Continuing Professional Development
Professional Development
The College of Applied Biologists (the College) is the regulatory body for applied biology professionals in British Columbia. The College’s mandate is to protect the public interest. In order to aid the College in meeting its mandate, the College has mandatory professional development requirements for its registrants.
Professional development is used to reference a wide variety of specialized training, formal education, and advanced professional learning intended to help applied biology professional registrants of the College of Applied Biologists maintain, improve and expand their profession. This includes knowledge, competence and skills, and area(s) of expertise.
The purpose of a professional development program is to protect the public interest via an assessment of registrants' compliance with professional standards through 1) helping with professional development and 2) ensuring compliance. The College has three professional development programs in place. They are the Audit Program, the Practice Review Program and the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program
The College Bylaws, Part 7 Standards of Conduct and Competence, and the following policies and standards apply to the College’s Continuing Professional Development Program. The documents provide information on the programs, including the process and requirements.
- Bylaws, Part 7 Standards of Conduct and Competence
- Policy 7 – 100 Continuing Professional Development Program
- Continuing Professional Development Standard
- Professional Practice Competencies and Competence Standard
-
Bylaws, Schedule 1 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
- Watch the College's Introduction to the CoEPC Webinar
- Introduction to CPD Webinar and FAQ document
CPD Requirements
Registrants can now track their CPD activities through the College's registrant portal. All practicing and in-training registrants are required to comply with the CPD program’s requirements:
- To earn 100 CPD points over a three-year consecutive period;
- CPD activities and claimable points must align with the CPD categories as outlined in the Policy 7 – 100 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program and the Continuing Professional Development Standard;
- Maintain and be able to provide your CPD records to the College, if requested;
- Submit an annual record of CPD activities via the College portal by December 31; and
- CPD records are a mandatory component of the College’s audit process.
As a reminder, Council approved a new CPD program that went into effect January 1, 2021: the 2021 CPD year and future years are based on the CPD Standard and Policy 7 – 100 Continuing Professional Development Program. The 2019 and 2020 CPD categories and points are from Schedule 4 of the College Rules -- please refer to the Schedule when entering activities for those years. The CPD tracking module in the registrant portal will automatically calculate points for 2019 to 2021 despite the differences in CPD categories.
The intention of CPD is to ensure applied biology professionals continue to be competent in their field of expertise by keeping their knowledge and skills current. CPD can also lead to an increase in public confidence of applied biology professionals and the profession as a whole.
Retired registrants and students are not required to undertake CPD. If you have questions please contact the Director of Practice at [email protected].
