Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the process undertaken by staff who have a defined professional occupation. CPD can be defined as the means by which individuals maintain and acquire new knowledge and skills pertaining to their profession, for example, accountants, builders, doctors, fitness instructors, lawyers and teachers.
CPD entails the updating of knowledge and skills, regardless of the profession, to a level that satisfies competency against current industry standards.
Owing to advancements in modern society, including science, technology and law, every organisation needs to ensure CPD is an integral aspect of ongoing workplace learning for its staff or else their practice may not satisfy current industry standards.
The importance of CPD must be recognised. Benefits of CPD include:
- Staff attain current knowledge and skills relevant to their profession;
- New knowledge and skills can be incorporated into workplace practices adding value to the organisation through better ideas and innovations;
- Improved staff performance resulting in better organisational outcomes such as productivity, profitability and safety.
CPD courses can be delivered face-to-face (offline), online or in a blended mode. The offline approach is certainly the most time and cost demanding option. Utilising a learning management system, such as Totara or Moodle, enables organisations to save time and cost via an online or blended approach. Moreover, CPD can be offered in more collaborative, flexible and interactive ways.