How to Get CPD Accredited — Three Options for Training Providers

How to Get CPD Accredited — Your Options Explained

If you’re a training provider trying to work out how to get CPD accredited, you’ll quickly discover that “CPD accreditation” means different things depending on who you ask. There is no single regulator for CPD in the UK, no statutory framework, and no government body that controls what counts as accredited. That ambiguity is both a problem and an opportunity, depending on how you approach it.

This post sets out the three main routes available to UK training providers, what each one actually gives you, and what to consider before spending money on any of them.

Route One: External Body Approval

The most heavily marketed route involves paying an annual fee to a third-party organisation in exchange for a logo you can display on your materials. The main names in this space are CPDUK, CPD Standards Office, and CPD Certification Service. Each operates slightly differently, but the core transaction is the same: you submit course details, they review them against their own internal criteria, and if approved, you receive a mark of recognition.

What you need to understand is that none of these organisations have a regulatory basis. They are private companies. Their logos carry brand recognition, and in some sectors that recognition has value — but it is not backed by law, by a professional regulator, or by any government standard. Whether the logo is worth the annual fee depends entirely on whether your specific audience recognises it and trusts it.

Fees vary, but expect to pay several hundred pounds per year per course for most of these services. If you have a large catalogue, those costs compound quickly.

Route Two: Professional Body Accreditation

A second route is accreditation by a professional body such as CIPD, RCN, or CMI. This is a meaningfully different proposition because these organisations have established membership bases and, in some cases, influence over what their members are required to do for continuing professional development.

The critical limitation here is that professional body accreditation is only relevant if your audience are members of that body. If you’re delivering HR and L&D content and your learners are CIPD members working towards their annual CPD requirements, then CIPD recognition has direct practical value. If your audience is broader, or drawn from a different profession, it carries little weight.

The application processes for bodies like RCN or CMI tend to be more rigorous than commercial accreditors, and the relationship often involves closer scrutiny of content. That rigour can be an asset, but it also means longer lead times and more administrative effort before a single certificate is issued.

Route Three: Self-Accreditation via Open CPD

The third route is self-accreditation. Rather than seeking external approval, you structure your courses against an established framework and issue verifiable certificates directly. Open CPD supports this through the UK CPD Gold Standard — a framework that asks providers to define clear Aims, Skills, and Outcomes for each course before it goes live.

The process on Open CPD follows a straightforward sequence. First, you set up a provider profile on Open CPD, which establishes your organisation as the accrediting entity. Then you create your course, working through the Aims, Skills, and Outcomes fields that the UK CPD Gold Standard requires. Once that structure is in place, you can issue verifiable certificates immediately. The time from starting the process to issuing your first certificate is measured in minutes, not months.

Pricing starts from £50 on a pay-as-you-go basis (referred to as PAYG), which means there is no annual subscription commitment if you are testing the approach or running low volumes. That structure suits independent providers who do not have a large catalogue and do not want to carry fixed overheads against uncertain demand.

What “Verifiable” Actually Means

Verifiable certificates are worth understanding in their own right, because the term gets used loosely. In the context of Open CPD, verifiable means that each certificate has a unique identifier that can be checked independently — by the learner’s employer, a professional body, or anyone else who needs to confirm the award. The certificate does not simply assert that training took place; it can be interrogated.

This matters because CPD records are increasingly scrutinised by regulated professions. A certificate that cannot be verified is not meaningfully different from a document the learner produced themselves. Verifiability is what gives a certificate evidential weight.

How to Choose Between the Three Routes

The right route depends on your audience, your volume, and what the accreditation needs to do. If your learners are concentrated within a single profession and that profession’s representative body — such as CIPD, RCN, or CMI — actively endorses or requires specific accreditation, then pursuing that body’s approval is worth the effort. The endorsement has direct utility for your learners’ professional records.

If your audience is cross-sector, if you want to move quickly, or if the economics of annual fees do not stack up against your course volumes, then self-accreditation via Open CPD is the more practical option. You retain control over your course structure, you are accountable to a defined standard in the UK CPD Gold Standard, and you can issue verifiable certificates without waiting on a third party’s review cycle.

External body approval from organisations such as CPDUK or CPD Certification Service sits between the two. It offers a recognisable mark without the specificity of a professional body, and the value is largely determined by market familiarity in your sector. It is not inherently unreliable, but it is important to go in clear-eyed about what you are paying for: a logo, not a regulatory endorsement.

None of these routes is universally correct. The question is which one serves your learners’ actual needs and your operational constraints — and those two things are worth establishing before you commit to any of them.