Understand the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements for Community Work Australia members, including annual CPD hours, eligible learning activities, reporting and evidence requirements, and more.
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026
Related articles: CPD for Psychologists in Australia, CPD for Occupational Therapists in Australia, CPD for Social Workers in Australia.
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An overview of CPD requirements for community workers in Australia
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the ongoing process through which community work practitioners maintain, develop and broaden their professional knowledge and skills throughout their careers.
Community Work Australia (CWA), formerly the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA), is the national peak body for the community work profession in Australia. Among its functions, CWA sets professional and ethical standards, accredits community work education programs, endorses continuing professional development activities and supports the ongoing professional development of community work practitioners.
Community Work Australia is a professional body rather than a statutory registration board. Accordingly, its CPD requirements apply specifically to CWA members and should not be interpreted as a universal legal requirement applying to every person employed in a community services role.
Under the current Community Work Australia Member CPD Policy, members are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of relevant professional development each year to retain their membership. During the membership renewal process, members are asked to provide details and evidence of professional development undertaken during the previous year.
Community Work Australia endorses professional development activities that meet its training standards, but members are not restricted to endorsed training. Members may use their professional judgement to select other relevant learning activities that address their individual professional development needs.
CPD can also extend beyond formal education and training. Community Work Australia’s professional standards encourage practitioners to identify gaps in their knowledge and skills, undertake relevant training or supervision, engage with research and enquiry, remain current with developments in theory and practice, and share professional knowledge with colleagues.
Who do these requirements apply to? Community work encompasses a diverse range of occupations and practice settings. CWA’s professional framework is relevant to qualified community work practitioners working across areas such as community services, youth work, disability, family services, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, housing, advocacy and community development.
However, individual practitioners may also be subject to separate requirements imposed by an employer, funding body, professional association or other credentialing organisation.
What is considered Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?
Community Work Australia takes a broad approach to professional development. CPD includes relevant activities undertaken after formal education that contribute to a practitioner’s ongoing professional learning, knowledge or skills.
CPD does not have to be formally endorsed by Community Work Australia to count towards a member’s annual requirement. Members may select non-endorsed activities where those activities are relevant to their professional development needs.
Examples of eligible CPD activities identified by Community Work Australia include:
- attending workshops, seminars or conferences;
- completing short courses, including online courses;
- delivering presentations at seminars or conferences;
- gaining additional formal qualifications;
- participating in relevant workplace training;
- writing peer-reviewed or published papers;
- listening to webinars or podcasts relating to best practice in community services;
- studying relevant research articles, textbooks and other professional publications;
- participating in professional supervision, either as supervisor or supervisee, where the supervision is focused on professional development rather than routine workplace updates; and
- participating in professional networks or community meetings where the activity provides meaningful professional development and is not simply part of the practitioner’s ordinary job responsibilities.
Community Work Australia places some limits on the number of hours that can be claimed for particular activities to encourage members to undertake a range of professional development. Members may claim a maximum of 10 hours for an individual conference, while claims for supervision and study-based activities are limited under the Member CPD Policy.
When selecting CPD, community workers should consider their current role, professional responsibilities, gaps in their knowledge or skills and future development goals. Community Work Australia’s Practice Guidelines can also be used as a self-assessment framework to identify areas requiring further learning or development.
Reporting CPD as a CWA member
Community Work Australia members record their professional development through the My CPD logbook in their online member account as part of the annual membership renewal process.
Members should record each activity in terms of actual participation time. Breaks, meals and other periods that do not involve professional learning should not be included in the number of CPD hours claimed.
Members are also required to provide appropriate evidence of their professional development. Depending on the activity, this may include:
- certificates of attendance or completion;
- receipts relating to professional development activities;
- analyses or reviews of completed learning activities; or
- reports from supervisors or consultants.
Community Work Australia reviews members’ CPD records as part of the renewal process and may request additional evidence where required. If a member has not met the CPD requirements, CWA may request an explanation and considers exceptional circumstances when assessing compliance.
Members should retain sufficient records to demonstrate both their participation in the activity and its relevance to their professional development.d members may be asked to provide additional evidence (for more detail, refer to the CWA Member CPD Policy).
How CPD supports effective professional practice
Ongoing professional development is an important part of maintaining competent, ethical and contemporary community work practice.
Community Work Australia’s Practice Guidelines 2025 state that professional education does not end at graduation and that practitioners should undertake relevant professional development throughout their careers so their knowledge remains current and informs everyday practice.
The guidelines encourage community workers to identify and address gaps in their knowledge and skills, access training, supervision and professional support, engage actively with research and enquiry, remain current with relevant theory and models of practice, and share knowledge with colleagues.
CPD can therefore serve several complementary purposes. It can help practitioners maintain existing skills, respond to changes in legislation and professional practice, develop competence in emerging areas, reflect on their work and identify areas where additional learning or support may be needed.
Effective CPD is not simply about accumulating the required number of hours. Community workers should select learning activities that are relevant to their role, professional responsibilities and identified development needs, and consider how new knowledge can be applied in practice.
Broader research into continuing professional development in health professions also suggests that professional learning is generally more effective when it actively engages participants, uses multiple learning methods and occurs over repeated learning opportunities rather than relying solely on passive education.mes” (Cervero & Gaines, 2015).
Popular CPD courses and training undertaken by community workers
Mental Health Academy offers 650+ CPD courses covering hundreds of topics relevant to mental health and community services practice. Online courses, webinars and other structured learning activities may contribute towards Community Work Australia’s annual CPD requirement where they are relevant to the practitioner’s professional development needs.
