Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

The ASWNet provides opportunities for continuous professional development (CPD). CPD is self-led knowledge enrichment by social workers who are already qualified. The ASWNet provides knowledge resources and activities, and helps you plan for your CPD and to evaluate it. CPD is measured in hours of learning (HoL). We recommend a minimum of 12 hours of learning each year for a social worker. The activities that qualify as CPD are diverse, and they include:

1. Writing, reading or reviewing a journal article, book chapter, book, report or policy.
2. Attending, participating or organizing an indaba, seminar, tour, webinar, conference, community development event, volunteer activities, advocacy or social action activity.
3. Creating a website, database, blog, newspaper and newsletter.
4. Starting or participating in a family project, village project, trust, CBO, NGO or PVO.
5. Reflecting or thinking deeply on your work as a social worker.
6. Planning and reviewing your CPD for each year.
7. Designing, running, reviewing or attending a course or program of training in class or online.
8. Supervising, mentoring or coaching trainee or qualified social workers.
9. Researching that includes collecting, analyzing and reporting primary or secondary data.
10. Other activities as deemed fit for CPD e.g. developing a theory, creating a model or framework, implementing or developing a decolonisation plan, creating a new data collection method or political leadership.

The range of CPD activities must be diverse and the themes of developmental social work must be very clear. Evidence of CPD must be collected in the form of certificates, letters, photographs, publications, reflective writings, web links and many others. It will help to create a CPD plan at the beginning of each year and evaluate it at the end of the year. After evaluating yourself, you could then fill the following form to get your CPD certificate.

CPD Planning and Reporting Template

The template below helps you to plan your CPD for the year. It also helps you to report your CPD. If you need ASWNet to confirm your CPD, use this form. The form is used together with the list provided above.

	CPD Category	Describe how you meet the category and name the evidence that you have
1	Writing, reading or reviewing a journal article, book chapter, book, report or policy
2	Attending, participating or organizing a seminar, tour, webinar, conference, community development event, volunteer activities, advocacy or social action activity.
3	Creating a website, database, blog, newspaper and newsletter
4	Starting or participating in a family project, village project, trust, CBO, NGO or PVO
5	Reflecting on your work as a social worker
6	Planning and reviewing your CPD for each year
7	Designing, running, reviewing or attending a course or program of training in class or online
8	Supervising, mentoring or coaching trainee or qualified social workers
9	Researching including collecting, analyzing and reporting primary or secondary data
10	Other activities as deemed fit for CPD e.g. developing a theory, creating a model or framework, implementing or developing a decolonisation plan, creating a new data collection method or political leadership.

You can use the link above to download a Word version of this template.