CPD requirements by profession
CIPD CPD requirements for HR and L&D professionals
Last reviewed 15 October 2026
If you have arrived here looking for the number of CPD hours CIPD requires, the honest answer is that there isn't one — and a lot of third-party pages state a figure as though there were. CIPD's model is deliberately different from most professional bodies, and knowing that changes how you should plan your year.
The short answer: CIPD takes an outputs-based approach, not an hours-based one. The focus is the impact of your learning and how it changed your practice, not time spent. CIPD recommends around 30 hours each year of planned learning, complemented by learning in the flow of work, and asks members to submit a minimum of three CPD records a year. The CPD year runs January to December.
Outputs, not hours — and why it matters
Most professional bodies ask “how long did you spend?”. CIPD asks what changed. A half-day workshop that visibly altered how you run a process can be worth more in a CIPD record than three days of attendance that changed nothing.
The practical consequence is that a record reading “attended conference, 7 hours” is close to worthless under this model, even though it would satisfy an hours-based body. What CIPD is looking for is what you gained and how you will use it.
| CIPD's approach | |
|---|---|
| Basis | Outputs — impact on practice |
| Mandatory hours | None |
| Recommended planned learning | around 30 hours a year |
| Records required | minimum of three a year |
| CPD year | January to December |
The three records
Three a year is a floor, not a target, and it is low enough that there is no excuse for missing it. What makes a record useful is the reflection: what you did, what you gained, and how you will apply it. A record without the last part is an attendance note.
“Learning in the flow of work” counts — but plan something too
CIPD explicitly recognises learning that happens through the job itself, not only through courses. That is realistic, and it is a relief to anyone whose calendar does not accommodate training days.
The complement matters though: the recommendation is around 30 hours of planned learning, with informal learning on top. Relying entirely on whatever happened to come up at work produces a thin record and, more to the point, a developmental year nobody directed.
Chartered status is a different question
People often conflate the ongoing CPD expectation with upgrading to Chartered membership. They are separate. Upgrading runs through an assessment route — either an Upgrade assessment, which involves an online professional discussion or a written submission depending on level, or Experience Assessment, a series of online assessments and a professional discussion taking roughly three months.
Good CPD records help because they evidence current practice, but completing CPD does not itself upgrade your membership.
Where CPD accreditation fits — and where it doesn't
This is the part most training providers get wrong, so it is worth being blunt about it.
CIPD does not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers. Neither we nor any other CPD accreditation body can make a course “CIPD-approved”. Any provider telling you otherwise is overstating what they hold, and members who repeat that claim in a record are the ones exposed if it is questioned.
What independent accreditation actually does is narrower and more useful: it gives members evidence that the learning was assessed against a published standard, with stated outcomes, a justified hour claim, and a certificate anyone can check. When you write the record up, that evidence is what turns “I did a course” into something defensible.
An AssuredCPD-accredited course carries stated learning outcomes, a CPD-hour figure assessed as proportionate rather than self-declared, and a unique verification code. We are explicit in our own rules about what providers may and may not claim — see what you can and can't claim once a course is CPD accredited.
What to look for in a course
Whatever body you report to, the same four questions separate learning that will stand up from learning that won't:
- Are the learning outcomes written down? You cannot reflect on what a course changed if it never said what it intended to teach.
- Is the hour claim justified, or just asserted? An inflated figure is the single most common reason a course fails our assessment, and it is the figure you will be putting your name to.
- Was anything actually assessed? A completion certificate for watching a video is not evidence of learning.
- Can the certificate be checked by someone else? A PDF proves nothing on its own. A reference a third party can verify does.
Under an outputs-based model, the second of those matters slightly less and the first matters considerably more. If a course cannot tell you what it intends to teach, you will struggle to write the reflection CIPD actually wants.
Common questions
How many CPD hours does CIPD require?
CIPD does not set a mandatory number of hours. It takes an outputs-based approach focused on the impact of learning on your practice. CIPD recommends around 30 hours of planned learning each year, complemented by learning in the flow of work.
How many CPD records do CIPD members have to submit?
A minimum of three CPD records a year. The CIPD CPD year runs from January to December.
What is an outputs-based approach to CPD?
It means the focus is on what your learning changed about your professional practice, rather than on the time you spent learning. A record should say what you gained and how you will apply it, not simply how many hours an activity took.
Does CIPD approve CPD courses or providers?
No. CIPD does not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers or courses. Members decide what is relevant to their development and record the outcome.
Is CPD the same as upgrading to Chartered membership?
No. Upgrading runs through a separate assessment route, either an Upgrade assessment involving an online professional discussion or written submission, or Experience Assessment, which takes around three months. Strong CPD records support an application but do not by themselves upgrade membership.
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AssuredCPD is an independent CPD accreditation body. We are not a government or regulatory body and do not award regulated qualifications. AssuredCPD accreditation is not endorsement, approval or recognition by any professional body named on this page, and we have no affiliation with them. Requirements are summarised from each body’s own published guidance and were checked on 15 October 2026; those bodies change their rules from time to time, so always confirm against the official source linked above before relying on it.