APEGA’s New CPD Requirements: What Registrants and Firms Need to Do Before Their Next Renewal

by Alexandra Harrison | January 23, 2026

Competency-based professional development planning for engineers

Effective November 1, 2025, APEGA fundamentally changed how Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is defined, managed, and assessed.

The familiar hour-based CPD system is gone. In its place is a plan- and competency-based model focused on professional risk, relevance, and defensibility.

This is not a cosmetic update. It changes what registrants must document, what firms should expect during audits, and how CPD ties into professional practice management.

This article explains:

What changed under APEGA’s new CPD framework
How the changes affect individual registrants
What registrant firms need to do to stay audit-ready

At a Glance: What Changed Under the New CPD Model

APEGA has replaced CPD hour tracking with a competency-focused approach centered on intentional planning and risk-based learning.

What’s No Longer Required

❌ Logging CPD hours
❌ Tracking activity categories
❌ Meeting minimum annual hour totals

What’s Now Required

✅ Competency-based professional development
✅ Annual planning and reflection
✅ Clear linkage between learning, competence, and professional risk
✅ A single unified framework for professional members, licensees, and professional licensees

The previous CPD system was discontinued on October 18, 2025. Any remaining hours entered were automatically submitted, and partial reporting periods will not be assessed .

The Core of the New System: The PACE Plan

Under the new framework, CPD is built around the PACE Plan (Personal Annual Competency Evaluation).

Every registrant must prepare and maintain a PACE Plan each year.

What a PACE Plan Must Document

A compliant PACE Plan clearly shows:

Learning goals for the year
Planned development activities
The competencies being developed or maintained
The professional risk areas those competencies relate to
Outcomes demonstrating how competence was strengthened

APEGA has published:

A PACE Practice Guideline
A PACE Plan template

While registrants are not required to use the template verbatim, documentation must be defensible and aligned with APEGA’s expectations .

Mandatory Annual Learning Modules

In addition to the PACE Plan, annual mandatory online learning modules are now required through myAPEGA.

These modules typically cover:

Ethics
Regulatory updates
Professional obligations

Completion of these modules is not optional and forms part of baseline CPD compliance.

How CPD Reporting Works at Renewal

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the new system is reporting.

What You Do Not Submit

No CPD logs
No activity lists
No hour summaries

What You Do Declare

At renewal, you declare that:

You maintained a PACE Plan
You followed the plan throughout the year

That’s it.

However, this simplicity comes with an important caveat.

Documentation Still Matters — More Than Ever

Although CPD is no longer submitted annually, registrants must retain documentation and be able to produce it if requested during:

A CPD audit
A practice review
A professional conduct process

Documentation Expectations

APEGA expects records that demonstrate:

Clear and intentional objectives
Learning activities relevant to your professional practice
Outcomes tied directly to competence and risk

The system is more flexible, but less forgiving of vague or informal documentation. Defensibility is now the benchmark .

Timing and Transition: When This Applies to You

Key Dates

New CPD standard effective: November 1, 2025
Applies at: Your first renewal date on or after November 1, 2025
Assessment timing: Only after a full year under the new system

Important Transition Notes

No retroactive action is required
Past CPD records should be retained
Compliance will not be assessed until you have completed a full PACE cycle

This gives registrants time to adapt — but firms should not delay preparation.

What This Means for Individual Registrants

For individual engineers and geoscientists, the shift is conceptual:

CPD is no longer about proving effort.
It’s about demonstrating competence management.

Practical Implications

You must actively think about professional risk
Learning must be intentional, not incidental
Informal learning can count — if it is properly documented
“I stayed busy” is no longer a defensible position

Registrants who treat the PACE Plan as a checkbox exercise are likely to struggle if audited.

What This Means for Registrant Firms

While CPD is an individual obligation, firms are not insulated from this change.

APEGA audits increasingly look at whether:

Firms support professional competence
Systems exist to manage professional risk
Engineers are enabled to meet their obligations

Key Actions Firms Should Take Now

1. Align Internal Systems with PACE Expectations

Firms should ensure that:

Professional development policies acknowledge the PACE framework
Engineers have time and support to plan CPD intentionally
Risk-based competence management is reinforced internally

2. Connect CPD to the PPMP

CPD does not exist in isolation.

A well-implemented Professional Practice Management Plan (PPMP) should:

Reference competence management
Reinforce professional obligations
Align learning with identified risk areas

Disconnects between CPD practices and PPMP documentation are increasingly visible during audits.

3. Prepare for Documentation Requests

Even though CPD is individual, firms should expect:

Questions about how competence is supported
Requests for evidence that systems are in place
Scrutiny where learning appears ad hoc or unsupported

Firms that treat CPD as “the engineer’s problem” increase organizational risk.

The Bottom Line

APEGA’s CPD changes represent a clear shift in regulatory intent.

CPD is no longer about counting hours.
It is about showing intentional, risk-based competence management.

For registrants, this raises the standard of professional accountability.
For firms, it reinforces the need for structured, well-documented compliance systems.

If your CPD approach — or your PPMP — is informal, inconsistent, or poorly documented, this change raises the bar.