The major credentialing platforms were built for large organisations. Enterprise licensing models, IT integration requirements, procurement team onboarding. If you are an independent training provider — running your own business, delivering your own courses, issuing certificates yourself — you have probably noticed that none of that was designed for you. Open CPD was.
Training does not run on a fixed schedule
One of the most common things independent providers discover when they look at credentialing platforms is that the pricing assumes a consistency their training business does not have. Same number of certificates every month. Always-on subscription. Platforms built around this assumption were built for HR departments with predictable training calendars — not for the way training actually works at the independent level.
For most independent providers, training is not like that. You might have a full cohort this month and nothing next month. You might run the same course twice a year, or deliver a concentrated programme and then take on a different kind of work for a while. You might run training as part of a broader business — a charity whose main work is something else entirely, a consultant who trains alongside advisory work, a specialist who runs one big event a year. Your issuance pattern reflects all of that, and it does not fit neatly into a monthly subscription model.
Use it the way your training runs
Open CPD is built around this reality. Pay-As-You-Go lets you buy credits when you have training to certify — credits are valid for 12 months from your last purchase — without paying a subscription fee during months you are not issuing. A Business or Professional subscription makes sense when your volume is consistent enough that it is better value. You use what fits and switch when your situation changes. The platform does not penalise irregular usage or assume you should be issuing at the same rate every month.
Your courses evolve — so does the platform
Independent providers do not run the same course forever. You refine your content, create variants for different audiences, adapt a programme for a specific client’s context. The platform makes this straightforward. Build out your course library as your training develops. Create variants with their own Aims, Skills, and Outcomes. Update content when your subject area moves on. Your credential infrastructure grows with your training, not against it.
Co-branding and client work
A common situation for independent providers: you deliver training on behalf of a client or in partnership with another organisation, and the certificate should reflect that relationship. Co-branded certificates carry both your name and your client’s or partner’s — handling the practical reality of training delivered under someone else’s banner, or joint programmes where both organisations have a stake in the credential.
You are not alone in this
One thing that often stops independent providers from sorting out proper credentialing is the sense that it is a project — that you have to work out what the standard is, build a framework from scratch, make it look professional, figure out what goes on a certificate. Open CPD has done that work. The framework — Aims, Skills, Outcomes, the Declaration, the OCPD Provider ID — exists. The certificate templates are professionally designed. One-to-one support is there when you need it. You are joining something that has already figured out what good looks like, and you get on with the training.
FAQ
Is Open CPD suitable if I only train occasionally?
Yes. Pay-As-You-Go is designed for exactly this — buy credits when you have training to certify. Credits are valid for 12 months from purchase. You do not pay for months when you are not issuing, and there is no minimum volume requirement.
What if my clients ask whether I am properly accredited?
Open CPD membership is a verifiable commitment — your OCPD Provider ID is publicly checkable, your Certificate of CPD Membership is a live document, and every certificate you issue carries a verification link. The honest answer to a client is that your training is self-accredited to the UK CPD Gold Standard framework, with every certificate independently verifiable. That is more useful to a client than a logo from a private body with no regulatory backing.
Can I use Open CPD alongside existing professional body membership?
Yes. Open CPD provides the credential infrastructure — certificates, badges, the achievement page, the verification layer. If you also hold a professional body mark that your sector or clients require, the two work alongside each other without conflict.
Can I issue on behalf of a client or partner?
Yes. Co-branded certificates carry both your name and your client’s or partner’s. This is commonly used by trainers who deliver under a client’s banner, or providers running joint programmes where the credential needs to reflect both organisations.
