How to Earn Your HPCSA CPD Points Online: A Guide for SLPs and OTs

Every practitioner registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) — including speech-language therapists, audiologists and occupational therapists — must keep learning to keep practising. That obligation is measured in Continuing Education Units (CEUs), and falling short puts your registration at risk. Here is how the system works, and how to stay compliant without leaving your practice.

The core requirement: 30 CEUs, 5 of them ethics

The HPCSA requires practitioners to hold 30 CEUs per twelve-month period. Of those, at least 5 CEUs must come from ethics, human rights or health law activities; the remaining 25 come from clinical learning relevant to your scope of practice.

One CEU generally corresponds to about one hour of accredited learning activity, and activities are accredited through HPCSA-recognised accreditors (universities and professional associations such as SASLHA and OTASA in our field).

The rules changed — check which validity period applies to you

Two things about the system have been amended in recent years, and many older summaries online are now out of date:

• CEU validity: under the amended HPCSA rules, newly accumulated CEUs are valid for twelve months from the date of the activity (previously CEUs were valid for 24 months). Sources still disagree during the transition — confirm your own position on the HPCSA self-service portal.
• Compliance is continuous: the old system of randomly sampling practitioners for audit has been phased out in favour of treating the 30-CEU threshold as an ongoing requirement. Practically: you should be able to show a compliant record at any time, not just when a letter arrives.

Your live CEU balance and expiry dates are visible on your HPCSA online profile via the self-service portal — it is worth checking it each quarter rather than reconstructing a year of certificates in a panic.

Yes, online courses count

Online CPD is fully recognised by the HPCSA — e-learning courses, webinars and digital programmes with assessments all qualify when properly accredited. For therapists outside the big centres, this is the practical difference between scrambling for CEUs and staying comfortably ahead: no travel, no locum cover, learning done between clients or after hours.

What about international courses?

International activities are recognised for CPD purposes when the activity is accredited in the country where it is offered; where it is not, an HPCSA-recognised South African accreditor should accredit the activity. This matters for our field because much of the world’s best oral-motor, feeding and OPT training is produced internationally.

SpeechLab’s course library — over 80 self-study courses from TalkTools® — falls in this category: most courses carry ASHA CEUs (the American accreditation, where 0.1 ASHA CEU = one contact hour) and issue completion certificates. If you intend to claim a specific course toward your HPCSA cycle, confirm the claim route with your professional association or accreditor first — and ask us, we deal with this question weekly.

A practical compliance rhythm

1. Check your portal balance — know your number before planning.
2. Book your 5 ethics CEUs early — they are the units practitioners most often scramble for in month eleven.
3. Spread the remaining 25 over the year — roughly two hours of accredited learning a month keeps you permanently compliant.
4. Choose courses that serve your caseload, not just your points — a feeding-heavy caseload earns more from a sensory-motor feeding course than from a random webinar.
5. Keep every certificate, even where providers submit records — your own file is your safety net.

CPD rules are set and amended by the HPCSA; this guide reflects the position at the time of writing (July 2026). Always confirm current requirements on the HPCSA self-service portal or with your professional board before relying on them.