Taking continuing professional education (CPE) courses is a part of any career in the law, medicine, and more. Even personal fitness trainers are subject to such curricula these days! CPE requirements are generally rather low, with fairly generous deadlines the norm in most cases. A wide variety of topics are available within any given field, so there is sure to be something that is at least mildly interesting!
CPE requirements are instituted in order to increase the professional competence of practitioners in law, medicine, and other job titles and descriptions.
Most industries today are subject to rapid changes and so need its people to stay on top of new developments. While a field like medicine has always required its members to keep learning, many others now need such on-going self-education, too (such as the personal trainers mentioned at the outset).
From the smorgasbord of courses available online and off, however, not all will necessarily meet the CPE requirements of a certifying board or professional association. As with any consumer product, it is important to exercise all due diligence when shopping for courses to take. Moreover, different states may well have rather different requirements.
Again, check first before signing up!
So much for requirements. Now, a consumer tip for getting some free courses – yes, free! The only stipulation is to actually finish the course and, sometimes, provide feedback to the designers so as to help improve the offering. That’s it! Yes, it really is as simple as that. But why would a company do this? Well, simply to test their pilot courses, of course! Again, however, it is necessary to first find out whether the credits awarded would actually count towards the continuing educational requirements (okay, so we’re talking about requirements again!) of any given profession, as determined by the relevant certifying organizations.