The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) component of the QA Program aims to promote professional competence and engage registrants in ongoing quality improvement of their own practice. The program works in union with the Self-Assessment Guide (SAG) to direct meaningful CPD participation towards your identified professional objectives.
PARTICIPATION
Your Certificate Type and Status will determine the level of CPD participation required. While all registrants should make best efforts to complete 50 CPD hours during each two-year cycle to maintain their knowledge and skills, CPBAO recognizes there may be circumstances where you are unable to meet the standard CPD requirements or are participating in continuing education and professional development through other regulatory processes applicable to your unique circumstances or career stage.
STANDARD CPD REQUIREMENTS
Registrants who are required to complete the Standard QA Requirements must undertake 50 CPD hours during each two-year QA cycle. These hours must also fulfill minimum learning medium and content requirements as described below.
Learning mediums
Your 50 hours must include:
Section A: Professional Interaction and Interdisciplinary Activities
Minimum 15 hours
GOAL
Designed to keep you connected. These activities offer opportunities to engage with peers, share knowledge, and stay supported in your practice.
Section B: Continuing Education, Professional Training and Self-Directed Learning Activities
Minimum 15 hours
GOAL
Designed to keep you up to date. These activities help maintain and build your professional competency as new and changing information emerges.
Section C: Additional Professional Development Activities
Optional
GOAL
Provides flexibility to include alternate CPD activities that align with your practice, setting and professional interests.
Content
The activity hours you complete must also include relevant professional content from the following areas:
| CONTENT | GOAL |
|---|---|
| Ethics and Jurisprudence: At least 10 hours of content relevant to legislation, standards or ethical conduct. | To strengthen your understanding of relevant legislation, standards, and codes of ethics. |
| Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): At least 5 hours of content relevant to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. | To build awareness and cultural competency to support inclusive, respectful, and equitable practices across diverse individuals or groups. |
| Supervision: At least 3 hours of activity content relevant to supervisory practices (only applicable for those who provide supervision). | To enhance your ability to provide competent supervision. |
Content requirements may be fulfilled through your activities from Sections A, B and/or C. They are not in addition to the 50 hours required. One activity may earn credit towards multiple content categories, e.g., ethics and supervision. This is not an exhaustive list of CPD activities. If claiming an alternate activity towards your requirements, you should be able to describe how it contributed to the maintenance of your professional competence.
Section A examples
- Courses, seminars, training programs, and workshops with peer interaction
- Colloquia and conferences
- Grand Rounds
- Case Conferences
- Supervision
- Consultation
- College-directed activities (e.g., Oral Examiner, PAR Assessor or Reviewee)
- Coaching or mentorship program
- Professional discussion board participation
Section B examples
- Courses, seminars, training programs, and workshops without peer interaction
- Reading professional literature
- Reviewing jurisprudence resources (e.g. legislation, standards etc.)
- Consuming professionally relevant media content (e.g. podcasts, webinars, etc.)
Section C examples
- Preparation time for teaching or training of students, professionals and organizations (excludes delivery)
- Preparation time for presentations and workshops (excludes delivery)
- Professional writing, reviewing and editing (excluding materials required for service delivery, e.g., clinical reports, training materials)
- Formal research
- Organizational consultation
- Client outcome monitoring
- Participation in a College consultation process
- Leadership (e.g. Committee, Board or working group member for a professional organization)
Professional development programs, training courses, workshops or seminars are listed as applicable activities under both Section A and Section B. When these activities are completed independently, the hours may count towards Section B. If the activity involved group attendance and/or peer interaction, the hours may count as either Section A or B.
Examples
- If you independently attend a 3-hour workshop, which involves 2 hours of lecture and 1 hour of scheduled breakout room discussions with other attendees, you may record either 3 hours in Section B, or 2 hours under Section B for the lecture and 1 hour under Section A for the breakout room discussions.
- If you attended the same event described in a) and also participated in 0.5 hours of additional, unscheduled peer interaction, such as Q&A or dissemination discussions, this time may be counted under Section A in addition to the 3 scheduled activity hours.
ACTIVITY MAXIMUMS
No more than 10 hours per unique activity may be claimed to ensure participation in a variety of learning mediums. This maximum applies to both stand-alone events (e.g., course, workshop, readings, etc.) and recurring activities (e.g., supervision, consultation, etc.).
Examples
- If you participate in two 13-hour workshops, you may claim 10 hours from each workshop attended.
- If you attend a 2-day conference, you may claim up to 10 hours for each presentation viewed.
- If you provide supervision to one or more supervisees, you may claim up to 10 hours in total for all supervisory meetings. Up to an additional 10 hours may be claimed if you also receive supervision from one or more supervisors.
CPD INSTRUCTIONS
- Reflect on the Professional Development Plan objectives created in your SAG before the start of your two-year cycle. Use your plan to guide your choice of CPD activities in support of your objectives.
- Download a tracking sheet template to record your CPD activities and document your participation throughout your cycle. This will help you monitor your completion of the CPD activity hours, learning mediums and content requirements.
- Review your Professional Development Plan throughout your cycle to monitor progress made towards your objectives. Reflect on the knowledge or skills gained through the CPD activities completed.
- During the last year of your two-year cycle, you will be prompted to submit a Declaration of Completion through the Membership Portal before June 30th. Review your records to confirm that you have completed your requirements and submit your Declaration.
- You are not required to submit your completed tracking sheet or supporting documentation when making your Declaration. Store all records of your QA participation, including your tracking sheets and supporting documentation, for at least 5 years. These records may be requested by the College for auditing or assessment purposes.
If you have questions or there are extenuating circumstances preventing you from completing your CPD requirements, you must inform the College between May 1 and June 30 of the year in which your Declaration is due by emailing qualityassurance@cpbao.ca. If CPBAO is not notified before the deadline, you may be selected to participate in a QA audit.