For the purposes of this document, CPD Administrator refers to a designated contact in the Irish Computer Society’s membership team, CPD Review Board refers to an executive team within the Irish Computer Society headed up by the membership manager and CPD Management System refers to an internal system developed, maintained and operated by the Irish Computer Society, Registered Participants refers to candidates who are seeking CPD points having attended a training course that is covered by this scheme.

By taking part in the CPD programme, Registered Participants, Training Providers and CPD Trainers are agreeing to allow the CPD Administrator access to all information relating to them which is held on the CPD Management System.

Data held on the CPD management system may also be used to provide feedback on other related topics.

Training Providers can recommend points to be allocated to their courses; however, the CPD Administrator has the final decision on the points to be allocated. The default value for courses will be allocated after one week from the date of registration unless otherwise decided upon by the CPD Administrator. Where organisations disagree with points allocated to events after the events take place, these concerns can be brought to the CPD Review Board. The CPD Review Board, having considered any submission made, can decide to change or not to change the number of points allocated; the CPD Review Board’s decision shall be final.

For Registered Participants attending courses such as Certificates (whether advanced or not), Diploma’s, Degrees, Masters or PhD’s, points will be awarded for each year of verified attendance. This is awarded when a full 12 months of attendance has been completed and attendance prior to CPD registration does not count. If on the final year and on completion of the course less than 12 months of attendance has taken place the full allocation of points can be awarded for that year. This verification should be scanned and emailed to the CPD Administrator.

For some CPD Events such as publication of a peer reviewed research paper which is not considered part of the “Registered Participants” day to day work, the CPD Administrator can assign a set number of points as he/she deems appropriate once the points awarded does not exceed 20. If the CPD Administrator considers the number of points warranted should exceed 20 then approval must be sought by the CPD Administrator from the CPD Review Board; the CPD Review Board’s decision shall be final.

Registration of attendance must be done online before 12 midday two working days before the event takes place. Manual registration can take place after this deadline but only when the CPD Administrator is given an original Attendance Certificate which will be validated.

The Administrator can send an observer to any CPD Event to assess the quality of the training etc. for CPD points.

Registered Participants must ensure that the representative of the Training Provider (usually the CPD Trainer) signs their individual attendance sheet so that their attendance can be verified by the CPD Administrator and the relevant number of points allocated. It is up to the Registered Participants to scan the attendance sheet and e mail the image to the CPD Administrator in order to have points attributed to their account. Registered Participants must email their signed attendance sheet within one week of completion of the event, otherwise points will not be allocated. The onus is on the member to ensure that their attendance sheet is signed. The CPD Administrator will conduct random checks to test the system and verify claims.

Where Attendants Sheets have not been submitted for whatever reason, original certificates of attendance or similar can be submitted by post if these are available (they will be returned within one month of receipt). These must be received by the CDP Administrator within two weeks of completion of the event and the CPD Administrator has the final decision regarding whether these documents can be accepted.

Points can only be awarded for events completed after the CPD programme goes live.

Points are awarded automatically to the Registered Participant one week after receipt of attendance sheet or original certificate of attendance (if acceptable to the Administrator) or similar. The Administrator can however, select individual attendances for random checks. This effectively puts a block on the awarding of points to the individual affected. For these cases the Administrator will aim to complete validation within two weeks of receipt of attendance sheet or original certificate of attendance so that points can be allocated thereafter.

Participants that fail to attend a CPD Event which has been designated as mandatory (in the context of CPD) will be deducted the points allocated to that event. Where a Mandatory CPD Event consists of two or more sessions/days all points will be deducted where any element of the course is not attended.

Registered Participants must get the representative of the CPD Trainer to sign the CPD attendance sheet at CPD Events. For courses which have not been registered on the CPD management system by a CPD Trainer, for whatever reason, original Certificate of Attendance or similar may be submitted, once the CPD Event has been registered subsequently.

The CPD year will follow the calendar year.

Any financial loss whatsoever that might arise directly or indirectly in attending or organising CPD Events shall be borne by the Registered Participants or the Training Provider as appropriate.

Course content and material must be posted to the CPD Management System by the Training Providers at the latest one week before the event is scheduled to begin. This material will be available to all Registered Participants. However, if training Providers want to influence the CPD Administrator in terms of the points that can be assigned, course content and material should be posted to the CPD Management System at the time of event registration. If there is a delay in posting course content to the system or no course content is available it is more likely to be the case that default points will apply. It is possible that points can be deducted after they have been awarded, if courses are deemed by the Review Board not to have been of sufficient quality to merit the points awarded in the first instance. Points may also be deducted if it subsequently transpires that a Registered Participant was not in fact in attendance at the CPD Event.

