Your CPD Rules & Requirements

All lawyers who provide regulated services (as defined by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) are required to complete at least 10 hours of CPD activities during each full CPD year.

The Immigration Adviser Competency Standards 2015 set out the following continuing professional development requirements for licensed immigration advisers:

• Advisers must maintain an acceptable continued professional development (CPD) plan and record for each 12 month licensing period. What must be included in an acceptable CPD plan and record is notified on the Immigration Advisers Authority’s website.
• Advisers must complete at least 20 hours of acceptable professional development activities, including any mandatory activities, during each 12 month licensing period. Acceptable and mandatory professional development activities are those notified on the Immigration Advisers Authority’s website.
• Advisers must retain, and produce upon request, their CPD plan and record for each licensing period that commenced after 26 November 2015, up to a maximum of 3 years.

Mandatory activities:
All New Zealand licensed advisers, including those who are Australian Registered Migration Agents, must attend a minimum of one webinar run by the IAA during each licensing year as a mandatory activity towards annual continuing professional development (CPD).

More information see Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA)

These guidelines are published by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (the Board) to assist registered attorneys to understand Continuing Professional Education (CPE) practise and procedure.

Registered attorneys should familiarise themselves with the CPE requirements set out in regulations 20.24 (number of hours), 20.25 (method of demonstrating CPE has been undertaken) and 20.28 (failure to comply with CPE requirements) of the Patents Regulations 1991(Cth). These Australian regulations also apply to New Zealand-resident patent attorneys by virtue of section 271 of the Patents Act 2013 (NZ).

The CPE requirements set out in the Patents Regulations also apply to trade marks attorneys by virtue of regulation 20.14 of the Trade Marks Regulations 1995.

The overarching requirement provided by regulation 20.24 is that single-registered patent attorneys or trademarks attorneys must complete 10 hours of CPE activities every year. A person who is registered as both a patent attorney and a trade marks attorney must complete 15 hours of CPE activities every year.

The Board recommends that registered attorneys undertake a breadth of activities in any year, and there are a number of events/conferences that provide an appropriate breadth of activities. Patent attorneys should be aware that the trans-Tasman patent attorney regime requires patent attorneys to have knowledge and experience of IP law and practice in Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, irrespective of where they reside, patent attorneys should reflect this trans-Tasman requirement in their CPE activities.

For all registered attorneys, the Board believes that:

• Attorneys who hold a single registration shall complete at least 5 hours of CPE activities in the field of either patents or trade marks (depending on their specialisation).
• Attorneys who hold dual registration shall complete at least 5 hours of CPE activities in both fields of patents and trade marks (i.e. a total of 10 hours).
• All registered attorneys must include a minimum of 1 hour of professional conduct or ethics CPE activities.
• Up to 4 hours of CPE activities in other areas related to an attorney’s practice (e.g. commercialisation, innovation funding, designs, copyright, branding, licensing, etc.) can count towards maintaining professional competence.
• Within the 10-hour requirement, no more than 3 hours should be claimed for personal study (or no more than 4.5 hours of the 15 hour requirement for an attorney who holds dual registration).

More information see Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board.

Licensed real estate professionals must complete at least 20 hours of CPD each year by 31 December.

This includes:

• 10 hours of verifiable education delivered by approved education providers. The 10 hours of verifiable education is made up of 5 hours of mandatory topics and 5 hours of elective topics.
• 10 hours of non-verifiable education on other topics and types of learning.

If you don’t complete the training by 31 December, your licence may be cancelled in January of the following year. If you are reviving your licence, you must have completed the training during the preceding calendar year.

Verifiable Training Providers
Verifiable education is 10-hours of training delivered by approved education providers. It is made up of 5 hours of mandatory topics and 5 hours of elective topics selected from around 40 hours of material.

Non-Verifiable Education
The training providers do not need to be approved by REA, but you do need to keep records to demonstrate you have undertaken at least 10 hours of non-verifiable training each year.

Non-verifiable education can include:

• Taking part in education sessions at industry and franchise conferences
• In-house training provided by agencies (apart from training about in-house systems)
• Information technology (IT) courses
• Sales, marketing or listing training by external trainers
• Commercial and residential property management training courses
• Studying and completing continuing education for relevant trades such as architecture, building inspection or surveying
• Seminars about council bylaws
• Viewing videos and webinars as part of a structured training session
• Time spent reading and becoming familiar with the information on the settled. govt.nz and rea.govt.nz websites
• Time spent studying towards one of the National Certificates or the National Diploma in Real Estate – if you have completed one of these qualifications in full, you may be exempt from the 20 hours of continuing education for up to 2 years.

More information see Real Estate Authority (REA)