Professional Development:

CPD steps for a Student or Counsellors
a) For a Student : -
A student, once he/she registers, receives support in the form of CPDs, from CCI and the concerned Member Association, to enable him/her to become Counselling ready. This would be in the form of 1) Executive Development Programs, 2) Workshops, 3) Internships etc. The student can take during his/her vacations or holidays. For these credits are given to the student. These credits would facilitate the student in their Interviews and other educational upgrade. CPD would be mandatory on completion of his/her Graduation / Post Graduation, for regular registration in the National Register of Professional Counsellors.

At present, to provide inducements to the student community, a student who registers now and participates sincerely and successfully in the student level CPDs, would be channelize for the internship in different areas. Further the fee paid now would also be discounted from the fee to be paid at the time of regular registration after obtaining the qualifying qualification.

b) For an Counsellor: -
On registration, an Counsellorr is awarded a category depending on his past relevant experience. On award of a category, the Counsellor joins the National Register of Professional Counsellor. This Register is available on CCI’s website www.cci.org.in and is in the public domain. This category is awarded for 5 years subject to 1) The counsellor has and will conform to the prescribed Code of Ethics, and 2) would accumulate minimum 250 credit hours in upgrading his skills and knowledge in his chosen field of spCCIalization, during this period of 5 years. 3) The skill and knowledge upgradation can be effected by any of the methods listed out in the CPD Guidelines. 4)The credit hours are calculated as per that Guidelines. 5) After 5 years the category would be reviewed and based on his performance, the category could be enhanced or kept the same or reduced or withdrawn completely.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) GUIDELINES

1. Each Professional Counsellor is expected to meet minimum CPD requirement before being considered for registration or renewal of registration. While it may be difficult to get evaluate past CPD before first registration, it may be advisable to prescribe and evaluate CPD after first registration.
   
   • Each Registered Counsellor has to accumulate a minimum of 60 Credit Hours during the period of 1 years, counted from the date of registration in the National Register of Professional Counsellor.
   • The Credit Hours would be calculated as per the mechanism listed at point 5.
   • To qualify for Credit Hours, a CPD should be a) relevant to the counsellor’s registered specialization/s. b) Should be a quality program and approved by the concerned Member Association of CCI.
2. Nature of the programmes constituting CPD activities are follows.
   These include but are not limited to the following:
• Educational upgrade
• In-company training and presentations
• Technical papers writing and book’s publication
• Seminars with focus on Counselling/ education / knowledge
• Workshops with focus on professional training
• Specified articles, books, research reports, papers etc.
• Attendance at meetings of technical or professional chapters etc.
• Task forces, committees, review teams for codes and standards
• Thesis
• Research proposals
• New Therapy submissions
• Mentoring
• Conferences, congresses, symposia etc.
• Giving lectures and conferences
The Standards for Accreditation of CPD Program shall cover the above topics but it shall not be limited to these



3. Organizations recognized for conducting CPDs’
   The Program should be conducted by an organization recognized with CCI for the delivery of continuing education programs. These CPD providers are required to have an identified unit, group or individuals with clearly defined responsibilities for the development and administration of the program. These providers may send necessary information to CCI for the recognition of the programmes.
4. Guidelines for the conduct of the formal education and training programme
• The Programme must be designed to meet learner`s needs. It includes determine training requirements, defining desired learning outcomes, identify course instructors, designing course content and instructional methods, scheduling the resources needed for the projected outcome and preparing feedback questionnaire and a post-assessment action plan.
• Each program must specify its objectives and how it will benefit the learner. The outcome objective should emerge from the needs assessment and provide the learning framework, which focuses on specific goals.
• Each program should be planned by the professionally competent instructors. They should be responsible for the needs assessment, instructors’ selection, program contents, instructional methods, course delivery, testing, and evaluation. Further the curriculum vitae of the instructors should accompany each program.
• Each program must have a mechanism to demonstrate that it has attained the planned learning outcomes. Where individual proficiency is a goal, the participant must be tested for the skill or knowledge acquired in the program. Oral or written examinations may in some cases be the best method to adequately evaluate learning outcomes
• The program providers must have a systematic evaluation procedure to know if and where improvements are needed.
• The Program providers are responsible for arranging the appropriate learning environment and support services. The CCI is responsible for the review of continuing education proposals and activities for the assurance of compliance to the standards established by CCI.
5. Mechanism for the evaluation of the CPD of PEs.
The Continuing Professional Development and Professional Management Skills programmes include ‘Technical Educational Knowledge Update through added qualifications, training and experience and professional management skills upgrade through added training and experience. Each of these categories can be further broken down into significant parts and each part can then be assigned weightage and achievement value.

The quality of CPD shall be assured by the development assessment method indicated below. It is the aggregate of credit hours earned in 5-years that will determine as to whether a PC has secured at least 250 credit hours within his/her five years registration validity period or not, for re-registration. The hours of an applicable CPD are counted by multiplying the actual hours of CPD by the Weight Factor, which indicates the extent of effect of each CPD activity. See annexure*
6. Qualitative assessment
The National Committee will also undertake a qualitative review of the CPD record and may require the candidates to submit their credentials to HQ. The review may also cover whether based on the qualitative assessment the candidate meets the requirements even in cases where there is shortfall in quantitative assessment
7. Renewal of Registration.
The registration of only those candidates who fulfill the development assessment criteria will be renewed by CCI. The candidate not fulfilling the CPD requirements for renewal of registration can reapply for renewal of the registration after necessary further professional development