Continuing professional development (CPD) is the assurance of commitment to a lifelong process of learning.
In this fast-changing world, it has never been more important to keep your knowledge up to date. Creating a working plan to continuously develop your abilities will ensure that you perform at your best and will prepare you to fulfill your current and future roles with confidence.

The purpose of the SCSI statutory CPD system is to ensure that registered Quantity Surveyors and registered Building Surveyors continue to maintain and enhance their expertise.
Compliance with the statutory CPD system will be mandatory for registrants from January 1, 2024. In the meantime, registrants should continue to maintain their CPD.
The statutory CPD system has been adopted by the SCSI under the Building Control Act 2007 (as amended by the 2022 Act) and requires registered Quantity Surveyors and registered Building Surveyors to undertake the following:

• A minimum of 20 hours of CPD each year to meet the CPD standards.
• Maintain a record of CPD undertaken.
• A minimum of 10 hours must be formal, structured CPD (possible examples of CPD activities are provided at Appendix 2 of the Guidelines for Registrants).
• A maximum of 10 hours may be informal CPD (possible examples of CPD activities are provided at Appendix 2 of the Guidelines for Registrants).
• As part of the annual requirement, a minimum of at least one hour of CPD relating to ethics.
• Together with a minimum annual requirement of at least one hour on sustainability.
• Ensure your CPD is relevant to your practice as a Quantity and/or Building Surveyor, including the manner in which the CPD may improve your service delivery and benefit your service users.
• Co-operate with the SCSI if you are subject to audit.

A CPD calendar year runs from January 1 to December 31 each year. Only CPD completed within this year will be considered as CPD achieved for that year.

CPD hours cannot be carried forward to the next CPD year. A pro-rata adjustment should be applied if registrants join the Statutory Register throughout a calendar year. For further assistance, contact registration@scsi.ie.

Your Registration Body, the SCSI, has adopted six standards of CPD. Meeting the standards and how you can meet the standards when carrying out CPD are provided at Section C of the Guidelines for Registrants.

When approaching CPD activities, the Registration Body expects registrants to form their own professional judgement as the best way of assuring that they are meeting the CPD standards and making a meaningful contribution to the development of their knowledge, competencies, and skills.

CPD is not only attainable through formal courses but any activity from which you learn and develop. A list of possible examples of CPD activities are provided at Appendix 2 of the Guidelines for Registrants. This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities not listed that still help you to learn and develop and that can be part of your CPD.

The SCSI recognises that many registrants are members of professional membership bodies that require their members to participate in CPD learning in order to earn a minimum number of CPD hours per year to maintain their membership status. Recognition of CPD undertaken by registrants with professional membership and other similar bodies will be largely dependent on whether the CPD is verifiable and relevant to the role of a Quantity Surveyor and/or Building Surveyor.

Your registration body considers Ethics and Sustainability an important and necessary part of your CPD to ensure your commitment to environmental and social responsibility.CPD in ethical practice requires Registrants to reflect upon the ethical aspects of any learning they have undertaken and how they can apply those in practice. Ethics is significant in the world of business, based on well-founded standards that impose reasonable obligations on us all to consider our actions in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to Society and fairness. Similarly, registrants should reflect upon how the learning promotes sustainability of the built environment for the public benefit and how those sustainable methods can be applied in practice.

Yes, registrants must record their CPD with the SCSI Registration Body. From January 1, 2024, it will be mandatory for registrants to record their CPD activity on the SCSI online CPD management portal. Active registrants will be given access to the online portal throughout 2023. First-time registrants will be granted access to the online portal upon confirmation of registration by the Registration Body.

Registrants will have access to an SCSI online CPD portal, which should be updated by registrants on a regular basis. The portal is designed for you to record all your CPD activities with ease and keep track of progress. The details and dates of all the activities carried out by you should be recorded to show that you carried out CPD that meets the CPD standards set by your Registration Body. We recommend that you always include evidence to activities that require it as and when you record them, so that you have the relevant evidence available when you are required to provide it. A video will be made available to show registrants how to record on the portal.

When you apply for registration, you are required to complete a declaration to confirm that you consent to meet the requirements and standards of CPD.

The SCSI will use the online CPD management portal and/or any other CPD management system in operation to monitor compliance statistics and CPD records.

Each year the SCSI will carry out more comprehensive reviews of registrants’ CPD records. A risk-based approach may be adopted in the selection of registrants’ records for audit.

The SCSI reserves the right to undertake an audit of any registrant’s CPD record at any time.

If a registrant joins the register mid calendar year, he/she must commence their CPD without delay. They will not be eligible for audit until the end of the next calendar year. The exceptions to this are where there is a targeted audit being conducted.

As CPD is an ongoing requirement while you are registered, it is possible that you could be picked for audit on multiple occasions. 

Further information about the following are provided in Section D of the Guidelines for Registrants:

• selection for audit;
• completing the audit;
• assessment outcomes;
• right to a review;
• coming back on the register; and,
• exemption or modification of CPD requirements.

Registrants or candidates applying for registration can engage directly with the Registrar or a member of the Registrar’s team at the Registration Body by email at registration@scsi.ie or by telephone on 01-644 5500.