What are Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points?

In this article:

• Overview
• How CPD points are earned
• CPD requirements and regulating bodies
• Tracking CPD points in SuperPath
• FAQs

Overview

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. CPD points are part of a system that encourages professionals to maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, skills and abilities throughout their careers. The aim is to keep people up to date with industry standards, emerging trends and best practice, so they continue to provide high-quality work in their field.

Many regulated professions require a set number of CPD points or hours each year to maintain a licence, certification or membership — lawyers, accountants, teachers, engineers, nurses, real estate agents and other healthcare and trade professionals among them.

How CPD points are earned

Points can be earned through a range of learning and development activities, such as:

• Attending seminars, workshops or conferences.
• Completing online courses or training modules.
• Participating in mentoring programmes.
• Reading relevant journals or research papers.
• On-the-job learning or structured reflection.

As a rough guide, one hour of learning typically equates to one CPD point, though this varies by profession and accrediting body — some activities are worth more depending on their complexity or relevance.

CPD requirements and regulating bodies

CPD is managed and monitored by professional associations, industry regulators or government bodies, and professionals are usually required to record and submit evidence of their activity. Requirements differ by profession, for example:

• Legal professionals — a professional body such as the Law Society may require a set number of points each year.
• Healthcare professionals — the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) mandates CPD for nurses, doctors and allied health workers.
• Teachers — registration bodies such as the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) require CPD to maintain teaching credentials.

Tracking CPD points in SuperPath

SuperPath streamlines CPD tracking by recording the learning activities your people complete in the platform. As they finish courses, workshops and other CPD-aligned training, their earned CPD points are tracked and stored automatically — removing the need for manual record-keeping and giving accurate records to demonstrate compliance. Reports can then be generated to show completed learning and any outstanding CPD goals.

To make use of this, an Owner or Admin enables CPD points for your organisation, and you assign point values to your Learning, Pathways and Events. See How to Enable CPD Points and Assigning CPD Points to Learning, Pathways and Events.

FAQs

How many CPD points is an activity worth?
It depends on your profession and accrediting body. A common rule of thumb is one point per hour of learning, but some activities carry more weight.

Does SuperPath track CPD points automatically?
Yes. Once CPD points are enabled and assigned to your learning items, SuperPath records the points a learner earns as they complete that learning.

Who decides how many points a piece of learning is worth?
You do — an Owner, Admin or content creator sets the point value on each Learning, Pathway or Event. See Assigning CPD Points to Learning, Pathways and Events.

Updated on: 24/07/2026