Continuing Professional Development Program Requirements

Program Requirements

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program is designed to assist registrants in maintaining their professional competence by continuously enhancing their knowledge and experience. The requirements of this program apply to registrants from the point in time they enter supervised practice until they formally seek a Retired Certificate of Registration. The requirements of the program are also designed to reduce professional isolation as this has been identified as source of risk with respect to professional competence (ASPPB).

MINIMUM PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

College registrants must ensure the following requirements are met throughout each two-year cycle of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program. The minimum requirements apply equally to practitioners of psychology and applied behaviour analysis and are not intended to discourage participation beyond the minimum requirements.

Overall

During each two-year CPD cycle, a minimum of 50 overall hours of continuing education and professional development activities shall be undertaken to maintain and develop knowledge and skills relevant to a registrant’s practice authorizations. Activities completed will pertain to professional jurisprudence, legislation, standards and ethics; equity, diversity and inclusion, and supervision (should a registrant provide supervisory services).

Hours

To satisfy this overall requirement, the 50 hours completed must include:

1. At least 15 hours of Section A: Professional Interaction and Interdisciplinary Activities
2. At least 15 hours of Section B: Continuing Education, Professional Training and Self-Directed Learning Activities
3. Registrants may, but are not required to, earn additional hours from Section C: Additional Professional Development Activities

In many cases, credits or CEUs are equivalent to hours (1:1). Behaviour Analysts completing the BACB continuing education requirements, which typically equate 50 minutes of activity to 1 CEU, are permitted to count 1 CEU as 1 CPD hour, as the College allows for brief exchanges of knowledge, relevant discussion, and Q&A participation during an event to be included in activity hours.

Content

To satisfy the overall requirement, the 50 hours completed must include activities with content related to:

1. Ethics and Jurisprudence (Ethics): At least 10 hours of activity content pertaining to legislation, standards or ethical conduct.
2. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): At least 5 hours of activity content pertaining to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to avoid practices that may unfairly discriminate against or would be experienced as oppressive by some individuals or groups.
3. Supervision: At least 3 hours of activity content pertaining to supervisory practices (only applicable for those registrants which provide supervision to other health professionals, Supervised Practice registrants of the College, or students).

Content requirements may be completed through activities from Sections A, B and/or C. One activity may earn credit in multiple content categories (e.g., Ethics and Supervision) based upon the subject matter.

Activity Maximums

No more than 10 hours per single event or per activity type may be applied towards your completion of the overall requirements. However, there is no maximum to the number of hours which registrants can apply from activities completed under Sections A, B, or C towards their fulfilment of the overall program requirement once the Section A and B minimums are met.

• Single Event: typically refers to a unique activity in which new content or knowledge is shared and considered, (e.g., individual programs, courses, workshops, topic specific structured professional development meetings, invited speaker sessions)
• Activity Type: typically refers to a recurring interaction with the same individual(s) or group(s) (e.g., providing and/or receiving supervision, providing and/or receiving consultation)

Examples:

1. Single Event: if you have completed a 12-hour course, you may count up to 10 hours from the course towards completion of the overall program requirement. You may still count additional hours for other programs, courses or workshops completed during the two-year period, but no more than 10 from each single event.
2. Activity Type: if you are providing supervision throughout your two-year cycle, you may count up to 10 hours in total for all supervisory meetings.

These maximums have been put in place to ensure registrants are participating in a variety of learning mediums to maintain their professional knowledge and skills.   

Double Credit

Registrants will note that professional development programs, courses, workshops or seminars are listed as applicable activities under both Section A: Professional Interaction and Interdisciplinary Activities and Section B: Continuing Education, Professional Training and Self-Directed Learning.

When these activities are completed independently, the CPD hours may only be categorized under Section B. However, if the activity involved group attendance and/or peer interaction, the hours can be counted under both Sections A and B.

