What Counts as Formal CPD in Australia? The Difference Between Structured and Unstructured Learning
Formal CPD is structured learning with defined learning outcomes and verification of engagement. The verification can take the form of an assessment, a quiz, or significant interaction between presenter and participant. If the activity meets those two tests, it counts as formal CPD under almost every Australian registration scheme.
Informal CPD is self-directed learning relevant to your practice that lacks the verification. Reading an Australian Standard. Listening to an industry podcast without a quiz at the end. Attending a conference session as an unverified audience member. The learning is real. The verification is not.
The distinction matters because most Australian schemes require a minimum proportion of formal CPD each year. Architects need 10 of their 20 hours to be formal. Building designers under BDAA need 10 of their 20 points to be formal. Energy assessors under NatHERS need 6 of their 12 points to be formal technical. Miss the formal floor, and you have not met your requirement, even if your total points are correct.
This article explains what makes something formal, what makes something informal, where the grey zones sit, and how to plan a year of CPD that meets both halves of the bar without overspending.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
Most CPD problems trace back to one of two failure modes. Both are expensive in different ways.
Underbuying. Assuming that every learning activity counts equally. The practitioner gets to 30 June with 24 informal points and 4 formal points, congratulates themselves on having exceeded the 20-point threshold, and walks into an audit short of the formal floor. The result is a non-compliance finding that can affect registration, sometimes with downgrade or suspension consequences.
Overbuying. Assuming everything needs an expensive accredited course. The practitioner books a $400 in-person workshop for every CPD requirement, treats reading time and podcast time as worthless, and spends three times what the year needed to cost. The activity that the registration board would have happily accepted as informal still gets paid for as formal.
Both failure modes come from the same root cause: not understanding what the verification test actually is. Clear that up, and the rest of CPD planning becomes a simple budgeting exercise.
What Makes CPD Formal
Across every Australian built environment CPD scheme, formal CPD has three defining features.
One. Defined learning outcomes. The activity exists for a stated educational purpose. The provider has documented what a participant should know, understand, or be able to do at the end. The learning outcomes are typically published alongside the course or session description.
Two. Verification of engagement. Someone, somewhere, has confirmed that the participant did the learning. The verification can be an assessment, a quiz, or significant interaction between presenter and learner. The form matters less than the fact that participation has been demonstrated, not just claimed.
Three. A record of completion. A certificate of completion, an attendance record, or a transcript that documents the date, the duration, the learning outcomes, and the participant. The record is what stays in the practitioner’s file and what gets produced at audit.
If all three are present, the activity is formal. If any one is missing, the activity is informal at best.
This three-test framework is consistent across the major Australian schemes:
- The NSW Architects Registration Board defines formal CPD as activity that has “stated learning outcomes and either an assessment activity included or significant interaction between the presenter and learner.”
- The Architects Board of Western Australia uses the same framework, anchored to the NSCA Units of Competency.
- BDAA defines formal CPD as “structured educational or technical activity focused on professional growth, with clearly defined learning outcomes provided by the organiser” requiring “meaningful interaction between the presenter and the participant.”
- NatHERS Accredited Assessor Organisations apply equivalent formal technical criteria for energy assessor CPD.
The language varies. The substance does not.
What Counts as Informal CPD
Informal CPD is the learning you do that does not have the structural scaffolding of a formal activity. Most schemes recognise it, value it, and require a proportion of it (the BDAA scheme literally requires 10 informal points alongside 10 formal points). The activities that consistently count as informal across Australian built environment schemes include:
- Reading Australian Standards referenced by the National Construction Code or relevant to your practice
- Reading technical publications, industry journals, and reputable trade press
- Mentoring discussions with senior practitioners (and being mentored, depending on the scheme)
- Listening to industry podcasts with reflective notes
- Researching specific products or systems for a project, where the research extends beyond standard specification review
- Site visits with documented learning outcomes (not routine project supervision)
- Conference attendance without verified session participation
The documentation expectation for informal CPD is lighter than for formal, but it is not zero. You still need to record the date, the duration, the activity, and the learning outcome. A spreadsheet row per activity is enough. An unsupported claim made at audit is not.
The single most important thing about informal CPD: it has to be relevant to your practice. An unrelated business management podcast does not qualify as informal CPD for a building designer, even if the listening was thoughtful and reflective. The scheme is testing whether the learning developed your professional competence in the discipline you are registered to practise.
The Verification Test in One Question
If you only remember one thing from this article, remember this question:
“Can I prove I learned from this, or can I only prove I was there?”
If you can prove you learned (because someone tested you, interacted with you substantively, or recorded the outcomes of your engagement), the activity is formal.
If you can only prove you were there (a name badge, an attendee list, a recorded session you watched), the activity is informal at best, and possibly does not count at all if relevance and duration cannot be demonstrated.
