NOTE: The South African Training Providers Forum is a registered NPC, and not a professional body. Please consult the relevant industries professional body for guidelines their CPD point system.
Being certified as a professional educator or trainer (CPD Certification) is the highest form of Training Providers Forum membership and is open to any associate member, provided that the applicant can prove competence against our CPD evaluation system.
Note that our CPD points are currently not linked to any professional body in South Africa.
Maintenance of CPD records is an important feature of the Training Providers Forum CPD Recording Policy and part of good practice in professional life. Many employers already expect this, often as part of annual appraisal and goal-setting processes. Whether this is the case or not for a practicing statistician, our Society believes it is useful to maintain a “CPD diary” to keep track of CPD activities being undertaken.
Training Providers Forum undertakes to allocate and control CPD points as follows for members through our automated online system. A member must be registered as a paid-up member in order to access these CPD points.
Types of memberships
Training Providers Forum membership is for individual memberships only, currently have the following packages available:
| Regular – FREE | |
| Cost: | No cost |
| Registration: | Active |
| Discussions: | Active |
| Manage Groups: | Active |
| Freelancer Profile: | Active |
| CPD points: | Active |
CPD Calculation
| Category of activity | Website Calculated | Default calculations for activity point |
| Work-based learning | 1. Submission of an article related to Skills Development. | -10 Points (valid for 12 months). |
| 2. Submission of work base learning (registered and attended courses) related to Education and Training. | -1 Point for every date submitted (valid for 12 months. | |
| Professional activity | 3. Forum responses.
|
-1 Point for every forum response (maximum of 50 points). |
| 4. Active Freelancer Profile on Training Providers Forum. | -20 Points allocated for activating your public post. | |
| 5. Appointment of active Committee members serving with the Training Providers Forum. | -50 Points for active committee members. | |
| 6. Public speaking (special events).
7. Full day teaching, training or mentoring as a profession (accredited and short courses). |
-1 Point for every date submitted (valid for 12 months. | |
| Formal / educational | 8. NQF achievement credits | -x 1 (Maximum of 120 credits) |
| Self-directed learning | 9. Self study, development of programmes or learning content and research to the value of a full day’s work. | 1 Point for every date submitted (valid for 12 months. |
Work-based learning
Guidelines
| Submission of an article related to Training Providers Forum and its services. | Registered users will be able to submit a well written article in English through www.trainingforum.org.za. Any article that was approved by the Administrator with a “Published” status will earn the user 10 CPD points for a period of 12 months. (Also see Training Providers Forum rules of conduct and code for good article content policy.)
Accepted articles will automatically be added to the users CPD policy and reflect immediately. |
| Submission of work base learning (registered and attending courses) related to the Education and Training. | Also see our definition of “Work-based learning”.
Users will be able to capture dates (captured at most 3 months in the past – no future dates) for any work base learning completed. Users must be physically enrolled for the course and have proof of enrollment and acceptance. This may include accredited, short courses and distance learning both local and internationally. Users may be asked on request by the Training Providers Forum Administrator to submit additional proof of enrollment for excessive dates captured as part of our auditing process. |
Work based learning is professional development that takes place by fulfilling the current job role. Such development naturally takes place as experience is gained in the role, greater independence and responsibility is given and the complexity and scope of work undertaken increases.
Work based learning also includes in-house learning activities and development opportunities provided by the employer as part of staff orientation and development in support of organisational performance and objectives.
Worked based learning – examples:
- -Experiential learning: learning by doing the job – gaining, and learning from, experience – expanding roles
- -In-service training – includes orientation programs, standard operating procedures and employee development
- -Receiving coaching from others
- -Work shadowing
- -Peer review of own work, including presentations to colleagues
- -Review of case studies and literature
- -Participating in a journal club
- -Discussions with colleagues – idea generation, problem solving, etc
- -Presentations to external clients, regulators and policy makers
- -Supervising colleagues or students
- -Job rotation, secondments and sabbaticals
- -Involvement in the wider work of the employer – beyond normal scope of roles
- -Post-mortem and lessons-learnt activities following significant projects and events
- -Requesting and analysing feedback on performance from colleagues and clients
- -Participating in the employer’s performance appraisal and goal setting process
Professional activity
Guidelines
| -Forum responses.
|
Users will be awarded for creating topics and responding to current topics on the forum. Any post or comments will reflect 1 point on the CPD system. All calculations are automatically created. Maximum of 50 points will be allowed for Forum contributions on the Automated CPD system.
The Administrator has the right to remove or ban any user form the forum for spam comments. |
| -Active Freelancer Profile on the Training Providers Forum. | Any Educator or Trainer who activates their Freelancer Profile on www.trainingforum.org.za will be awarded 20 CPD points for professional activity automatically. Educators and Trainers with an active freelancer profile will be able to list all their specialities and appear in the public searchable database including listing in search engines.
