The design and delivery of programs under mandatory continuing professional education

In the last few years mandatory continuing education ("MCPE") has become for many professionals in Australia a fact of their practising lives. This paper examines the nature of the schemes which have recently been set up for members of the legal and accountancy professions. It considers whether the main concern is really continuing education or the certification by professional bodies of their members as competent to practise. The extensive literature on MCPE is then reviewed to draw out the arguments offered by its advocates and its opponents and thereby to elucidate the issues involved. In the author's view, this literature contains valuable lessons not only for those professions contemplating the introduction of MCPE but also for those who already have schemes in place. A knowledge of the issues can assist program designers to provide better programs by reducing the shortcomings and capitalising on the benefits which others have identified. The author concludes that designers should resist the temptation of delivering the same sorts of programs under MCPE that they did under pre‐existing voluntary schemes. They should recognise that there are very different educational issues as well as economic and organisational problems flowing directly from MCPE, which require that traditional programming be rethought.