That single question resolves about 90% of formal-versus-informal disputes practitioners have with themselves at the end of a CPD year.
How Different Schemes Apply the Formal-Informal Split
Each Australian built environment CPD scheme sets its own balance between formal and informal. The pattern is consistent, but the specific numbers differ.
| Profession | Annual total | Formal minimum |
| Architect (every state) | 20 hours | 10 hours formal |
| Building designer (BDAA) | 20 points | 10 formal + 10 informal |
| Thermal Performance Assessor (BDAA) | 12 points | 6 formal technical |
| Energy assessor (NatHERS) | 12 points | 6 formal technical |
| NSW residential builder | 12 points | All from 8 approved learning areas |
| NSW certifier | 25 points | Set components mandatory |
| Chartered engineer (Engineers Australia) | 150 hours over 3 years | Subdivided by category |
| Interior designer (DIA Accredited) | 50 points | Broad activity types eligible |
The full breakdown by scheme is covered in How Many CPD Points Do I Need in 2026? A State-by-State Guide.
A few practical implications of the split worth knowing:
- Architects and BDAA building designers carry a 50/50 split (10 formal, 10 informal). Plan for both.
- Energy assessors carry a stricter formal technical bar (6 of 12 must be formal technical, which means specifically about NatHERS or NCC energy provisions, not just any formal learning).
- NSW builders do not use a formal-informal split as such. The 12 points must come from 8 approved learning areas, but the points themselves are structured CPD under the Fair Trading scheme.
- NSW certifiers must complete specific named mandatory courses (Certifier Practice Standard, Corruption Prevention) within their 25 points.
If you hold multiple registrations or accreditations, you need to satisfy every scheme you are tied to. The formal minimum for the strictest scheme sets the bar you should plan against.
The Grey Zones
Three categories of CPD activity sit in a grey zone where the formal-informal answer depends on the specifics. These are the activities practitioners argue about with themselves most often.
Supplier and Product Presentations
A supplier-led CPD session is a legitimate formal learning source if it meets the formal bar. Stated learning outcomes. Verification of engagement (a quiz, a meaningful Q&A, an assessment). A certificate of completion. Some product CPD meets these criteria. Plenty does not.
The question to ask: was the session primarily educational about a topic, or was it primarily a product pitch wrapped in CPD language? If the substantive content would have value to a practitioner who never specified the supplier’s product, the session is more likely to meet the formal bar. If the content collapses without the product, it probably does not.
CPD On Demand was founded specifically because too much of the existing supplier-funded CPD market did not pass this test honestly. The platform is product-agnostic by design.
Conferences
A conference is not automatically formal CPD. The sessions within the conference might be, individually, if each meets the formal criteria: stated learning outcomes, verification of session-level attendance or engagement, recorded duration. The networking lunch is informal at best. The keynote you watched on the big screen between sessions is informal.
Treat each conference session as a separate CPD activity. Apply the verification test to each one.
Podcasts and Recorded Video Content
A podcast is informal CPD by default. The educational value can be substantial. The verification typically is not. A practitioner who listens to a podcast on NCC 2025 has done genuine learning, but they have no record that anyone tested whether they engaged with the content.
A podcast or video with a quiz at the end, a transcript, defined learning outcomes, and a certificate of completion can meet the formal bar. The format does not disqualify the activity. The absence of verification does.
CPD On Demand courses include an audio version powered by NotebookLM precisely so practitioners can do the learning in the format that suits them (in the car, at the desk, on a site) while still meeting the formal CPD criteria through the accompanying quiz and certificate.
Five Common Misunderstandings
One. “Anything I do for an hour counts.” It only counts if it is relevant to your practice and you can document the outcome. Watching an episode of a property TV show is not CPD, even if it is about building.
Two. “Online courses cannot be formal CPD.” They can, and most online courses with defined learning outcomes, an assessment, and a certificate of completion do count as formal under almost every Australian scheme. Online versus in-person is not the test. Verification is the test.
Three. “I need to attend in person for formal CPD.” Not true under any major Australian built environment scheme. The verification test is platform-agnostic.
Four. “A certificate of attendance is the same as a certificate of completion.” They are different. A certificate of attendance proves you were in the room. A certificate of completion proves you completed an assessment or engagement requirement. Most schemes treat certificates of completion as the higher-strength record for formal CPD.
Five. “If I exceed my total points, the formal-informal split does not matter.” It matters. The total is one threshold. The formal minimum is a separate threshold. Both have to be cleared. A practitioner with 30 informal points and 4 formal points has not met a scheme that requires 10 formal points, regardless of the headline total.