Community Work Australia currently lists Mental Health Academy among its endorsed training providers. CWA endorsement provides additional recognition that endorsed training has been assessed against relevant industry criteria; however, endorsement is activity-specific and time-limited, so practitioners should check the current CWA endorsed-training directory where confirmation of a particular activity’s endorsement is required.
Some of the most popular MHA courses undertaken by community workers include:
Mental health interventions and practice skills
- Helping Clients Deal with Problem Anger: Understanding and De-escalating Anger
- Using Internal Family Systems Therapy for Overcoming Addictive Behaviour Patterns
- Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy with Adolescents: Aspirations and Empowerment
- Treating Anxiety with Motivational Interviewing
- Helping Clients with Hoarding Disorder
- Interviewing for Happiness: How to Weave Positive Psychology Magic into the Initial Clinical Interview
- How Behavioural Activation Can Help Your Depressed Clients
Families, parenting and couples
- Coercive Control: Recognise, Manage, Change
- Silent Killer: Covert & Overt Relationship Distress
- The Parenting Revolution: How to Guide Parents to the Most Impactful Family Solutions
- Helping Clients to Navigate the Shock of a Relationship Breakup
- Working with Men in Distressed and Disrupted Intimate Partner Relationships
- Providing Therapy for Non-Traditional Romantic Relationships
Children and adolescents
- Working with Paediatric Anxiety
- Young Men and Suicide: A Contemporary Lens On An Age-Old Problem
- Practical Strategies to Enhance Sensory Regulation in Children
- Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy with Adolescents: Aspirations and Empowerment
- What School Counsellors Need to Know About Behavioural Addictions
- Clinical Work with Gang Youth: Research and Applications
- Universal Mental Health Screening
- Setting Children Up For Success: Building Social/Emotional and Academic Competence Through Evidence-based SEL Programs
- Suicide in Schools: Prevention and Intervention
Diversity and multicultural competence
- Working with ADHD in Adults
- Working with ADHD in Children and Adolescents
- Autistic Patients: The Need for Providers to Embrace Different Thinking
- PTSD in Autistic Adults: Understanding the Causes, Symptoms, & Support for Suicide Prevention
- OnTrac: A CBT Based Manualised Group Program for Adolescents with ADHD
- Deaf Cultural Competency Training for Clinicians
- Anti-Ableism and Accessibility: Thinking Outside the Box
- Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples in Australia
- Professional Counsellors as Agents of Change: Countering Educational Hegemony
- Cultural Humility: Maybe We’re Doing It Wrong
- 5 Ways to Decolonise Your Mental Health Practice
- Sitting with Aboriginal Clients: Appropriate Modalities
- Working with Transgender Youth: Implications for Professional Counsellors
Suicide prevention and risk assessment
- Risk Assessments and Safety Plans
- Social Determinants of Suicide
- STEPS: Steps To Evaluate Progression of Suicidality
- The Neuroscience of Suicidal Ideation and Behaviour
- How To Develop a Suicide Postvention Plan in Your Organisation
- Understanding and Preventing Suicide in Older Adulthood
- Post-Traumatic Growth After Suicide Loss Across the Lifespan
- When Suicidal Thoughts Persist: Treating Chronic Ideation
Addiction
- Wellness-Based Addictions Counselling
- Understanding the Biopsychosocial Model of Addiction
- Conceptualising and Treating Sex Addiction
- Digital ‘Addictions’ to Digital Wellbeing: Understanding and Managing Our Use of Technology
- Addressing Internet Gaming Addiction in Clinical Work
- Trauma and Addiction: Taking Motivational Interviewing to the Next Level
- Using Motivational Interviewing with Alcohol Dependence and Depression
- A Narrative Approach to Working with Sobriety and Life Transitions
Trauma-informed care
- Principles of Trauma-informed Practice
- Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) for Trauma
- Interrupting Intergenerational Trauma in Substance Use Disorders
- Trauma Informed Care: Mindfulness-Based Treatment for Post-Traumatic Growth
- Understanding Ambiguous Loss
- Understanding the Link Between Trauma and Addiction
- Post Traumatic Growth and Psychedelics
- Incorporating Race-based Stress Into the Discussion About ACEs
Professional wellbeing and self-care
- Creative Arts Approaches for Reflective Practice and Self-Care in Counselling
- Clinicians as Suicide Loss Survivors: Postvention for Caregivers
- Understanding and Preventing Compassion Fatigue
- Mindfulness Essentials for Therapist Self-care
Visit the MHA catalogue for a full list of available courses, and become a member to access 600+ courses and 750+ hours of learning, available online and on-demand, 24/7, for less than $1 per day.
References
- Community Work Australia. (2024). Member CPD Policy. Community Work Australia.
- Community Work Australia. (2025). Code of Ethics. Community Work Australia.
- Community Work Australia. (2025). Community Work Australia Practice Guidelines. Community Work Australia.
- Community Work Australia. (2025). Create your own CPD plan. Community Work Australia.
- Community Work Australia. (2026). Professional Development – Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Community Work Australia.
- Community Work Australia. (2026). Training endorsement: Why get your training endorsed. Community Work Australia.
- Main, P. A. E., & Anderson, S. (2023). Evidence for continuing professional development standards for regulated health practitioners in Australia: A systematic review. Human Resources for Health, 21, Article 23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-023-00803-x