CPD is the learning and development that you'll do throughout your membership. CPD will provide you with the skills that you need to perform your day-to-day job, as well as enhance your employability for the future.

One CPD unit is the equivalent of one hour of learning.

All ACCA members should complete CPD on an annual basis. If you're a new member then you must begin CPD from 1 January after you become a member. You don't have to complete CPD if you're on our register of lifetime members.

There are four different ways to approach your CPD, called 'routes':

• Unit route
• Unit route for part-time or semi-retired
• ACCA Approved Employer route
• IFAC body route

You can find out about each one - and which you should follow - in our CPD routes section. 

Each year you should identify areas for development and do CPD that helps you meet your development needs, to ensure your skills and knowledge are up to date. Keep a record, as each year you need to demonstrate what CPD you have done. We call this your annual CPD declaration.

Visit our CPD: What you need to do section for guidance. 

CPD is a vital part of your membership. To maintain your membership, you must complete CPD every year. You should begin recording your CPD from 1 January after you became a member.

The amount of CPD you need to do will depend on which CPD route you follow. You can find out about each route - and which you should follow - in our CPD routes section.

Most members will follow the CPD unit route and need to complete 40 units of CPD annually made up of:

• 21 units of verifiable CPD
• 19 units of non-verifiable CPD.

A range of activities can count as CPD provided that they are relevant to your current role or future career aspirations, activities include courses, work based and online learning.  You can find out more about the different types of activities that count as CPD in our Do your CPD section. 

Verifiable CPD:

If you’re following the Unit route then any learning activity can count as verifiable CPD when you can answer 'Yes' to these three questions: 

1. Was the learning activity relevant to your career?
2. Can you explain how you applied the learning in the workplace?
3. Can you provide evidence that you undertook the learning activity?

Non-verifiable CPD:

This is general learning not related to a specific outcome, or which is difficult to provide evidence for.

Non-verifiable CPD can include general reading, such as technical journal articles in AB magazine.

A great place to start is our CPD resources. You can access a wealth of events and courses near you, or online learning on demand. Check out our CPD resources.

Overview

If you plan and organise your own CPD, this is the route for you.

You’ll complete a total of 40 relevant units of CPD each year, comprising:

• at least 21 verifiable units; and
• up to 19 non-verifiable units.

One unit equals one hour of development.

A learning activity counts as verifiable CPD if it’s relevant to your career, and you can explain how you used the learning in the workplace, and you should also be able to provide evidence that you completed the learning activity.

Non-verifiable CPD is general learning, such as reading or research, which isn’t related to any specific learning outcome or objective.  You do not need to provide evidence for non-verifiable CPD.

Carrying forward units

If you complete more than 21 verifiable units in any year, you can carry forward up to 21 of these additional units to your next CPD year. This might happen if you’ve been studying intensively for an MBA or another qualification. Unfortunately, non-verifiable units can’t be carried forward.

Please note, you cannot carry forward CPD units in your first year of CPD.

Related downloads

CPD for practising members (PDF, 76kb)

If you’re employed for 770 hours or less during a CPD year, which works out at 17.5 hours per week, you may be eligible to follow our part-time or semi-retired route. This might also apply to you if you’re only active in the workplace at certain times of the year.

In this case, you’ll complete 19 units of non-verifiable CPD, where one unit equals one hour of development. You’ll set your own level of verifiable CPD, but please ensure that it’s enough for your current role.

Certain conditions apply to our part-time or semi-retired route:

• If you’re not eligible for this route, please follow the full unit route instead
• If you’re a practising member, you can only follow this route if you aren’t responsible for audit or other regulated report work
• You should be able to show that you have technical support when carrying out your duties

You shouldn’t follow this route if you’re involved in the preparation or presentation of accounts that investors may rely on, or are a non-executive director of a listed company.

Related downloads

CPD: part-time or semi-retired guidance (PDF, 488kb)
CPD evidence checklist: part-time or semi-retired (PDF, 106kb)

Some employers provide excellent learning and development programmes of their own.

If you work for an employer who holds Approved Employer professional development approval then you can follow their employee development programme to complete your CPD.  You’ll follow their development programme by taking part in their appraisal process and completing your personal development plan with them.

Confirming you are following this route

You still need to submit your annual CPD declaration to us, confirming that you’ve followed this route.

If you’ve only worked for an ACCA Approved Employer who holds professional development approval for part of a CPD year, you can indicate that you’ve taken the Approved Employer route when making your declaration.

Please check with your employer that they hold Approved Employer professional development approval and that you or your team are covered by the approval.  You can also check our Approved Employer directory.

Related links

Keeping CPD evidence

Making your CPD declaration

ACCA Approved Employer directory

If you’re also a member of another professional accountancy body, you’ll maybe have a choice of CPD programmes. We’re happy for you to follow theirs, as long as:

1. you’re a full member of the other professional accountancy body; 
2. they’re a member of IFAC; and 
3. their CPD policy complies with IFAC's International Education Standard (IES 7).

If the answer is 'yes' to all three, you can follow the IFAC body route.  It is important that you still submit your annual CPD declaration, confirming that you’ve followed this route.

Related links

Keeping CPD evidence

Making your CPD declaration

IFAC website

When you’re planning your CPD and choosing activities the most important thing to focus on is the relevance.

Make sure what you’re learning is relevant to your role and your career ambitions.

