What Are CPEs and Why Do They Matter for Public Servants?

As a government employee, you may have heard about Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits and possibly aren’t quite clear on what they are or why they matter. GovLoop also offers CPE credit on our online and in-person trainings, so we wanted to take a moment to explain what these credits are, who is behind the accreditation and why CPEs might be valuable to you and your career in government.

Continuing professional education (CPE) credits are made available through the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). For an organization to offer CPEs, they must complete a rigorous process of certification and become a member of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors.

CPE sponsors must be certified for each type of program for which they want to offer credits. For instance, GovLoop is accredited to offer CPEs for the following types of learning programs:

• Group Live – In-person events with CPEs offered for individual, one-hour sessions on specific topics
• Group Internet-Based – Live, online trainings lasting one hour on a specific topic
• Nano Learning – 10-minute on-demand, interactive courses on GovLoop Academy

Each program created by a CPE sponsor must be assigned a CPE total value (between 0.2 and 1 CPE per session) and a field of study. The field of study is one of 20 potential subject matter areas, ranging from information technology to management or leadership best practices.

While the NASBA program to offer CPEs was originally intended to keep accountants up-to-date with industry best practices and standards, many non-accountant related fields and organizations now use CPEs to gauge continuing education for a wide array of professions.

Many government agencies or specialty programs like the Presidential Management Fellows, require their employees to attain a certain number of training hours a year. CPE’s can often be used to meet these requirements. In addition, CPE’s can be added to government employee’s resume’s and LinkedIn profiles.

Be sure to check out our upcoming trainings to earn CPE credits. Our training registration pages will always indicate which trainings offer CPE credit and you must attend the training live and participate in polls and surveys in order to earn your credit.