You may have noticed that our popular VA Foundation Course – a programme designed specifically by APVA to help people gain the knowledge and skills necessary to build a successful and sustainable VA business – is now accredited by the CPD Group.
CPD accreditation isn’t just some fancy label that we’ve purchased to make our course look better (we’re pleased to say it’s fabulous already!); it’s a certificate to confirm that APVA and the range of courses we deliver meet all of the necessary and fundamental criteria required to deliver CPD training. In order to become CPD accredited, we had to demonstrate high quality learning processes and educational practice, and ensure that the content of our courses was (and remains) ‘current, factually correct and adhering to the latest legislative guidelines’[1].
Just in case you’re considering becoming a CPD accredited training provider, it’s worth noting the range of information that a CPD assessor will need to see in support of your application. We had to provide information including our complaints policy, privacy policy, course review process, reflective practice, equal opportunity charter and reasonable adjustment consideration (to name but a few) – all of which are fundamentally required if you want to provide CPD learning. We also had to make a comprehensive application for all of the training activities that we wanted to be considered for CPD points (including the APVA VA Foundation Course, which has a points value of 60 CPD Credits). This application involved sending all of our training materials to an independent assessor, who has the ability to approve or turn down our request to offer CPD points to an individual following completion of a specific course.
Though CPD accreditation is a paid-for service, you aren’t automatically awarded CPD accredited training provider status, or permitted to award CPD points for your courses UNTIL you have been approved by the CPD awarding organisation, a process which can take months due to the rigorous and detailed accreditation process. We’ve got a team of organisational ninjas working behind the scenes at APVA, and the process still took 6 weeks from start to finish due to the detailed application process.
We didn’t do this for the shiny CPD badge. APVA are incredibly proud of our VA Foundation Course – a course which has been popular and successful with would-be VAs and Freelancers for the last few years thanks to the comprehensive content and supportive learning environment that we are proud to offer. For us, CPD Accreditation is the icing on the cake, allowing us to celebrate the time and effort that has gone into our training programmes now that they have been recognised as current, useful, detailed and robust by an impartial CPD assessor too.
You can view our entry on the CPD Group’s register for CPD Activity here if you’d like to find out more, and you can also find our VA Foundation Course here if you are looking for CPD accredited training to help you build your own successful and sustainable VA Business.