How to Plan a Year of CPD Against the Formal-Informal Split
The easiest planning rhythm for any practitioner with a formal-informal scheme follows three rules.
Plan formal first. Identify the formal floor for every scheme you report to. Pick courses or workshops that meet the formal criteria. Book them across the first two-thirds of your reporting year. For a BDAA member with a 1 July to 30 June cycle, aim to complete the 10 formal points by the end of December.
Top up with informal across the rest of the year. Reading, podcasts, mentoring conversations, and documented site visits cover the remaining 10 informal points naturally if you log them as you go. The informal points are the ones most practitioners already accumulate without realising. The trick is recording them at the time, not reconstructing them at the end.
Treat mandatory topics as part of your formal planning. If your scheme mandates that part of your formal CPD addresses specific topics (NCC for NSW architects, NatHERS technical for energy assessors, mandatory Construct NSW courses for certifiers), plan those courses first. They are the formal hours that the regulator is actively counting.
The single biggest planning mistake is to leave the formal hours for the final month. The cheapest CPD year is the one where the formal courses are booked early, and the informal hours accumulate in the background.
How CPD On Demand Solves the Formal CPD Problem
CPD On Demand was built for one specific reason: to give Australian built environment practitioners a reliable, affordable source of formal CPD that meets the verification test on every dimension.
Every course is structured the same way:
- One hour long, which equals one CPD point under almost every Australian scheme
- Defined learning outcomes published on the course page before purchase
- A quiz at the end of the course, with a published pass threshold, that you complete to earn the certificate
- A certificate of completion issued instantly on completion, stored in your dashboard, that records the title, the date, the learning outcomes covered, and the relevant Performance Criteria codes
- An audio version by NotebookLM and downloadable study notes, so you can do the learning in the format that suits you while still meeting the formal verification through the quiz
The price is $79 per course. There is no subscription, no sales pitch dressed up as education, no upsell at checkout. The platform was founded because the existing supplier-funded CPD market was too expensive, too dominated by product pitches, and too inconsistent on actually meeting the formal bar.
If you are unsure whether an activity will count as formal CPD, the simplest answer is to use a course that has been structured for the formal criteria from the start. The CPD On Demand library covers the major built environment disciplines: architects, building designers, energy assessors, trades, and business management.
Browse the CPD On Demand library or jump to your discipline: architects, building designers, energy assessors, trades.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is formal CPD in simple terms?
Formal CPD is structured learning with defined learning outcomes, verification of engagement (an assessment, a quiz, or significant presenter-participant interaction), and a record of completion. Without all three, the activity is informal at best.
What is the difference between formal and informal CPD?
Formal CPD has verified engagement and a record of completion. Informal CPD is self-directed learning relevant to your practice but without the verification. Most Australian schemes require a minimum proportion of formal CPD each year.
Does an online course count as formal CPD?
Yes, if the course has defined learning outcomes, includes a quiz or assessment, and provides a certificate of completion. CPD On Demand courses meet all three criteria.
Are conferences formal CPD?
Each conference session is treated as a separate CPD activity. Sessions with verified attendance or engagement and documented learning outcomes can count as formal. Networking and unverified sessions count as informal at best.
Does watching a recorded webinar count as formal CPD?
Watching alone is not formal. A recorded webinar with a quiz, a certificate of completion, and defined learning outcomes can meet the formal bar. The verification is what makes the difference.
How many of my CPD points need to be formal?
It depends on the scheme. Architects need 10 of their 20 hours formal. Building designers under BDAA need 10 of their 20 points formal. NatHERS energy assessors need 6 of their 12 points formal technical. NSW certifiers must complete specific mandatory components. Always confirm against your scheme.
What is the test for whether something counts as formal CPD?
The single best question to ask: can I prove I learned from this, or can I only prove I was there? If the answer is the first, the activity is formal. If it is the second, the activity is informal at best.
Can I use informal CPD to cover my formal minimum?
No. The formal-informal split is a separate threshold to the total points threshold. Hitting your total without hitting your formal minimum is non-compliant.
What to Do This Week
Three actions move you from confused to compliant.
One. Identify the formal minimum for every CPD scheme you report to. Write it down. The total points threshold is secondary.
Two. Review what you have already completed this reporting year and label each activity formal or informal using the verification test. Anything you cannot confidently label as formal should be treated as informal until proven otherwise.
Three. Book the formal courses you need to clear the floor. Do it in the next 30 days, not the last 30 days of your cycle. The cheapest CPD year is the one where the formal hours are locked in early.
Formal CPD is not complicated once the verification test is clear. The schemes are not testing whether you sat in a room. They are testing whether someone confirmed you learned. Pick activities that confirm both, and the rest of your CPD year becomes a planning exercise rather than a compliance scramble.
The opposite of someday is today.