If you work in accounting and finance, you will need to keep your technical knowledge current. Practising members should aim to ensure that an appropriate amount of development is undertaken in their area(s) of technical specialism.

Members who are Responsible Individuals must ensure they maintain their competence in audit - even if no audit work is currently being undertaken.

If your career has moved away from accounting and finance, you should undertake learning which is relevant to your new career - which could be anything from teaching to law, or consultancy to IT.

No matter what route your career has taken, it is important to also consider non-technical skills. You may wish to pursue learning in:

• business management
• personal effectiveness
• leadership and strategy; or
• information technology (IT).

We recognise activity within all of these areas - what is important is that your learning is relevant to you and how you demonstrate this learning.

Planning your approach to CPD will help you to focus on maintaining the knowledge and skills you need in your current role, and unlock your full career potential.

Taking the time to plan your CPD and identify your development needs will focus your learning and make your development more effective.

Plan your approach

Step one: identify the areas that you would like to develop

It’s important to remember that the accountancy profession never stands still.  We have been researching the key knowledge, skills and behaviours that professional accountants are going to need in the future to ensure their future success.

Thinking about your CPD also has the added advantage of allowing you to plan your approach - avoid the trap of having to complete all your activity at the end of the year!

Step two: plan activities to help meet your identified development needs

Be aware that CPD is not all about courses and events, there are other types of learning (eg e-learning or learning at work), which may be more effective for your needs.

Our CPD policy is flexible and a wide range of learning can contribute towards your CPD, as long as it is relevant to your development.

Once you’ve planned your CPD by identifying the areas you’d like to develop, it is time to find learning activities to help you achieve this.

Provided that what you learn is relevant to your job or future career aspirations then lots of different activities can count as CPD, including:

• webinars
• online courses
• podcasts
• online articles
• learning at work
• face-to-face courses
• committees/panels/ discussion groups
• undertaking research
• additional qualifications
• coaching and mentoring
• networking
• publications and technical articles.

Below we take a more detailed look at some of the ways you can do CPD.

CPD & events finder

Our CPD & events finder allows you to search for events an courses near you, as well as access articles, e-learning, webinars, research and qualifications relevant to your career path.

Visit the CPD & events finder.

Learning at work

You can gain verifiable and non-verifiable CPD from a range of work-based activities. Look at the evidence examples in the 'related links' area of this page for more ideas of how learning at work can contribute to your CPD. Many of the activities that you do at work (eg starting a new role, coaching, mentoring, in-house training and briefings) will enable you to develop your knowledge and skills.

It is very important for you to identify when something is a learning activity and when it is your routine job responsibility. If you undertake new learning in order to carry out a task, it contributes to CPD. If no learning has taken place, you will not have gained CPD.

Working for an ACCA Approved Employer who holds professional development approval is another way of achieving the CPD requirement through your work. 

Find out more about the Approved Employer programme.

Become a practical experience supervisor

Give something back by becoming a practical experience supervisor. All our trainees need a supervisor to satisfy the Practical Experience Requirements (PER) of the ACCA Qualification.

As an ACCA member, you can act as a practical experience supervisor to one of our trainees, provided you work closely with them. You can also gain CPD through this important role, eg by:

• researching our PER to prepare for a one-to-one session with your trainee
• undertaking learning to keep your technical knowledge up to date in order to ensure a trainee's workplace performance is technically sound
• developing your management or coaching skills to ensure you are an effective ACCA practical experience supervisor. Examples include coaching or training, or researching constructive feedback techniques.

Please note that, over time, you may become familiar with the coaching techniques. It is important that you continue to enhance your knowledge and skills in order to gain CPD.

Find out more about becoming a practical experience supervisor.

Carefully evaluating whether learning has been useful and relevant will help you to ensure that your CPD remains effective and relevant to you and benefits your career.

When to record your CPD

Keeping a record of your CPD as you go will help you to determine if you’re on track with your CPD plan, and help you to identify any gaps or areas where you need to do more learning.  It will also make it easier to complete your annual CPD declaration, because it will help you to assess if you’ve met the CPD requirement for the year. 

If you’re selected for a CPD review then you may be asked to provide three years’ worth of CPD records*, therefore keeping records as you go along will make it easier to provide a copy of your records if requested.

* Members who are Responsible Individuals (Statutory Auditors) or sustainability assurance service providers in Ireland and individuals who are partners or directors or agents of a firm holding an ACCA Irish auditing certificate must keep a record of their CPD activities for six years. Registered tax practitioners in South Africa must keep a record of their CPD activities for five years.

How to record your CPD

You can keep your CPD records in any format you prefer.  To prevent duplication some members use their employer’s personal development plan (PDP). 

Alternatively you can use our online CPD recording tool in MyACCA.  A benefit of using this recording tool is that it will help you to record the information that you need for a CPD review. 

Questions to think about when evaluating your CPD

You should evaluate your CPD activities it can be helpful to consider the following questions:

• Did your activity meet your needs?
• Can you apply your learning in the workplace, for example by satisfying your clients’ needs, or improving your approach in the workplace?
• Has there been a positive impact on your business?
• Would you do anything differently next time?

The key information you should note in your CPD record is why you chose the activity, what you learned from it, and how you will apply it.

You can review examples of completed CPD records in our keeping your CPD evidence section for many different learning activities. These will help you to understand what information you should include in your CPD record.