As a professional, you need to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. CPD helps you to keep track of what you’re doing, identify the opportunities you are taking and record your career objectives. It’s up to you how much you do, and the nature and scale of the benefits are up to you too. The credibility of our profession is based on the commitment of individual members to self-improvement.
CPD is a personal commitment to keeping your professional knowledge up to date and improving your skills. It focuses on what you learn and how you develop throughout your career. CPD is a change in perspective, rather than a process. You are probably already doing the right things and it’s just a question of understanding the value you have added. It’s important to know that one size doesn’t fit all. You are in control of what you want to achieve and where you want your career to go.
We recommend you review your learning over the previous 12 months and set your development objectives for the coming year. Reflecting on the best ways for you to learn will ensure your development is easier to measure and methodical. You may already be doing this as part of your development review with an employer. See For Employers to find out about our CPD Employer Accreditation Scheme.
One of the most common misconceptions about CPD is that it takes extra effort over and above your normal daily activities to get results. For many people, CPD can be seamlessly incorporated into the way they work. You’re probably already doing all the right things, it’s just a question of recording and understanding the value you have gained. Some people set aside a regular hour or so a week to reflect on what they’ve done, others make it part of their working day.
The subject matter and objectives within your CPD should be relevant to your role – and your future aspirations.
CPD focuses on meeting your needs and objectives as a professional. Continuing development helps you learn the things you want to know, and apply what you’ve learnt to your working day.
Different working arrangements offer different learning contexts. For example, self-employed consultants may well encounter fresh opportunities for CPD with every new project or assignment.
As a minimum, you must periodically evaluate your needs and decide what is appropriate for you.
Your CPD requirements are the same, regardless of working part-time. Review and decide what is relevant and appropriate for your role.
All active FCT and AMCT members are asked to undertake and record CPD activity and submit a declaration as part of their annual renewal. Even if you are no longer working in treasury, on a career break or working part time you will need to evaluate your needs and record what is appropriate for your professional development. There are lots of different ways to record your CPD activity – visit My CPD for further information.
If you've moved from being a student to a member part way through the membership/CPD year, you won’t need to undertake CPD until the next full year of membership.
Retired Members not undertaking professional roles are exempt from having to complete CPD.
Our approach is based on reflecting on learning that focuses on outcomes and results. We do not count hours or points – it’s up to you how much time you spend. However, to give you a rough idea, someone who is professionally active on a full time basis would probably spend around 30 hours a year on CPD — many of which can be gained on the job.
CPD can be achieved in many different ways – attending courses is only one of them. Any learning or development activity that is relevant to your role may count as CPD. Examples include online learning, reading, attending meetings of a professional body or regulator, or discussions with a mentor or mentee.
Absolutely. Anything that supports your objectives and adds a new perspective, increases your confidence or improves your skills counts.
Repeating a presentation is unlikely to help you acquire new knowledge or skills. That said, if the presentation has to be updated with important changes, that may count. Equally, if you feel that the repetition is reinforcing your previous learning, you could recognise the additional learning effectiveness as a CPD activity. If questions asked following your presentation lead to further knowledge acquisition this could also meet your objectives.
Yes, this should count as your CPD. It took place as part of your day to day job, but given that it was something discrete, new, and additional to your normal activity – yet still relevant – it is a form of CPD.
If you’re just passing on all the information you currently possess, then this is not CPD for you – but it may be for your colleague. If you had to undertake research to learn about the markets yourself, or to fill in gaps in your knowledge, then yes it would count. But only if it was identified as a need in your CPD plan.
Through your secondment, you are learning new things that are clearly relevant to your temporary role. You will need to assess how much time was true learning and how much was ‘doing’ – actually putting it into practice.
Interpersonal skills are normally part of any treasury role, especially for those in managerial positions, so this would count as CPD.
CPD is specific to the individual. Training from another professional body can count as CPD if it’s relevant and effective. Furthermore, two people attending the same course will probably record different CPD learning outcomes for the time spent.
Yes, as long as the course is relevant for your role and/or career aspirations.
If, after attending the seminar, you now realise that this is relevant and important to your career, you can add this as an objective after the event and count it toward that objective.
As part of your annual membership renewal, we will ask you to complete a declaration as confirmation that you have considered your development needs, undertaken appropriate activity and assessed the extent to which your CPD objectives have been met.
If you work for a CPD accredited employer, you will only need to confirm that you are still employed by that organisation.
Each year, we will ask a random sample of members to provide evidence to support their CPD activity for the year. If you’re selected, you will need to show how you have worked through the CPD three-stage cycle.
In the first instance, we will speak to you to see if we can help you to make the declaration. We would work with you to see what personal development you have undertaken in the last 12 months and provide guidance on what you need to do to ensure you complete your CPD going forward.
If there is any reason why you cannot comply with the CPD criteria in any particular year, you should contact the ACT immediately.
Members who repeatedly do not provide a declaration and will not work with the ACT to discuss their CPD needs, or who do not submit their CPD record submission when requested, will be subject to the ACT’s disciplinary rules.
You can record your CPD in any format. We’ve developed a range of tools to help you record your CPD – including an interactive log. Visit the My CPD page to find out more. But we’re keen to ensure you adopt an approach that works for you.
Whatever method you choose, you should remember to keep your records for a minimum of three years – and be able to provide evidence, if requested.
We will accept your records for other professional bodies where relevant to your role and/or future aspirations. So, if you have had to provide evidence to another association, you may submit this documentation to the ACT if asked to provide evidence to support your CPD. If the declaration dates are different from the ACTs we will accept the most recent record.
If you’re selected, we will contact you by the end of July. Information on when you need to submit your records will be provided in the communication sent to you. You will need to show how you have worked through the CPD three-stage cycle - visit the My CPD page to find out more.
The most important piece of evidence is your CPD record. This must be sufficiently detailed to allow us to assess whether you have planned, acted, evaluated and recorded your achievements. You will also be asked to provide a CPD cover sheet which highlights the three most important objectives you have completed over the CPD year.
We will support our members wherever possible. Virtually all the services provided by the ACT can be regarded as CPD, in one form or another. For example events, training, The Treasurer magazine and any briefings or updates in person, in print or via the website. We will provide additional CPD guidance and other services whenever possible and much of this is free or substantially discounted for members.