What is CPD?
Short answer
CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It is the structured and self-directed learning a professional undertakes after qualifying, in order to maintain and extend the skills their role requires. It is measured in hours, recorded over an annual cycle, and required for continued registration in most regulated professions.
A qualification proves competence at a single point in time. CPD is what keeps that competence current as practice, technology and regulation move on. It covers formal training and everything a curious professional does deliberately to get better at the job.
Most professional bodies distinguish between structured CPD — accredited courses, workshops, conferences, formal e-learning, all with defined objectives and evidence of completion — and self-directed CPD, such as reading, mentoring, shadowing and reflective practice. Both count, but where an annual minimum is set, it is usually structured activity that carries the weight, because it can be evidenced.
The practical test of whether something is CPD: could you explain to your regulator what you learned, how long it took, and what changed in your practice as a result?