Regulatory Matters CPD Online

About CPD (Continuing Professional Development)

The CPD information on this website applies to both ICABC (British Columbia) and ICAYK (Yukon) members.

Why?

If you are to maintain your professional competence throughout your working life, you need more than just work experience. Providing proper service to clients or organizations demands constant updating of knowledge and skills. The pace and volume of change means that each individual must allow sufficient time to properly assimilate and digest the mass of new material on which their own work depends. Its achievement in an orderly and cost-effective manner is CPD.

Who?

All members of the ICABC other than the exempt categories are required to comply with the universal CPD program. A copy of the relevant by-laws (Bylaw Part 10 Continuing Professional Development), is available in your Members' Handbook on the Institute's website.

How?

The relative merits of the different types of learning vary according to the needs of the individual and of the subject matter involved. For example, new developments or legislation can often be effectively and speedily learned through courses prepared by a few experts. When subsequently published, the material can often be as well learned from a pamphlet, textbook, or over the internet. Some subjects require tutorial guidance and participatory exercises if they are to be efficiently absorbed. Others can be more readily acquired through personal study. Personal study is often achieved in the course of carrying out the technical research involved in normal duties.

A distinction can usefully be made between "verifiable" and "unverifiable" CPD.

Verifiable (previously called “structured”) CPD is provided through attendance, as lecturer or participant, at courses, conferences and seminars. It can be obtained from formal "home study" such as correspondence courses, audio or video presentations or computer based training, that includes testing or some evidence of completion. It may derive from a technical committee meeting.

Unverifiable (previously called “unstructured”) CPD includes private reading and study, technical research, on the job learning, all related to professional learning.

The main point for both verifiable and unverifiable learning activities is that they should contribute to professional competence.

What?

Effective CPD is best achieved by an appropriate mix of verifiable and unverifiable CPD. It would be impractical to attempt detailed guidance; rather it is a matter of personal judgment. It is for you to satisfy yourself that a given activity is both relevant to your needs and of appropriate quality.

To assist you in choosing the right combination of PD activities, the CPD program offers a broad range of possible options. A description of program categories and credit hours appears on the website and on the back of the CPD Reporting Form. The key element is that the CPD program contains significant intellectual and/or practical content, is directly related to chartered accountancy or to the professional responsibility and/or ethical obligations and personal development skills of the participant.