Attendees must make themselves known to event organisers to facilitate attendance recording at events. Proof of identity may be required.

Informal events such as meetings, on the job training or literature reviews are not regarded as CPD Events.

Where the attendance verification process cannot confirm that a Registered Participant has attended the CPD Event in question, the Registered Participant is asked to provide further proof of his/her attendance. This may include sample signatures from official documents, timesheets, written confirmation from the Company CEO that the individual was in attendance or any other material deem appropriate by the CPD Administrator.

Registered Participants are responsible for keeping records of their CPD Event attendances; these may be required in any subsequent verification exercise.

CPD Events must comply with the following event criteria :

• The material or content must be directly relevant to IT Professionals


• Course presenters must have qualifications and/or knowledge and experience appropriate to the subject(s) being presented


• The presentation must be conducted in an appropriate location (i.e. proper conference / business / in-house facility)


• The event must be at least one hour in duration


• If electronically delivered, the event/activity must meet the criteria described in paragraph 25 and 26 below

The CPD Administrator has the final say on whether a proposed CPD Event has met the prescribed criteria. Where a CPD Event is rejected by the Administrator, it must be referred to a member of the CPD Review Board for confirmation. Once this confirmation is given the CPD Trainer must be notified within one week of the Event being registered that the event has been rejected. Full details as to why it has been rejected must be given by the Administrator.

Activities normal to one’s profession are not considered appropriate either, e.g. the publication of technical papers by an employee of a research establishment, but where such activity is an add-on to normal work it may be considered. In considering whether or not to grant CPD points to eLearning courses and other electronically delivered events and activities, the CPD Administrator will evaluate the relevance of their content in the same way as other “CPD Events” (a-e above). In order to assess the level of active involvement required of its participants, the Administrator will examine the learning approach and structure of these electronically delivered events and activities. In this regard, to be awarded CPD points each eLearning course or module must:

• Be generally well-designed (e.g. divided into individual lessons or units of reasonable length, require little or no scrolling within pages, be easy to read and navigate)


• Be highly interactive, requiring regular interaction between the course and the learner (through frequent exercises, questions, links to websites or feedback etc.)


• Incorporate a reasonable diversity of delivery approaches and/or media (e.g., appropriate combinations of text/slides, animation, pop-up pages, audio or video, attachments etc.)


• Ensure that the module is designed so that individuals cannot bypass the learning material and go straight to the test


• Ensure that individuals spend a comparable amount of time completing a module as the accreditation awarded for the module i.e. if a module is accredited for a half day, then the module should take an individual 2-4 hours to complete, inclusive of the test
• Include computer-based testing to provide evidence that a learner has assimilated the knowledge and skills contained in the course (the question bank should contain a greater number of questions than the test in the event that a person fails the test and has to resit to ensure that a predominantly different set of questions is presented in a resit test)

Events delivered using Web Casting and Web/Tele-Conferencing and similar technologies must :

• Be transmitted ‘live’ (to allow for interaction between learner and presenter). Presentations which are not viewed/attended ‘live’ will not be accredited for CPD points


• Be generally well-designed and create a productive learning experience e.g. participants at remote locations must be able to hear and/or see the presenters, while simultaneously viewing the presenters’ materials e.g. slides or simulations


• Provide opportunities for all participants to put questions (verbal or written) to and engage in discussions with presenters during the event


• Provide a means for course organisers to verify those participating at each venue; to include verification that the participant attended for the full duration e.g. log-in and log-out confirmation


• Include provision of electronic or hard-copy confirmation of attendance for the full duration to participants
• Include a minimum of a half hour of relevant learning

Registered Participants who attain a new qualification must submit proof of this qualification to the CPD Administrator before CPD points can be accredited.

The CPD board would be appointed by the irish Computer Society. Members would serve a three year term of office and can be reappointed with their agreement.

Withdrawal of CPD accreditation will require CPD Review Board approval

Changes to the terms and conditions of the CPD programme must be agreed by the Board.

The Review Board can recommend amendments to the terms and conditions of the Programme.

The Administrator can send an independent observer to any event to assess the quality of the training etc. for CPD points. The CPD Administrator may decide to carry out an onsite visit themselves.