Hiring glossary
What does CPD mean?
CPD, or continuing professional development, is the ongoing, planned learning that professionals do throughout their careers to keep their knowledge and skills current, usually recorded and reflected on in a log.
CPD is a requirement or an expectation in many professions, and is usually set by the professional body rather than by employment law. It can include formal courses and qualifications, but also conferences, webinars, reading, mentoring, secondments, stretch projects and on-the-job learning, as long as the person can show what they learned and how they applied it.
Professional bodies set their own rules. The CIPD, the UK body for HR and people professionals, applies its CPD policy to all members except those who are retired or on long-term leave. It takes an outputs-based approach, focusing on the impact of learning on practice rather than hours logged, asks members to submit at least three CPD records each year, and suggests around 30 hours of planned learning a year as a guide. Other bodies, in fields from law and accounting to health and engineering, set different rules, some based on hours or points.
Most CPD frameworks follow a cycle: reflect on where you are and what you need, plan learning to close the gap, do the learning, then record and evaluate what changed in your work. The record matters because it is what auditors and professional bodies check.
Employers benefit from supporting CPD: it keeps skills current, signals that people can grow in the job, and helps with retention. A simple approach is to agree each person’s development goals at their review, set a learning budget or time allowance, and accept a wide range of activity as long as it is tied to the goals.
Also called: continuing professional development, CPD training, CPD points.
Example
An HR adviser and CIPD member plans her CPD for the year around employment law changes. She attends an update webinar, leads her team’s review of the probation policy, and writes three short records explaining what she learned and how it changed the policy she drafted.
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