptions) in order for a program to receive the accreditation. CPD has always remained committed to enhancing the personal skills along with the professional skills in a range of career paths. If you want to know more about CPD you can browse through the information on their website.

If you want to know what programs Global Edulink offers that are also recognised by CPD have a look at our CPD accredited courses on our site.

If you would like to speak with our team you can email us on [email protected]