The Administrator have the right to penalize users who miss-use this feature for additional CPD point certificates. |
| -Appointment of active Committee members serving with the Training Providers Forum. | Committee members who serve actively on the Training Providers Forum committee will be awarded a total of 50 CPD points. These CPD points will only be active for the period of appointment. Additional CPD points may be allocated by the Operational Committee on their own description based on contributions.
Active Committee Members must comply with the code of conduct and at least attend 60% of all related general committee meetings. This will include physical and virtual attendance. |
| -Public speaking (special events).
-Full day teaching, training or mentoring as a profession (accredited and short courses). |
Also see our definition of “Professional Activity”.
Users will be able to capture dates (captured at most 3 months in the past – no future dates) for any Professional activity completed. This may include public speaking at events (contracted for your subject matter expertise) and teaching or training as a profession (full day events). This may include accredited, short courses and distance learning both local and internationally. Users may be asked on request by the Training Providers Forum Administrator to submit additional proof of enrollment for excessive dates captured as part of the auditing process. |
Professional activities that support professional development include participating in the management and organisation of a professional body and also participating in activities that develop the professional skills and knowledge of other professionals and participating in activities that apply statistical expertise in the wider community.
Professional activity – examples:
- -Involvement in the management of a professional body – officer, organiser, committee member or working group member
- -Organiser of a conference, scientific meeting or course
- -Being an examiner
- -Being a referee for a journal
- -Supervisor of research
- -Membership of a technical expert group – e.g. special interest group, section or study group
- -Being an expert witness
- -Lecturing or teaching (new material)
- -Giving presentations or being a discussant at conferences or scientific meetings
- -Networking with professionals in other organisations
- -Coaching or mentoring
Formal / educational
Guidelines
| NQF achievement credits | Currently we only recognise South Africa registered qualifications on the National Record Learner Database (NRLD database). Foreign users can contact SAQA to transfer their qualifications for recognition.
Users will be allowed to upload 1 document in PDF or Word format with their statement of results. Our assessment team will review the upload within 7 days and allocate additional CPD points to the user. Users will be allowed to upload their statement or results for additional CPD Points. A maximum of 120 points will be allowed. Training Providers Forum will also accept SAQA general verification (transcript report) for achievements of users. This can be requested at no cost by emailing your full names and ID number to verifications@saqa.org.za. Users will have the right to appeal to any decision by the Assessor by lodging an official appeal on our support site. Further appeals must be heard by either the Education or Training Committee. Only programmes registered on the NRLD database related to Education and Training to a maximum of 120 credits – 120 points will be awarded to the learner. These points will be life-long and will not expire. |
Formal/educational professional development includes the participation in activities that lead to gaining academic/professional qualifications and the attendance at structured learning activities organised by professional bodies, learned societies or training providers; and also the preparation of papers, articles or presentations for a professional audience.
Formal / educational – examples:
- -Undertaking a programme of learning or research for an academic qualification
- -Attending training courses
- -Attending conferences or scientific meetings
- -Undertaking distance learning or e-learning activities
- -Reading to understand the legal and/or regulatory framework for professional work
- -Maintaining or developing specialist skills
- -Writing articles or papers
- -Preparing presentations for conferences or scientific meetings
- -Preparing material for training courses
Self-directed learning
Guidelines
| Self study, development of programmes or learning content and research to the value of a full day’s work. | Also see our definition of “Self-directed Learning”.
Users will be able to capture dates (captured at most 3 months in the past – no future dates) for any Self-directed Learning completed. This may include any self study, development of new learning content or programmes or research (in a professional manner). This may include accredited, short courses and distance learning both local and internationally. Users may be asked on request by the Training Providers Forum Administrator to submit additional proof of enrollment for excessive dates captured as part of our auditing process. |
Self-directed learning takes place when the individual takes the initiative in diagnosing learning needs, formulating learning goals, designing learning experiences, identifying and using human and material resources and evaluating learning outcomes.
Self-directed learning – examples:
- -Reading books, journals and articles
- -Reviewing and summarising books and articles
- -Upgrading knowledge through internet searches and the use of electronic information sources
- -Reflective practice – assessing benefit of CPD activities to self, client or employer – identifying next steps
Printing of CPD Certificates and online verification
Users will be able to print their CPD Certificates online and it will be valid for a period of 6 months. This feature will only be available to fully paid-up members and can be printed directly from www.trainingforum.org.za.
Employers will also be able to verify user CPD points online through the website.
For security reasons part of the user Identity Numbers will be removed on CPD certificates.