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Continuing Professional Development

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Continuing professional development (“CPD”) is an important part of being a professional.  It helps ensure applied biology professionals maintain their competence and stay up to date.

Program Overview

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program is a professional development tool for College registrants to maintain and enhance their professional competencies, improve as a professional, and enhance their professional practice. The CPD Program aids the College in fulfilling its mandate to protect the public interest by ensuring registrants continue to remain up to date as a professional and in their area of practice, maintain or enhance their professional competencies, and complete mandatory training requirements.

The CPD Program is described in Part 7, Division 2 of the College Bylaws and in Policy 7-100.

Requirements

Participation in the CPD Program is mandatory for all practicing and in-training registrants, including those registered as on leave.

Registrants must complete 100 CPD points of eligible activities over 3 consecutive years.  Eligible activities are those within the CPD categories. Registrants must submit annual records of the CPD activities they complete by December 31st of each year.  CPD records must be submitted in a registrant’s profile within the College’s registrant portal.

Requirements for registrants set out in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Standard.

All applicants to the College of Applied Biologists are required to complete the College’s two mandatory training courses as a condition of registration with the College. Beginning in August 2022, current registrants of the College will be selected randomly to complete the the College’s mandatory training courses; by December 31, 2024, all registrants of the College will have completed both the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct course and the Indigenous Awareness course in order to gain or maintain registration. The training is offered through the College’s training portal and can be completed at any time by logging in and scrolling down to the Courses section.

The two mandatory training courses are:

  1. Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct course – self paced online course.
  2. Indigenous Awareness course – self-paced on-line course that allows you to save your progress and continue at a later date. The College’s partner for this course is Indigenous Corporate Training. This is a foundational course for applied biology professionals regarding Indigenous peoples in Canada including but not limited to the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, historical impacts, current issues and self-government.

The requirements for mandatory training are set out in section 57 of the Professional Governance Act. The College Council has established the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct course and the Indigenous Awareness training course as the programs that must be completed in order to comply with the Act. Completing a course on the Code of Ethics has been a requirement for registration with the College previously, however the course changed in March 2021 in order to come into compliance with the Professional Governance Act and the new Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. The course relates directly to the new Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and all registrants will be required to take the new course in order to comply with the Act.

Section 57 of the PGA also prescribes that the College establish requirements that support reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia (Act, sec. 57 (1) (f)). The mandatory training course will ensure that all applied biology professionals have a baseline level of training. As applied biology professionals frequently collaborate and engage with Indigenous businesses, communities and governments it is vital for practitioners to promote strong relationships and work towards reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in compliance with the PGA and the BC Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

Completion of the courses by current registrants can be accounted for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points.

More information about the mandatory training courses and the requirements for registrants to complete the courses can be found in the mandatory training courses FAQ. 

Annual Reporting

  • CPD records must be submitted by end of each year (Dec 31).
  • Annual CPD statements are submitted in registrant’s profile of the College portal.
Join College staff as they demonstrate the new continuing professional development (CPD) tracking module in the registrant portal. The session begins with a summary of the CPD program, answering questions such as:

• What is it, who is required to do it?
• What’s been modernized about the program?
• How does the program tie into the Professional Governance Act and the College bylaws?
• How does the program contribute to the College’s mandate of protecting the public interest?

College Registrar and Director of Practice and Compliance Shona Lawson then leads attendees in a demonstration of the tracking module before answering your questions about the module and the CPD program as a whole. This webinar can even be claimed for 1 CPD point — don’t miss it!

Suggested CPD activities

Below are some suggested resources that may be considered CPD activities. Refer to Policy 7 – 100: The Continuing Professional Development Program and the CPD Standard for information on CPD areas such as categories, criteria and associated claimable points. It is registrants’ responsibility to ensure CPD activities align with the College’s criteria when claiming points.

  • CANLII (a searchable website for legislation, regulation and legal cases that have resulted on in Canada)

Frequently Asked Questions

More information about CPD can be found in the FAQ document. If you have questions please contact the Director of Practice at director_practice@cab-bc.org.

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