CPD Perspectives: From Points to Portfolios — Making CPD Work for Your Career

For many professionals, CPD has become a numbers game. How many hours? How many points? How many certificates will I need before the next review?

The problem is, when CPD turns into a race against time, it stops being about learning — and becomes about box-ticking.

The reality of chasing points

You’ve probably seen it, or done it yourself.

• Signing up for a generic GDPR webinar just to collect a certificate.
  
  
• Adding another “communication skills” course because it’s quick, cheap, and counts.
  
  
• Panicking in the weeks before appraisal and grabbing whatever will fill the hours.
  
  

It works for compliance. But does it work for your career?

The missing certificate problem

Even when you’ve done the work, there’s another frustration: finding the evidence.

Certificates get lost in email inboxes. Old providers disappear. Months later, you’re left chasing down documents you should already have.

It’s no wonder many professionals see CPD as a burden rather than an opportunity.

What CPD is really for

At its best, CPD isn’t about collecting hours. It’s about building career capital:

• New skills that make you more effective.
  
  
• Knowledge that positions you for the next step.
  
  
• Evidence you can present in CVs, interviews, or appraisals.
  
  

Every certificate is a piece of your professional story. But only if you treat it that way.

From points to portfolios

This is where a mindset shift is needed. Instead of thinking about CPD as a race for hours, think about it as building a portfolio.

A good CPD portfolio shows:

• What you’ve learned.
  
  
• How you’ve applied it.
  
  
• How it connects to your professional goals.
  
  

Tools like CPD.me make it easy to log certificates, reflect on them, and present them as a continuous record. And platforms like Open CPD make sure certificates themselves are verifiable, not just decorative PDFs.

The practical test

Here’s a simple way to test whether your CPD is working for you:

• Can you use it to update your CV?
  
  
• Can you talk about it in an interview?
  
  
• Can your manager see its relevance to your role?
  
  

If the answer is no, then maybe that “easy CPD hour” isn’t doing what you need.

Closing thought

Regulators may demand points. Employers may count hours. But in the long run, your CPD is for you.

So don’t just chase numbers. Build a portfolio. Collect the evidence. Reflect on it. Use it.

Because the real value of CPD isn’t in how many certificates you hold. It’s in the story they tell about your career.