About Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Real Estate Brokers

Rules and regulations of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) in the Philippines.

A Real Estate Broker in order to renew his license need to present upon renewal a Notarized Continuing Professional Education (CPE) certificate from a PRC-accredited CPD provider.

CPE is all about and why professionals should continue to enhance their respective professions. The aim of CPE is to enhance and raise the technical skills and competence of professionals. CPE has now evolved to Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

The Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) has 46 professional regulatory boards covering various disciplines. These boards are responsible in monitoring the CPE/CPD requirements of their respective professionals, based on the mandate of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, R.A. 8981, otherwise known as the PRC Modernization Act of 2000, and Executive Order No. 220, directing the Adoption of the Code of Good Governance for the Professions in the Philippines.

Each board has its own CPE/CPD Council chaired by any member of the board. It has two members, the first is either the President or Officer of the accredited professional organization and the second is either the President or Officer of the association of deans or heads of colleges/universities offering the course. The CPE/CPD Council is empowered to monitor periodically the implementation of programs/activities. This is done to find out if the program or activity submitted is implemented or not.

A provider can be a natural person or a professional group or organization. A program covers activities that will enhance the competence of the professionals, and can be filed only by accredited providers.

A provider or a program should file application forms for accreditation and pay the prescribed fees.

Any professional can earn CPE/CPD credit units for a training program (seminar, conference or convention) that he/she attended, or served as resource person, panelist or reactor, and facilitator or moderator. A professional can also earn credit units for a subject finished for a degree, or the degree itself, be it masteral or doctoral, and residency or fellowship. Moreover, he or she can earn units by accomplishing a distance learning module or presenting a technical paper or publishing an article in a professional journal. He or she can further earn credit units by being the author of a book, monograph, or journal article; as editor of a book or professional journal; as peer reviewer of a book or journal article; as well as author of a research, innovative program or creative product. If he or she has participated in a postgraduate training or study tour, produced an invention or held a professional chair, then credit units can also be accredited to him or her.

Currently, there are two bills related to CPE/CPD, one pending in the House, and one filed in the Senate, to further enhance the continuing education of the professionals in the country.