Section A Min. 15 hrs	Professional Interaction and Interdisciplinary Activities Activities which facilitate peer interaction, knowledge sharing, and reduce practitioner isolation.
	Example Activities:
	Invited speaker sessions or conferences with peer interaction  In-person or on-line attendance or speaking.
	Structured professional development meetings Typically includes a specified agenda or knowledge/skill outcome; led by employers or third-party organizations.
	Case conferences
	Grand rounds
	Colloquia
	Providing formal consultation
	Receiving formal consultation
	Providing formal supervision Typically includes a formal relationship established under a supervision agreement, in which a registrant is supervising the clinical, research, or other professional services of another College registrant, health professional, or student.
	Receiving formal supervision Typically includes a formal relationship established under a supervision agreement, in which you are being supervised by another College registrant or registered health professional, for clinical, research or other professional purposes.
	General Attendance at professional development programs, courses, workshops or seminars with peer interaction Note: programming which included elements of both professional interaction and specific continuing education may be recorded under both Sections A and B. An example of this would be the Barbara Wand Seminars in Professional Ethics, Standards and Conduct when attended with one or more professional colleagues, leading to further discussion of the content. If the programming was completed independently, hours may only be recorded once, under Section B.
	Peer Assisted Review participation Undergoing a Quality Assurance Peer Assisted Review (PAR) or acting as a College Assessor or Peer Nominated Reviewer in the PAR process.
	Oral Examiner participation for College registration examinations
	Completion of Mentorship or Coaching programs Voluntary or required programs are both applicable.
	Professional discussion board participation
	This is not an exhaustive list of professional interaction activity types which registrants may complete. Completion of another activity or event which involved direct peer engagement and enhanced the registrant’s professional practise of psychology or applied behaviour analysis may be counted. Registrants must be able to describe the benefit of any completed CPD activities towards the maintenance of their professional competency, if requested by the College.
Section B Min. 15 hrs	Continuing Education, Professional Training and Self-Directed Learning Activities Independently completed activities for the maintenance of professional knowledge related to the practice of Psychology and/or ABA.
	Example Activities:
	Professional development programs, training courses, workshops or seminars (with or without peer interaction) Typically includes a specified agenda, curriculum or learning outcome, with or without formal CE credits. In-person or on-line completion. Programming which was completed independently and did not involve peer interaction or knowledge sharing may only be recorded once, under Section B.
	Reading professional literature E.g., journal articles, books, manuals for new tests or assessment tools, etc.
	Reviewing new or amended jurisprudence E.g., professionally relevant Legislation, Standards, Ethical Codes, etc.
	Viewing professionally relevant talks, podcasts or other media content Independent viewing of live or archived professional media.
	This is not an exhaustive list of continuing education and training activities which registrants may complete. Completion of another activity or event which involved knowledge development and enhanced the registrant’s professional practise of psychology or applied behaviour analysis may be counted. Registrants must be able to describe the benefit of any completed CPD activities towards the maintenance of their professional competency, if requested by the College.
Section C	Additional Professional Development Activities Activities which facilitate engagement in a variety of professional development mediums relevant to individual practice expereinces, areas and settings.
	Example Activities:
	Preparation for: Delivering workshops, conferences and presentations Developing or updating materials with new information for workshops, seminars, or other presentations to be delivered.
	Preparation for: Teaching or training Developing or updating materials with new information to instruct or guest lecture a university or community college level course or practicum, lead an organizational event or presentation, or supervise student research.
	Professional writing, reviewing and editing E.g., scientific papers, book or book chapters, journal articles, decision letters for peer reviewed articles, content for popular media related to professional topics. Note: excludes clinical reports and documentation which would otherwise be prepared during the course of client services.
	Formal research Designing, conducting, collecting or analyzing research data for your own or others’ professional projects.
	Structured client outcome monitoring Administering structured client outcome measures and using the information to plan further intervention.
	Professional Leadership E.g., acting member of a professionally relevant committee, board, association or working group. Including, but not limited to, College committees and Council.
	College consultations participation
	Organizational consultation
	This is not an exhaustive list of other professional development activities which registrants may complete. Completion of another activity or event which was relevant to the development of one’s competence for the professional practise of psychology or applied behaviour analysis may be counted. Registrants must be able to describe the benefit of any completed CPD activities towards the maintenance of their professional competency, if requested by the College.